Miraculously re-elected Don Young to young Senators: "I'm going to go back and kick their ass!

Alaska Rep. Don Young was ousted as the top Republican on the Natural Resources Committee just last week, but he sure was in good spirits Friday morning.

Last week, Shenanigans wrote an item about the many animal carcasses in Georgia Republican Rep. Paul Broun's office. (A lion, a bear and six animal heads.) But that doesn't nearly compare to the menagerie in Young's office — which could lovingly be known as a pet cemetery. Thirty-three heads and 21 horns, to be exact.

And Young wants Broun to know: You've got nothing on him. "That’s what I used to give my kids to put them to sleep," Young says, laughing and — we think jokingly — unimpressed by the "stuffed teddy bear" in Broun’s office. (It’s a full-size bear stuffed by a taxidermist, by the way.) "And that lion,” Young adds, "that is probably not one I would call 'a lion of the jungle.'" More laughter. We told you he was in a good mood.

"Each one of these has a story behind them — they’re not just trophies," he explains of his own choice in excessive wall decor. “That’s why I put them up. ... It’s like a diary." His favorite is an elk in his office. To get it, he had to backpack, and it took nine hours to get back to camp. "I'm one of these people — I don't kill just for the fun of killing," he says. “Pulling the trigger is easy." Young does it for the "enjoyment of being on the hunt." (Also, he draws the line at killing cats and elephants.)

The man's been hunting since he was 6. And he's been in political office in Washington for going on 37 years. Is there a parallel between the two?

Answer: Yes. And with this, he gets poignant. "It's good training for patience, which I have more than people realize," he starts.

"You also try to make a good kill when you can, and you try not to wound anyone, because they’ll come back and bite you."

"One of the things about this political life: We’re not much different than the animal kingdom and other species," he says. And he gets into a story of the Dall ram. (Which is, in layman's terms, a really big sheep in Alaska.) Calling John Boehner: It's time to start paying attention.

"He's a big boy," says Young, "and he's puffed up with big horns and struts around the mountain, and he's taking care of all those does. And he's doing good, but there's a young ram, and he sees he has a little limp in his step. So he fights the ram. And the old ram just gives him hell and finally whips the young ram and knocks him off the hill. But the old ram is out of breath and limping a little more and there’s another young ram ready to take him on." Pause.

"It happened to me this month!" Young readily offers. "But what they don't know is, I'm going to go back and kick their ass!"

So to sum up Don Young is essentially saying that he makes an effective politician because he likes to kill animals. Interesting analogy.

But I would like to remind the Congressman, that being a man requires a lot more then the ability to destroy. And being a leader requires a lot more then making toothless threats and talking about past glories.

The facts are that Young is a jackal, feeding off of the scraps left behind from the work of Alaska's lion, Ted Stevens. Don Young's entire political career is owed to the hard work that Senator Stevens did and the control that the Republican party exerted over Alaska politics. Without the dominance of the Republican party, Don Young would have been soundly defeated many years ago. (In fact Rolling Stone Magazine voted him the third worst Senator in 2006.)

Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski worked as a team plowing through the opposition and leaving them reeling in their wake. All Don Young did was bask in reflected glory. He often takes much too much credit for the oil pipeline when in fact he was a minor player at best. Other then that his major accomplishments are failing to open ANWR, voting for the debacle of the Iraq war, voting in support of the colossal failure that is the "No Child Left Behind" legislation, and trying to push through the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere". What a sterling record that is!

In my opinion NO young Senator should let Don Young's bravado cause them any hesitation whatsoever. He is an old dog with rotted teeth, and with no masters left to aim his aggression, he will simply snap at flies and spend his time napping through his entire term until 2010 when I have every confidence he will finally be voted out. Or he will soon be indicted and sent to prison. Oooh I am going to hope for that second one!