Politico reports: Sarah Palin's confidante and former lawyer Thomas Van Flein causes carnage in the office of AZ congressman Paul Gosar, "goes rogue"

By Patrick

Another day, another Palin story which could only come as a surprise to those who are not familiar with the inner workings of the Palin camp. In a surprising move in January 2011, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) placed two members with strong ties to Sarah Palin into high positions within his congressional office in Washington D.C. He appointed Rob Robinson to be his chief of staff and Thomas Van Flein to be his legislative director and deputy chief of staff. Back then, Rep. Gosar was confident that he made the right decisions with these moves. Rollcall reported in January 2011:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's endorsement helped Rep.-elect Paul Gosar (R) win a seat in Congress, and now he's rewarding the man who introduced the pair with a plum staff position.

Gosar, who unseated Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D) in Arizona's 1st district, has named retired dentist Rob Robinson as his chief of staff. Robinson left his son in charge of his Wasilla, Alaska-based dental practice to move to Arizona in 2009 and become Gosar's campaign manager, treasurer and chief adviser.

Gosar told Roll Call that Robinson introduced him to Palin. Robinson got to know Palin from being politically active in their 7,000-population town, where Palin served as mayor. "I know he was very involved in the politics in Alaska and very involved in the politics of Wasilla," Gosar said.

Gosar and Robinson are colleagues in the American Dental Association. Both have served as officers of the group's Council on Government Affairs. Gosar first announced his intent to run for Congress at the association's 2009 national conference in Washington, D.C.

Robinson, who will work from Gosar's Arizona district office, isn't the only person with Palin ties on the fledgling payroll.

Gosar hired Palin family attorney Thomas Van Flein to be his legislative director and deputy chief of staff. Van Flein graduated from the University of Arizona College of Law in 1989, according to his profile on his law firm's website. Van Flein's Alaska law firm, Clapp, Peterson, Van Flein, Tiemessen & Thorsness, helped Palin and her family navigate the Troopergate scandal when she was governor. Van Flein also represented Palin-endorsed tea party Senate candidate Joe Miller. Palin paid Van Flein a hefty retainer over the course of 2010, with the most recent payment of $10,000 coming on Oct. 28, according to her Federal Election Commission filings.

Thomas Van Flein gained notoriety in Alaska and beyond for his passionate handling of all legal issues involving Sarah Palin. He not only handled her personal legal matters and defended her against the mounting ethics complaints, but he also represented Bristol Palin in the dirty custody battle against Levi Johnston, and routinely posted on Sarah Palin's highly politically charged facebook page as the "Private Attorney of Sarah Palin."

Van Flein also unsuccessfully represented Palin's old chum Joe Miller in his doomed legal attack against Lisa Murkowski's write-in victory for Senate in late 2010.

Thomas Van Flein with Joe Miller

If you research the history of Thomas Van Flein, other pieces of information emerge which should have been a clear warning sign for everyone planning to hire Thomas Van Flein (apart from the fact that being the omnipotent lawyer for the most controversial politician in America is probably not the best reference). In an enlightening article from January 2011, TPMMuckraker reported about this piece of very questionable legal work by Thomas Van Flein:

Van Flein, in his work for the ADS (Alaska Dental Society), also wrote an amicus brief for the group in the 2007 appeal of an Alaskan dentist who had been convicted of getting patients hooked on prescription drugs and then manipulating them into having sex with him to get more drugs. The ADS filed the brief in favor of the dentist, Stephen Grandstaff, arguing that the trial court should not have admitted statements Grandstaff made during a peer-reviewed investigation. The ADS argued that anything in peer review is confidential; the court ruled that confidentiality didn't apply to criminal cases. Grandstaff is serving a 19-year sentence.

Regina also highlighted at Palingates in February 2010 how Thomas Van Flein twisted the law in defending Sarah Palin against the accusation that Sarah Palin had been evading property tax for her cabin for years.

Today's revelations at Politico open a new chapter in the already colorful history of Thomas Van Flein:

Staffing problems at the highest level of Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar’s office have thrown his operation into disarray — spurring a string of departures and prompting members of the congressman’s inner circle to reach out for help, internal emails obtained by POLITICO indicate.

