Comments (17)

714Day wrote on August 6, 2007 3:11 PM:

Whew! Well, that's a relief! He's clean as the driven snow, now.

Erica wrote on August 6, 2007 3:25 PM:

It's great to hear that he's giving back that illegal money he initially said he would keep. Maybe he can donate that money to UNICEF and allocate his time to fighting GLobal Poverty. According to the Borgen Project, every 3.6 seconds another person dies of starvation. Maybe he can help ease that burden on the world a little bit.

BeeinSac wrote on August 6, 2007 3:44 PM:

Who has taken over Don Young's body? This is a complete reversal of personality!!!

AlaskaVet wrote on August 6, 2007 4:05 PM:

Young is scrambling to behave because he's scared; an energetic, honest and capable opponent has filed to run against him in 2008. Jake Metcalfe is the polar opposite of Mr. Young and is, in the best tradition of Alaska politics, a candidate for the U.S. House in whom we can be proud!

johnnydoughey wrote on August 6, 2007 5:07 PM:

Actually, I respect this clown more than Bush. You guys remember the money given Bush illegally gotten from the native American tribes? Although most of us learned in gradeschool that illegal money is supposed to be returned to its owner, Bush donated it to a nonprofit group... made himself look good to the ones who took it. I remember it as another sign that the crooks are ruling...

EH wrote on August 6, 2007 5:46 PM:

AlaskaVet: Did I read bad commentary lately that asserted that the best tradition of Alaska politics is more closely tied to the behavior of the current incumbents than anything else? That is, it's unusual to have a candidate in Alaska that the citizens can be proud of.

And come on, let's be precise people, as far as the statute of limitations is concerned, the money Young is returning is "formerly illegal."

AlaskaVet wrote on August 6, 2007 6:11 PM:

EH: The "best traditions" of Alaska politics to which I refer go back a ways, when true statesmen like Senators Ernest Gruening and Bob Bartlett, and Governor Bill Egan, served our young state with selfless dedication and distinction.

Richard L. Adlof wrote on August 6, 2007 6:58 PM:

This show at honesty is nice . . . BUT will it keep Young outta rehab.

Making admends is one o' twelve steps . . . BUT will Young's graft-snide suck him back into the big black.

Ed*ard Teller wrote on August 6, 2007 9:56 PM:

Speaking of candidates for Don Young's seat and Bob Bartlett, Diane Benson received a standing ovation after a speech at Anchorage's Bartlett Club last Tuesday. The packed full house was very overwhelmingly receptive to Diane’s impassioned remarks on empowering Democrats and her views on subjects ranging from the most recent Minneapolis bridge collapse, the health care crisis and social security to veterans and military concerns.

Unlike candidate Jake Metcalfe, Benson has no ties to the Democratic politicians who gave us the corrupt regulatory regime which helped lead to the Exxon Valdez catastrophe, nor is she associated with the inept administration of Tony Knowles, which allowed our school system's quality to plummet.

HarpboyAK wrote on August 6, 2007 10:46 PM:

This Teller troll needs to be treated like that other character that got killfiled here.

Perhaps Mr. Teller can tell us which of the Democratic politicians in the Repugnican controlled legislature gave us a "corrupt regulatory regime" that lead to the Exxon Valdez disaster? The Lege during that time period was controlled by Bill Allen's Repuke friends.

Diane Benson is a nice person, an actress whose performance as Alaska's Native civil rights leader Elizabeth Peratrovich is a spellbinder, and a very committed fighter against this horrible war, which badly wounded her son. However, that doesn't make her electable, or able to raise the money necessary to beat Dumb Young.

Jake Metcalfe was never part of any Knowles administration, though he did serve as an assistant district attorney in Bethel for quite a few years, a career appointment, not a political one.

He comes from a union family (his father and grandfather were union sheetmetal workers, and a great uncle was a union engineer on the White Pass & Yukon in Skagway), and for the past several years has been chief legal counsel for IBEW Local 1547.

His father was also a broadcaster and newspaper reporter & editor whose opinions occasionally cost him his job, served as a Democratic Representative in the Territorial Legislature prior to statehood.

In spite of his occasional differences with Bill Egan, Vern Metcalfe was a solid Egan Democrat. He was well known throughout Alaska from the 40s through the 80s as one of the best play-by-play basketball broadcasters in a state that was as dedicated to winter time on the court as summer time on the water fishing.

