Rolling Heads

November 27, 2008
Rolling Heads

Having spent so much time yammering generically about the fact that Sarah Palin took on the Big Boys and won, it seems particularly appropriate to use Thanksgiving to give you all a more specific rundown on exactly who the turkeys are whose heads have, or are soon likely, to roll.

It has been awhile since I did my "Sarah Palin cleaned up Alaska" shtick on this blog. But when I'm writing in an online news or (some other) blog comment section regarding an article on Palin I find that I do some version of it fairly regularly. Generally this is when either the initial article or existing comments do the "Sarah Palin is ethically challenged, and dumb besides; even the people of Alaska can't stand her any longer" regurgitation. (It is not difficult finding such allegations; an enormous number of people still believe the media's caricature despite having at least the opportunity to learn a lot more about her now that the election is over. This is not a woman who shies from the media! :-) She has almost certainly given substantively more interviews post-election than she was allowed to do during the campaign!

My standard rap often includes the assertion that Palin "cleaned house" [and Senate :-)] up here and took on the Big Boys and won; that people had been campaigning on reform tickets for years but once elected, either joined the gravy train or were effectively silenced. When it came time to stand up and fight, they backed down and the Big Oil folks just pocketed them.

But, I claim that Palin was utterly fearless. And in her we finally found someone who would stand up to the rampant corruption and not blink. When she was serving as Chair of the Oil and Gas Commission she discovered documented, provable, rampant corruption but she couldn't get anyone to pay attention to her. So she quit and ran for her boss's job [Governor] and whupped him in the primary! A sitting Governor who had served the state for decades as a U.S. Senator and she demolished him in the primary and then tromped a two-term, very popular, prior Governor in the main race.

Then she (and the FBI whom she called in to work on the case) started cleaning up and that because of her probes some "(self) important people", including some who could have bought the entire Alaskan prison system without major financial difficulty are going to spend their retirement looking out from its bars. She showed that many of our legislators were for sale on the open market. (She found them on eBay ... no! Just kidding! :-) I claim that even Senator Stevens wouldn't have been busted if it hadn't been for the probes she started.

I further claim that once the Big Boys found that she couldn't be bought, bribed, blustered or bullied they didn't leave the state in a huff (as had been predicted by many); but just sort of shrugged and said "ok" and that she has been able to develop a good working relationship with them.

But I thought I should put some meat on those sort of amorphous claims and take a closer look at exactly who got caught either purchasing legislators or being a purchased legislator, and dispel, or respond to, however you want to phrase it, the "yeah, who?" challenge.

So, let's see. Who all has Palin "taken out"?

I should begin this by saying that the probes are continuing and that there will undoubtedly be future additions to it. [For example, our recently "reelected in a squeaker" U.S. Representative, Don Young, hasn't been charged or indicted of anything. But, by last April, he had still spent well over a million dollars (!) on attorney fees! I don't know what the tab must be by now!]

We have different "categories" of corrupt players. For starters, we have the Big Boys who a couple years ago were highly respected business leaders and well thought of "involved in the community" type folks and are now convicted felons. In addition to which they are either at or approaching retirement age and are so desperate to not spend any more of it in the Big House than necessary that they turned on their prior "partners in crime" and ratted them out to the FBI or U.S. Attorney's office in exchange for "hoped for" leniency.

The "Biggest Gun" in this group is Bill Allen who is the ex-CEO of the "used to be high flying" oil services company VECO (which is largely an Alaskan company but it also operates in Asia, the Middle Ease, the Caribbean and other parts of the U.S.). He was very involved in community affairs and a highly respected and very well known "friendly face of your friendly neighborhood oil company"! In May of 2007 he pled guilty to extortion, bribery and conspiracy to impede the IRS. Joining him in so pleading was VECO's Vice [yes :-)] President for Community and Government Affairs, Rick Smith. The specific issue that was behind the activities he pled to involved bribing legislators to pass an oil tax law that VECO was pushing. His sentencing awaits, but is anticipated to be between nine and eleven+ years in jail plus a substantial fine. This is not the sort of person who envisioned the type of "retirement community" he will be joining! Where the sentence ultimately is within that range is presumably contingent to some degree on how well he does the job of bringing down everyone else. But he cut his deal to rat on his partners in crime (allegedly) not primarily for a better sentence for himself, but to keep his son and other family members from being charged (which means we'll probably never know what all his son Mark did).

