Remember The Palin

story at Pam's House Blend
Alaska Governor, and possible future presidential candidate, Sarah Palin named Anchorage lawyer Wayne Anthony Ross as her new attorney general last week. Now, anyone who knows of Sarah Palin knows she is most decidedly not gay friendly, and is definitely a far right wingnut, but Wayne Anthony Ross makes her look almost....almost....inclusive.

From Wayne Anthony Ross never a quiet force,'' in the Anchorage Daily News: "During a fight several years ago over gay rights, [Allison] Mendel helped organize Anchorage lawyers in support of an anti-discrimination ordinance. Ross wrote a nasty letter to the Bar Association newsletter, using words like "immoral", "perversion" and "degenerates." The language went way beyond reasonable disagreement, Mendel and others said."

Besides being a homophobe, there are several more interesting facts about Ross, who uses his initials...WAR...on his vanity plates:

• He was a founder of Alaska Right to Life and represented, without fee, anti-abortion protesters charged with trespassing, telling reporters: "I feel I have a good relationship with the good Lord (but) if I could overturn Roe vs. Wade, I figure I got my ticket."


• He was the defense lawyer for former Representative Vic Kohring, who is serving a 3 1/2 year sentence on corruption charges.


• He opposes Native subsistence rights and was the lead lawyer in the case that got Alaska's subsistence law declared unconstitutional. In 2002, as a gubernatorial candidate, he vowed to hire a band of "junkyard dog" assistant AG's to challenge the federal law that requires subsistence preference, or seek changes through Congress.


• He represented Sarah Palin in her ethics case against state GOP chair Randy Ruedrich when both were on the Oil and Gas Commission


• He co-chaired Palin's 2006 gubernatorial campaign.


• He was hoping for an appointment to head the Department of Health and Social Services so he could "stop the department from interfering with families when they should not be interfering and get them interfering with families when they should be interfering" but he was passed over.


• He defended a man who twice poured buckets of water from a passing pickup onto anti-war demonstrators in the rain and snow. His client was convicted of harassment and violating constitutional rights.


• He was the co-chair of Alaskans for Phil Gramm--one of the people responsible for the current economic crisis, and, as co-chair of John McCain's presidential campaign, Gramm he called us "a nation of whiners."


• He is a former vice president of the National Rifle Association and was in line to become president but was voted out of office. He is still a director of the NRA.


• He ran for governor in 1998 and 2002.

So, all this gives me pause, and makes me wonder, if Ms. Palin isn't trying to pick her successor as governor for when she makes her mad dash at the White House in 2012? If she is, remember the kinds of people she filled Alaska state government with, like Ross: pro-gun, anti-choice, anti-Native-American, anti-gay.
Is that really what we want for America?
Send Sarah Into a Snowbank.