Ethics & Party Politics

It’s a buyers market for blame shifting. While some diplomatically refer to the practice as reframing the debate, a more appropriate term would be avoiding the truth. Especially when it comes to being trustworthy.

After three decades, Mark Felt, a former FBI assistant director admitted being the anonymous Watergate source known as “Deep Throat”. Felt’s clandestine tips to a pair of Washington Post reporters fed public awareness of the Nixon Administration’s role in the infamous break-in. Watergate quickly became one of the most far reaching political scandals in history

Just how timely was it for Gov. Walter Hickel to talk about Alaska’s need for independence at a recent Anchorage Chamber of Commerce luncheon? Consider American history 229 years ago today.

On July 3, 1776 Admiral Lord Howe was assembling the largest military force ever gathered on the North American continent. With 25,000 British troops landing on New York’s Staten Island, King George was knocking on the door. Meanwhile, a little more than a hundred miles away in Philadelphia, America’s founding fathers answered.

Not since Ted Turner fired his son at the dinner table has there been such turmoil in a high profile family

With an embattled party chairman, a public rift between top Republican politicians and the first competitive U.S. Senate race in twenty years, these are challenging times for party of Lincoln. Throw in a long history of fractious political maneuvering and welcome to the Alaska Republican Party’s summer of love.

In January 1954, President Eisenhower frustrated by far right senators, penned exasperation in his personal diary. Noting that if things should continue, “I shall leave the Republican Party and try to organize an intelligent group of independents, however small”.

Fifty years later, the far right still forces fair-minded Republicans to the ledge.

On January 16, 2002 the Alaska legislature voted to override the veto of a bill that weakened campaign finance reforms. Shortly after the floor vote an email arrived in my inbox inferring that my failure to be a team player meant I wasn’t a real Republican. “Congratulate your Republican legislators for overriding the governor’s veto on an important fundraising bill. Every Republican voted for the override except Andrew Halcro who sided with the Democratic governor”.

On January 21, 2003 – the first legislative day under newly elected Gov. Frank Murkowski – State Senator Gary Wilken took center stage before the Capitol press corps and announced a “fresh new breeze” was blowing from the governor’s office.

Seventeen months later the breeze was anything but fresh. Wilken again looking into the eyes of the press accused the governor of failing to do his homework. Unfortunately, failing to do their homework has become a common occurrence.

Kids today.

Lisa Murkowski hates veterans and wants to send all the really good paying jobs overseas. Tony Knowles hates fisherman and is proud that the fast food industry is creating more new jobs than the oil & gas industry. All things considered, I’m afraid to vote.