Ethics & Party Politics

It was Mario Puzo’s epic the Godfather that offered us a timely lesson about loyalty. “It’s never personal, it’s always business”. And even though it only lasted forty-eight hours, the short-lived House of Representatives rebellion gave us a rare glimpse of that philosophy at work.

In the end, the fragile coalition of Republicans who aligned with Democrats couldn’t withstand the threats of political retribution from within the powerful Republican family.

What started as grand theatre ended as slapstick comedy.

On November 24, 2002 I wrote a column that questioned a press conference where our newly elected governor stood with our legislative leaders and promised to solve Alaska’s fiscal challenges. “No excuses. If we can’t do it…then we have no one to blame but ourselves”, Gov. Murkowski stated. We were promised the stars were aligned. We were promised no excuses.