Republicans are growing worried that the leadership vacuum is hampering office productivity or worse — impeding fundraising efforts crucial to Gosar’s reelection bid.

“Gosar has serious congressional staff issues,” said one Arizona Republican familiar with the operation. “It’s a total cluster.”

The emails, written by former staffers while they were still on the payroll, implicate chief of staff Rob Robinson and legislative director Tom Van Flein as the heart of the problem.

Gosar’s decision to hire the pair after he was elected raised eyebrows from the beginning — both men had no prior congressional experience and both had close ties to Sarah Palin, who boosted Gosar’s campaign with an endorsement.

Gosar’s relationship with Robinson began long before his recent venture into politics. They met when both served on the American Dental Association’s government affairs council, and eventually grew so close, Robinson quit his Wasilla-based dental practice in 2009 to become Gosar’s chief adviser. Robinson got to know Palin during his time dabbling in Alaska politics and through Van Flein, who also counts as clients Palin and the Alaska Dental Society.

In January, Gosar assured those concerned about Robinson and Van Flein’s lack of political experience that he trusted both men and that their relationships with Palin wouldn’t affect his office. “When it comes to politics, it’s nice to be mired with Sarah Palin. But I’m Paul Gosar. I’m my own person,” he told Roll Call at the time.

But the emails demonstrate that the initial concern over the hirings might have been well founded.

In a lengthy message sent in late January by Gosar’s former communications director, Stefani Zimmerman describes Van Flein as disengaged and preoccupied with the former Alaska governor’s portfolio.

Zimmerman accused Van Flein — who remains one of Palin’s most trusted advisers — of spending office time on Palin and other clients. She also said he “relays information the staff discusses with each other to people like Sarah Palin” and “writes op-eds and speeches without permission, all from Sarah Palin’s point of view.”

In meetings, Zimmerman claimed, Van Flein “asks questions that would benefit Sarah, not Paul,” and “advises Paul from a tea party perspective, not Arizona 1st’s perspective.”

Zimmerman also charged that Van Flein, like Palin, “goes rogue, … takes meetings, advises Paul, etc., without telling anyone, including Rob.”

So here we have a very interesting development: Thomas Van Flein, despite the fact that he left his law firm in Alaska and moved to Washington D.C. to work for Rep. Paul Gosar, apparently is still very active in the background for Sarah Palin - and has no hesitation to use his new position apparently mostly for Sarah Palin's gain, while at the same time, in classic-Palin style, "going rogue."

Thomas Van Flein also seems to have been inspired by the work ethics of America's most famous Quitter, as the leaked emails reveal:

“[Tom] is never at his desk, doesn’t do anything for the office, is very disrespectful of every other staffer in the office, is late for work, is gone all day and leaves early,” Zimmerman wrote. “And that is just the beginning.”

In light of these new developments, the question arises: What makes the office of Rep. Paul Gosar so interesting for Sarah Palin's cronies?

Although there might be several reasons (one could be: Rep. Gosar was just an available "useful idiot" whose trust could be exploited in order to extend Palin's operation quietly to Washington D.C.), one piece of information in the Politico concerning the "National Republican Congressional Committee" (NRCC) article seems especially curious:

“Congressman Gosar is working through the NRCC’s Patriot Program and has the support of this organization. Congressman Gosar and his staff are solely responsible for their office’s personnel decisions,” said NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsay.

So what exactly is the "NRCC's Patriot Program?"

Politico explains in an article from June 1, 2011:

The National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday will launch the Patriot Program, a tough-love incumbent protection effort designed to assist freshmen and a few longer-serving lawmakers expected to face difficult paths to reelection.

Under the program, which Republicans implemented during the last election season, only members who agree to meet a series of rigorous campaign benchmarks will be eligible for financial backing from the NRCC.

This year’s effort will focus heavily on the 87-member freshman class. Of the program’s 10 initial inductees, seven — Reps. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, Allen West of Florida, Lou Barletta and Patrick Meehan of Pennsylvania, Frank Guinta of New Hampshire, Joe Heck of Nevada and Francisco Canseco of Texas — are first-termers. Two — Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Charlie Bass of New Hampshire — have returned to the House after losing their seats in previous years.

