 |
||
In 2001, Sarah Palin drove from her Wasilla home, through the downtown streets of Anchorage, to a large home near the bluffs of muddy Cook Inlet. The home belonged to Bill Allen, one of the most influential businessmen and Republican donors in Alaska history. Allen ran the state's largest oil-contracting firm, the ominously named VECO Corp., which contracted with some of the biggest oil producers in the world.
Palin was wrapping up her last term as mayor of Wasilla. She had higher political aspirations. She wanted the second-most powerful job in Alaska: lieutenant governor. In those days, there was virtually only one road to the state capital, and it passed through Allen. A foul-mouthed oilman, a high-school drop out, the son of fruit pickers, Allen was one of those "good ol' boys" Palin touted taking on in Alaska when she gave her vice-presidential speech Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention.
Allen, then in his mid-60s, shaped Alaska politics through campaign contributions and sometimes flat-out bribes. He and his VECO executives and employees gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to both Republicans and Democrats -- lawmakers Allen believed would support the oil industry. He was so steeped in politics that he co-chaired the Alaska finance committee during the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign.
A year later, a young small-town mayor was standing at his door.
Palin sat with Allen in his den and sipped wine, according to a former VECO employee who says he personally fetched the bottle of wine for the two. Why did Palin visit Allen that day? Palin spokesman Bill McAllister refuses to ask her. "This is a silly story and I'm not going to take any more time with this. Goodbye," he says on the phone.
Read the rest of the story at AlaskaDispatch.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Sold her soul did she? Imagine that!! A republican selling out.
And this they call a maverick?
For TOO long Alaska has had a one party dominant government. Both on State AND Federal levels.
Let's just say I have had a bird's eye view on Allen's Pork Roasts and fundraisers held for all past and future Alaska state and federal legislators. Most are behind bars or are indicted or are being investigated. To see that Palin herself came to Allen with hands open defines who and what she represents both morally and politically.
Palin's reformist stance is but a front and slap in the face to all Alaskan's and Americans. And to the ones who actually look beyond the rhetoric and the false image she has created on her path to the White House, one begins to see things for how they truly are.
One Alaskan's opinion:
http://tsp
Another great Alaskan blog:
http://mud
Did I hear Palin say 'clean coal?'
Clean coal doesn't exist!
http://the
I wish everyone to just keep telling people GET BACK TO THE ISSUES. We had a convention, let the
people get started with the debate. NOW.
REPUBLICANS ARE HIDING PALIN TO TEACH HER WHAT SHE NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT CURRENT EVENTS. THEY ARE PLANNING TO GIVE HER LESSONS AND WHITE WASH HER BACKGROUND AT THE SAME TIME.
they plan on selling us a pig in poke.
WHY DOES NO ONE MAKE TODD PALIN'S CONNECTIONS A TOPIC. THEY REAMED MICHELLE BUT HE GETS A PASS.
Wake up people!!!!!
Republicans have gotten their machine at work and her having RACISTS CALL C-SPAN AND TIE
UP THE LINE RACIST LIES. This the same thing that was pulled on us in 2000.
Surely, you can point that out over and over.
Reading Anne Kilkenny's critical essay will give the reader a different perspective on Sarah Palin. On August 31, 2008, Anne Kilkenny wrote a frank letter to answer friends' questions about Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. The letter, from the viewpoint of a Wasilla native, quickly garnered the attention of media outlets all over the world. The Anchorage Daily News has made the essay/e-mail available to their readers. One can read it at:
http://com
John McCain sold out to the oil companies to get elected. Dick Cheney and Carl Rove are part of that group. Carl Rove is now running the McCain campaign and Palin is their pick. McCain wanted Lieberman or Ridge.
Lets just hope the MSM doesn't cave in to republican criticism and stop investigating Palin.
It sounds like Bush politics as usual.
God Bless America!
God Bless Barack Obama!
Palin on Earmarks: ‘We Did Well!!!’
http://www
By Mike Lillis 9/3/08 7:42 PM
Digging through Wasilla’s municipal records is a lesson in the very essence of tedium. You’ve got pages of proposals to rename streets, assess sewers, build skateboard parks, buy lawnmowers, rent “pop” machines, carve snowmobile trails, congratulate high school football teams — the kind of stuff that makes small towns run, but leaves you glad that someone else is running them.
The point is: she went to and solicited money from this guy because he was the money fountain for candidates in Alaska and only a child would not realize that there were strings attached. His people funded 10% of her campaign. This is a lot different from all the Rezko smear aimed at Obama, which did not involve suggestions the Rezko was a bribe-distributing king-maker.
The other thing I find interesting is that she climbed to the top over the corpses of (a) Randy Ruedrich, who was accused of doing party business on state time, and (b) Murkowski, who was DOA by the time of the election because of the scandals that had come out. It wasn't so much her, but them. And, of course, the charge of using government officials and resources for political (e.g., campaign) purposes is now dogging Palin!
I think folks need to distinguish between reformers who make a systemic change: like Obama's transparency bill and the "old" McCain of McCain-Feingold, and those who simply call out others' wrongdoing and pick up a lot of ink that way. The latter type goes back to Herbert Hoover, and before. (Think Eliot Spitzer...
I thought this campaign was about the people running, not their kids.
Also, Alaska is in bed with Big Oil. Who in their right mind thinks this woman is interested in any other energy but oil?
Drill, baby, drill indeed.
Typical REP.hypocr
This, if anything, should strengthen her gravitas on energy policy. I mean she spent an entire day with Bill Allen, talking about oils and laying pipe and I'm sure she came out all the more experienced after the meeting had ended. I would suspect that many oil executives up in Alaska agree that when it comes to the topic of energy and experience, Sarah palin has more than enough to go around.
It sure seems strange that this person is the kind of people that John McCain said he was going to go after. Seems crazy and one must think that if this man co-chaired Bush/Cheney, then he may have had something to do with McCain/Palin. Scandal after scandal everyday.
Obama/Biden 08 and 2012
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
