I get the sense that maybe the subject is so charged that people don’t want to bring it up. But I’m wondering if Charlie Gibson might be able to raise the matter during the Barbara Walters style interview he’s doing today with Gov. Palin up in Alaska.
While Gov. Palin was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska in the late 1990s, the city’s policy was to charge rape victims for the cost of the ‘rape kits’ used to collect forensic evidence to help prosecute the rapists. Eventually the state had to step in and pass a law banning the practice. And according to former Gov. Tony Knowles, the law was passed specifically in response to Wasila’s policy. “There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla,” says Knowles.
So Wasila was either the only or one of the only towns in the state to follow this practice. And the state legislature had to intervene to put an end to it. There’s no controversy about this. So this part is clear.
But it appears this is another case whether Sarah Palin is lying or in this case deputizing press aides to lie on her behalf. In this case spokeswoman Maria Comella, when asked, told USAToday that “does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test. Gov. Palin’s position could not be more clear. To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice.”
Well, this just appears to be a confident statement of another lie. She does not and has never believed this, only it was her policy when she ran the city in question which was either the only or the most prominent in the state that held to this practice.
Charlie, can you help on this?
(ed.note: This has been another edition of “Lying Sarah Watch”…)