But Allen is an excellent example of how far the mighty have fallen since Sarah put the trip wires out around the candy jar. The Allen family is a family of money. It is a family that has even more money now that they "had" to sell VECO. Even Allen is living the good life at the moment. But he is going to either have a heart attack and die before he gets there (strangely it seems a lot of folks who can't psychologically or emotionally deal with spending significant time in prison die before they get there), or he is going to be spending a huge portion of the remainder of his life in jail. It will be a dramatic change for the man!

Those two, Allen and Smith, are the highest ranking Oil Boys to bite the big one. But it isn't only the oil industry that is involved. Our legislators were so clearly for sale that even a bunch of high muckety mucks in the fisheries industries are being investigated for legislator purchases! Oh, and on the "payer" side of the ledger we also convicted lobbyist William Bobrick who was sentenced to five months in prison.

The list of the "payees" (the folks on the take) that are convicted, indicted, or "allegedly anticipated to be indicted" has some even more powerful names. The biggest, of course, is "Senator for Life" ... not; Ted Stevens. As virtually everyone knows he was convicted ... excuse me, I erred on what the definition of is is! :-) Ted Stevens was found guilty by a jury [he is right ... technically he hasn't been convicted yet - that will be done by the judge at sentencing] of not reporting gifts from Allen and others. Even at that he came within a whisker of being re-elected anyway. [There was some logic to that ... even if he was kicked out of the Senate a week after being elected to the seat, the seat would be filled by a Republican. Instead we have democrat Mark Begich.]

So, Senator Stevens has been found guilty of seven felonies and lost his Senate seat ... and I have a hunch the worst is yet to come. His trial was strange enough, between prosecutorial and juror misconduct. The capper being a juror telling the judge -- after Stevens lost the election due, presumably to his "conviction", that he lied at the prosecution's behest. It makes one wonder how many layers of corruption there are. The Democrats wanted that seat badly ... they are desperate to have 60 seats so they can be "filibuster-proof". Whether or not it was intentional skulduggery (and we may well never know), there was enough bizarre stuff that Stevens may win a new trial on appeal. The process could take years before such a new trial ever came to be and no one has a clue what might happen to Bill Allen or other witness by then. Likely, Stevens is going to get convicted and sentenced ... but the man is 80 years old and stubborn as a mule ... I personally don't expect him to spend any time behind bars. But that doesn't really matter. His life is in tatters. His reputation destroyed. His life's work (and he truly did some excellent stuff) ... will be completely overshadowed by his reputation as "the crooked Senator" now. Probably even worse than all that, his pride and joy, son Ben, who was the president of the Alaska State Senate ... looks to be even deeper into the scandals than Ted. I think Ben probably will serve substantive time in prison. He is accused of taking bribes from the fisheries industry, VECO and others. Bill Allen says he bribed him. I know that is not what Ted's hopes for his handsome, dynamic, powerhouse of a son were.

What other big names? Well ... we have another parent and child combination under severe scrutiny. Ex-Senator; ex-Governor Frank Murkowski (the sitting Governor that Sarah tromped in the primary) looks like he is going under. They haven't indicted him yet, but the Feds can pretty well demonstrate that he got over $20,000 worth of unreported "value" from VECO (a large part of that was apparently polling services) ... and the word is that there will be lots more on the plate when the indictment is actually presented. He had served the state for decades as its "other Senator", but resigned to "come home and take over the Governor's job". Then ... although the law has been changed to try to keep something so embarrassing from happening again, as Governor he had the right to fill vacant U.S. Senate seats; even those that he just vacated! So he appointed his daughter Lisa!!! No nepotism in Alaska! It looks like he may not have done her any favors though as she has allegedly been caught with her hand in the cookie jar as well; for, among other things, diverting taxpayer funds to a road to her home!

