Governor's Office Breaks Alaska Ethics Law To Help McCain

As you can see below, the McCain-Palin campaign is now using Palin's official portrait from the Alaska Governor's Office on its website, a clear violation of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

The relevant part of the Alaska ethics code reads:

Sec. 39.52.120. Misuse of official position.

(b) A public officer may not

(6) use or authorize the use of state funds, facilities, equipment, services, or another government asset or resource for partisan political purposes

Violation of the statute is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000. Theoretically, it could lead to Palin's impeachment, although it's hard to imagine that in isolation an issue like this would result in impeachment. Combined with other ethics infractions, the punishment could be that severe, however.

Although this may not be the biggest deal in the world, there are a couple of reasons why it's worth noting.

1. You can't pick and choose which ethics laws you're going to follow and which ones you're going to break, especially if you're going to claim to be a reformer.
   
2. The McCain campaign's use of Palin's official portrait in its campaign materials underscores the fact that she was an impromptu pick by McCain. They didn't even have time to shoot their own photos. Talk about making a trigger happy decision.

"Photogate" might not top anybody's list of key issues for 2008, but it does provide a window into how the McCain campaign is being run -- and how similar their lack of respect for the law is to the current occupant of The White House.