Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

July 07, 2009

Palin Calls Ethics Probes "Paralyzing"

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), "three days after abruptly announcing she would resign as governor, said that she did it because ethics complaints and politically ambitious state legislators would have been paralyzing," the Anchorage Daily News reports.

Said Palin: "Especially when all these lawmakers are lining up for office. Their desire would be to clobber the administration left and right so that they can position themselves for office. I'm not going to put Alaskans through that."

Asked whether she planned to run for president, Palin "squinted and shook her head, but then indicated she might."

Palin's lawyer told CNN there's no scandal coming: "There is no bombshell. There is no shoe to drop. There are no investigations of any type that I'm aware of -- no IRS audit, no federal investigation, no state investigation. There is no legal reason in terms of a legal problem that compelled the governor to resign."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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