Young's Friends - Should Alaskans Judge a Politician

[Blue_In_AK]

by the Company He Keeps?

http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/8344309p-8240179c.html

Rep. Don Young probably hopes not.

He stood by three corrupt, disgraced fellow Republican congressmen -- even after their troubles were well-known.

Using funds he raised through his own political action committee, Rep. Young sent thousands of dollars to help three colleagues who already were under criminal investigation. All resigned this year. As reported in Tuesday's Juneau Empire, Rep. Young gave a total of $12,500 to help Reps. Tom DeLay of Texas, "Duke" Cunningham of California and Bob Ney of Ohio.

Former House Republican Majority Leader DeLay is under indictment for money laundering. He's charged with hiding the source of money he used to achieve the Republican takeover of the Texas Legislature and then gerrymander Texas congressional districts to elect more Republicans. Cunningham went to jail for taking bribes from defense contractors. Ney was the congressman who lobbyist Jack Abramoff admitted bribing.

This wasn't a case where Rep. Young helped fellow Republicans who later got into trouble. Rep. Young sent them the money after their legal problems were widely known.

Why?


<snip>

Loyalty is a fine thing, but at some point it has to give way to accountability. Standing by corrupt colleagues is just the kind of thing a career politician does. Rep. Young thought it more important to circle the wagons around his political friends than to uphold high ethical standards.

<snip>




Support Diane Benson for Congress ... http://www.bensonforcongress.com/

[mdmc]

1. Benson looks good

:kick:

[Blue_In_AK]

2. She is a great candidate

with lots of momentum, despite no help from the DCCC. We're going to take that bastard down.

[mdmc]

3. for true?

Does she have a shot?

[Blue_In_AK]

4. We're hoping...

Big Don's in a lot of trouble - rumor is he is under investigation for his Abramoff/Delay connections and that an indictment could be forthcoming. (See this month's Rolling Stone article that lists him as the third worst congressman in the country.) He hasn't made any friends here this election season because he's refused to debate or even to appear in the same venues as Diane, even canceling some appearances when he learned she would be there. She kicked his ass last night in the Alaska public TV debate (the only one he agreed to appear at), and the Libertarian candidate even urged people in his closing statement not to vote for him or any of the other two third-party candidates, but to support Diane instead if they wanted their vote to really count. :wow:
This editorial I posted is the fourth one that the Anchorage Daily News has published within the past month extremely critical of Don Young, and pro-Benson LTTEs appear in the paper almost every day.

So it's looking good. Interestingly, over 80 percent of Diane's contributions have come from individual Alaskans, while over 80 percent of Don Young's campaign funds have come from Outside corporations. To me, that's very telling.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. Diane is really an amazing and passionate candidate and could really shine in the House.