Look out for St. Ted to go on another blind, raving, half-mad, three-quarters incoherent, frothing-at-the-mouth, addled HULK rampage this coming week.Anchorage Daily News investigative ace Richard Mauer has been sleuthing some of Sen. Stevens' earmarks, and has homed in on the Seward Sea Life Center. More specifically, Mauer's report concentrates on the land deal Sen. Stevens and his office relentlessly pushed into the hands of his former aide, Trevor McCabe.
One of the things that Mauer's narrative clearly shows is how, when Sen. Stevens insinuates himself into a public process, people caught in the crossfire feel uncomfortable. People who feel like they might have to become unwilling accessories to the way the Federal earmarks get processed into projects favorable to one friend of Ted or another, often are put into a position of believing that if they don't enable Ted or Friends of Ted, their career, their business or their position in their community will be slimed.
In that sense, Mauer's article is very strong, although that isn't the article's central message. Another thing that came through is how tired the people of Seward and the City of Seward must be getting of seeing how this deal went down, and how it projects negatively on the community's image. If there is a warning here, it might be "If you know what's good for you, watch how you touch - or don't touch - Ted's magic money!"
And that same message is carried today in the Washington Post by conservative columnist George Will, in an opinion piece about Don Young and Coconut Road. Progressive Alaska covered the same territory last year that Wills is now traveling. Wills is saying that the dead end marking the derailment of Young's unconstitutional attempt to get an earmark directed to shady contributors is more than a cul-de-sac barrier hurricane fence to nowhere. Wills is saying it is a bridge to permanent minority status for the GOP. Go, Don!
It is remarkable that Diane Benson, the first political aspirant to request an investigation into Young's questionable Coconut Road earmark insertion, isn't quoted more in articles now that cover what she so ably brought out early last Autumn.
image for Progressive Alaska by Darkblack
2 comments:
"People who feel like they might have to become unwilling accessories to the way the Federal earmarks get processed into projects favorable to one friend of Ted or another, often are put into a position of believing that if they don't enable Ted or Friends of Ted, their career, their business or their position in their community will be slimed."
Well said, and true. In some Alaska industries, a vetting of executive candidates is made to determine acceptability to the Stevens camp. Over the years I would estimate hundreds of Alaskans have had their careers and businesses disconnected by the Ted Stevens power structure, resulting in a whole class of Alaska "Untouchables". Native Alaskans who have made public statements favoring tribal sovereignty have become untouchable. Commercial fishing families who have fought in public to avoid being "rationalized" have become untouchable. Public service leaders and artists seeking grant funding for nonprofits have become untouchable when they do not submit to the Stevens Screening at the Rasmuson Foundation. Conservationists who have raised legitimate concerns about economic development projects supported by Stevens have been blacklisted. If an Alaskan is known to be out of favor with the Stevens heirarchy, then they are shunned socially, politically, and economically, lest the condemnation rub off.
The act of running a small business in Alaska, a business having anything to do with a Stevens interest area, has a golden rule - learn the Stevens power structure and tread carefully around it.
That's so reassuring - I'm finishing up the paper work for my first "Rassie" artist application. One can always hope....
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