The GOP's Alaska Meltdown
August 28, 2008; Page A14
The scandals that led to the demise of Republican Representatives Tom DeLay, Bob Ney and Duke Cunningham -- and to the party's loss of Congress two years ago -- should have been a teaching moment. Alaska's GOP voters haven't taken the hint, and that may cost their party again in November.Alaska Senator Ted Stevens easily won a six-way GOP primary on Tuesday with 63% of the vote, even though he was recently indicted for failing to disclose $250,000 in gifts from Veco Corp., an oil company. Mr. Stevens deserves the presumption of innocence, and after his primary victory he told supporters his re-election will be a "piece of cake." Democrats are happy to hear that because the political reality is that the 84-year-old Senator's case goes to trial before a Washington, D.C. jury less than six weeks before Election Day, and he already trails Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by double digits.
GOP voters were somewhat tougher on Don Young, Alaska's lone House Member, whose own primary race was too close to call as of our deadline Wednesday. Mr. Young led Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell by just 145 votes -- 42,461 to 42,316 -- with some 2,000 rural votes and 4,000 absentee ballots to be counted. Mr. Young is also under federal investigation for his ties to Veco. His legal defense fund has spent more than $1 million, though he hasn't been indicted. If he does eke out a victory, he's a likely loser in November against Democrat Ethan Berkowitz, a former Alaska House Minority Leader who plans to make ethics an issue.
Messrs. Stevens and Young -- who've spent a combined 75 years in Congress -- have built their careers funneling tax dollars back to their home state and punishing any Member who stands in the way. Their primary election strength, even amid scandal, shows that such pork-barreling still carries political weight. But this same earmarking habit is what has put them under an ethical cloud, and voters in November aren't likely to be so forgiving.
With Republicans in danger of falling below 41 Senate seats (from the current 49) and thus being unable to sustain a filibuster, Mr. Stevens's insistence on running again is especially damaging. There's still time for him to drop out of the race and let the party pick a new nominee, but his career has not been noted for such grace notes.
Here's some bonus material on these fools.
4 comments:
And now their governor, who is already under investigation for ethics violations in siccing state troopers after her brother-in-law is going to be John McCain's vice presidential nominee. Makes one wonder what the Republicans are thinking.
You are aware that her brother-in-law tasered an 11 year old kid, right? I don't see how any state trooper would keep his job after doing that.
As for the ethics violations, what exactly are they? I know the media has been trying to dig pretty hard for dirt, but to my knowledge nothing has stuck so far.
Hey crockhead - eat a fat one!
Here's the story on the state trooper, straight from her mouth:
HANNITY: The biggest story, the biggest controversy now that has emerged with the 30 investigators in Wasilla and the rest of Alaska, seems to deal with the firing of your ex-brother-in-law. Big issue in Alaska, even news this morning that the attorney general said, no, these subpoenas are not going to happen, et cetera, et cetera.
What happened? What is your version of the story?
PALIN: Well, my ex-brother-in-law is an Alaskan state trooper and he's never been fired. He's still an Alaska state trooper.
We have two different issues going on here. Two different issues. One is, a cabinet member, my commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, who had some strengths in some areas, insubordinate in some other areas, as we tried to reign in budgets and tried to find efficiencies in departments and he wasn't willing to go there with his department.
But, his strength in another area of public safety, I recognized that it was my responsibility, my obligation to make sure we had the right people in the right places at the right time in the cabinet to best serve Alaskans. So, I asked him to transfer into another position. And he chose not to be transferred. So, he left the service. That's one issue. It had nothing to do with a former brother-in-law, a state trooper who happened to have been married to one of my sisters until about three years ago.
I asked the personnel board even in the state of Alaska, if they had questions about why it was that I exercised my responsibility in replacing our commissioner. I asked the personnel board, that appropriate board, to oversee such actions, to come investigate. And that's where it is now. Hopefully, it's the personnel board looking into this and it's not this obsessive partisanship that seems to have kind of captured the issue.
HANNITY: One of the local officials up there, state officials, was talking about this being a big October surprise. There was also talk about, he admitted to Tasering a 10 year old, or an 11-year-old child.
PALIN: He did. This trooper Tasered my nephew. And he Tasered — well, that was — it's all on the record. It's all there. His threats against the first family, the threat against my dad. All that is in the record. And if the opposition researchers are choosing to forget that side of the story, they're not doing their job.
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