Some aspects of Sarah Palin’s resignation excuses will sound familiar to people living t the other book-end of the continent’s northern reaches.
From the unedited transcript of self-described hockey mom Palin’s public remarks:
It’s pretty insane – my staff and I spend most of our day dealing with THIS instead of progressing our state now.
Palin was referring to complaints of ethics violations against her using state ethics laws. Palin blamed people she described as “political operatives” for her woes.
Sounds a bit like frivolous access to information requests and people with a personal vendetta against government.
Then there are the comments that come from a senior Alaska Republican official:
Asked why Palin was stepping down as opposed to finishing her term (which ends in 2010), the RGA header cited pesky bloggers and activists as the reason. Palin had insisted she didn't want to put Alaskans through two years of a lame-duck governorship.
"I don't think this is buckling to pressure," said Ayers. "I think this is her coming to the realization that the legislature in Alaska and that some bloggers and activists in Alaska are going to do everything they can to stymie her progress. This is a governor who didn't run for the office because she wanted a title. She wanted to make significant change in the state. She realized that that was no longer going to be able to happen, because things had become so partisan there."
Even that sounds just a wee bit familiar – eerily familiar - although the specific words used by the province’s Leading Hockey Player may be slightly different:
My biggest frustration in coming from several decades in the private sector to public life is trying to maximize my time to be the CEO of Government and run it to the best of my ability with my management team of Cabinet and public servants, and simultaneously deal with the day to day nonsense of counter- spinning negativity. That's politics, but for a pragmatic results oriented leader with a social conscience it can be very counter productive.[Emphasis added.]
Too negative. Too partisan.
Trying to “progress” but always being held back by these nefarious forces.
Makes you wonder.
Things get tough in Alaska, Palin packs it in.
Things get tough in NewfoundlandLabrador…
-srbp-