Countdown with Keith Olbermann, October 13, 2008<snip>
OLBERMANN: Except-for that part in that report that quote, "her conduct violated a AS 29.52.110 (a) of the Ethics Act" and that "Governor Sarah Palin abused her power, compliance with the code of ethics is not optional."
It gets worse. Investigative journalist,
Wayne Barrett now asks,
"Did the contractors who built Wasilla's sports complex help build Palin's house for free?" He will join us.
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WAYNE BARRETT, SENIOR EDITOR, "VILLAGE VOICE": Good to see you.
OLBERMANN: All right. If there's time we can go over the Troopergate report. I mean, it's pretty straightforward. She was unethical. Report says so. And she's unethical in saying she's not unethical.
BARRETT: I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy.
OLBERMANN: Thank you very much. But boil down the story about Palin, the Palin house and its possible connection to the giant sports complex in this tiny town.
BARRETT: One kind of springs from the other. Because they're really stories about whether or not she uses her public position to benefit herself. In this case, in the case of the Troopergate report, it was to benefit herself in a personal way, not a financial way.
But the odd thing about this house is I'm watching Greta Van Susteren on your favorite channel, and she's got an interview with Todd Palin. And Todd Palin is saying, you know, "I built this house myself." They're standing out in front of the house. "With me and my buddy contractors."
Well, a bomb goes off in my head. I say, "Well, jeez, I got to find out who those buddy contractors are."
Big problem, Keith. She eliminated building permits in the town of Wasilla. There are no building permits required. So you had to figure out who the-first I had to get who all the sub contractors and contractors were on the sports complex, because it all happens with great synergy. At the same time, just a mile from each other, the house is built just a mile, remote corner. If you can find a remote corner in Wasilla, they found a remote corner.
So it's geographically in the same place. The decisions are all made at the same time. All in 2002. Isn't it odd that they decided to build their own first home in the year that she was running, first time, for statewide office? Well, it's completed.
The only thing they have to file in Wasilla is a notice of completion, on 8/30/2002, they filed a notice of completion. That's two months before she leaves office. So wouldn't it sound logical, then, that you're going to build a house even while you're running statewide while you can still get some favors from the guys who are going to build it?
And it turns out that, at least I was able to clearly establish one contractor, the big, building supply contractor who supplied the building materials for the complex is the same guy-Spenard is the name. That's the company that supplied the building supplies for her house.
I asked others. You just had to dial them up by phone and say, you know, "Did you do anything?"
And others said, "Well, I can't remember if I did or didn't. How would I know?"
But you know, so you've got to do it by-by phone without records.
OLBERMANN: But-so this-this Spenard company also now tracks back to Ted Stevens and the VECO house?
BARRETT: Yes, yes. They were one of the contractors named in that case as having worked on the VECO house.
But now Spenard also is one of the sponsors of Todd Palin's snowmobile race team. And so it's this kind of interlay in a small town between your public life and your private life. But the timing, to make this decision to build the house two months before she leaves office, is certainly suggestive.
OLBERMANN: So you're suggesting, though, that they didn't-what's the term at a construction site for the leftover stuff that walks off, mungo? They didn't build this out of mungo? Just what they found at the sports complex construction. I'm just kidding.
BARRETT: No. They couldn't have done that, because they built the house before they start the construction. But, before they award the contracts, too. So I mean, they picked the architect, by the way, to design this $12.5 million project, the biggest thing Wasilla has ever seen. They picked the son of the local GOP party boss, who was her mentor in politics. That's who gets the architectural contract.
OLBERMANN: Small town, small state.
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