So the curtain is apparently falling on two of the biggest political family acts in Alaska: the Ted and Ben show and the Frank and Lisa show.

Let's see ... in the "sure, I'll have some" department I've discussed our U.S. Representative, Don Young (the list of his alleged scandals is lengthy, but also includes VECO bribes), our current U.S. Senators, Stevens and Lisa Murkowski, our prior Governor/Senator Frank Murkowski, the ex-president of the State Senate and son of our Senator for Life, Ben Stevens. Those are the biggest names on the "take" list ... they are also the biggest names in state politics! Or were before the name "Palin" surfaced :-)

Others that have been hammered include Frank Murkowski's Chief of Staff Jim Clark (who also cut a deal with the Feds to narc out more folks). The former Speaker of the (State) House, Pete Kott was sentenced to six years in prison. Former State Representative Victor Kohing got a three and a half year sentence. Former State Representative Tom Anderson got five years.

There are several people who have either been indicted or very publicly named as on the take. That includes former State Representative John Cowdery who has been indicted for taking bribes. Former State Representative Bruce Weyrauch will be going to trial soon - Bill Allen says VECO bribed him as well. Oh, Trevor McCabe; he was hooked up with Senator Ted and was apparently the recipient of "scam" money procured by Ted.

There are ... several others who are almost certainly going to be charged. There are rumors swirling about a few more. And almost certainly there are some that are guilty that simply aren't going to get caught.

So that's the situation to date. One of the main planks on which Sarah Palin ran for Governor was to bring these people to justice [these folks were, bottom line, engaged in a conspiracy to steal Alaska's resource wealth] and one of the reasons she had a 90%+ favorability rate is because ... unlike every other politician who had made that promise ... she did it.

Time to Take Campaign Posters Down

November 19, 2008
Time to Take the Campaign Posters Down

Well, the last state finally reported results. Missouri went to McCain. Just barely, but that’s all it takes. McCain came out 3,632 votes ahead of Obama – out of more than 2.9 million cast! Too little, too late to do McCain much good but it was the first time since 1956 that Missouri didn’t "pick" the winner of the presidential race. It has been a strange election from every perspective!

And ... "Uncle Ted", the U.S. Senator that has represented this State for so long he had gained the title "Senator for life" ... lost. He was ahead in the vote count after the regular ballots were counted even after being found guilty for not noting some oil company "gifts" on his federal disclosure forms the week before the election. But we had a huge number of absentee and "other" ballots that were finally counted over the past few days and a "kid" [a 46 year old kid :-)] by the name of Mark Begich prevailed and today Senator Stevens conceded. Uncle Ted was so well known and so appreciated for all the loot he had brought home from the federal treasury that no one ever believed he would lose an election. But he did ... on his 85th birthday. He was likely the most important politician in Alaska’s history and much of what he did as a Senator (besides bringing home all the pork) shaped the State in many ways. Granted, I disagreed with much of what he did, but that doesn’t lessen the importance of it :-)

[I will, btw, be doing a future column on why the feds actually owe us vastly more than we’ve ever gotten from them. They flatly stole most of our (oil) wealth that they agreed by contract in the Statehood Compact was ours. But that will be a future column.]

So ... the elections are over. And I hate it when I still see campaign signs in people’s yards long after the election has passed, so I’ve taken mine down as well.

Besides, as thrilling as it was to have our Governor as a candidate for such a high office ... and the fact that her mistreatment by the press infuriated me ... she and I do disagree on much ideologically. [Which, however, despite the furor caused by the "stop her at any costs" national media ... she didn’t govern (that is past tense but I really don’t expect it to change) as a member of the flat earth society.] Indeed, her actual governance was not nearly as conservative as the campaign painted her. Frankly, she is a lot more tough minded and practical than she ever got credit for.

