News that really isn't New

Sometimes I get google search terms that tell me that something has happened. Today I got a couple of google searches about Beverly Masek. So I checked out what else the googler found and got to this Anchorage Daily News headline.

Masek to plead guilty to bribery charge

The only question was whether she would plead or go to trial. The prosecution is much more interested in getting people to plead. That way they don't have to risk a jury, they don't have to work so hard presenting the evidence, and they don't have to expose what they know and how they operate so publicly. But we knew that Masek was in their sights. This was a sad situation all the way through. As the article says,

Prosecutors wrote that they expect Masek to plead for a further reduction in her sentence, citing "alcoholism, financial and emotional distress, and/or situational depression due to her divorce."

This was someone who just wasn't legislative material. She had too many personal issues to deal with. It's an example of why knowing about a candidate's personal life is important for voters, despite what candidates say about this.

And let's look carefully at campaign ads again. Candidates themselves raise the issues they think will help get them elected - their families, their hobbies, etc. It's just when the media bring up issues like their alcoholism that they argue that personal issues are off limits. Which brings us to the other headline today that wasn't at all unexpected.

Palin's daughter, boyfriend break up

Alaskans knew precious little about the Palins' family life other than basics. The authorized biography gave us the good spin on things, but not too many people read it until she was nominated for VP. And then candidate Palin brought her whole family onstage to tout her son's enlistment and pending duty in Iraq and her daughter's pregnancy and future marriage. No one I talked to had any illusions about the couple's interest in living together happily ever after. Don Mitchell wrote a withering piece at Alaska Dispatch [that AK Dispatch link no longer works, so I've linked to a copy of the piece on Huffington Post] giving advice to Levi's parents on how to negotiate with the McCain-Palin team for payments to stick around until after the election.

So this too was news as unexpected as, "Today is the first day of Spring." (Well, in a little over a week you can say you already read it here first.)