News-Record.com

Here's Philip Gourevitch's story in The New Yorker on the politicial climate (no pun intended) in Alaska in the period just before and during Sarah Palin's time as governor there.

There's some good context in there for people who may want a primer on how things work up there and who she is, plus a bit on the scandal involving Ted Stevens, the longtime Alaska senator who, in addition to pulling tons of money to the state, famously called the Internet a series of tubes.

And here's few bits from the story on Troopergate:

The allegation was that Palin had dismissed her public-safety commissioner, a respected and well-liked officer named Walter Monegan, because Monegan had resisted pressure from her office to fire a state trooper named Michael Wooten. Wooten was Palin’s ex-brother-in-law, and his divorce from Palin’s sister Molly had involved an ugly custody battle that was not entirely resolved; it appeared that Palin had used her public office to settle a private family score. On July 28th, a bipartisan vote in the state legislature commissioned an investigation into the matter, at a cost of up to a hundred thousand dollars. Palin had invited it. “Hold me accountable,” she said. She promised full coöperation: “We would never prohibit, or be less than enthusiastic about, any kind of investigation. Let’s deal in the facts.”

Now, it needs to be said that the magazine does produce good journalism, but often leans left.