GOP infighting alert!

From TPM comes the story of Alaska Rep. Don Young, who's trying to pass himself as a taxpayer-friendly Republican.

We reported earlier that Rep. Don Young (R-AK) falsely claimed that he was named "Hero of the Taxpayer" by the non-partisan reform group, Taxpayers for Commonsense.

But Taxpayers for Commonsense denies even having such an award, yet alone awarding it to Young, a long-time target of the political watchdog.

To be fair, Taxpayers for Common Sense did give Rep. Young an award: namely, the Golden Fleece Award for wasting taxpayer money on the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. In fact the silly taxpayer's hero award is given out by Americans for Tax Reform, helmed by the GOP's best-known Snidely Whiplash impersonator, Grover Norquist. And now Norquist is dissing Young for voting for--gasp!--a tax hike:

"Republicans that vote for tax increases are like rat heads in Coke bottles,"Norquist said. "They ruin the Republican brand for all members. It should be readily apparent to a former 'Hero of the Taxpayer Award' recipient that you don't vote for tax hikes."

According to the press release, Young voted for H.R. 2642, the Blue Dog Tax Hike-- a move that makes him ineligible to receive ATR's "Hero of the Taxpayer Award" in 2008.

We called Young's campaign press contact for comment, Mike Anderson, who told us that the bill was a lot more complicated than it looked.

"If you vote for the bill you vote for veterans and Alaska has 75,000 veterans, but you're also colored as pro-increasing taxes, but if he voted against the bill, he's anti-raising taxes but anti-veteran," Anderson told TPMmuckraker. "Young said that he had to take care of the veterans. Veterans have always been very important."

It's not quite as bad as when Michael Medved accused Limbaugh of acting like a liberal, but it's still kinda fun as far as GOP sniping goes.