Redstate

You are talking election numbers only, and completely ignoring the stench of fat-cat corruption. If that's your view, then so be it. Young is not the worst in the party - but only because he is exceeded in corruption, arrogance, and graft, by one Ted Stevens.

IMHO, some people in the GOP deserve to be (at the minimum) shunned and isolated, and (preferably) primaried out of office. It is NOT just the red team against the blue team - at least not to me, and not to a whole bunch of conservatives and other Republicans.

Kill the terrorists
Protect the borders
Punch the hippies -- Frank J

Don Young won't make it out of the primary.

And while he may not be "guilty" of anything in a legal sense, and I stress "may", he's a poster child for what's wrong, not just with Republicans, but with the entire Washginton establishment.

"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas

That's why Robert Byrd and John Murtha, two king porkers, will go down to defeat too, huh?

“.....women and minorities hardest hit”

A. They haven't recently spent $1M in legal fees to attempt to defend themselves from corruption charges.

B. They are Democrats. Unfair? Sure, but it's the truth.

"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas

They are members of the big government pro-corruption party. They are elected to be scum.

...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...

---Thomas Paine---

"Don Young won't make it out of the primary."

I wouldn't be so sure of that. Granted, I am not an Alaskan, but I have seen ethically troubled incumbents win in a split primary field before. Let us not forget that Rep. Young and Lt. Gov. Parnall are also running against a state Representative (whose name I forget), whom has a significant chunk of change already raised. What if Young wins by 35%? Is there any way to get her out of the race?

BTW, because I suspect that Rep. Young is a crook (not proven, admittedly), and because I am sure he is a weaker candidate in the general, I would support Parnall in the primary (if I could vote in Alaska, which I can't). And I hope those Alaskans reading this blog will do the same.

As for Tom Cole, well ..., I think you know my opinion of his leadership. (Although I will say that this is a harder call then my criticism of his behavior in open seat or challenger races against Dems, where the NRCC definitely should take a side in the primary. Here we have an incumbent, and the Committees are not very likely, or well-suited, to challenge an incumbent. But I do think we are coming close to the point where Young should fit into the "crook" exception of my rule, and the NRCC should be - behind the scenes - moving against him.)

so even if all you care about is electability (and not morals, for example), Young is a risky bet:

Young trailing former state Rep. Ethan Berkowitz, 51 percent to 46 percent.

That's from Aug. 2007. Here is a Mar 2008 poll with his fav/unfav at 40/55. That's not a good bet for re-election.

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Life long Alaskan here so I feel I can post with a bit of knowledge on this one.

Lt. Gov. Parnell is running against him in the primary. The Palin administration is still rather popular here, and its only been 2 years since we threw out Frank in the primary. I've voted for Young in the past, and will probably do so again in the future should I have the chance. I'm not a huge Parnell fan, I'm not so sure that Palin's popularity is going to help him all that much.

The political climate up here is shifting with all the corruption charges and convictions. You don't spend well over 1,000,000 on legal fees if you aren't hiding anything. I'm sorry but thats just how it is.

That being said, Alaskans know where their roads, airports, hell everything comes from. Don Young and Ted Stevens. Red or Blue you can't argue they bring home the bacon. I'm not a huge fan of Don Young and it appears as if he's going to have some legal issues popping up eventually, but I would vote for him again just based on his seniority in the house. We only have 1 rep and to go back to a Freshman Congressman would hurt our state when we need somebody strong the most. ANWR isn't going to open itself and it looks like our Natural Gas Pipeline is going to need a federal kick in the butt to get going.

If Parnell wins the primary, Alaska is probably going to have a democrat in the house.

If Parnell wins the primary, Alaska is probably going to have a democrat in the house.

And why exactly is that?

Why would the Lt. Gov. of an Administration with 70+% approval ratings in a heavily R leaning state probably lose, while a guy with 40% approval ratings that's spent close to $1m on legal fees and is constantly at the very least on the borderline of major ethics violations be more electable?

" I think there is something wrong with your logic here, Bob" - Veggie Tales

"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas

I'm not convinced the Parnell can turn Palin's popularity into a win. I think the Dems are pretty well motivated and funded this year. Young can be at 0 in the polls but nearly 100% will tell you losing him is going to hurt us. I think the tide in Alaska is shifting a bit to the left, Young is a powerhouse political machine compared to Parnell.

