I want them DEAD. The organizations, I should say.

It’s not Lisa Murkowski and Sarah Palin who are rocking the boat here. Fagan is playing dog to kos’ Pavlov.

- JP

Having said that, if people outside think the Murkowski’s are some kind of Alaskan equivalent to the Daley family, tis not the case. Lisa was a dumb pick politically, but she was as qualified as just about anyone else they could have picked. She actually did pay her dues, coming up through local govt, the ledge etc. If her last name was something different, it would have been a popular pick. As it is, she has since been elected on her own. No pollster up here is all that accurate, we have an awful lot of people who are not the least bit interested in sharing their opinions with a pollster, but Dittman is about the best of the lot.

Having said that, if people outside think the Murkowski’s are some kind of Alaskan equivalent to the Daley family, tis not the case. Lisa was a dumb pick politically, but she was as qualified as just about anyone else they could have picked. She actually did pay her dues, coming up through local govt, the ledge etc. If her last name was something different, it would have been a popular pick. As it is, she has since been elected on her own. No pollster up here is all that accurate, we have an awful lot of people who are not the least bit interested in sharing their opinions with a pollster, but Dittman is about the best of the lot.

Not to take anything away from your post, but I actually prefer my state’s governor, Mitch Daniels.

Frank Murkowski did it to himself. He was voted out by the people. I have heard the first persone he thought to appoint was Sarah Palin to the Senate seat before he appointed his daughter. I bet he is wishing he had appointed Palin now.

Having said this, I think Gov Palin need to do several things. One, gather her family if she has not done so and close associates and get everyone to understand that everything we do and everything we say will be scrutinized completely. You have to be wise who you associate with and who you do business with. Two, and I do not know Alaska law regarding this idea, but form a political action committee to raise money and build a campaing either for a reelection effort in 2010 or a national effort later on. Within this PAC hire a crack PR specialist to help with speeches and image. Hire a crack political hitman who will strike fear into anyone who attacks the governor or her family.
Sarah Palin has plenty of friends around the country who will contribute to her campaign. Lastly, rule out a run for the Senate or the Presidency and announce a reelection run in 2010.

Also, come to some kind of accord with the remnant of the Murkowski organization including Senator Murkowski. I will say this again, we are all republicans. We may not all agree or like each other very much, but we share a common interest.

Here are some things I am sure we have a common interest in.
1.2 trillion dollar budget deficits!
Silence from the new President on the Gaza war
Silence from the new President on border security
Silence from the new President on the War on Terror

Frank Murkowski did it to himself. He was voted out by the people. I have heard the first persone he thought to appoint was Sarah Palin to the Senate seat before he appointed his daughter. I bet he is wishing he had appointed Palin now.

Having said this, I think Gov Palin need to do several things. One, gather her family if she has not done so and close associates and get everyone to understand that everything we do and everything we say will be scrutinized completely. You have to be wise who you associate with and who you do business with. Two, and I do not know Alaska law regarding this idea, but form a political action committee to raise money and build a campaing either for a reelection effort in 2010 or a national effort later on. Within this PAC hire a crack PR specialist to help with speeches and image. Hire a crack political hitman who will strike fear into anyone who attacks the governor or her family.
Sarah Palin has plenty of friends around the country who will contribute to her campaign. Lastly, rule out a run for the Senate or the Presidency and announce a reelection run in 2010.

Also, come to some kind of accord with the remnant of the Murkowski organization including Senator Murkowski. I will say this again, we are all republicans. We may not all agree or like each other very much, but we share a common interest.

Here are some things I am sure we have a common interest in.
1.2 trillion dollar budget deficits!
Silence from the new President on the Gaza war
Silence from the new President on border security
Silence from the new President on the War on Terror

What broke the Democrat hold on the State was Democrat support for Greenies at the national level and taxes. Actually, it was the Libertarians that led the charge against Alaska’s very high income taxes. Several liberatarians won legislative seats and Dick Randolph made a credible run for Governor. Many of the Republicans that emerged in that era were Libertarians in all but name. The Republican Party that emerged and came to electoral dominance in that period has always been an unsteady triangulation of oil interests (and money), Libertarians and libertarians, and the religious right. The Republicans have never been able or willing to do much for the religious right, but they have steadfastly protected the religious right from having things done to them by the Democrats.

The only thing that keeps Alaska Republican is the stark choice presented by the national Democrats. The very strong Libertarian tending libertine streak in the res publica causes them to reject the nannyism of the Democrats. The Democrat cannot separate themselves from the National Party which means Envirowhackos and taxes for social welfare spending. Any credible Republican can beat any Democrat here state wide if he or she can hang the Greenies, taxes, and the national party around that Ds’ neck. But is isn’t because Alaska is conservative as most here would define that, particularly the social conservatives; there’s a lot more bars than churches here and recreational drug use is de facto legal. The economic system here is socialism pure and simple, but Republicans can dress up that pig by calling it the “owner state,” Gov. Hickel’s version of state capitalism.

You can’t really describe the State as conservative or even Republcan; it is best described as “Not Democrat.”

If Fagan is indeed the closest thing Alaska has to what the rest of the country would consider a mainstream conservative, then the 49th state is doomed. His war against all things Palin is giving aid and comfort to the Democrats. So what if he is the Anchoratge Daily News token conservative? If being a Murkowski fan makes one a mainstream conservative, then the good old boy and girl network has a different definition of “conservative” than do many of us.

Interesting discovery that one of Allah’s readers at Hot Air made. It seems that Dave Dittman, whose polling firm Fagan paid to conduct his survey, is a long-time donor to Frank and Lisa Murkowski’s political campaigns.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/01/06/video-im-not-closing-the-door-on-2012-says-palin/

While that in itself doesn’t refute the results of Danny Boy’s poll, it certainly puts a big question mark over the numbers. As big a question mark as the one over the results of the Research 2000 poll that kos paid for IMO.

If Gov. Palin is not popular up there amongst conservatives, how does she still manage to maintain an approval rating in the sixties? Alaskans say that they are more conservative than the rest of the country. How is it “an adolescent boy type rebellion against big oil” to expect the Big3 to pay their way to make a crap load of profits? And since when should the oil companies dictate to Alaska’s government and its citizens what to do?

I doubt I’m going to change any of the good old boy and gal network fan loyalties, but some of you Faganists are somewhere between having a teenage crush and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Back atcha, AKSteveB,

- JP

Rinse and repeat. Put the transcripts on the ‘net on the Governor’s official website. Upload videos to YouTube. On a daily basis.

This is my advice for every single Republican. Make it an open war. At this point, for Palin to think there’s any chance of her having a friendly relationship with the Press would be nothing more than rank stupidity.

We’ve already seen from the Bush White House what does not work as a response to a media establishment intent on destroying you.

Ignoring them, trying to be “above the fray” or even attempting to change the subject (like George Allen tried with his two minute ad after the “macaca” thing hit him below the waterline in 2006) without addressing it only cedes them the battlefield with their credibility intact to do whatever damage they can and will.

An open declared war at least forewarns Alaskans to be skeptical – that this latest story may just be another hit job, and therefore they’d wait to see what the Governor and her spokesmen have to say before they lend it any credence.