The plan includes one veteran — Rep. Tom Latham, a close ally of Speaker John Boehner who decided to run against Rep. Leonard Boswell after his central Iowa seat was merged with that of tea-party-aligned GOP Rep. Steve King in redistricting.

All Patriot Program members represent districts that President Barack Obama carried in 2008, making them all but certain to be at the top of the Democratic target list in 2012.

It appears to me that being "at the heart" of the Patriot Program which these days focuses especially on the heavily Tea-Party orientated Republican freshmen in Congress would give the Palin-camp valuable inside information, which they then could use to their advantage. Just several days ago, Sarah Palin addressed the Republican freshmen in a surprisingly aggressive way during the debt ceiling debate in a post on facebook, and even made a vaguely disguised threat when she mentioned at the end: “P.S. Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries.”

Interestingly, the NRCC is apparently very frustrated about Gosar's staffing decisions, as Politico reveals today:

But another top Republican consultant told POLITICO that he was approached by an NRCC official who was seeking more insight into Gosar’s aides.

“I was asked by the NRCC if I had any relationship with [Robinson] because there were serious staff-level issues. I directed them to Bert Coleman,” said the source, referring to Gosar’s Phoenix-based general consultant.

Coleman did not respond to several inquiries from POLITICO for comment.

The GOP source familiar with the office’s operations suggested the congressman’s close personal relationship with Robinson has clouded his judgment.

“Gosar has spent the past six months covering up for his friends/employees, and the NRCC is clearly frustrated,” the source said.

Can you imagine Thomas Van Flein in a top-position at the White House? Thomas Van Flein as the chief of staff? These are the people with whom Sarah Palin would attempt to run the country, if she was to run for President, which I very, very strongly believe she will.

It's good to see that the media is finally starting to do their job. I don't believe that Politico forgot how Sarah Palin insulted them in November 2010:

"Politico, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, they're jokes. This is a joke to have unnamed sources tearing somebody apart limb by limb," Palin told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren Sunday. "If they would man up and if they would, you know, make these claims against me then I can debate them, I can talk about it, but to me they're making stuff up again." She railed against unnamed sources, concluding: "I don't think the paper that we just printed this article on, you know, it's not worth even wrapping my King Salmon in. I'll just ignore this crap."

Journalists doing their job is the worst case scenario for Sarah Palin.

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"Politico" reports about the anti-Palin bloggers, mentions "Politicalgates" - The "mission to expose Sarah Palin" continues

By Patrick

In a detailed article which has already angered the Palin-fans, Ken Vogel from "Politico" takes a close look at the anti-Palin movement and the anti-Palin bloggers in particular. Ken Vogel did not rely on "second hand information" for this article, but conducted several interviews, including with myself, which shows that Vogel takes his journalism seriously. This might sound funny, but in a world where even established and fact-orientated journalists and bloggers like Joe McGinniss, Geoffrey Dunn and Andrew Sullivan are quickly branded "conspiracy theorists" by parts of the liberal media, because they continue to ask very inconvenient questions about Sarah Palin, traces of "real" journalism are indeed hard to find. The heated political climate and the well-known fanaticism of the Palin-fans also makes the presentation of simple facts a real challenge for mainstream journalists these days.

At the beginning of the article, Vogel repeats the false "mainstream media mantra" that the faked pregnancy rumors have been "thoroughly discredited", linking to a flawed item about Sarah Palin's pregnancy which was published by factcheck.org in 2008 - an item in which factcheck.org declared the case of Sarah Palin's pregnancy as closed without having reviewed ANY documentary evidence. But Ken Vogel also explains that this might not be the end of the story yet:

A number of forthcoming books promise to delve deeply into – and, they believe, give mainstream credibility to – some of the more salacious Palin rumors and conspiracy theories that have sprouted in the anti-Palin blogosphere and on supermarket tabloid stands, but have mostly been rejected by the mainstream media.

“We’re at a tipping point, where her character and her lack of ethics will be revealed on the national stage,” asserted Sherry Whitstine, a 49-year-old grandmother who lives in Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, and has infuriated her famous neighbors with blog posts and online comments accusing Palin of being unfaithful in her marriage and corrupt in her political career.

“Some things are just going to come light that they just won’t be able to shake and I have faith in that. It has already started, but these books will add to it,” she said.

