Alaskans On Palin

From Choice stuns state politicians by Sean Cockerham and Wesley Loy:

State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to give her the news.

"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?" said Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"

Green, who has feuded with Palin repeatedly over the past two years, brought up the big oil tax increase Palin pushed through last year. She also pointed to the award of a $500 million state subsidy to a Canadian firm to pursue a natural gas pipeline that is far from guaranteed.

Alaska Democratic Party chairwoman Patti Higgins, attending her party's national convention in Denver, said she was shocked to hear the news this morning.

"In this very competitive election for them to go pick somebody who is ... under a cloud of suspicion, who is under investigation for abuse of power. It just sounds like a pretty slow start to me," Higgins said.

The state Legislature is investigating whether Palin and her staff broke state law by pressuring the public safety department to fire a state trooper who was in a custody battle with her sister.

"We need a vice president who can step in if, God forbid, something happened to John McCain," Higgins said. "I don't think she's someone who is ready for that 3 a.m. phone call."

Former House Speaker Gail Phillips, a Republican political leader who has clashed with Palin in the past, was shocked when she heard the news Friday morning with her husband, Walt.

"I said to Walt, 'This can't be happening, because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out," Phillips said.

Phillips has been active in the Ted Stevens re-election steering committee and remains in close touch with Sen. Lisa Murkowski and other party leaders, and she said nobody had heard anything about McCain's people doing research on his prospective running mate.

"We're not a very big state. People I talk to would have heard something."

From McCain Defends Palin's Fitness as Some Alaskans Question It by Tony Hopfinger and Ken Fireman:

People in the Alaska governor's home state -- including a supporter of her last run for office, a former staffer and some residents of her home town -- are less certain of her credentials to be vice president.

Still, a growing chorus of Alaskans expressed reservations.

“She's not qualified, she doesn't have the judgment, to be next in line to the president of the United States,'' Larry Persily, who until June worked in the governor's Washington office as a congressional liaison, said in a phone interview.

A supporter of Palin's campaign for governor, Jim Whitaker, the Republican mayor of Fairbanks, also questioned Palin's readiness to serve as vice president.

What The GOP Stands For

Perhaps GOP should be changed from “Grand Old Party” to “Greedy Old People.” Better still would be “Greedy Old Corrupt People.” So let’s change GOP to GOCP.

From Despite Indictment, Stevens is GOP's Pick by Lindsay Renick Mayer:

What does it take to be your party's candidate-of-choice for the Senate even after you've been indicted in a scandal? Apparently it takes $4.2 million and 39 years in Congress already under your belt. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) won his party's primary race Tuesday, despite being indicted for allegedly failing to report $250,000 in gifts from the embattled oil services company Veco. Veco employees have given Stevens $28,500 for his re-election campaign this election cycle. Stevens's competitors in the primary were self-financed and came nowhere near bringing in his haul.

Read more here.

Since Sarah Palin is not as old as Ted Stevens or John McCain perhaps a change to GCP (“Greedy Corrupt People”) would be best.

From Alleged Reformer Sarah Palin’s Ties To Indicted Senator Ted Stevens by smartcrow:

John McCain’s alleged reformer VP pick, Sarah Palin, is closely tied to indicted Alaska Senator Ted Steven’s who boosted her 2006 gubernatorial campaign with a last minute endorsement. Palin was a director of Steven’s 527 group which has been questioned on ethical grounds, as reported on the Washington Post.

The WP also reports that a campaign commercial featuring Stevens and Palin during Palin’s 2006 gubernatorial race was removed from her gubernatorial site AFTER receiving the VP nod from McCain.

Laura McGann Goes To Alaska

To find out more about Sarah Palin, Laura McGann has gone to Alaska.

From The Reform Candidate? by Laura McGann:

A look at Palin’s rise to power in Alaska, however, raises questions about what “reformer” means here and whether it carries the same heft in her home state as it does with a national politician. While Palin combated the cash-for-favors reputation of the Republican Party in Alaska, she has also found herself in the middle of two scandals that question her use of power.

The latest scandal has been percolating on national blogs for weeks and made the front-page of The Washington Post on Sunday. Palin stands accused of having fired Alaska’s public-safety commissioner because he would not dismiss her sister’s ex-husband, a state trooper, who the Palins have been feuding with since before she became governor. Though a full report from an independent investigator is due this fall, emails from Palin and a tape recording reveal that the governor at least pressured the commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law, after she previously denied having done so.

Read more here.

It's A Start

Will “Mr. Bridge to Nowhere” finally get his comeuppance?

From Alaska senator caught off guard by indictment, colleague says:

Sen. Ted Stevens was caught by surprise Tuesday by his indictment on charges that he concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and services from a company in his home state, Sen. Daniel Inouye told CNN.

"Apparently, the media knew about it before he did," Inouye said, adding he had just spoken to Stevens, a Republican from Alaska.

Stevens was meeting with Republican colleagues when the indictment was returned, and he was pulled out of the meeting, his colleague said.

"As far as he's concerned, he's not guilty. And I believe him," said Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat who is one of Stevens' closest friends in the Senate.

In the indictment, Stevens is charged with lying about receiving gifts worth more than $250,000 from Veco, an Alaska-based energy company on whose behalf he intervened in Washington.

Read the rest here.

Instead Of Calling Him Stupid…

Perhaps he just doesn’t know. That would make him ignorant, not stupid. Right? Just the kind of guy that I want to represent me. Right? Wrong!

From Embattled Rep. Young Touts Wrong Group in an Ad by Susan Davis:

Embattled Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young is airing a radio ad in his home state erroneously touting an endorsement from Taxpayers for Common Sense—one of his harshest critics. The nonpartisan watchdog group has repeatedly bashed Young’s affinity for pork-barrel projects funded by earmarks.

The group is planning a letter to Young’s campaign Friday asking him to take it off the air. A spokesman for Young’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.

Read the rest here.