The Mudflats

I am not a rubber-necker.  Let me start off by saying that.  When there’s a bad accident on the side of the road, and the thing holding up traffic turns out to be the fact that everyone is slowing down to stare at the wreckage…I am not one of those people.

That said, there are times when it’s just unavoidable because….blam….there it is.  Right in front of your car.  Such is the case with the strange and captivating multi-car pile-up involving various conservative Republican factions in the past few days.  My attention has been tugged, now and then, in the direction of this slow and seemingly endless collision, but I’ve tried really really hard to just keep driving by.

But two things happened in the last 24 hours that made me stop and stare….I confess. 

First was a headline on the front page of the Anchorage Daily News , because how can you miss that?

Normally, I ignore the pro-Palin blogosphere.  The way I look at it, I have only so many hours in a day, and to blog about pro-Palin blogs, nevermind individual pro-Palin bloggers seems a bit…petty and uninteresting. 

You know all the stuff I think about Palin?  Generally, they think the opposite.  There it is in a nutshell.  Mudslinging becomes the stuff that playground fights are made of.  Politicians are always fair game, but blog wars are a waste of time and energy for both sides in the grand scheme of things.

So, it was interesting to notice that the  pro-Palin folks have taken a break from slinging mud at Alaskan bloggers, and instead have slung a big fat mudpie at…. Jay Ramras?  Yup, a Republican Alaska legislator from Fairbanks.  He’s no fan of Sarah Palin, mind you, but he is a Republican nonetheless.  Hmmm.

R.A. Mansour has a problem with Jay Ramras.  Her complaint has sprung off the blogosphere into the world of the “real” media.  This from the Anchorage Daily News.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports Conservatives4Palin.composted a blog entry on Monday saying that an August 2008 stock buy is a likely violation of legislative ethics rules, because Ramras could stand to gain financially if BP’s stock goes up. That’s possible if the BP and ConocoPhillips-backed gas pipeline project prevails over a competing line by TransCanada and backed by the state under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act.

His response?  He called the site anti-semitic.  Why?  Some legislator was wistfully remembering the days when Sarah Palin brought bagels to meetings.  So, site authors started saying “Bring your own damn bagels.”  Apparently if you talk about bagels, you’re an anti-semite.   So, remember when you go to Fairbanks, always play it safe and ask for a toasted sliced donut shaped bready object, with cream cheese.  He also said the whole thing is “far-fetched.” 

Conservatives4Palinresponded with the “Some of my best friends are Jewish” defense, explained their little inside bagel joke, and added this interesting little refernce to Palin’s ”end-timey” office decor.

Also, why in the world would a group of anti-Semites support a politician such as Governor Palin? Governor Palin is a strong supporter of Israel. She even has the flag of the Star of David in her office.

They went on to say that the issue was that Ramras introduced legislation regarding AGIA that could personally benefit him as a holder of a nice big chunk of BP stock.

Ramras said this is nonsense because the bill never got out of committee, and the point at which he would have had to declare a conflict of interest was never reached. 

Conservatives4Palin said that this isn’t the point.  The point it that he’s the one who introduced the legislation.

And back and forth…

Then the radio wars began.  Ramras appeared on the Bob & Mark Show and had this to say:

“I filed properly with the state of Alaska, I the spirit of the law, the letter of the law, the intent of the law.  I did it on time.  This is uh, you know this hate squad led by this Conservatives4Palin group that are a bunch of non-residents that are kinda creepy sleazy people that are a professional website funded by non-residents, non-Alaskans from somewhere else.  I don’t think it’s news.  I don’t think it’s particularly newsworthy.  I think it’s a sensational accusation by some sleazy shadowy outfit.  I don’t think it’s news. 

We have rules.  I sat in on all the ethics hearings.  I abide by them 110%.  We have other members of the legislature that have large holdings in oil companies.  I’m an honest person born and raised in Fairbanks.  I have assets all over Fairbanks, I don’t think it should raise any eyebrows.  I don’t think it came from an Alaskan source , and you know my passion for our state and for doing the right thing is resolute.  My integrity is completely intact.

I have been attacked many many times by this outfit Conservatives4Palin for months and months and months.  Dozens of times if you go back and look on this website.  So, for me, it’s a non-story.  It’s a non-issue.  It’s a story about Conservatives4Palin which is a hit squad…a hate squad, evil people that are unknown to us, that just did a telethon to raise half a million dollars for Governor Palin’s legal defense fund, and I think the whole thing is just a sad reflection on where we are right now and doesn’t have a darned thing to do with the discussion around the direction Alaska is going to take its economy.

Conservatives4Palin comes up with an absolutely delightful counter-argument.

Ramras’ behavior in this regard is similar to criticizing Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” because he was not a native American. Alexis de Tocqueville is an accepted source on information in the field of American political science. Any first year student in a political science department reads de Tocqueville’s works. Another historical comparison can be made to James Madison. Madison is regarded as the “Father of the Constitution.” Should Madison have concerned himself only with Virginia? The Constitution is a blend of governmental ideas that come from a variety of states.

(whispering in your ear)  They obviously haven’t figured out that in the minds of Alaskans, Alaska is really only marginally part of the United States… and that many of the people running this state have never even heard of Alexis de Tocqueville, never mind read “Democracy in America.” 

So….what we have here is a battle to the death.  Evil, Sleazy Outsiders vs. Alexis deTocqueville.  It’s like two players in a heated match, with one playing tiddly winks and the other playing chess, with neither side realizing they’re playing on a cribbage board.  Nobody wins that game, other than the ones on the sidelines eating the popcorn.  That would be us.

Who’s going to be brave enough to jump into the fray and try to play cribbage?

This brings me to the second thing that forced me to watch this bizarre bloodbath – ex-radio talk show host, ex-blogger, ex-legislator and presumed future gubernatorial candidate Andrew Halcro has popped his head out of self-imposed retirement.  He’s the one that ran against Palin in 2006 and got told by her,“Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I’m amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, Does any of this really matter?”

Agree or disagree with Andrew Halcro, he’s a good writer, a great blogger and an intelligent, thoughtful person.  This debacle has actually pulled him out of retirement to comment.  It was kind of like when someone looks out the window and spots a bear, or a moose.  “Halcro!” someone yells, and everyone stampedes over to the window and presses their nose against the glass to see what’s going on. 

Here’s part of what he had to say.

Obviously Mansour is completely unschooled in how the whole natural gas pipeline project has to come together. If AGIA fails, it won’t be due to Ramras purchasing 3000 shares of BP stock, it will be due to the fact that the terms of AGIA have ignored legal and fiscal realities since the first day Governor Palin rolled it out.

The bottom line is that AGIA and Denali are not in a race to see what pipeline gets built first. In fact, the pipeline cannot be built until BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon ALL AGREE to build it and finance it together.

Even TransCanada’s CEO has repeatedly stated that the pipeline will not be built without the “agreement and support of the North Slope producers.”

And that agreement and support won’t come until the State of Alaska puts AGIA aside and addresses the age old question of tax rates and fiscal certainty, which is something AGIA fails to do.

And if this match has whetted your appetite for more Republican cage matches, check out this article on Politico, which recounts the back and forth blows within the McCain campaign resulting from Monday’s Vanity Fair article on the governor, that had McCain insiders spilling the beans about the woman they referred to as “Little Shop of Horrors.”

As for me, I’m ready to keep driving now…averting my eyes.

Anyone up for a nice game of checkers?