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Today's Must Read
Rep. Don Young (R-AK) has spent more than one million dollars on criminal defense lawyers. And for some reason, reporters won't stop asking him questions about it.
Are the feds investigating whether Young took bribes from the corrupt executives at Veco (as The Wall Street Journal has reported)? What about his ties to Jack Abramoff? Anything else?
This February, he practically leaped out of his seat at a journo who had the temerity to press for details. "It's not my prerogative to answer to people who have nothing to do with it. That's you," he said and claimed that his constituents weren't bothered with his support of the legal community -- only nosy muckrakers. When the reporter protested that he was a constituent, Young asked if the reporter had voted for him. "No, sir," the reporter replied, and that was that.
Now that Young has officially crossed the million dollar mark, reporters are badgering him again. And yesterday Young struck a different tone:
Young... said he wished he could speak his mind. He can't, he said in a statement released Tuesday, because "both the Department of Justice and my lawyers have asked that I not comment further on the investigation. I MUST honor this request," using capital letters for emphasis."Many people have been concerned about my legal fees and I do not take their concerns lightly... I have learned that the legal process is an expensive process, but I have nothing to hide. When it comes to my family and my character, the truth is priceless. That is exactly why I hired good legal counsel, and I have worked fully with the Department of Justice by answering their questions and providing them with anything they have requested."
Despite all the unjust scrutiny, Young has tried to make things right. Last year, his campaign committee tried to reimburse Bill Allen, formerly the CEO of Veco and now a full-time cooperator, for approximately $38,000 that Allen spent putting on Young's big annual pig roast fundraiser every year (see to the right).
Young's chief of staff explained to The Anchorage Daily News that the campaign was simply doing its due diligence and discovered the problem. Their caution might have also had something to do with the fact that a number of state lawmakers had had their offices raided by the FBI as part of the Veco investigation.
In any case, Allen was already cooperating with the feds by the time that Young tried to make amends. And Allen, not surprisingly, did not accept the cash. In its filing with the FEC this week, the campaign does not offer an explanation, only writing "Two checks paid to Bill Allen in the total amount of $37,626.00 in January 2007 for fundraiser costs were not cashed by Mr. Allen. These funds were later disgorged to the US Treasury in January 2008."
You know it's got to hurt Young, such an accomplished earmarker, to be giving perfectly good money up to the government.
Josh
Zachary
It's extremely rare for the government to ask targets or subjects of interest in grand-jury probes not to discuss the case publicly. More commonly, they're asked not to disclose anything related to the grand jury proceedings, as some may remember from the Scooter Libby investigation.
But that ought to raise our hackles. Then, as now, the offenders and those with whom they worked piously claimed to be respecting the investigation. But that respect didn't prevent them from protesting their innocence. If Young is willing to tell us that DoJ is investigating and that he has "nothing to hide," then he can also tell us what they're investigating. He's not bound by their requests for silence, even assuming that he's accurately characterized the requests, which I doubt. And journalists shouldn't be deterred from pressing him for more information, even if he bites back like an Alaskan mink.
April 16, 2008 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
The truth is priceless. And he is willing to pay any amount to keep it from getting out.
One of the most odious members of the weasel family.
Come on Alaskans.
April 16, 2008 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
the wails from the people and the press is really becoming a distraction for Rep. Young and the hope is he spends all the money on lawyers and won't have any to spend to defend his seat.
good for Alaskans to rid themselves of these lifers in the Congress, that includes Ted Tubes Stevens.
Enough already.
April 16, 2008 11:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
I believe the current Congressional annual salary is $169,300 plus god knows how much in benies. So I'm always amazed these hacks shovel out attorney fees like popcorn! There couldn't be way, way too much money flowing to our politicians to affect legislation, could there?
April 16, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
What is it with Alaska voters and their general tolerance of corruption and sleaze? Is this what happens when an entire state's population is sorta on the dole? Or was it like this before the oil money?
April 16, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, it wasn't like this before the pipeline and the military buildup. Alaska, as Jimmy Carter said (with a slight chuckle) on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Alaska Lands Act, used to be a strongly Democratic state. Back then, any Repubs who got elected were moderate Main-Streeters (google Jay Hammond: on the cusp of the oil revolution, a populist Republican governor, and the most popular politician in AK history). (I've been wondering if Sarah Palin is auditioning to be Jay-in-a-dress.)
Please Don, we beg you, just go away. Maybe Fort Yukon will have you back. Just don't try to go back into teaching; you've done enough damage already.
April 16, 2008 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes we are "sorta" on the dole here in Alaska. We don't have a state income tax or sales tax. So we sorta get representation without taxation. Sorta. Many up here think we should have a tax to capture all the money that leaves the state in the pockets of the oil field workers and fishermen.
"What is it with Alaska voters and their general tolerance of corruption and sleaze?" Well, what is the USA's problem with their general tolerance of corruption and sleaze? Please look at your community as well. We all have a bit of cleaning to do. Our old boy network up here has been a little more sloppy and obvious. We are working on it here.
April 16, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
The "I can't comment due to an ongoing investigation" dodge is so 2005. And just because Young sez the DOJ told him to keep his mouth shut doesn't make it so.
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
April 16, 2008 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
The oil industry changed Alaska's demography. It wasn't intentional, as far as I can tell, past the industry's desire to de-unionize the oilfield work force a far as possible.
Many of the people who moved here to work in the industry came from the oil patch - East Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and brought their fundamentalist religious beliefs with them. Combined with the national trend in that direction religion-wise, the state moved pretty far to the right between the mid-70s and now.
The first and only candidate in Alaska, running against Don Young, to call for a US House investigation of Young's relationship to the illegal change to the 2005 omnibus transportation bill, was Diane Benson, back in the early Fall of 2007.
The first publication to state the obvious - that Young had spent over a million dollars on legal fees, was Progressive Alaska, back in February, 2008.
April 16, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
His statements that 'he has been told not to say anything' are a crock.
Watch video of him with reporters. He is rude, crude, and abusive. He slouches on the chair and keeps saying 'I'm not going to tell you', 'I'm not going to tell you'....like a little kid.
His arrogance is only exceeded by his conceit. Too bad he isn't half as smart as he thinks he is.
I think that the internet, and therefore COMMUNICATIONS, has really opened up Alaskan communities. There is now NO PLACE for Don to hide.
When I first moved here, the TV was black and white and the network news was delivered ONLY when the plane arrived (if). There was no such thing as 'instant communication'. Even all of our TV shows were three week delayed. And you got used to not knowing what was going on elsewhere, except after the fact. In some ways it was rather pleasant and peaceful.
The earthquake changed all that.
But I LIKE THE NEW INFORMATION HIGHWAY. GO FBI; GO FBI.
Get Don AND STEVENS. Please.
April 17, 2008 12:49 AM | Reply | Permalink