The Club for Growth, notorious pot-stirrers, are back, and stirring like crazy -- this time pressing the case that Ted Stevens, the senior Republican in the U.S. Senate, could be vulnerable to a primary challenge from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
The Club's political action committee released numbers from a poll taken two months ago showing that Alaska Republican voters would choose Palin over Stevens in a primary, 56 percent to 32 percent.
That came well before the latest charges about Stevens, including news last week that the FBI secretly taped the senator as part of a sting operation to ferret out corruption.
Stevens, who is up for re-election next year, is just one of several Alaska Republicans who have had to defend themselves from charges of corruption. And his role as the Republican most identified with pork-barrel spending also has put a target on his back.
Palin, meanwhile, is in her first year as governor, having run and won in November on a pledge to reform politics in Alaska. She is viewed as a candidate of the future, but could that future be now?
-- Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times
Comments (3)
If Ted Stevens goes, his pork goes with him. How will the Federal government be able to operate without using those big, no-bid, set-aside contracts to Alaskan Native Corporations? They might actually have to compete their contracts for a change. Of course, I guess there wouldn't be crazy entities like ANCs if the Federal government actually had clear and consistent rules on their purchasing processes. I'm a former government Contracting Officer who has used the ANC process before. Somehow, 50 states and thousands of localities manage to use a relatively consistent set of purchasing regulations put out by the American Bar Association- for free- while the Federal government remains mired in pork barrel politics because of powerful politicians like Stevens. The sooner he and those like him take a hike, the better.
Posted by George Robertson | September 24, 2007 8:10 PM
Not now, please.
Alaska is a resource cursed state. Not only does Governor Palin have to fix the Abusive Transfer Pricing (laundering the profits through the products, in extractive industries dominating the state economy) for Oil, but in fisheries, mining, and timber. There's a multi-billion dollar negative annual balance of payments problem to resolve in order to satisfy the state's constitutional mandates on common use resources to benefit all.
Besides, by all reports, she loves Alaska and Alaskans... and knows it will take a long time to clean up the mess left behind by Ted, Don and Lisa - the three corporate stooges of Frontier Cronyism. And who in their right mind would let their children come anywhere near Washington DC until the corporate fascism leaves?
Stephen - Groundswell Fisheries Movement
Posted by Stephen Taufen | September 25, 2007 2:38 AM
Ted Stevens and Don Young are both going to be put in prison just like all the rest of the sleaze. Good riddance!
Posted by jim baker | September 26, 2007 2:30 PM