Ken Vogel indicates that more inconvenient revelations about Sarah Palin are bound to be published during the next months:

St. Martin’s Press has scheduled a May 10 release of “The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power,” by Santa Cruz, Calf.-based author and documentarian Geoffrey Dunn, who has joked that he might need three or four volumes to adequately cover the subject matter suggested in the title.

He told POLITICO he decided to write the book after hearing stories from Alaskans about Palin’s “childhood through her governorship that were troubling to me.” He said his goal is to frame Palin’s career in the contexts of both an Alaska political scene “plagued by a culture of corruption” and also in “the larger tradition of American political populism and demagoguery.”

A couple of weeks later, a Simon & Schuster imprint is set to offer a tell-all memoir by Frank Bailey, a disgruntled former top aide to Palin, using her personal emails to paint an ugly portrait of her as a vindictive and vain dilettante obsessed with her public image, who allegedly broke election laws and targeted a state trooper by leaking damaging information.

Then, in September, Crown will release “The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin,” by journalist and author Joe McGinniss, whose decision to rent the house next door in Wasilla last summer prompted Palin to warn him to “leave my kids alone.”

Please note that it's already possible to read excerpts from Geoffrey Dunn's book on Google books.

Ken Vogel then reports in greater detail about Geoffrey Dunn's recent article regarding Palin's pregnancy, which was rejected by Huffington Post as a "conspiracy theory", but was published by "Business Insider" instead. The quotes by Geoffrey Dunn barely hide Dunn's disappointment about this controversial and almost inexplicable decision taken by Huffington Post:

Dunn insisted in an email to POLITICO that he has never actually advocated the “Trig Truth” theory and is merely asking questions — a stance similar to that taken by influential Daily Beast blogger Andrew Sullivan, a hero among Trig Truthers and the broader anti-Palin movement.

Though Dunn said his book barely addresses Trig’s birth, other books are reportedly in the works that deal with the rumor. It also is the subject of an academic paper by a professor at Northern Kentucky University that was released this month that sparked debate about whether the maternity of Palin’s children is an appropriate topic for political discourse.

It's interesting that the article mentions that there are other books in the works "which deal with the rumor", because we have heard about similar rumours ourselves. This does not include the books that will be published soon by Dunn, Bailey and McGinniss.

What is important about this article is that the anti-Palin blogging movement is described in greater detail by a mainstream journalist:

Many of the rumors about the Palin family can be traced back to a coterie of bloggers in Alaska, including Whitstine, a self-identified Christian conservative who alleges Palin’s gubernatorial administration pursued a “socialistic redistribution of wealth,” and liberal anti-Palin bloggers Jeanne Devon, Jesse Griffin and Shannyn Moore.

Their posts have been linked, amplified and complemented by a broader network of blogs around the world, from the France-based blog Palingates (which lists its mission as “examining the many lies and deceptions of Sarah Palin” and whose devoted readers helped it win a 2010 Bloggers Choice award as “Best Political Blog”) and its Germany-based offshoot, Politicalgates, to Sullivan’s widely read Washington-based The Dish, which recently moved from the Atlantic to the Daily Beast/Newsweek.

The 30-something Frankfurt, Germany-based lawyer behind Politicalgates, who goes by the pseudonym “Patrick” because he fears retribution from Palin and her allies, sounds a more ominous tone in describing his motivation for originally joining Palingates as an investigative blogger.

“There are quite a lot of reasons to compare her to someone like Hitler, but of course, you have to look at Sarah Palin’s life really closely, investigate her really closely to find these details,” said Patrick.

Those investigations have run the gamut from Trig Truth to posting pre-publication copies of both of Palin’s books to revealing that Palin had flown on a private jet between stops during the much-hyped bus tour to promote her first book, “Going Rogue,” to revealing that her political action committee had hired leading independent Palin attack dog Rebecca Mansour.

The members of this loose network have had their spats and rifts. Moore and Devon, for instance, reject Trig Trutherism, while the founder of Palingates asked Patrick and his partner to leave the blog after he posted an item about a massage therapist who had been implicated in a prostitution sting and with whom the National Enquirer tabloid alleged Palin’s husband, Todd, had a dalliance — a report the Anchorage police pushed back against.

