Talis Colberg, the Attorney General of Alaska appointed by Governor Sarah Palin, has resigned his position. He was already in deep water over advising a number of his “clients” (including Todd “The First Dude” Palin) not to bother showing up when they were issued subpoenas to appear before the legislature to testify over Troopergate. Said clients have since been found in contempt. Follow the link for the details, but it’s a fairly cut-and -dried story.

A quick look at Colberg’s background will show you that his failure to perform shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Two years as an associate attorney and then a one person practice handling employee compensation cases are combined with overseeing the state fair. If it sounds surprising that such a distinguished career would lead to a sudden leap to the AG’s office, it’s worth noting that Mr. Colberg hails from Wasilla and was one of Palin’s old cronies. He’s pretty much in keeping with many of her other appointments of her childhood friends, such as the head of Alaska’s agriculture department based on the fact that she had “always liked cows.”

Word on the street has it that one of the big beneficial side effects of Palin’s election as governor was that the unemployment rate in Wasilla plummeted by 4% in a couple of months, primarily because so many of the residents were then put on the state payroll. Back before this entire event blew up, Donald Craig Mitchell (a local) observed the following:

Talis Colberg was so obviously unqualified to be attorney general that a number of members of the Alaska Legislature, including many Republicans many of whom were in leadership positions, threatened not to confirm him. But, in the end, they reluctantly agreed to give Sarah her guy.

When you make that many crony appointments of unqualified buddies, these are the results you get. Can you imagine Governor Palin as President, and the type of appointments we would see? Harriet Miers and Tom Daschle would begin to look absolutely brilliant by comparison.