Palin and The Good Old Boys: Say what?

During the gubernatorial campaign in late October of 2006, a television commercial started airing with U.S. Senator Ted Stevens endorsing Republican Sarah Palin for governor.

The grainy video of Stevens on a make shift stage in Fairbanks, in front of Republican faithful, helped propel Palin into the governor's seat and set the stage for a political relationship that would take more bends than the Kenai River.

During the next eight months a chasm would begin to emerge between Palin and the Congressional delegation. Palin's natural gas pipeline strategy was not well received back east and fears began to surface about the possibility of delays to a project the congressional delegation had pushed so hard for.

Then in August of 2007, the political landscape changed.

As the world watched, news cameras from around the globe captured images FBI agents swarming the Girdwood home of Sen. Stevens. The conversation among politicos immediately switched to the question of what happens next.

By early September, rumors were reaching a fever pitch that Stevens would soon be indicted and thus his seat would be up for grabs. Again the question moved to who would be the likely successor.

By mid September, Palin was in the press demanding that Stevens offer up answers to the public about his relationship with Bill Allen and the investigation into his affairs by the FBI. Shortly thereafter, Palin issued an early morning press release to hit east coast news cycles announcing the cancellation of the funding for the Ketchikan Bridge.

All of these efforts were public relations moves designed to boost Palin's  national standing and place her firmly atop the list of potential successors for Stevens senate seat.

At the end of September, I was on a business trip back east and stopped by the offices of U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski for a visit. The running joke was that Palin's Lt. Governor Sean Parnell was calling almost daily to check on the possibility that he might be the next governor with a potential Stevens demise.

But then things got quiet. Nothing more appeared in the press from the Department of Justice about their investigation or any results from their raid on Stevens Girdwood home. Rumors of a Stevens exit were slowly replaced with stories of a growing chill between Palin and Stevens.

On September 27, Stevens granted an interview with Fairbanks Daily News Miner reporter Robert Dillon. In the interview, Stevens called his relationship with Palin "frosty."

Stevens criticzed Palin's move to cancel funding for the Ketchikan bridge stating the decision, "“may well jeopardize further funding by the Congress of any bridges in Alaska, which I think is a dangerous precedent,” he said. “I think they should be very careful how they use that money.”      

In addition, he criticized Palin for demanding he speak about an ongoing investigation.

“The criticism I’m getting from some sources for not having spoken out really reflects the lack of knowledge of the process,” Stevens said. “There’s nothing much I can do about that.”

Stevens also voiced concerns about the lack of communication from Palin's administration about their proposed gas pipeline strategy, “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information flowing to us on what the administration wants to do,” Stevens said. “We’ve not had one report of any kind that’s crossed my desk. That on a project this size is unheard of.”

After September, things quieted down for the next few months. When asked about a desire to run for the U.S. Senate in December, Governor Palin, realizing the changing landscape, said she felt she was best suited to finish out her term as governor, proclaiming there was still much work to be done.

In February, Stevens returned to Juneau to give his annual address to the state legislature. In his address and during the follow up press conference, Stevens blasted the governor's AGIA gas pipeline strategy and warned lawmakers of delays that could risk the project.

Stevens stated that any ideas that Congress would underwrite the project were non starters and encouraged the legislature to deal with the issue of fiscal certainty for the producers who would pay for the project.

"I believe it (the pipeline) won't be built until there is fiscal certainty.This will be the largest project ever financed by private capital in the history of the United States. It's not going to be government money, it's financial market money. Financing terms won't be set by the legislature, the governor or the Congress. They're going to be set by the people who manage the money," Stevens told lawmakers and the press.

But then the political landscape changed again.

By summer it was clear that Stevens was going to face a Democratic opponent that would represent his greatest challenge in his 40 years as Alaska's Senator. With polls showing that the race between himself and Democrat Mark Begich close and getting closer, Stevens needed help from Alaska's most popular politician, Governor Palin.

Palin in turn also realized that her political future might just lay in the hands of a Senator who less than a year earlier, she had challenged in the press to be more honest about his apparent legal problems.

