Sarah's new dilemma

[ktinkel]

How does she get Ted Stevens’s Senate seat?

Tricky.

[Judy G. Russell]

How does she get Ted Stevens’s Senate seat? Tricky.There'd have to be a special election.

[sidney]

How does she get Ted Stevens’s Senate seat?

Tricky.

I though it was pretty simple, actually, assuming that Stevens ends up winning after all absentee ballots are counted, which itself is no certain thing.

She might not be able to appoint herself as interim Senator for the 60-90 days before the special election that will be held when Stevens is expelled from the Senate, but if that were a problem she could always resign as Governor to let the current Lieutenant Governor appoint her. Or it might be the law in Alaska that no interim Senator can be appointed, in which case she just runs in the special election, expecting that she has not lost too much popularity in Alaska as a result of the fated McCain/Palin campaign.

But in any case there's a bunch of decision making in the Alaska Supreme Court to be done because the laws about how a new Senator is chosen are in a murky mess (http://www.adn.com/politics/story/569836.html).

And according to a Newsweek article offering advice to Palin (http://www.newsweek.com/id/167473)
One thing our experts agree on is that Palin should not appoint herself to Ted Stevens' seat, should Alaska's senior senator—convicted last week in a federal corruption trial be forced out. First, it would make her a Washington "insider", thus diluting her charm. Second, with the exception of 2008, Americans rarely elect a senator to the White House. So Palin, keep on being governor. Get re-elected in 2010. Establish your credentials on the "three legs of the conservative stool," advises Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, a conservative group. "Become an authority on economic conservatism, foreign policy and defense issues and social issues."

That "become an authority" bit might be tricky for her, given that she has to start with learning the names of all three countries in NAFTA and the difference between a continent and a country (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ktXKzT_gQ) :)

[ndebord]

How does she get Ted Stevens’s Senate seat?

Tricky.

kathleen,

She's got bigger problems. This from the Brits:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5095495.ece

Sarah Palin spent "tens of thousands" more than the quoted $150,000 on clothes for the Republican campaign, met McCain aides in her hotel room dressed in nothing but a towel, and did not know Africa was a continent, according to new reports.

(And that's just for starters.)

[sidney]

met McCain aides in her hotel room dressed in nothing but a towel

I have a problem with that criticism. So the two top campaign strategists came to her hotel room for a meeting while on the road in an intense campaign, they arrived while she was still in the shower, and she wrapped a towel or a terrycloth bathrobe around her (I've seen both versions), wrapped a towel around her wet hair, and said something like "Excuse me, Talk to Todd for a while, I'll be just a minute" and went to get dressed. What should she have done, shouted through the door when she heard voices "Todd, honey, clear the room, I'm not decent!"?

Let's just criticize her for not knowing that Africa is a continent, that NAFTA is between Canada, US, and Mexico, and any Supreme Court decisions other than Roe v Wade. I think there's enough damaging material without inventing fake problems.

[ndebord]

I have a problem with that criticism. So the two top campaign strategists came to her hotel room for a meeting while on the road in an intense campaign, they arrived while she was still in the shower, and she wrapped a towel or a terrycloth bathrobe around her (I've seen both versions), wrapped a towel around her wet hair, and said something like "Excuse me, Talk to Todd for a while, I'll be just a minute" and went to get dressed. What should she have done, shouted through the door when she heard voices "Todd, honey, clear the room, I'm not decent!"?

Let's just criticize her for not knowing that Africa is a continent, that NAFTA is between Canada, US, and Mexico, and any Supreme Court decisions other than Roe v Wade. I think there's enough damaging material without inventing fake problems.

Sidney,

Yes, but the press likes its red meat. And she has provided it in spades. But being from Alaska and not knowing that NAFTA is Canada, USA and Mexico; that's scary and not knowing one of the seven continents is even scarier. Perhaps she should be exiled to the uninhabitable one (Antarctica) where she can spend some time alone boning up for her GED.

[Judy G. Russell]

"become an authority" bit might be tricky for her, given that she has to start with learning the names of all three countries in NAFTA and the difference between a continent and a country (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ktXKzT_gQ) :)I heard that on the radio driving down to a meeting this evening and almost ran off the road, I was laughing so hard. It is possible, I suppose, that she isn't stupid. But she is woefully uneducated.

[Judy G. Russell]

Let's just criticize her for not knowing that Africa is a continent, that NAFTA is between Canada, US, and Mexico, and any Supreme Court decisions other than Roe v Wade. I think there's enough damaging material without inventing fake problems.Aw c'mon, can't we at least add in her foreign policy experience from being able to see Russia from Alaska??? Gosh, Sidney, you're no fun at all.

