No. They cannot let a convicted felon sit, even hypocrisy demands better than that.
I’ve seen it mentioned that Alaska doesn’t have the Governor appoint a replacement. Instead, there must be a special election.
All it takes is one attack ad to bring up that Senator Myxlplyx was absent for the vote that allowed the seven-felony Senator responsible for the Bridge to Nowhere to stay in the Senate. Find an ill-reputed Myxlplyx donor and a couple of grainy photos of them together, and Myxlplyx is on the defensive for a long, long time.
Stevens is a realist. Palin is an idiot. Earmarks are how the government does business. Earmarks are not a problem unless it’s purely pork, like studying how much birdshit there is in a cuckoo clock. Neither Palin nor anybody else can end earmarks and to say they will is just empty rhetoric. Ending bullshit funding for projects like that stupid bridge is another matter entirely.
Alas poor Alaska Senator Ted Stevens!
Alaska isn’t the most Republican state in the country. There are plenty of Democrats. It’s not a one-party state.
As for the contention that Alaskans are really really different from lower-48ers, well, some are, but most aren’t. Yeah, there are lots of…characters, is the charitable way to put it. People with funny ideas. Unless you grew up in Alaska, there’s some sort of reason you ended up there. The ends of the bell curve are longer.
But about half the citizens of Alaska live in Anchorage. Anchorage is a regular city. It’s Seattle’s northernmost suburb. They aren’t eating boat eggs in Anchorage. Prices are a bit higher in Anchorage, but it isn’t any more expensive to ship crap from China to Anchorage than it is to ship crap from China to Seattle.
Alaska is a funny place though. There’s a strange combination of bone-practical common sense realism that comes from living in and around the wilderness, and nutty head-in-the-sand pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking that comes from being the kind of person who decides to live in and around the wilderness.
Update: McCain calls on Stevens to resign.
Okay, what are boat eggs?
Or is that a question for Cafe Society?
I’m just guessin’… eggs shipped in from very far away?
Witches. (They’re made of wood.)
What, you thought boats gave live berth?
Google suggests that this is a term that holds some meaning for septugenarian Alaskans, who can remember when eggs were not available from local sources.
Real old-timers remember when virtually all “fresh” produce and the like came to Alaska by steamship. Eggs shipped in by boat were…interesting gastronomic items. Since WW2, of course, agriculture has mushroomed in places like the MatSu Valley, so there is a lot of fresh produce available in season. With global trade, Chilean oranges get to Anchorage every day. But the cultural echo of boat eggs lingers on.
Eggs will keep better if you coat them with Vaseline.
or
Someone thought it would be hysterical to watch us smear Vaseline on 20 dozen eggs.
Wash down those boat eggs with. . .boat drinks!
Indictment pending.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t Senate rules state that if Stevens is expelled by the Senate, he loses his pension and related benefits? Would he get to keep them if he resigns (or loses the election) and then loses his appeals? Because if he gets to keep all of that, even though he goes to prison, then it’d be pretty shitty of him to stick around and get expelled, thus costing his wife the pension and other benefits she’d get, even after he dies.
Hey! Watch who you’re calling “old-timer”, pal! I grew up hating ‘fresh’ vegetables and fruits. The only thing I would eat was canned beans and corn. Produce was so bruised or so green that only the most diehard person (like my mother) would eat the stuff. Salad consisted of lettuce with dressing. Maybe some celery and radish. Even now, with availability of almost everything, salads and fruits are usually an afterthought for me, while my wife consumes them by the ton.
The ulterior motive here is that Palin wants to be able to suspend the general election for senator and hold a “special election” later, so that the election can be “fair”. In other words, she either wants to make sure there is a Pubbie on the ballot to prevent a sure thing for the Dem, or she is hedging her bets for when she loses the VP slot and will put herself forward for the senate seat. Either way, fuck them both.
I wonder how much that is per person compared to other states. And maybe I’d wonder how much that is when combined with all the money Alaskan citizens get from the oil companies’ profits.