The changing political landscape had put Palin in the unenviable position of having to support one of the same "good old boys" she had been so successful telling the public she'd been taking on. 

For Palin, a Stevens win was critical. If Stevens were to lose to Begich, that would mean in 2014 when Palin's second term as governor would have been up, she would have faced a well financed Democrat incumbent. If Stevens prevailed, Palin would have certainly been the heir apparent in 2014 and furthermore, if for any reason Stevens couldn't fill out his term, Palin would have been the leading candidate.

In early July, Stevens and Palin held a press conference on energy. While many reporters viewed it as awkward, the relationship between the two seemed to be thawing out due to political necessity.

In mid July, while again speaking to a joint session of the Alaska Legislature, Stevens changed his tune on the governor's gas line proposal, encouraging lawmakers to vote for it just months after he panned the same plan.

But then, once more, the political landscape shifted.

According to one Republican strategist, Palin was scheduled to endorse Stevens at the Governor's Picnic in Anchorage on July 19.

But on July 18, the Troopergate story broke and the endorsement was called off. Two weeks later, Stevens was indicted by the Federal Government.

On August 29, Governor Palin was named to be John McCain's running mate and while Senator Stevens has embraced and endorsed Palin, she has not returned the favor.

The indictments Stevens faces and the upcoming trial have put Palin in a very awkward place. While she tours the country talking about how she has taken on the good old boys, her rhetoric really fails to tell the truth.

The Good Old Boys

Palin's history with those who could be considered the good old boys has really come full circle.

As I just mentioned, her relationship with Ted Stevens has been one like many others of those she's called the good old boys, has been forged out of opportunism to advance her political career.

In 2001, Palin courted the donations of Bill Allen, who now faces federal bribery and extortion charges. In 2002 as a candidate for Lt. Governor, she had no problems asking for and receiving cash from Allen and his associates which now have been linked to the same corruption Palin tells the public she's been fighting.

In 2002, after losing her bid to become Lt. Governor, she helped another good old boy, Frank Murkowski become governor. In exchange, Murkowski appointed her to a patronage job at the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission at $118,000 job.

In 2003, while on the commission, she turned in Republican Party Chair and fellow AOGCC Commissioner Randy Ruedrich for sending Republican Party emails on his state equipment. Ironically, this is the same thing that Palin was guilty of doing when she was running her 2002 campaign for Lt. Governor out of her Wasilla Mayor's office.

In fact, Palin has availed herself to the good old boys, as long as they have had benefits to offer her.

The idea that she has been fighting against the good old boy network, fails the straight face test.

She dispatched former Governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary in 2006 but that was no great feat. Murkowski had a 20% approval rating and even second place finisher John Binkley beat Murkowski by 10 points.

But today, Palin has put herself in an quandry.

Not only has she been outspoken about her record of supposedly taking on the good old boys, but today two of those good old boys are now running for re-election on the same ballot as she is in November.

Along side her public demands that Stevens be more open abut his legal woes, she has taken the same approach with Republican Congressman Don Young.

In March, she came out and endorsed her Lt. Governor Sean Parnell over incumbent Republican Don Young for the U.S. House race. “While I recognize that it is unusual for a Governor to get involved during a primary race, I’m not one to embrace the status quo; I will go out of the box to do the right thing for Alaska and Alaskans," Palin said in a press release before the primary. Parnell lost to Young in the primary last month. 

So lets recap; she demanded Stevens and Young release more information to the public about their legal woes. She demanded that Randy Ruedrich step down as Republican Party Chair. And she has consistently attacked the special interest lobbyist that control politics.

Today, Stevens and Young are on the same Republican ticket as Palin, but she has said nothing. Randy Ruedrich is still the Republican Party Chair and is trying to get her elected, but she has said nothing. And according to campaign reports, the McCain campaign has more lobbyist as consultants than any other campaign in recent history, but she has said nothing.

So how does Palin square her campaign stump speech regarding her taking on the good old boys, when not only has she used the good old boys to her political benefit, but is now campaigning along side them?