shouldn't it be "Palin inquired..."

There was the 'list of banned books' email circulating around the internet, as I'm sure there are other ones. I would not be surprised if they are planted by republicans - circulate, debunk - then, "see what the Left is doing?"
The McCain campaign has a Rovian odor.

Oooh look'it the conservatives and their version of a ban. We want to get rid of plastic bags, they want to get rid of books.

If any of these assholes have actually talked to a homosexual in their life, I will vote for McCain. In Florida.

Does anyone know what actual grounds were given at the time for firing the librarian?

at least she didnt shoot the librarian from a plane. jus' sayin'.

Eli, are you going to get a job with Politico, TAP, or the Atlantic? Or do you get ad revenue from driving readers to them? You constantly link to Ben, Ezra and Sullivan.

@5: Here's a contemporary news account of the termination letter: http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/510219.html.

Sounds like the stated grounds were vague.

She inquired TWICE, in an aggressive manner. The book list was offered up as a possible list -- it's a real list of books Republicans (and a few Democrat bluenoses) have tried to ban elsewhere -- but was never seriously suggested as being HER list. None of this is news. The best source for this and all Sarah Palin stories is still Mudflats.

Boston Herald says:

...the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn’t fully support her and had to go. Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. After a wave of public support for her, Palin relented and let Emmons keep her job.

So, seems pretty undefined. I'd love to know if there were other small town politics things happening, other than the censorship thing. I grew up in a town the size of Wasilla and this sort of thing happened all the time.

Multiple inaccuracies, distortions and significant omissions here and in the ABC report.

1. The Library Director was not a civil service employee. Like the Chief of Police, she served at the pleasure of the Mayor.

2. Both were active political opponents of Palin.

3. Both stood to be terminated at any time for any reason (including political reasons) or no reason. Chief Stambaugh contested his firing in federal court, and lost this point definitively.

4. The librarian was not fired, but received a letter of intent to terminate ... which was rescinded after discussions.

5. The letter was issued 95 days after the book-banning discussion ... a stretch of ABC's reported "a few weeks later".

6. The librarian resigned of her own accord 34 months after the last of these discussions ... compressed to "two years" by ABC.

7. No books were banned in that librarian's 35-month tenure under Mayor Palin.

8. Neither were any books banned in the subsequent 3 years by her successor, chosen by Mayor Palin.

9. There were major directional and budgetary issues between Palin and an opposing faction which favored building a new library (and of which the librarian was an adherent).

Before you elevate it to Gold Standard, remember ABC's investigative unit is Stossel's posse.

@10

Yeah. Same here. This could be something real (censorship) or it could be something else (a subordinate trying to undermine her boss / personality conflict / insubordination / regular vs. decaf thing).

The librarian was president of the Alaska Library Association... She might have thought she out ranked the mayor, or had deep loyalties to the previous mayor. Things like that can get blown up in a small town.

As to the Mayor's inquiry. It's possible that part of her constituency wanted books banned, so she felt she needed to ask publicly, and then getting a "no can't be done" (along with what sounded like a rather well constructed position on why) could let it drop.

This is all just conjecture on my part and I'll be interested in finding out the facts.

Small towns are funny, and require allot of kabuki dancing.

I think it's telling that 1.) the librarian was re-hired nearly immediately, 2.) ABC never implied that there was a press to have actual books banned (no list) and 3.) the librarian quite anyway giving equally vague grounds.

Sounds like maybe they just didn't get along.

I bet there is a "News From Lake Wobegon" episode here...

@11

Wow!... Actual reporting. What's your source?

If this is true, there's nothing to see here... the left needs to move along.

Unless of course they want to create a few days more of Palin news cycles with no clear pay off... (#8 in your list is particularly damning to the "censorship" allegation).