Via Todd Beeton, there’s a nice follow-up twist on the calls from some Alaska Republicans for Senator Mark Begich to resign so Ted Stevens can have a special election. Congressman Don Young thinks the seat is Begich’s to keep and there’s no recourse for him to be removed now. But Young suggests that his long-time colleague should close out his career with a run for Governor:

“Personally I’d like to see him run for governor, and that’s my personal feeling,” Young told the Alaska Public Radio Network on Thursday. “So, we’ll see what happens down the line. He probably won’t, but I think that would be a great way to cap off a great career as being the governor of the state of Alaska.”

The back story is that this statement from Young is about Sarah Palin getting her come uppance.  Palin came to power in Alaska riding a wave of reformist criticism of Alaska’s old guard Republican elected officials. Last cycle she targeted Young’s seat by having her Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell primary Young. Palin was strongly behind Parnell and obviously Young took it personally. Don Young, despite being surrounded by clouds of scandal of his own, beat Parnell by 304 votes in the GOP primary last August.

Stevens and Palin have had a rocky relationship of their own. This press conference from July, in which Palin dodges endorsing Stevens and Stevens points out that they don’t really like each other, is a classic. Arjun Jaikumar points out that Palin called on Stevens to resign his Senate seat following being convicted of seven federal felony corruption charges. So there’s no love lost between Palin and Stevens — but her call for Begich to resign is probably a lame effort to repair her bad relationship with Stevens.

Frankly, I think if Stevens does run for Governor (which I don’t think he’ll do), he could give Palin a tough race. There will undoubtedly be a lot of sympathy for Uncle Ted, while Palin wears out her welcome with national campaign stops on the state clock.