That means Jake's roots in Alaska politics go back much further than any potential Democratic opponent for Young except for Mark Begich. He can call on old family friends in almost every part of the state, as well as his very large extended family (he has 7 siblings living in Alaska, and lots of cousins).

As for our Teller troll, I don't recall Tony Knowles ever being in a position where he had control over local schools --- that belongs to local school boards.

Code word desire, as in most Alaskans desire Don Young's return to his decrepit trailer in Fort Yukon, his legal "residence". Or to quote the Congressbuffoon himself, "It'll be a cold day in Fort Yukon when they pry the gun from my cold dead fingers".

Ed*ard Teller wrote on August 7, 2007 2:33 AM:

Harpboy,

Benson creamed one Metcalfe in 2006. 2008 will be a bit tougher, but the same result will occur, just a different first name.

Tony Knowles started out his governorship touting his plans for Alaska's schools. He dropped the education slogans and never brought school funding issues to the legislative arena in a way that might have showed some sort of acumen or guts.

Democratic governors Sheffield and Cowper were better than Republican governor Murkowski, but not by much. Democratic legislatures and coalition legislatures through the 1980s did indeed give the oil companies and Alyeska Pipeline Service Company almost every break they asked for. The industry had a great friend in Tony Knowles. The only Alaska governor to face the oil industry eye to eye and not blink was Wally Hickel II. The administrations which created the private corrections paradigm in Alaska were Sheffield and Cowper, who enabled their Dem buddies to start the company - Allvest - which brought us the Cornell-Veco alliance.

Jake has some good creds, comes from an excellent family, but you have no idea, harpboy.

aklocal wrote on August 7, 2007 4:10 AM:

Teller, I think you're shooting from the hip.

Biff Spaceman wrote on August 7, 2007 5:05 AM:

Benson is not a serious candidate. Sorry. The poetry thing is going to keep coming back up and it is going to keep making people think "flake."
Metcalfe-who knows? Begich? Probably doesn't want to die in a "mysterious plane crash" like others in his family did, although the visitor's center is nice.
Tony Knowles managed Alaska through the financial downturn caused by the oil price crash and ran the state as a responsible adult despite the Valley people and their participation in the Cult of the Hillbilly Ignoramus. Now the "Valley Trash" Stevens Jr. made fun of are learning the hard way about how no rules equals problems and not just at Jim Creek and Big Lake.
Murklownski and his dippy daughter managed to demonstrate Republican fallibility quite handily in the same way the Stevens clan seems committed to doing. Shows the problems of incestuous relations in small communities to be sure.
The oilfield service companies have no problem killing people for money, so blinking is sometimes wise. You might have noticed the current war was their idea.
Palin may have outgrown her right wing schoolmarm Christian Evangelist fetish mistress psychosis from early in her career but I don't trust her for a minute. But I'll vote for anyone who is not a Republican.

mountainecho wrote on August 13, 2007 3:03 AM:

Teller has a point: namely, the disgraceful performance of Dennis Kelso, who led Cowper's environmental conservation dept in 1989, and who ranted and raved about how Exxon had told him this and such about the equipment they had on hand for spill control, and--gosh, golly!--how offended he was that the world's largest oil company hadn't been completely forthright with him about their preparedness for this catastrophe.

Good, God, man, wake up and smell the profits! What world was he (and thus, his boss) living in that they thought responsible regulation of a corporate behemoth involved nothing more than filing the monthly obligatory form--nothing more, that is, than taking Exxon at its word?

It reminds one of Murkowski: the oil companies say they can't possible develop natural gas here without these 19 concession. And you know, they wouldn't LIE to us, or anything like that. In fact, they're such great guys, they wouldn't even try to bluff us into making them a better deal. They wouldn't do, in other words, what any person in a big contract negotiation would do; they wouldn't do what their fiduciary responsibility demands they do: get the best deal they can for their shareholders. Frank thinks it makes him look like one of the big dogs that he can nod at the oil company honchos and say, yeah, yeah, I really understand the affect of taxation on profit margins. I get that. But what the big dogs themselves are thinking is this: chump.

And you Biff, while I admire your summation, you have to admit it: the whole Christian Evangelist fetish mistress thing is one hot schtick. And all spanking aside, she is obviously the most naturally talented politician in the state. Certainly not a democrat, however.

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