Sarah Palin in the White House? Now that’s scary…

Washington Money Spent on Shaw Outpaces His Own Campaign

A shadowy group just outside of Washington, D.C., that goes by the misleading name of “The Center for Individual Freedom” has now pumped a total of $1,274,815 into the Alabama Supreme Court race on behalf of Republican Greg Shaw, outspending even the candidate’s own campaign, according to the campaign of Judge Deborah Bell Paseur, his Democratic opponent in the election coming up Tuesday, Nov. 4.

More than $250,000 was added just this week. Though the Shaw campaign started five weeks earlier, CFIF has spent almost two hundred thousand dollars more than Shaw.

The campaign of Paseur renewed its call on Judge Greg Shaw to keep his campaign’s commitment to transparency in funding, as a new link between the Shaw campaign and CFIF became clear. Terry Benham, a Shaw consultant and oil and gas lobbyist, worked along with CFIF on a campaign to promote the appointment of certain federal judges.

On Tuesday, FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose mission “aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics,” added the following to its Website:

“It’s also the case that a top consultant to Shaw, to whose firm he has paid more than $300,000 in this campaign, is Terry Benham. Since August, 2006, Benham has been affiliated with federal lobbying reports. It’s not clear how much the oil and gas interests might have paid additionally for state and local lobbying, which is Benham’s specialty. And Benham’s biography on the LinkedIn professional networking Web site says that he “has interests…in oil and gas exploration.”

“CFIF has not yet filed as a PAC with the Alabama Secretary of State’s office, a clear indication that they do not intend to disclose their finances by Thursday’s campaign deadline,” said Marion Steinfels, Paseur Campaign Manager. “We are simply asking the Shaw Campaign to keep their commitment to make public the names of those funding their campaign. The people of Alabama have a right to know why this out-of-state group has pumped over a million dollars into Judge Shaw’s campaign.”

The officers and former officers of CFIF have lobbied Congress on behalf of oil and tobacco interests. CFIF has routinely refused to reveal its funding sources, running afoul of election laws while attempting to affect the outcome of judicial races in other states. Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled against them, keeping their television advertisements off the air in West Virginia.

Greg Shaw claims his hands are clean of Big Oil money and influence — so why has he paid more than $1 million to a Washington DC oil lobbyist to run his campaign?

Campaign finance reports filed Thursday show Greg Shaw has paid another $955,000 over the last month to a company run by oil lobbyist Terry Benham. Total payments to Benham have now topped $1.2 million.

Even more, the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Factcheck.org this week disclosed that Benham’s Washington, D.C., company pocketed $820,000 in payments from the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, ChevronTexaco, Shell Exploration, and other Big Oil interests over the last two years alone. The non-partisan group also reported that Benham discloses on a Website that he holds business interests in “oil and gas exploration…”

Alabamians know Shaw’s dishonest campaign is being paid for by oil interests. But the latest public disclosure proves that from Day One, Big Oil runs his campaign, too.

“Why is Greg Shaw paying an oil lobbyist to run his campaign,” said Marion Steinfels, Paseur’s Campaign Manager. “It’s time for Shaw to come clean and tell Alabama voters why he hired a political shill for Big Oil to run his campaign for the Alabama Supreme Court.”

This week radio stations across the state refused to continue airing false ads paid for by secret donors to Shaw’s dishonest campaign for Alabama’s highest court. They’ve spent millions attacking Judge Deborah Bell Paseur, but Shaw’s secret donors refuse to tell voters who is paying for their vicious lies and attacks.

It’s time for Greg Shaw to come out of the gutter, and tell Alabama voters why he hired an oil company lobbyist to run his campaign for the Alabama Supreme Court.

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

The main event on Week 9 of the SEC football season is the game once known as The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. This year, the loser will have a heckova hangover.

Every November, the Georgia Bulldogs and the Florida Gators get together on neutral ground in Jacksonville, Fla. The game always has emotion and the result always plays a big part in deciding who represents the East Division in the SEC Championship Game in the Georgia Dome.

This year, with the two schools tied at the top of the East standings (Georgia 4-1 in SEC play, 6-1 overall and Florida 4-1 and 7-1 (Line: Florida by 6), the winner may as well make reservations for Atlanta since the next challenger, now at second place in the East standings, is Vanderbilt and as everyone knows, even after a fast 5-0 start, the Commodores are having a hard time getting that sixth win to be bowl eligible.

The Florida-Georgia game is an interesting matchup pitting two teams with outstanding quarterbacks against one another. The Gators’ Tim Tebow has something Bulldog QB Matt Stafford doesn’t have — a Heisman Trophy. But Stafford has something Tebow doesn’t — a win in the annual Cocktail Classic. Last year Stafford threw three TD passes in leading Georgia to a 42-30 win over Tebow’s Gators. That loss, and this game, means a little extra to Tebow, being from the Jacksonville area himself.

“It means a lot to me,” Tebow was quoted as saying this week, ”growing up as a kid in Jacksonville.”

