The investigation into the termination of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan took another twist yesterday when the Alaskan Attorney General intervened to block the subpoenas issued by the Legislature.  Talis Colberg, a Sarah Palin appointee, sent a letter to Hollis French requesting that the subpoenas be withdrawn and that state employees would not honor them:

In a letter to state Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the investigation, Republican Attorney General Talis Colberg asked that the subpoenas be withdrawn. He also said the employees would refuse to appear unless either the full state Senate or the entire Legislature votes to compel their testimony.

Colberg, who was appointed by Palin, said the employees are caught between their respect for the Legislature and their loyalty to the governor, who initially agreed to cooperate with the inquiry but has increasingly opposed it since McCain chose her as his running mate.

“This is an untenable position for our clients because the governor has so strongly stated that the subpoenas issued by your committee are of questionable validity,” Colberg wrote.

Last week, French’s Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed 13 people. They include 10 employees of Palin’s administration and three who are not: her husband, Todd Palin; John Bitney, Palin’s former legislative liaison who now is chief of staff for Republican House Speaker John Harris; and Murlene Wilkes, a state contractor.

What started out as a quiet investigation that all sides supported has turned into a partisan mess.  That began when French began to brag that he would produce an “October surprise” that would embarrass John McCain.  At that time, the investigation had barely begun and witnesses still hadn’t been deposed.  French later apologized, but the tenor of the probe had permanently shifted.

The AG’s action will likely stoke the partisan fervor further.  Almost certainly, this will wind up being handled by the judiciary, which will have to determine whether the AG can actually block the legislative subpoenas, and whether the probe has run off the rails.  Since that is a political rather than legal question (unless I missed something in the state constitution), the judiciary will probably throw it all back to the Legislature.

The Legislative Council needs to meet to take back control of this issue from Hollis French and Kim Elton.  Either they need to appoint less-partisan special masters from among their own ranks, or they need to end the probe altogether.  They could also shift the probe to the State Personnel Board, as Palin’s team has suggested, although that has its own issues; it would have the executive branch investigating the head of the branch, and while they could do that with little problem, it may not satisfy concerns over the potential lack of independence of the probe.  They certainly couldn’t do much worse in that regard than French himself, who blocked subpoena requests from investigators.