Senator Begich, appearing on the 650 KENI Mike Porcaro radio show 11/11/09, is now a self proclaimed moderate. At least twice in the broadcast he associated himself with individual senators who have been identified as moderates by bloggers and the main stream media.

Hugh Hewitt has written several posts discussing the “moderate” democrat senators at his blog, http://www.hughhewitt.com/blog/. A recent post, and every preceding post on the subject of moderate senators, does not include Sen. Mark Begich as a senator to contact and support for their objections to nationalized health care. Quoting Hewitt from a 11/12/2009 post, “…next week's big vote in the Senate and the ability of any one of Indiana's Evan Bayh, Colorado's Michael Bennet, North Dakota's Byron Dorgan, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, Connecticut's Joe Lieberman, Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln, or Nebraska's Ben Nelson to just say no to Obamacare and block the bill,” conspicuously does not include Alaska’s Mark Begich. Here are two links to previous posts that do not include Sen. Begich as a moderate who should be encouraged to continue the resistance.

http://www.hughhewitt.com/blog/g/8e1c3ba7-9e26-42a3-be48-bc51ee6a63d4

and http://www.hughhewitt.com/blog/g/b8f12489-8af4-4bd9-afd4-69f45ff98fa1.

Either Mr. Hewitt is overlooking a vital senator and should be advised of his oversight, or Mr. Begich is once again being unauthentic and dishonest with his constituents. Why would Mr. Hewitt exclude a senator who could be pivotal, if that senator was authentically a potential vote to prevent the nationalization of health care?

Interestingly, the junior senator from Alaska did not mention the Kaiser Family Foundation once in the Porcaro interview, despite the notoriety he has previously ascribed to it for informing him on health reform issues. Now he is associating himself with senators who have genuine disagreements with parts of the legislation, as if he too is an ideological moderate.

Mr. Begich is an ideologue who consistently wraps himself in sheep’s clothing. To some this unique ability is deemed to be a good political skill. It may be a skill, but saying it is a good skill is to condone behavior that is deceitful—a lie, and nothing less.

Deb Brollini, an activist Alaska Native, in a brief post at her web site, http://dbrollini.blogspot.com, does not come right out and claim that the senator is a liar. However, it is easily concluded from her post that Mr. Begich is inflating the "uninsured" in Alaska by up to 70, 000 people; and he is doing it on the backs of Alaska Natives who are "uninsured" only in a narrow definition of the word.

That is, they do not have a private company policy, ie Blue Cross, or Medicare/ Medicaid. They do however, have access to good, quality care from the village primary providers (Village Health Aids), regional hospitals, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Alaska Native Medical Center, as well as contract health care for local services unavailable at ANMC and services only available Outside. A Compact with the Indian Health Service funds health services not available from within the system, and none of these health care services are included in the senator’s definition of insurance.

Let’s be honest with each other, Senator.

ric