Don Young slips through the fingers of justice once again.

Courtesy of ADN:

The House Ethics Committee has cleared Alaska Rep. Don Young on charges he took too much money for his legal expense fund from a donor with interests in offshore Arctic oil drilling. But now the panel is changing the rules because of the case. 

At issue was $60,000 in checks given to Young during a January 2011 fundraiser in Texas. Alaska's lone congressman was handed an envelope by Gary Chouest, host of the fundraiser and president of Edison Chouest Offshore, a Louisiana company whose Alaska interests include an icebreaking ship it's building for Shell's planned drilling program in the Chukchi Sea. 

Edison Chouest is among the top campaign contributors to all three members of Alaska's congressional delegation. 

The Chouest donations to Young's legal fund were divided into a dozen checks of $5,000 apiece. Five thousand dollars is the maximum amount an individual or organization can give in a year to a congressman's legal fund. 

Each of the checks came from a different company but all the companies are owned by the Chouest family. That raised the question of whether it was an attempt to sidestep the $5,000 limit in providing Young with a total of $60,000 in Chouest money. 

The U.S. House Committee on Ethics, which launched an investigation after media coverage of the contributions, reported Tuesday that Young was acting within the rules in which "multiple entities owned by the same individual or individuals were permitted to make contributions up to $5,000 per entity if they were separate legal entities." 

But the ethics panel said that doesn't mean it should be allowed and worried it "challenges the principles of the contribution limits."  

"The Committee votes to dismiss the allegations, but is amending its (rules) to prohibit similar contributions in the future," said the report submitted on Tuesday by Rep. Joe Bonner, R-Alabama, the committee chairman. 

I am beyond the ability to be surprised concerning Young's ability to escape being held accountable for his actions.  Four years ago I would have told you with great confidence that he was going to be investigated, convicted, and sent to jail.  I will now tell you with similar confidence that he will not only NOT go to jail, but that he will undoubtedly remain our sole House member until he damn well decides to retire.

And this is even though he is a selfish asshole who has missed 16 percent of the votes during this last session, and whose corruption is an open secret among Alaskans here at home.

I long for the day when Alaska is free of this political opportunist, and we have the chance to get somebody with real integrity, and who places the needs of the Alaskan people ahead of his own, in that very important office instead.

Alaska deserves better.