Todd Palin and the question of authorized access

Salon.com has a very good and scary article on Sarah Palin's husband.

It brings up a point that has been nagging me for weeks. How did Todd Palin get the power to put pressure on the police commissioner to fire that trooper? I mean according to law Todd Palin has absolutely no authority to ask for anything in the government (excepting as any other normal citizen would).

Add to that the fact that he is routinely copied on emails that go to the Governor on policy and even personnel issues and you have some very weird politics indeed. Imagine that. There is a guy who is not even on the payroll of the state that has potential access to personnel records of state employees.

He is not the Governor! He is a citizen.

Adding even more to this, there have been several requests by concerned citizens and journalists to view the questioned emails via freedom of information requests and they have been denied. The reasoning behind the refusal? The very Bush-like "Executive Privilege." But Todd Palin is not a member of the executive branch. He is not even an employee of the state of Alaska. How does he get to see those emails and other private citizens are denied? This is a double standard that cannot be denied.

There is a real problem here. I hope to hear more about this as we go forward. Ask some questions.