Ethics report in Alaska focuses more heavily on Todd Palin

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A month after she became governor, Sarah Palin’s staff ushered Alaska’s public safety commissioner into her private office.

But Palin wasn’t there. Her husband, Todd, had called the meeting. He was frustrated that his former brother-in-law remained on the job as a state trooper, and he prevailed upon the commissioner to get rid of him.

“I thought that was odd and made me a little uncomfortable,” said Walter Monegan, the commissioner, who later was fired by Gov. Palin. The January 2007 meeting was part of a long pattern of pressure that she and her husband applied on state officials to try to get the trooper fired, according to an Alaska legislative report released Friday. But while the condemnation of now-vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was the conclusion, the nearly 300-page report by investigator Stephen Branchflower was more about her husband. Todd Palin, the self-described “first dude” of Alaska.

, had extraordinary access to his wife’s office, her staff and her power.