Dennis Zaki Blog - AlaskaReport

Fake it ’til you make

UPDATED (See videos below)

I went to the Alaska Women’s Political Caucus forum in Anchorage on Sunday. There was one person everybody wanted to hear from. Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. He managed to dodge this one too. He was slapping hands at the Governor’s picnic in Fairbanks.

I’d say the forum was a tie. All three candidates did very well, even Coconut Don. At one point Don said “My ethics and my wife’s ethics and my families’ ethics should never have been questioned” to quite a few chuckles in the audience. We were all waiting for Don to explode but it never happened. Why the hell else would we be inside for three hours on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of summer. We wanted action.

Rare sighting - Don Young without his glasses

Ethan Berkowitz

Diane Benson

Coconut Don wasn’t drunk at the forum. When you take a lot of pictures of people you get quite a few outtakes with closed eyes, smirks, and sometimes gold like this one. Don Young is by far my favorite photography subject. I’ll miss him after his election defeat. I guess I’ll still be able to get pictures at his corruption trials though.

Diane Benson on Earmarks

Ethan Berkowitz and Don Young on ethics (yes, Don actually talks about ethics)

Ethan Berkowitz on the Iraq War

Cover Blown…

I followed Don Young around today like stink on a monkey at the Labor/Union picnic in Anchorage. He was not too happy about it. Don eventually came up to me and said “Who are you working for?” I told I’m just a guy shooting pictures. A couple of chumps with him asked around to try to find out who I was. They didn’t.

Just before Don left, a friend of mine asked Don about the passing of the FISA bill that gives immunity to telecom companies so they won’t testify against President Bush.

In the video Donald says that trial lawyers are responsible for the FISA legislation.

While Don Young and Ted Stevens await their arrests for bribery and corruption, a new poll shows they’ll have plenty of time to think about it after Alaska’s August primaries.

From the Fairbanks News-Miner:

The survey found 51 percent of those responding would vote for (Mark) Begich in November’s general election, compared to 44 percent who said they would back Stevens.

Some 58 percent of responders said they felt very or somewhat positive toward Begich, while only 16 percent had a negative opinion of the 45-year-old Democratic mayor. Eleven percent of those responding didn’t know of Begich.

Stevens’ bid to win a seventh full term in the Senate has been overshadowed by an ongoing corruption investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.

The Hispanic Affairs Council of Alaska hosted a candidate forum for the US House Race in Anchorage on Friday afternoon. “Florida” Congressman Don Young blew it off.

Steve at the “What do I know” blog describes the scene.

Young couldn’t make it. He said he had a previously scheduled engagement with some guy named “JD”.

One last hurrah before the feds visit…

Don’t forget this doozy from TPM Donald before you stock up the kitchen with illegal campaign contributions… again!

Thanks to Staufen for the tip.

Coconut Don strikes again!

Tuesday - “…I will promote a (gas) tax so the general public will slow down, will change their driving habits…”

Thursday - “I want to make perfectly clear. I have not and have no intention of introducing a bill to increase the gas tax.”

They’ve used this one at least 10 times so far. The shot was from the Anchorage Republican Convention in March. I was about 15 feet from him when he raged about Obama and Clinton. Here’s some video they used of mine too.

From the Naple’s News Daily: There’s now a dispute over who’s telling the truth and who’s ducking between Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fort Myers, the congressman who had invited a more senior house colleague to visit Lee County in February of 2005, and Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who took the floor of the House on Wednesday to defend his support for the Coconut Road interchange study.

Young said he backed the project because it was what people from the area told him they wanted, and those were views he heard at Mack’s invitation.

“It was supported by the congressman from that district,” Young said of the $10 million earmark to study a new place to access the interstate. “And there’s letters to back that up.”

Mack, who represents Lee County and parts of Collier and Charlotte counties, has said on many occasions that he was not involved in pushing for an earmark for Coconut Road.

Jeff Cohen, Mack’s chief of staff, said Thursday that it was clear his boss was being singled out.

Young’s speech to the House was “absurd” and “inaccurate,” Cohen said. “Perhaps we don’t just need a committee on ethical standards, but one on psychological standards as well,” he added.

According to several reports, shortly after a vote in which the House approved the Senate’s call for a Justice Department investigation into the altered congressional appropriation for the interchange study and redesignated the $10 million for widening I-75 in Lee and Collier counties, Mack confronted Young over the remarks.

Cohen described it as “a passionate discussion between passionate people.”

Young put it differently to Alaska Public Radio Network: “He just said I was a liar. I don’t understand because I’ve got all the letters. Pull them up on the Web site. He’s running away from an issue because he’s got political heat.”

Don Young and his shaky Coconut Road earmark was just featured on Anderson Cooper’s 360. Reporter Joe Johns called me around 10 days ago asking for some information.

UPDATED: Here’s the transcript. Scroll about half way down for Coconut Don’s piece. “So you saw something fishy here?” “That sums it up.”

This morning on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, Don Young said he has “been the subject of much innuendo” for a $41,000 shifty campaign contribution, he pocketed from a developer that wanted to improve the value of his land with a freeway exit from an interstate in Florida.

Young is under multiple criminal investigations for bribery, extortion, and corruption relating to other bribes in Arkansas, Michigan, and Alaska.

“After all the accusations, rumors about this bill, I hope this sets the record straight,” Young said. “This project was asked for by the community. It was supported by the congressman for that district.”

Young’s entire 11 minute speech (mp3):