It is often difficult to explain Alaska to outsiders. The flap over the bridges to nowhere was an excellent example. People in the lower 48 usually perceive Alaska as vast, which it certainly is. But when they read of Alaska in the news, much of the interest is directed toward a few small but important areas within the state: Prudhoe Bay, Juneau, Anchorage, or Barrow, for instance. When the bridge issue hit national news, I read at blog after blog - mostly left-wing ones - about how absurd it would have been to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on two bridges between a small town or a small city and "nowhere."Several times I pointed out that most new bridges built here are very close to "nowhere." We have less road mileage in Alaska than exists in Rhode Island. Less new road miles have been added to our system here in the 35 years I've been in Alaska, than are added to the greater Chicago road systems every three or four months.
Not only can outsiders' ignorance of Alaska and Alaskans be profound, so can be the memes about our selfishness, greed and insularity. Last night our family watched The Simpsons Movie. The scene where the border guard hands Homer $1,000.00 for showing up is funny, but many outsiders' views of Alaska and of what is good for Alaskans is at least that simplistic.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Markos Moulitsas' ridiculous statement accompanying his United 2000 poll on the AK-AL U.S. House race, and some of the web ramifications of Markos' inaccuracy. Some of the comments my essay got were hilarious. I enjoyed this one:
"....Kos clearly knows who is the best candidate for Alaska...."
This from somebody signing off as Bill D in SF, defending Kos, who lives in the Bay area himself. A Minnesota commenter, bringing up Alaska's Patron Saint, Ted Stevens, shared the following:
"Saw a high school friend last summer who's lived in Anchorage for the last fifteen years. She's still left of center but her husband isn't. They have business with the gov't, and surprised me by saying that while she wouldn't be sorry to see Young get kicked to the curb, she still saw a lot of support for Uncle Ted, and that even an indictment would not be enough to get many to not vote for him, herself included."
In today's Anchorage Daily News Newsreader, Terry Carr linked to a National Review Online article by John J. Miller, a National Political Correspondent there, where Miller says pretty much the same thing:
"If 84-year-old Republican senator Ted Stevens is indicted in a corruption probe — FBI and IRS agents searched his home last year — then the reign of the longest-serving GOP senator could share the fate of his ballyhooed “bridge to nowhere.” But Stevens is brassy enough to keep on running no matter what, and Alaskans probably like their pork enough to elect him anyway."
Alaskan and outside writers have pointed to the November 2006 re-election of GOP Rep. Vic Kohring of Wasilla to the Alaska House, after his office had been targeted for a search by the FBI, in the summer of 2006 as an example backing contentions such as Miller's. Kohring beat a highly respected ex-legislator, the iconic Katie Hurley. And he beat her soundly, even after the search should have sent red flags to Kohring's constituents.
At the conclusion of Kohring's trial, I bumped into John Davies, my business law professor from over 20 years ago. Davies is now Chief of Staff for GOP Rep. Wes Keller, who was appointed to Kohring's house seat after Kohring's July, 2007 resignation. Davies, was emphatic that the Feds should have given Kohring a pass, citing the tremendous resources that had been brought to bear against "this one, fine man."
I disagreed with Davies, who was an excellent business law prof, but seemed to be missing something important. "They weren't after Vic, they just trolled him up as bycatch," I said. "They've taken oaths to uphold the constitution. Do you think they should have ignored their oaths?"
John replied with that day's version of IOKIYAR (It's OK if you're a Republican), again citing the costs. I said, "Well, if the Feds can blow $50,000,000 investigating a hummer under the oval office desk, don't you think they can spend $1,000,000 investigating corrupt legislation?"
Davies had no answer that would satisfy me. "Clinton lied under oath," he replied. John wasn't the only person dissatisfied with the Kohring verdict. That same day, in the comments to an ADN article about the trial, here were three:
The Only Honest Politician Destroyed
Vic Kohring is the only fully honest politician I have met, but his very lack of guile and simple, trusting character has made him an easy mark for unscrupulous thugs -- on both sides of the law.
no real proof....
I dont see any real proof of bribes. I see a man asking someone for a loan, but not a bribe. Who says that you should ask family before anyone else for a loan? In the recording I saw and is on this ADN site, Allen clearly states/asks.....is this a loan? Vic answers "yes"......
honestly dumb
Kohring knew he wasn't supposed to be taking money--even for gifts for his child. But that's all crap anyway. How many times have you had someone offer you hundreds for an easter egg hunt. Honest to goodness if this jury comes out with a not guilty verdict I'm going to be sick.
Examples like those of Davies, the woman from Minnesota's Anchorage friend, the three ADN commenters, the article in NRO, and other such things I've read and heard, make me wonder. So I've decided to create the first Progressive Alaska Poll.
I'll also post it at DailyKos. Here it is:
Will Alaskans Return Ted Stevens to the U.S. Senate if he's indicted before November?
The poll is up near the top of the right-hand margin of the blog.
Son of the North - Fred Machetanz
