He sees the tragedy, but can’t stop being a Senator from Alaska. While the rest of us are paying our taxes, Alaskan citizens look forward to fat government checks derived from oil royalties; curtailing offshore exploration and drilling would spell an end to a major source of revenue for his state.

Before the camera rolled, I gave him the chance to back out of the interview, saying that his position was “the Republican view, or at least a Senator from Alaska’s view.” To his credit, he gave me a few minutes on the topic.

It pains me to have a Democrat agreeing with Sarah Palin on any topic, but the truth is that in this economy all Alaska has is oil, fish, and wilderness. Turning away from oil may be extremely difficult for Alaska.

As with Sessions, I’m trying to figure out how these guys can tell us they “lost their way and made some mistakes toward the end of the Bush administration,” but now, they’ve “learned their lesson and can be trusted to govern again,” at the same time they are supporting Marco Rubio in Florida.

Rubio is, of course, the guy that used his Republican Party of Florida credit cards to purchase groceries, mp3s, electronics equipment, and other personal items. The IRS is investigating him to find out if he claimed all these “perks” as income; the FBI is investigating the entire scheme to see if there was any other illegality involved (like fraud or embezzlement, I presume).

Anyway, Americans aren’t stupid. A lot of folks have company credit cards and wouldn’t even begin to think about using them for personal purchases. Under what circumstances would an honest guy reach into his wallet and use the corporate card for personal expenses?

When Republicans line up behind Rubio, they put the lie to everything else they say about turning over a new leaf.