Alaska Rep. Don Young now following Joe Miller's lead by denying any connection to Schaeffer Cox. Update!

Courtesy of the Southern Poverty Law Center:

A Republican congressman from Alaska, who also is on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association, now is attempting to distance himself from a Fairbanks militia leader accused in a high-profile firearms, murder and kidnapping plot.

The connection between Young and Cox is drawing national attention from the National Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, the liberal Crooks and Liars blog, and Media Matters Political Correction, a liberal monitor of the political right.

That apparently is drawing heat to the congressman.

A staff aide at the Alaska congressman’s office in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday that several calls had been received, but that the office had not issued a formal response. The aide referred inquiries to Young’s press secretary, Meredith Kenny, who had left Washington, D.C., for a week-long visit to Alaska, possibly because of the developing controversy in the state.

“The Congressman has absolutely no affiliation with Mr. Cox,’’ Kenny said in a brief E-mail response when asked Tuesday for reaction. The press spokeswoman confirmed that the YouTube video was taken at an Open Carry Day in Fairbanks in 2009.

“Congressman Young attended solely as a staunch defender of the Second Amendment,” Kenny said. “The letter the Congressman signed expresses the view that we should elect those who will defend the Constitution, and in turn the Second Amendment, as written, or vote them out of power.”
Let's face it Don Young was teabagging way before teabagging was cool.

Like many old time Alaska politicians he has a love hate relationship with the Federal government. 

On the one hand he wants all of that government pork for his pet projects and to repay the people who contribute to his campaigns, but on the other hand he does not want the Feds to make any rules he has to abide by. In other words he is like a petulant teenager who wants dad and mom to buy them things but not make them stick to a curfew or do their homework.

However THIS time Young might have shot his fat mouth off one too many times.

Check out the video below. (Young shows up at the 42 second mark.)



There you have Congressman Don Young telling his constituents NOT to obey the laws of the United States of America. In other words essentially telling people in his state to break the law, if in fact they do not agree with it.

Now Schaeffer Cox did that very thing, and because of his lack of respect for the law, and his belief that he was above it. he now faces Federal charges and possibly life imprisonment.

After watching the above video it is hard NOT to see that Rep. Young had some part to play in the fact that Cox did not feel he had to obey the laws of the government if he did not agree with them. I believe that somebody needs to ask the Congressman what he meant when he said what he said to this impressionable young man, and what message he believed he sent to everybody in that Denny's restaurant by signing that treasonous letter.

Update: A new website is urging Don Young to repudiate the letter he signed for Schaeffer Cox and to re-swear his oath to uphold the Constitution.  Part of that oath reads as follows:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land and, while subject to amendment, it does not countenance insurrection or violence against the government. In fact, one of the express powers in the Constitution (Article I, Section 8) is the ability of Congress to call out the Militia to suppress insurrections, not foment them. By signing a document that countenances violence against the United States government, Representative Young has violated his oath “to support and defend the Constitution” and given comfort and support to its domestic enemies.

I think that perhaps there are a number of Republicans currently serving in the Senate and the House who would do well to revisit this oath as well.