UPDATED: Legislature Will Do What They Do Best... Waste Money

The ADN reports:

JUNEAU -- Top Alaska legislators said Tuesday they're likely to accept at least most of the federal economic stimulus money that Gov. Sarah Palin did not.

"I think at the end of the day we will end up taking most of the funds," said Anchorage Republican Rep. Mike Hawker, who is leading the House effort on the stimulus as co-chairman of the finance committee.

Senate Majority Leader Johnny Ellis agreed. "I would be surprised if we give up much or any of the federal money," the Anchorage Democrat said.

[...]

Legislators said they are worried that, if they do accept the money, Palin will either veto parts of it or simply not fill out the necessary paperwork to receive it. Two Anchorage Democratic senators, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Hollis French, questioned if the state can even legally get the money if Palin doesn't expressly request it, although that's not the prevailing view among their colleagues.

Palin will not rule out vetoes. But her budget director, Rehfeld, said state agencies are continuing to do the paperwork necessary to ensure Alaska does not miss deadlines if the Legislature accepts the money.

One argument going on in the Capitol is about what strings are attached to the money. Rehfeld told legislators that up to 25 percent of the money Palin didn't accept could have strings that require a change in state policy. Some involves an increase in the eligibility for unemployment benefits.

C4P has brought to your attention the shenanigans of some members of the Alaska Legislature, specifically Hollis French, Kim Elton, Jay Ramras and Beth Kerttula. We really need to add Mike Hawker to this list. It seems that he takes the opposite stand of Governor Palin on nearly every issue. His comment in the recent AGIA hit piece is just staggering: "The only thing standing in the way of an Alaska gas pipeline is the Sarah Palin administration." Hawker represents the Murkowski wing of the GOP and all that comes with it, which includes secret tax negotiations with the oil companies and VECO campaign contributions and goodies. This wing of the Alaska GOP represents the worst of "crony capitalism." Hawker was a supporter of former Governor Murkowski's "PPT Tax," which was conducted behind closed doors, without much input from the rest of the legislature.

UPDATE by VO: One of the names you see all over the articles about the legislature and the stimulus is Larry Persily, who now works as a staffer for Mike Hawker. There are a few things you should know about Persily. He's a former editor at both the Anchorage Daily News and the Juneau Empire, two staunchly anti-Palin papers. Despite that, he briefly worked for the Palin administration as a staffer in the Washington, D.C. legislative liaison office, until he was replaced by Palin last May with Russ Kelly.

After losing his Washington gig, Persily seems to have gone on an anti-Palin tear - especially after Palin was nominated for VP. Here he is in Bloomberg on August 31st, saying she's not qualified. He appears in a tinfoil-hat hit piece in the Guardian in October. He even wrote for the Huffington Post, and after the election he appeared on Alaskan Public Radio to slam Palin and spin the election results against her.

His most recent national media appearance was in this week's issue of People magazine, where he was quoted as saying "Palin is like Evita Peron." So spare us your wonkery, Larry - we know you're sore about losing your Washington job, and that anything Palin is for, you're against, and anything Palin is against, you're for.