The Deep Denial of Alaska's GOP

Alaska’s Republicans have my head spinning.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice  to ask for a Federal Court to throw out the conviction of former Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) on corruption charges.

Even though the Justice Department asked that the conviction be dropped on a technicality, not because they believed Stevens to be innocent, Stevens and his attorneys claimed victory.

That’s not enough for the Alaska Republican Party and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Yesterday they called on Senator Mark Begich (D-Alaska) to resign and run against Stevens a second time in a special election. They believe that Stevens never should have been indicted, much less convicted. They are in deep denial.

Gov. Palin and the Alaska GOP apparently don’t understand the technicality that got Stevens off the hook. In short, the Justice Department’s motion points out that prosecutors withheld key pieces of evidence, including an estimate that renovations on Stevens’ home was more in the neighborhood of $80,000, not $250,000 like it was originally said.

As one commentor said tonight, whether it was $80,000 or $250,000 doesn’t set aside the fact that an Alaskan oil company paid for an addition to Stevens home and numerous gifts and he failed to report it on Senate financial disclosure forms.

The most ridiculous part about this episode are the comments of Congressman Don Young (R-Alaska) who said:

Personally I’d like to see him (Stevens) run for governor, and that’s my personal feeling. So, we’ll see what happens down the line. He probably won’t, but I think that would be a great way to cap off a great career as being the governor of the state of Alaska.

Of course, he would run against an incumbent, Sarah Palin. Palin, of course, had her Lt. Gov. run against Young in a GOP primary which Young won.

Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it Sarah?

Speaking of Sarah, did you hear that her sister-in-law was arrested this week for burglary this week? You can not make this stuff up!