Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK), one of the more vulnerable Democrats in this fall’s midterm elections, was unusually harsh last week when he criticized his fellow Democrat, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), for scrutinizing the federal contracts of Alaska Native Corporations despite his “repeated attempts to reason with her.”
It was an uncharacteristically abrasive tone for Begich to strike with another Democrat. But in the context of his re-election race, it makes more sense. His campaign’s message has focused on Alaskan issues — like energy and fishing policy — and battling another Democrat is never a bad look for a Democrat in a otherwise red state.
Now a follow-up letter sent by Begich on Tuesday and the accompanying statement from McCaskill suggests that McCaskill, while legitimately pursuing an issue that she’s studied for six years, is also content to let Begich score a few political points at home.
Both sides win: McCaskill assumes the oversight role that the former state auditor relishes, and Begich gets to publicly fight on behalf of a popular program back home.
In his letter sent Tuesday, Begich took a more conciliatory approach. “If your principle goal is to initiate a pathway for Congress to act on contracting reform, let’s work together to do so for the entire federal government,” he wrote, “rather than continuing to hone in on a single program that is delivering essential economic benefits as intended.”
McCaskill’s office had previously declined to respond to Begich’s public rebuke. But asked by TPM about the letter, McCaskill called her colleague a “problem” in a prepared statement. Though, to Alaska’s voters, he might not sound like much of a problem at all.
“I’ve fought for six years to change the law in regard to Alaska Native Corporations,” she said in the statement. “There has consistently been one problem—Mark Begich. He single-handedly protects Alaska and the ANCs.”
McCaskill first raised questions about ANC’s, businesses entities set up to benefit native Alaskan tribes and bequeathed with unique benefits for federal contracting bids, in 2009. After a 2010 Washington Post investigation that found benefits were not reaching the intended population, she introduced legislation to effectively gut those contracting perks. The bill never made it past the committee stage.
Back in 2010, Begich portrayed the McCaskill bill as “misguided” and “misinformed.” The feud then reappeared on the public stage last week when McCaskill sent her letter to the SBA, and Begich released his scathing public statement.
Now McCaskill’s “problem” retort might be enough keep things going.
And here we can see one of the reasons why it is that the Grumpy Old Party will win control of the Senate in 2014.
Democrats acting like members of the Grumpy Old Party.
People look at them and say “What the heck is the difference?”
Begich might as well have written this “rebuke” himself. “Single-handedly protects Alaska”? Stinging! Democrats at war with each other? Hardly.
Nope. Read the (very acute) analysis again. He’s right. This will work.
Now that’s infighting to love.
And do you REALLY think people are that sophisticated? They see politicians argue all the time, and , well, who cares, Right? Because at the end of the day, nothing changes, so most people just grab their remotes and head back to their favorite “reality” show… Of course the genuine “reality” of the situation will come and bite people when the Grumpy Old Party takes the Senate, largely because Democrats (Doormats) stay home again. But maybe I’m a little thick. Tell me again how this “clever” trick gets Democrats to show up and vote, all of four months from now, when they won’t retain even the slightest memory of this dust up. Remember, we’re talking about people who, by and large, can’t remember for the life of them what they had for lunch this time last week.
When future historians write about the slow death of democracy in what used to be America, I’m absolutely convinced that one of the culprits will be the American National Disease, the short attention span.