Don Young

Young's Defense Fund Nets $0

Paul Kiel | May 15, 2008, 12:16PM

When you've got lawyers gobbling up $1 million plus in fees, you need all the help you can get. And in January, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) opened up a legal defense fund to help stop the bleeding. He was forced to pay out more in legal fees from his campaign account than he was able to raise in the first quarter of this year.

But through March of this year, a disclosure report for the fund shows, no one had contributed to the fund.

It's been a pretty dismal year for Young so far -- what with drawing a surprise primary challenge from the lieutenant governor and the drumbeat of bad press. The only bright spot has been Democrat Jake Metcalfe's ("Jake the Snake," Young calls him) departure from the race due to his aide's alleged role in rigging up fake websites to ridicule fellow Dem candidate Ethan Berkowitz.

Don Young

GOP Rep, Staffer Call Don Young a Crazy Liar

Paul Kiel | May 2, 2008, 4:37PM

Usually you can pretty much take it for granted that Rep. Don Young (R-AK) is the most outspoken lawmaker around. After all, it's not every congressman who threatens to bite a member of his own party like a mink.

But perhaps Young has met his match. During his speech on the House floor Wednesday, Young did his best to distance himself from his infamous Coconut Road earmark in every way he could. He didn't make the change after the bill passed both houses of Congress -- somebody in some secluded office did. And he he'd only supported the earmark, he said, because the community and its representative had supported it. Young even devoted a page of his official web site to back up his story.

Well, that lawmaker is Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL). And Mack was none too happy and approached Young after the speech to tell him as much. Mack says that he did not initially support the earmark and only supported it after he discovered that the money could not be redirected. Or as Mack put it to Young on the floor, Young is a "liar." Young professed confusion as to how he could think such a thing: "I don't understand because I've got all the letters. Pull them up on the Web site. He's running away from an issue because he's got political heat."

Mack's chief of staff was no more restrained in his criticism:

Jeff Cohen, Mack's chief of staff, said Thursday that it was clear his boss was being singled out.

Young's speech to the House was "absurd" and "inaccurate," Cohen said. "Perhaps we don't just need a committee on ethical standards, but one on psychological standards as well," he added.