In addition to the win, how each plays against each other could have something to say about who wins this year’s post-season awards. Both are semifinalists for the Davey O’Brien Award, given each year to the nation’s top QB. And the two junior signal callers are tied for the SEC lead with 12 TD passes each and are the only SEC quarterbacks ranked in the top 40 nationally in passer rating. The similarities continue in that both QBs have lost just five games as starters.

And the two quarterbacks aren’t the only players to watch Saturday in Jacksonville. It should be a real barn burner in that the Gators and Bulldogs may have more true game-breakers than any other two teams in the league — and all will be on the same field at the same time. Percy Harvin, Knowshon Moreno, Chris Rainey, A.J. Green, Jeff Demps, and Brandon James can all break a game open on a single play with their speed.

There are three other conference games on tap this week.

One of them, Tennessee (1-4, 3-5) at South Carolina (2-3, 5-3) (Line: S.C. by 6), would be a big game some seasons, but not this one with both teams out of the running for the East title. It is big for the Vols in that they need a league win to turn around a dismal season. South Carolina would like to become bowl-eligible this early in the year to help them land a good holiday destination.

The second league game is a so-so affair matching Kentucky (1-3, 5-3) from the East and Mississippi State (1-3, 3-5) from the West (Line: Mississippi St. by 3). The Cats started out strong, but have faltered since hitting the conference part of their schedule. Mississippi State started slow, but has shown improvement lately and would like a win to keep that momentum going.

The third SEC matchup is a Western battle that pits two teams, Ole Miss and Auburn (Line: Ole Miss by 6) with matching records (2-3 in league play, 4-4 overall) but different feelings about those marks. Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville is fighting for his future as angry fans mob the call-in shows to complain. Tuberville’s questionable decision to fire offensive coordinator Tony Franklin in midseason has put his team behind the eight-ball, as he himself admitted this week.

“I put the team in a bind in the middle of the season,” Tubs said. “We should be a lot better right now but we’re kind of in the third or fourth game of the season instead of the eighth game in terms of what we’re doing on offense and defense.”

Ole Miss fans, after suffering through three losing seasons under former coach Ed Orgeron, are highly satisfied with the Rebel’s 4-4 mark under Houston Nutt. Look for Ole Miss fans to remain happy, while AU fans get even angrier.

The non-conference games this week have Alabama (8-0) entertaining Arkansas State (4-3) for homecoming (Line: Alabama by 22 _). Kickoff is at 2 p.m. but the game is on pay-per-view only, so crank up the radio wherever you are.

Then there is Tulsa (8-8, ranked No. 19) at Arkansas (3-5) (Line: Tulsa. by 7) and Tulane (2-5) at LSU (5-2) (Line: LSU by 25).

An interesting sidenote: Nick Saban continues to remind older Tide fans of the good ol’ Bear Bryant days. Saban seems to channel Bear almost every week now.

As said before, he doesn’t mumble like the Bear, but the words or thoughts behind those words sure are similar. Bear always used to play up the upcoming opponent, finding some way to complement them and point out how dangerous they were – even if it was Vandy, Southern Miss, or Lousiana Tech coming up. Saban was hard at it this week, promoting Arkansas State QB Corey Leonard as “the best dual threat we’ve seen all season.”

Of course, remembering homecoming last year, Saban has every reason not to let his team get close to complacency or overconfidence — but it won’t happen this time around. The Tide will continue to roll. How much? Well, that’s hard to say. Saban, like Bear, doesn’t believe in “style points” achieved by running up the score on a lesser foe.

WEEKEND TV LINEUP

The Friday night game on the weekend television lineup (7 p.m. ESPN2) pits Wofford and Appalachian State. Saturday’s television lineup follows (all times CST):

11 a.m.
Miami at Virginia (CW), Wisconsin at Michigan St. (ESPN), Northwestern at Minnesota (ESPN2), Air Force at Army (ESPNU), Brown at Penn (Versus)

11:30 a.m.
Kansas St. at Kansas (FSNS), Auburn at Ole Miss (Raycom Sports)

1:30 p.m.
Pittsburgh at Notre Dame (NBC)

2 p.m.
Furman at Sanford (SportSouth), FSU at Georgia Tech (ABC)

2:30 p.m.
Georgia at Florida (CBS), Illinois at Iowa (ESPN), Clemson at Boston College (ESPNU)

5:30 p.m.
Washington at USC (FSNS)

6 p.m.
Louisville at Syracuse (ESPNU), Tennessee at South Carolina (ESPN2)

7 p.m.
Nebraska at Oklahoma (ESPN), Texas at Texas Tech (ABC), UAB at Southern Miss (CSS)

9:15 p.m.
Arizona St. at Oregon St. (FSNS)

Dan Rutledge is a veteran sports writer and editor who recently retired after 25 years with Gulf Coast Newspapers in Baldwin County, Alabama. He writes this advance column on college football exclusively for The Locust Fork News-Journal every Friday during football season.