Although there are plenty of folks who disagree with me, I do believe ideology is important even if one appears to "transcend" it for practicality when necessary. And Sarah and I have some very basic, very different ideologies. I have spent a lot of time in this blog defending her against the phony attacks and simple lies about her told by the pressography during the election. To the extent that such continues, so shall I. But in areas where we disagree ... you’ll be hearing a lot more about those from me now that the election is over also!

I have not yet heard that Sarah has repudiated the claims that her beliefs include such things as the fact that evolution was divinely guided. I’ve also heard it claimed that she believes the world to be only 6,000 years old but that hardly fits with evolution, guided or not. Besides. Her father was a science teacher. Surely she knows better!

I do think highly of her, however, and this campaign has increased that admiration. I don’t know how anyone can take what she was put through. And her star is still in ascension! She continues to receive non-stop requests from the media, agents, producers ... she delivered a well-received (and well-covered) speech at the Republican Governors Association. She is more in-demand and the national ... indeed international ... spotlight is on her more strongly than it ever was when she was a mere vice presidential candidate! She has become a legitimate "star" in her own right.

The William Morris agency has called multiple times (and they only call stars :-). Barbara Walters wanted to make Palin one of her "10 most fascinating people" (and apparently she is still in contention for Walters' #1 Most Fascinating Person)! Interestingly, they have already announced that Tina Fey made the
list ... but poor Tina! After all the great stuff she's done (she is my second favorite female comedienne), she is now known as "Sarah Palin impersonator Tina Fey"! :-) Also see (one of her) fan sites: "Currently, Tina Fey is best known for her portrayal of the Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin".

Sarah has had offers to host talk shows, write books, and do countless interviews. She is finally free to do so ... and so she has been. She has done a tremendous job of turning her reputation as an intellectual lightweight into a solidly respected intelligent and resourceful person.

She is, (in the words of the McClatchy press no less!):

"A national political figure and one of the world’s most famous people."

Despite the desperate hope of many Democrats that she would run back to Alaska with her tail between her legs and disappear into an ice cave ... she is doing no such thing. And the Democrats who hoped so (and the Republicans to whom she is a potential competitor for national office someday) just don’t know this woman (as they clearly demonstrated during the campaign). She doesn’t put her tail between her legs. She is fearless. She took the best (worst) punches the national punditocracy could throw ... and she emerged stronger and vastly more respected than ever before.

They won’t succeed at pigeon-holing her with their caricatures of her in her next national venture. People will know her too well by then. They only got away with the phony portrait they painted because no one knew anything else, so they accepted the pablum the media fed them.

And she still emerged a star! One with a very bright political future. Is she the next Ronald Reagan? It could be. The resemblances are remarkable. The press tried to paint Reagan as a mental midget his first couple runs for national office as well. But it didn’t stick. He was known as the Teflon President because the people simply decided to ignore all the nastiness from the media about him ... even when they were right. They had cried "wolf" too often. They no longer had any credibility.

The same thing appears to be happening with Sarah Palin. As people discover who this woman really is ... they are learning to ignore what the press says about her. In their desperate attempt to ensure Obama's election, the press pulled out all stops in screaming "wolf" ... or, in her case "wolf killer" :-) But ultimately it is (and soon will be even more so) the press that lost credibility, not Sarah Palin.

She and Ronald Reagan both shared that ephemeral unlearnable "something" that people call charisma but which simply excites people and makes folks want to like them and want to please them. Obama has it. And Sarah Palin has it. Presidents Reagan and Kennedy had it. [Unfortunately, probably so did Hitler ... it doesn't inherently translate to "good" ... but it does tend to translate to "powerful".]

But it is a rare and potent gift. [I remember being in a room when Ronald Reagan walked in ... before he was President. The room was instantly and remarkably electrified. It was an amazing sensation and an fascinating thing to watch.] Sarah Palin is something special. And I’m not going to be bashful about recognizing and acknowledging that.

So ... the election signs are down. But we will, among many other topics, continue to follow the exploits of our Governor. And when I disagree with her (and I will!:-) I won’t be bashful about that either!