Battlespace Preparation is a military term that describes the activities necessary in likely or potential areas of employment to train and prepare for follow-on military operations. These take place before combat action begins. In the military, this includes but is not limited to an intel workup on the enemy, operational actions, getting the logistics ready, or a nice rolling artillery barrage or a bombing campaign. All of these are intended to make whatever you are planning to do successful.
How does this apply to Alaska? It applies because it appears to me that One Hot Mess blogger Libby Bakalar is conducting battlespace prep in the public media to curry favor with the state courts she is using to sue the Dunleavy administration for terminating her last January.
To digress, it is always problematic to balance blogging and employment. For those of us in the private sector, you always must be careful never to post something that damages your employer or their business. It is generally a good idea to tell them that you blog on the side just so there are no surprises.
Things are a little dicier when you work for a government. One rule of thumb is to stay well away from issues and people at your level of employment. For example, state employees can usually blog about local or national issues but should stay well away from state issues and politics.
Not so Ms. Bakalar, former Assistant Attorney General under Bill Walker, who with the assistance of the ACLU is currently suing the Dunleavy administration for wrongful termination. The lawsuit was filed in January and is awaiting trial.
Imagine my surprise when I read an opinion piece by Bakalar in the ADN entitled Attorney General’s war on the judicial branch imperils Alaskans a couple weeks deep into November. The piece is a fairly pointed attack on the Attorney General and in turn the Division of Law he runs, the same Division she was removed from in January, the same Division that will be in court fighting her lawsuit. Better yet, it is a stirring defense of the state courts in a policy dispute with Governor Dunleavy.
Talk about battlespace preparation.
What better way to prepare the legal battlespace for her lawsuit than to publicly trash opposing counsel and suck up to the state courts where the issue will be decided?
In doing this, Bakalar is putting the state judiciary at real risk, for if they find in favor of her and reinstate her employment for whatever reason, they will be viewed as little more than partisan hacks, corrupt ones at that, who are easily swayed by public pressure. Some victories are too costly to pursue. A Bakalar win in this one would very well be one of those, especially if anyone who has read her material simply asks the question about undue influence.
Smart lawyers generally tell their clients to shut up and stay out of the media, especially in personnel matters. While I have no idea what Bakalar was told, it is very clear she has chosen not to be quiet, rather choosing to continue her legal fight in the public pages of the ADN and on her blog. Perhaps she is not all that smart of a lawyer at all and is simply demonstrating to one and all why she was terminated.
Bottom line is that she wouldn’t have written the attack on the Attorney General and the Dunleavy administration unless she thought it would benefit her and her case in the state courts. Should be interesting to see if she is successful.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
