Well as an Alaskan... I am happy he lost his seat via an election... rather than because he went to jail. I know he may still do some time... but symbolically he got buried with his boots on.
He did a lot of good things for Alaska including negotiating one of the best treaty agreements between the US Government and Native Americans ever in the nation's history. He was also a pro choice senator. He voted against wiretapping.... not all he did was bad... it's a shame.
Unfortunately he lost his head falling under the spell of divisive Rovian political methods. A lot of Republicans got their heads all full of shit... thinking a paper thin "majority" was a mandate to run rough shod over everyone in his path. He was voted senator when Alaska was still a blue state. A shame he was aligned with the party that screams about entitlements, large government and taxes when they are the ones creating situations that call for such things. He had his hand out for tax payers dollars while all the time railing against paying taxes. I round that hypocrisy disturbing.
Bitch if you want about Palin... at least she has the naive vision of Alaska getting of the tax payer's tit.... via harvesting its own resources sometime... she is just out of touch with reality is all. She seems to forget that the Alaska she knows... the one that nurtured her was started as a socialist experiment.
I am thrilled that Begeich got it... he is home grown Alaskan born in Anchorage and not of the carpet bagger crowd of Stevens and Murkowski.
Bushling left bin Laden in Tora Bora... and Bush Sr. using Reagan as a sock puppet helped fund bin Laden when he was fighting the Soviets. Then there was the flip flop between Iran and Iraq arms deals and the sale of weapons to Saddam to be used against his own people. Then when he finally pissed us off by actually invading Kuwaite... the Mujhadeen were part of the allied troops that fought in Desert Storm... Bush Sr's war. .... Bush Sr. is responsible for the souring of relations between bin Laden and the failed internal coup against Saddam.
Furthermore there were 8 years of (generally successful years) of Clinton in the White House compared to 20 years of Bush in one form or another in the White House. They were busy inserting further into the middle east.
If you don't think Bush Sr. had much to do under addlebrained Reagan get real! He set the precedent for a vice president having broad powers... though it was done on the down low then instead of blatantly like Cheney did.
The Bush/Walker family has been fucking camels since the 30's so to lay the blame for the mess our nation's relationship to the Middle East on Clinton is ludicrous... and typical ignorance expressed by right wing mouth pieces.