[Lindsey]

But in any case there's a bunch of decision making in the Alaska Supreme Court to be done because the laws about how a new Senator is chosen are in a murky mess (http://www.adn.com/politics/story/569836.html).

Good Lord. What is it with Alaska? But from the back-and-forth in the history of the rule-making on that, it seems the underlying rule is this: Republicans shall always have the final say in who gets the seat. :cool:

[Mike]

Posted on a local mailing list:

Personal makeup artist................ $30, 000

Campaign wardrobe.................... $150,000

Flying coach back to Alaska......... $priceless

[Judy G. Russell]

Posted on a local mailing list:

Personal makeup artist................ $30, 000

Campaign wardrobe.................... $150,000

Flying coach back to Alaska......... $pricelessROFL!!!!! Love it!

[ktinkel]

Sounds about what has been rolling through my mind.

I got the idea she wanted the job from an article somewhere.

[ktinkel]

There'd have to be a special election.Sounds right. So she doesn’t want Stevens to quit until after his election is certified. Got to keep it out of Dem hands.

Guess we will see what the Paris Hilton of politics does next.

[ktinkel]

It is hard to see her succeeding in national politics after all that stuff. And yet the crowds loved her, and that is a rarity in Republican circles.

Time will tell the tale: Does Sarah sink into obscurity? Or rise, like a weird Evita, to rule? Stay tuned . . . <g>

[Judy G. Russell]

Sounds right. So she doesn’t want Stevens to quit until after his election is certified. Got to keep it out of Dem hands.Exactly. And I'm not at all hopeful about those absentee ballots in AK; they're usually from the more conservative, more Republican, more beholden-to-Stevens rural areas.

[Judy G. Russell]

It is hard to see her succeeding in national politics after all that stuff. And yet the crowds loved her, and that is a rarity in Republican circles. Time will tell the tale: Does Sarah sink into obscurity? Or rise, like a weird Evita, to rule? Stay tuned . . . <g>I very much want to see, in my lifetime, a woman President. But I will happily forgo that pleasure if it means avoiding a Palin presidency.

[MollyM/CA]

the Paris Hilton of politics

LOL

And couldn't be more appropriate

m

[MollyM/CA]

I believe there's a thing called "invincible ignorance" in the Catholic doctrine -- and don't let's forget Our Sairie was raised Catholic, before she ditched them (anyone know the story on this?) for Assembly of God, before she ditched them for a presumably more politically acceptable church--

[sidney]

I believe there's a thing called "invincible ignorance" in the Catholic doctrine

I looked up the term in the Catholic Encyclopedia, and it only refers to that which one is not capable of knowing with reasonable diligence. That's the only kind of ignorance that provides one with an excuse for acting out of ignorance. This may be more applicable:

"Ignorance which practically no effort is made to dispel is termed crass or supine."

[sidney]

Exactly. And I'm not at all hopeful about those absentee ballots in AK; they're usually from the more conservative, more Republican, more beholden-to-Stevens rural areas.

The article about it on fivethirtyeight.com and some comments posted to it from Alaskan readers indicates that at least in some parts of Alaska all early voting ballots are actually absentee ballots, which can be dropped off in person. That means that this election could have more absentee ballots from Democrats who were encouraged by both the Obama and the Begich to vote early. It's still a tossup. Fivethirtyeight had the singularly unhelpful conclusion, after a detailed mathematical analysis (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/uncounted-votes-may-push-begich-past.html),

Obviously, there is a lot of uncertainty in this estimate, particularly regarding the nature of absentee ballots. If absentee ballots behave like in-person early ballots, which gave a substantial advantage to Mark Begich, then Begich will defeat Stevens, perhaps by some decent margin. If they behave more like regular, election-day ballots, then Stevens will hold on to a narrow victory. If they are somewhere in between, as we have assumed, then Begich is the favorite to win, although the outcome will be close.

At least they have managed to work out the math to reduce the expected results to only three possibilities: Either Stevens will win, or Begich will win, or we really can't tell which one will win :)

[Judy G. Russell]

At least they have managed to work out the math to reduce the expected results to only three possibilities: Either Stevens will win, or Begich will win, or we really can't tell which one will win :)Somehow I suspect even we math-averse folks could have figured that out by ourselves!

[MollyM/CA]

Ooooh, I like supine!