DON YOUNG HAS BECOME INCREASINGLY HYSTERICAL AND UNSTABLE-- WILL HE MAKE IT ALL THE WAY TO THE ELECTION?

Philip Munger, DWT's Alaska correspondant has filed an update on the sad and ongoing saga of Alaska's only-- and America's most pork-addicted-- congressman, Don Young. Listening to Republican presidential hopeful John McCain bellowing about "Bridges to Nowhere," you would get the idea that McCain is running against Ted Stevens and Don Young-- or that at least he wasn't in the same political party with them. But he is-- and it's a party that has earned a swift kick in the pants-- which Philip makes more than clear in his report below:

Don Young, February 20, 2008: "I'm stronger than anybody running against me. I've got a better mind than anybody running against me."

Don Young, October 31, 2006: "I'm predicting we're not going to lose any seats. My prediction is as good as anybody else's. The day after the election, we'll see who was right."

Don Young now: "We have to make sure that the public is aware that this is a battle about foreign-owned newspapers, anybody in the lower 48, trying to convey a misrepresentation of somebody who has served this state for 35 years. It's nothing new. They did the same thing to Richard Pombo, and we can track the same groups, including the supposedly newspaper chain, so we have to make sure we don't get caught like Richard did, and that there was an organized effort through groups like the Defenders of Wildlife to try to replace a seated member of a committee that effects the outcome of the State of Alaska."

Don Young, November 4, 2008: "Alaskans have turned against the only true friend they had in Washington, D.C. I'm not going to take this victory by my granola-eating, volvo-driving, latte-sipping opponent lightly. Bite, me, Alaskans!"

The first three of those quotes are real. The fourth, I made up, but is inevitable. It has been obvious to some Alaskans for years, decades-- hell!-- for over a generation for some of us, that Young is seriously out of touch when it comes to being able to make predictions. Accurate ones, at least.

Alaska's lone member of the U.S. Congress has by now probably spent a million dollars on attorneys over the past 14 months. He reported $854,035 in legal fees in his 2007 campaign reports. This information came out in early February, although the amount was expected to quite high, based on his earlier 2007 filings.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, Young spent almost 10 times what he took in, mostly on those pesky fees. If you subtract the interest his already bagged money brought in during the fourth quarter-- $14,611-- and PAC contributions-- $15,000-- he sucked up $28,350. Here's a comparison among Young and his four 2008 challengers for the last three months of 2007:

Berkowitz (D) - $124,201
LeDoux (R) - $110,000
Benson (D) - $52,230
J. Metcalfe (D) - $31,000
Don Young (R) - $28,350

Last week, while in Alaska on the congressional recess, Young met with the dwindling ranks of his supporters here. At meetings in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Wasilla, there were more empty contribution envelopes left on tables at meeting ends than soiled napkins.

Young has steadfastly refused to answer questions about why his legal fees were so high. His encounters with the local press, historically testy, boiled over this Friday morning in Wasilla, where he cancelled a press conference because the press showed up. The headline of an editorial at the conservative Matanuska-Susitna Valley Frontiersman called it The Press Conference to Nowhere. The Anchorage Daily News's Political Blog's story on this has elicited more comments in the blog's history than any entry not about Gov. Sarah Palin.

Earlier in the week, at an Anchorage press conference, he railed at reporters over their questions about details of his legal troubles, which could be coming from a number of cases, convictions or investigations, saying, "I have a right to spend my money as I wish to spend it and we are going to continue to do what I think we have to do to get this issue behind us."

Young avoided one question after another-- the video is available here-- and concluded, saying to the press, "I hope you all have egg on your face, which I believe. And then I'm going to ask you, 'Where did you come off asking these questions.'"

Earlier in the week, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Young "owes the public some answers for his campaign spending more than $850,000 on legal fees last year. Palin has been the sole GOP figure in Alaska critical of Young, though national GOP figures seem to be more concerned. A February 10 syndicated column by conservative pundit George Will painting Young as a poster boy for the current demise of the Republican Party nationwide, even got the Anchorage Daily News to its senses regarding the unconstitutional Coconut Road earmark changes Young had forced upon the 2005 Congressional Omnibus Transportation Bill.

Will, titling his essay The Road To a GOP Minority, was close to scathing in his criticism of Young:

"Who surreptitiously perverted the will of Congress? And why is Congress not angry and eager to identify the culprit? It seems reasonable to suspect that the answer to the first question is: Young or an agent of his."

In Alaska, one of Young's three Democratic Party opponents, brought this up. back in 2007. Diane Benson, who ran an insurgent race against Young in 2006 with wan party support, stated late last summer, “Why has it taken Congress two years to begin investigating this affront to our Constitution? Not only is what Don Young done yet another example of his questionable ethics, but it is a potential violation of our U.S. Constitution.” That same day she filed a request for the members of the office of the Congressional Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the language substitution of the transportation bill.

At the time-- late September-- the Anchorage Daily News didn't even bother to send a reporter to Benson's press conference, attended by other local media. Nor had they, when, in mid-December, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a staunch critic of earmark processes proposed a select committee to investigate Young, kept track of the growth of concern over Young's misconduct.

But after Wills' column, the Anchorage Daily News editors finally got on Young's case, with an editorial citing Wills' concern:

"When an Alaska politician draws that kind of fire from the dean of conservative columnists, Alaskans should think twice about the national image we create with our choice of elected officials.

"BOTTOM LINE: Don Young is the Exhibit A of how congressional
earmarking got out of hand."

The GOP challenger to Young's seat, Kodiak State Representative Gabrielle LeDoux, has had to suspend campaign fundraising during the ongoing 90-day legislative session, thanks to the efforts of big oil-owned legislators looking out for Don. One of them, Republican Kevin Meyer, an employee of oil giant Conoco-Phillips in his off-legislative time, filed a bill requiring legislators running for Federal office to suspend campaign fundraising and activities while the session is ongoing.

The three Democratic challengers are starting to attend forums where people can compare their views on important issues. Alaskans are fortunate to have Diane Benson, Ethan Berkowitz and Jake Metcalfe in this race. Incredibly heavy, record-shattering attendance at Democratic Party caucuses throughout the state surprised everyone. Attendance at candidate forums is breaking records, too.

The first forum at which all five will be in attendance, will be in Kodiak in late March, at a convention of Alaska commercial fishermen. ComFish Alaska used to be fairly friendly territory for Young, but that has undoubtedly changed. Last August, when Sen. Ted Stevens was in Kodiak, he was met by protesters everywhere he went. Probably the most important Democratic candidate forum will be that at the Alaska Democratic Party Convention, to be held at the state fairgrounds in Palmer, over Memorial Day weekend.

The money Young's attorneys are spending-- four or five times the amount Utah Sen. Larry Craig has spent-- could be going to any number of ongoing investigations: Abramoff, Veco, Coconut Road, fisheries favors, and on and on.

Alaska muckraker of the year, Ray Metcalfe, is looking for key names to pop up when the inevitable next round of Alaska GOP corruption indictments surface. Metcalfe and I are both surmising that the information gleaned from people who have been cooperating with the Feds, either known or unknown figures, have given so much information on long-standing scams, that the only thing slowing them down at this juncture is whether or not to go RICO.

I'm hoping Young will hang in there until they pry his cold, pork-fed hands off his congressional office door. He's one of the best candidates the Democrats have this year.

-Philip Munger