Gov. Palin's line-crossing

Here's a link to the Register's editorial on the Alaska legislative report on "Troopergate," the concerted campaign by the Palin family and, later, after Sarah was elected governor, many members of her administration, to get state trooper Mike Wooten, who was involved in a nasty and contentious divorce with Sarah's sister, fired. And here's an Orange Punch blog post on the topic.

I guess what's most dismaying to me, though perhaps not all that surprising in the middle of a political campaign, is the extent to which most people view the thing through strictly partisan lenses (see the first two comments to the Register article. The governor had the right to fire Walt Monegan, the state public safety commissioner, for any reason or no reason, so there was nothing illegal there. And while what the family and administration did in continually filing complaints and pressing Monegan was probably not illegal, it was certainly unseemly and, I would argue, unethical. But people want to see her either as a deep dark villain or as completely pure and innocent. We know few people are either, but who wants nuance in the middle of a political campaign?