Alaska's lone Representative Don Young fights ethics charges by using money from unethical sources.

Courtesy of ADN:

Alaska Rep. Don Young is reaching into a legal defense fund bankrolled by a Louisiana oil field services company in order to pay lawyers to defend him in his latest ethics investigation. 

The Alaska Republican paid $60,000 this spring from his legal defense fund to the Washington, D.C.,-based law firm Akin Gump, according to new disclosures filed with the U.S. House of Representatives. The House ethics committee is investigating Young over allegations that he improperly accepted gifts, used campaign funds for personal purposes and lied to federal officials. 

Young’s payment to the lawyers drained nearly half the money remaining in the fund, the disclosures show, with the investigation of him still ongoing. So Young could need to start soliciting money for his legal bills for the first time since 2011, when Young held a fundraiser in Texas and Gary Chouest, head of Louisiana oil field services company Edison Chouest, handed him an envelope with $60,000 inside. 

Edison Chouest is heavily involved in Shell’s troubled efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic waters off Alaska. 

Edison Chouest built and operates the vessel that was towing Shell’s drilling rig Kulluk when the rig lost control on New Year’s Eve and grounded for several days near Kodiak Island. The incident is under investigation and is among the mishaps that led the Interior Department to declare that Shell “screwed up” in the Arctic. 

People often ask HOW Sarah Palin was elected Governor in the first place.

Don Young, Frank Murkowski, Ted Stevens and numerous unethical Republican politicians up here represent the answer to that question. She was younger, seemingly unconnected to the old guard, and a female. Sadly that was all it took to convince a number of people that she would represent a breath of fresh air.

Instead she has become the biggest embarrassment this state has ever seen.

And that is REALLY saying something with competition like this:

Young started the legal defense fund in 2008 after spending more than $1 million of his campaign contributions on lawyers to defend him from a corruption investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI’s investigation covered Young’s connections to the disgraced oil-field service contractor Bill Allen and his Veco Corp. It also dealt with the revelation that Young or someone from his office had changed the 2005 transportation legislation after it passed Congress to fund start-up work on a Florida interchange sought by a Young campaign contributor. 

The FBI closed its probe after concluding in 2010 “there was not evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to ultimately convict Congressman Young." The FBI, however, turned over its findings to the House ethics committee, which reviewed them and other evidence about Young’s expenses and travel costs before deciding in March to launch its own investigation. 

Don Young is a criminal, and EVERYBODY up here realizes that. However as long as the Republicans run the state, he will continue to win elections until the is locked into a prison cell, decides not to run for reelection, or dies in office.  I prefer the first option.