Friday, May 21, 2010

Sen. Mark Begich - On Oil Liability Caps, He's Squirming and Obfuscating

That's putting it nicely.

Sen. Begich, doesn't seem to have a way to distance himself from the outrageous actions by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, after she single-handedly undercut a move in the U.S. Senate to raise the liability cap on oil spills from $75 million to $10 billion. Soon after Murkowski's action, Begich defended her. On TV, since then, he has spouted a bunch of mush, meant to mean nothing and to stall, on behalf of big oil:

On KTVA TV:


On Sen. Imhofe's Youtube channel:


On Shannyn Moore's Radio show on KUDO-AM Thursday (hour 2, at about 38 minutes):

Moore: I want to get with you in the next day or two and talk about this $75,000,000 or $10 billion dollar cap, and express my wishes that if we are going to have a cap for liability, that we make it at the exact same level that we have the windfall profits taxes.

Begich: Well, that’s an interesting idea.

Moore: well...

Begich: I’ll say this. One - I think the cap is way, way too low. Two - I think there needs to be, uh, how we develop that cap needs to be representative of their assets, their profits and the volume that they’re producing; in other words, low volume - high volume - there should be a formula. I’m not afraid to put high caps on them, but let’s do it and making sure that they’re going to pay it, and that it equals what they’re doing in damage.

Moore: In looking at the damages, I don’t think there should be a cap. If you can’t pay, you can’t play, and there should just be a ......

Begich: I hear you, I hear you ...

Moore: And, OK, if they want to cap it, who’s going to pay after it’s 10 billion or 20 billion or 30 billion - who’s going to pay it? It’s going to be the Federal government that’s going to have to pick it up.


Begich wanders off into more pablum......

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It took you this long to figure out that the guy is nothing but a political opportunist ?

Sheesh, his mentors were Bill Bobrick and Bill Weimar for cryin' out loud.

Philip Munger said...

Weimar and Begich had little contact. You're bullshitting, unless you can back up what you write.

Anonymous said...

You've always been rather dismissive of me Phil, but I do know what I'm talking about.


CAMPAIGN 94 MAYOR MONEY IN THE RACE CONSTRUCTION, LAW GROUPS GIVE MOST
Anchorage Daily News (AK) - Wednesday, May 4, 1994
Author: PETER BLUMBERG

Begich 's largest single benefactor is Allvest Inc. and its owner, Bill Weimar , who is under contract with the city to provide the Community Patrol Service. It transports drunks from the streets to the shelters. Weimar , Allvest, another company that Weimar owns called St. John Investments, and employees of Allvest have contributed $10,000 to Begich .

Weimar and Begich said they are old friends and that the $10,000 has nothing to do with keeping Allvest's contract alive.

"There's nothing new there," Weimar said. "I've always supported him. I've known the family for 20 some years."


When Begich was on the Assembly, he literally tripped over himself to support Weimar's proposal to put halfway houses in downtown Anchorage as well as awarding the Animal Control contract to Weimar's Allvest.

Those are only 2 instances off of the top of my head. Perhaps Bill wasn't Mark's biggest corrupter, but they DID know each as far back as the Werehaus days, I can assure you of that.

THE WHEREHOUSE: OVER THE YEARS, IT'S BEEN HOME TO A VARIETY OF PEOPLE, CAUSES
Anchorage Daily News (AK) - Tuesday, December 30, 1986
Author: KIM RICH

"When it came time to help fund candidates, we'd give them their money stuffed in brown paper sacks in increments of $5 and $10 bills," Weimar said.

Philip Munger said...

anon @ 5:24 a.m:

Good finds. I'll add those to my trove of Bill Weimar campaign contribution items. I stand corrected.

Anonymous said...

Thank you ;)

I have a treasure trove on Mark's step-dad too, who btw is not in good health these days.

Keep in mind that Mark was just a young man back when Weimar was handing out brown paper bags of cash, I have no doubt that he was an influence, Weimar was a tall figure back then in Democratic circles.

Anonymous said...

You mean the 'Alaska' brand of DINO circles, don't you?

Anonymous said...

Lisa Murkowski blocked the oil spill liability cap from being raised.

Phil's false narrative attempts to direct attention to Begich as if he was responsible.

Phil even makes a false assertion that Begich 'defended' Murkowski's maneuver when he provides no evidence that this was an actual reality.

Once again, Phil offers up false narrative and a false framing.

The only bunch of mush is coming out of Phil's imagination which isn't supported by the reality.

Nothing new in that...

In short, Begich doesn't have to 'distance himself from Murkowski's actions, he didn't take those actions, Murkowski did.

Mark may not be an environmentalists dream Senator, but he's not Murkowski and he can't be painted with her brush.

Phil's false framing is irresponsible and won't help to create an understanding of reality.

Without an understanding of reality, one is likely to become as untruthful and incomprehensible as Phil.



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