Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Welcome to Super Duper Tuesday, Folks

For the first time since the brokered conventions of long ago, Alaskans get to take part in the preludes to the Democratic Party and GOP Conventions in a meaningful way. Today's caucuses will be attended by far more people here than in any earlier American Presidential Election year. This is the biggest primary election day in United States history, according to the BBC reporter I'm listening to.

When is the last time you saw scores of people out at the usual political road intersections, jumping up and down, and waving signs in the first week of February? Never. At minus 15 degrees F, no less. The Alaska Division of elections Wasilla office on Bogard Road has never had anything near the amount of requests for registration to the Democratic Party as they've recently received.

Wouldn't this be a great day for the Feds to dump the next load of indictments? Heh...

Meanwhile, the Anchorage Daily News' Lisa Demer filed a story two hours ago that states, "On Monday, U.S. District Judge John Sedwick asked another judge to decide if he should step aside," in the sentencing case of former Alaska legislator Vic Kohring. Vic is scheduled to be sentenced in Federal Court in Anchorage next Monday.

Demer got a phone interview out of Kohring. In it, he claims that when he saw Judge Sedwick's wife Deborah Sedwick in court on the final day of his October corruption trial, he thought, "What is my worst political rival and enemy doing at my trial here, at the courtroom?"

I watched Vic's twelve-plus years in the Alaska House of Representatives a lot closer than most, and somehow missed the intensity of that relationship when it occurred. Reading through Demer's article, one gets the impression that Vic - should the sentencing proceed next Monday - hasn't experienced his Come to Jesus moment yet.

image of Senators Obama and Clinton by Kevork Djansezian, Associated Press
image of Judge John Sedwick by Erik Hill, ADN

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