There is some controversy over Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter getting pregnant at the moment. I agree with Obama that a politician’s family should be out-of-bounds.

There is another controversy that is very legitimate, Palin’s firing of Alaska’s Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, allegedly motivated by his refusal to fire Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten, who was going through a messy divorce with Palin’s sister (see Wikipedia‘s entry on the controversy).

This is important given the current administration’s scandalous hiring and firing of supposedly non-political civil servants on the basis of personal or political motivations. Now, it may be the case that this trooper deserved to get fired, but shouldn’t Palin have left this to the normal processes to avoid the appearance of improper interference, given her personal history with this guy?

I found the audio of a phone conversation between Palin aide Frank Bailey, and a Lieutenant in the state trooper’s office. This is on the Alaska state website, and who knows how long it will be there, so I mirrored it here – its about 25 minutes long – enjoy!

(Press the play button above to start)