Of course I strongly reject Ken Vogel's conclusion that the bloggers "have miserably failed to expose" Sarah Palin, but we also have to remember that the mainstream is only beginning to discover the work and the influence of the bloggers. At least some parts of the mainstream have apparently realized by now that the investigative bloggers cannot be ignored any more, and Ken Vogel does mention that the bloggers on several occasions scored what he calls "mini-scoops."

If you want to call them "mini-scoops" or "major-scoops" doesn't matter - they are scoops nonetheless, and Ken Vogel only mentions some of them. He included scoops by Jeanne Devon, Jesse Griffin, Regina at Palingates and also scoops which I published at Palingates like the exposure of Rebecca Mansour as an employee of SarahPAC and the revelation that Sarah Palin's highly publicised "bus tour" for the presentation of "Going Rogue" was in fact a "private jet tour" (see also the subsequent article by Joe McGinniss in the "Daily Beast"). But much is missing.

Other "scoops" that I worked on during my time at Palingates were for example:

- the revelation that Sarah Palin received a speaking fee of $ 75,000 for her atrocious appearance at CSU Stanislaus, four days before any other media outlet reported this figure (the LA Times in this instance)

- the revelation that the Palin family received a six-figure sum for a "family cover story" in In-Touch magazine (which was later confirmed by the New York Post)

- the publication of leaked excerpts from "America by Heart" at the end of 2010 (see for example here and here), the contents of which were then reported by many mainstream media outlets, including major TV-stations like ABC.

In addition, the contributor "micmac" revealed exclusively at Palingates that the influential NOW-member Elaine Lafferty secretly received $ 12,000 from SarahPAC (in addition to other large amounts that she openly received from the McCain campaign), while writing positive stories about Sarah Palin at the Daily Beast at the same time.

There were other scoops which I reported at Palingates that are not being acknowledged by the mainstream yet, for example

- the exclusive revelation that Todd Palin is not the biological father of Track Palin (wait for Frank Bailey's book who quotes email by Sarah Palin which deal with this issue...)

- the extremely close, long-established relationship of the Palin family to the family of convicted murderer Jeremy Morlock (link to the original posts HERE, and link to the posts with the photos still intact HERE)

In addition, there is of course Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy, which in my opinion is the most dangerous scandal for Sarah Palin. It's also a revelation which is still being rejected by the mainstream media - but this is going to change.

Ken Vogel points out at the end that the Palin camp is thin-skinned:

Patrick asserts that the cumulative effect of all the efforts of the anti-Palin movement has helped cut into Palin’s support.

“It’s not me alone, of course,” he said. “It’s a group of people who are working on this, and I think we definitely got under the skin of the Palin clan.”

Indeed, the reactions of Palin and her allies have arguably drawn more attention to the attacks themselves.

The paper by Northern Kentucky University professor Brad Scharlott — which argues that Palin “likely … staged a hoax concerning the birth of her son Trig” and that the media “failed to show appropriate skepticism about Palin’s unproven claim that she is the birth mother of Trig” — only got attention after an outburst by Palin’s fiercely loyal former spokesman Bill McAllister. He sent Scharlott an email — which wound up in the student paper, eventually making its way to the anti-Palin blogs — calling his study “reprehensible” and threatening to “slap” him, then forwarded the missive to five other members of the faculty, with the subject line “Brad Scharlott disgraces your university.”

Yes, Sarah Palin is thin-skinned indeed.

Already in December 2009, her ultra thin skin started to show, when she published a short, but very telling facebook post titled "Stupid Conspiracies":

Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I’ve pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask... which they have repeatedly. But at no point – not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews – have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.

- Sarah Palin

Already back then, Sarah Palin complained about the faked pregnancy allegations, but had no intention to show evidence in order to debunk them. Apparently this didn't strike the mainstream media as strange behavior. Now we have a situation in which parts of the mainstream, especially liberal media outlets, have started to do Sarah Palin's job and declare the faked pregnancy rumors as "debunked" - relying only on deeply flawed witnesses, the misrepesentation of facts without any subsequent corrections and viciously branding everybody who continues to ask questions about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy as loony "conspiracy theorists."

The first chapter about "Sarah Palin and the bloggers" has been written, many more chapters will follow. It will continue to be an exciting and revealing ride.