Katrina Vanden Heuvel (The Nation) interviews Diane Benson

[Blue_In_AK]

This is really a great article about Diane, well worth a read.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/340727/make_way_for_the_trucker

[Ken Burch]

1. Thanks for posting that, Blue. I was just gonna do it.

I hope this helps. The Rahmster is clearly trying to by this one for Ethan.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. Oh, no doubt.

Did they happen to televise the KTUU debate down there? I'd be interested to know your thoughts if you watched it.

[Ken Burch]

3. I thought the moderator had a pretty obvious anti-Dem bias

(it also looked like he'd had a fresh dye job).

Diane seemed to do well, Ethan looked a bit stiff as always.

Tuned out for most of the GOP part.

Also, I thought it was kind of bogus that KTUU had it in the schedule that they'd run the debate at 9, but then delayed it until 10 so that the audience wouldn't be deprived of the finale of "Nashville Star".

What was your take?

[Blue_In_AK]

4. It was on at 9:00 here.

You must have had a tape delay down there. I thought Diane did great. I especially liked her answer to Ethan's "you stole the election from Fran Ulmer" question. There wasn't really a whole lot he could say after Diane pointed out the very small percentage of votes that she took in that election and that Fran wouldn't have won anyway. He just sort of sputtered in his rebuttal. Also I liked the way she pointed out that he only took his stand on the legislative floor against VECO/Allen after the FBI investigations had started. If those guys down there had been doing their jobs those eight years that he was minority leader, the FBI wouldn't have had to come in here to clean up our mess. Surely, Ethan and the others knew what was going on down there long before the investigations and indictments.

Diane's closing was excellent, I thought.

The Repubs were pretty boring. Sean was terrible, Gabrielle could have done a lot better, and Don was on his game, but everyone knows he's a crook.

I'm probably biased, of course, but I thought Diane won this one.

[Ken Burch]

5. It turned out the Juneau affiliate made the decision to delay the debate

Sounded like they were scared of offending the reality tv freaks.

(Whole different subject: Were Gabrielle LeDoux's parents from Ireland? I know she was born in Maryland, but she speaks with what sounds like a pronounced Irish brogue.)