Mrs. Carnahan was so far out of her depth in Washington it was quite an embarrassment to the state, but she was able to reliably vote as she was told. But paybacks are a bitch as Senator Ashcroft's loss made it possible for him to become Attorney General, so remember to be careful for what you ask for.

Indeed, Charles. I was so disgusted with her I refused to vote one way or the other in '02. And yes, the law of unintended consequences...

Documentation, Por Favor...

Nope. Mis-spoke on that one, the target being Frank Murkowski. My bad.
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Still, in what I've found she can hardly be called a close associate with Stevens.

Missouri is the only state to ever elect a dead man to the Senate.

we elected a dead woman to the House in HI.

Just an aside, Mel Carnahan was losing and would have lost that election had his plane not crashed. A tragedy for him and his family. Disgraceful politics all around. Mrs. Carnahan was so far out of her depth in Washington it was quite an embarrassment to the state, but she was able to reliably vote as she was told. But paybacks are a bitch as Senator Ashcroft's loss made it possible for him to become Attorney General, so remember to be careful for what you ask for.

You do seem to want to think the worst of her.

Charles and others: I think all James is trying to say, is that this is a great chance for her to burnish her "anti-corruption" credentials. The same ones she rightly earned by taking on the state GOP, and used to spring board her way to the governorship of Alaska (Did I just pay her a compliment? This election has me going even loopier than I normally am)

She got tossed a big fat hanging curve and instead of swinging for the fences, she bunted. That is not how you win an election, especially when you are down by 12 runs and it is late in the eighth inning.

(MN and Wellstone do not quite count, as the state democratic party was actually able to nominate somebody in his place before the election)

But could Alaska actually top us by electing a convicted Felon?

GO TED!!

It is moments like these that make me laugh.

You do seem to want to think the worst of her.

She was pretty well involved, I gather in blowing the whistle of the guy initially,

Documentation, Por Favor...

Palin didn't blow the whistle on Stevens--she helped him get elected

And are those two mutually exclisive, given the time frames involved?

You're harder on Palin for her "tepid" response than you are on Stevens for committing seven felonies. That's what makes it seem to me that your dislike of Palin has gone over the edge of rationality.

Ah. No, not at all.

I just take it as a given that Stevens' career is finished; he's therefore just some old coot in Alaska that I feel a little sorry for because this is a big fall after being a big shot for 60 years.

Palin, meanwhile, is my party's nominee for vice president and there's a campaign on. I'm baffled that she isn't further out front on this one given that the outcome was predictable.

Palin didn't blow the whistle on Stevens--she helped him get elected! And he, in turn, campaigned hard for her for the governor's seat. She's in a "difficult position" because she's been tied to him for her state-level career.

But that's easily fixed by calling for her to resign.

Or is that a tricky gotcha question?

Still, the man has just been convicted of seven felonies and she’s blaming the oil companies?!

She winked when she said it.