I think his problem is he's too far right on some of his Social stances for the moderates to really fall in line. There are a lot of democrats who hold their nose to vote for young (myself included) but when all things are equal I think that they'll break for a Dem.

You know, when the Lt. Gov, oh, WON STATEWIDE?

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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater

in Palin's win. I doubt that the majority of Alaskan could even tell you who the light gov is and is profile is way below the clutter. As crass as it sounded, Young was about right when he said "I beat your dad, I'll beat you." His dad, a nice guy, had about the same profile. Unless there are charges, Young will likely win the primary; the general might be another story, but Jerkowitz is as left as Obama and can be drawn out on that.

In Vino Veritas

Hey look! It's Don Young's biggest supporter!

So did he give you your cut of that money he got from the Florida people to slip in that earmark after the voting was done?

Or have even you run out of excuses for him?

"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas

Apologize to Achance for your baseless accusation of criminal activity, and cease any further attacks of that nature on your fellow posters.

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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater

He's been personally attacking me for months now, and nobody has ever made him apologize.

He's also defended every single thing Young has done and said he doesn't think anything he's done is illegal, so I'm not really accusing him of anything illegal under his own standard. Futhermore, what I said was clearly a joke.

That said, yes, it was a joke, and I apologize if anybody took it seriously, it wasn't meant to be a serious accusation.

"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas

If you feel you are being attacked in the future and a moderator does not intervene, please do use the contact form to complain. Or hit my personal contact form even.

Thank you,

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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater

I told him long ago that I had concluded that he was an arrogant and ignorant a** and I wouldn't be wasting any more keystrokes; others have reached the same conclusion. And I've certainly never accused him of being in on criminal activity. For that matter, I've never defended Young beyond pointing out that he hadn't been charged with anything.

In Vino Veritas

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in fact he's pretty deliberate.

A government big enough to give you what you need, is big enough to take what you have - Thomas Jefferson

If you're a Dem, you have to be convicted before they'll even start to THINK about removing you.

Such is the world of politics and part of why so many good people want so little to do with it.

If good men stand aside and do nothing, that's all it takes for evil to prevail.

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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater

the energy and creativity of the blogosphere offers a healthy corrective when it comes to identifying and promoting new candidates.

.

There is an R running who is a reformer. He is the current Lt. Gov serving under reformist GOV Palin (R). He also has lower unfavs than Young. Pretty much he's more ethical and more electable than Young.

But the establishment doesn't care about ethics or electability, they care about incumbency. So instead of totally staying out of it, they feel a need to back the unethical, unelectable incumbent.

If Young wins the primary, he'll have some support but he's also part of the reason the R brand stinks. People think R means "corrupt, unethical, pork-barreler" and guys like Young perpetuate that problem.

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I think we need more than a few polls months out of an election to determine that Young is unelectable. Especially since the man hasn't lost a race in 30 plus years and a close election from him is a 17 point blowout.

Plus he raises a ton of money and we would have to spend resources that could be spent elsewhere if it is an open seat race.

And McCain will do a good job fixing the R brand from being thought of as corrupt, unethical and porkbarrler. Young is irrelavent to promoting a new brand.

I just think any Dem is more dangerous than Young.

Perhaps, but we must remember 2006. A lot of people made similar claims about a certain Senator from Montana back in 2006, and in retrospect he should have been dumped.

...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...

---Thomas Paine---

It turned out he was innocent ... but as usual, we stood back and let a flood of falsehoods land his way.

Romney/Pace 2008

about the Palin Administration other than the constant rhetoric about "integrity" and "transparency," of which there is actually little in Alaska's government. To the extent that the Leg has cleaned up its act, it has more to do with their having seen some of their number go to jail and the Oil Companies pretty much withdraw from the field than any change in the political winds brought on by pretty, perky Sarah. She has pretty much the same old crowd in the Executive Branch that Knowles put there, Murkowski kept, and she can't or won't, mostly can't, replace. It's the same old crowd running the government for the benefit of themselves, the Treasury, and their potential consulting/lobbying contracts rather than the people of the State. Palin can talk all she wants about "integrity" and "tranparency," but until there are some first class firings or funerals, it is just empty, though persuasive to the heathen masses, rhetoric.

In Vino Veritas