Wit-Les Gara

(2/12/09) There is an old saying about engaging in a battle of wits with an unarmed man; but then again I'm not long for old sayings when you're dealing with a fool.

Apparently Democratic Representative Les Gara took offense to our blog calling him anti-development after he provided yet another asinine sound bite for the evening news. Gara decided to fight back with a poorly reasoned response submitted to a left leaning blog.

Gara peppered his blog with the traditional class warfare jabs he has become famous for by making ignorant and irrelevant references to mansions and mythical rich donors. The swipe shows Gara's contempt for the people who actually create jobs, invest in communities and pay city and state taxes across Alaska. 

Gara's class warfare attacks come easy for someone who does little more than collect a government paycheck funded by taxes paid by companies like mine and others that Gara so clearly disdains.

He defends his vote on giving TransCanada $500 million in taxpayer money as "pushing for a gas line that serves Alaska's interests, and against the oil companies' efforts to stall it," when anyone with two brain cells firing at the same time knows AGIA is all about nothing.

I'd simply remind Gara of TransCanada's letter to former Governor Frank Murkowski; "As you will recall, TransCanada has consistently advised your administration to be wary of independent pipeline proposals that would seek to develop a pipeline without the agreement and support of the ANS producers”, they wrote.

And if that's not enough, I'd play the ever popular comment made by TransCanada's CEO right after Gara voted to stand up against Exxon and the other big oil bastards; "Nothing moves forward until Exxon is happy," the CEO said publicly.

Yeah Les; that's serving Alaska's interests and against the oil companies effort to stall it. 

I'd tell him to save his breath but this is all so predictable for a guy who has had nothing to offer but screaming at the moon on the six o'clock news.

He dredges up the Murkowski gas line deal when nobody, including myself, has ever advocated adopting that deal. He dredges up the VECO corruption scandal when I was one of the first lawmakers to publicly draw attention to the pay to play in an op/ed when I was still in the legislature. 

Gara claims he's pro-development by pointing to bill promoting in-state gas use but fails to admit he is co-sponsoring a bill where in-state gas refineries would be regulated by government; an idea that's been tried and abandoned after gas prices spiked higher in Hawaii. Meanwhile, over the last six years, pro-development Gara has voted against resolutions to open ANWR twice.

And then, in an apparent attempt to corner the market on ignorance, Gara claims his pro-development chops by voting to "increase Alaska's West Coast-worst minimum wage - something Mr. Halcro's GOP friends have blocked since 2003." 

Idiot.

If Gara had bothered to check, he would have known that 2002 was my last year in the legislature when I and 20 other Republicans voted to raise the minimum wage. 

Gara than trots out a twisted version of the tax hike that he and others voted for in 2007. He states that voting for the ACES oil & gas tax "put some of the worlds most vibrant oil and gas exploration incentives into the oil tax reform bill we passed in 2007."

Really? What was the vibrant part; reducing tax credit flexibility, eliminating TIE credits or limiting operating expense deductions to a 3% increase based on outdated data? 

Maybe the vibrant oil and gas exploration incentives Gara voted for are why the Palin administration just announced a $200 million reduction in the amount of projected tax credits they'll realize this year.

But the biggest swing and a miss Gara takes is his fixation with Exxon, while ignoring that he has had his ass handed to him by the company over the last year.

Gara writes in his blog, "Mr. Halcro notes he's still bummed that when Exxon refused to develop the huge Point Thomson oil and gas field - jeopardizing Alaska's dream for a gas line by untold years - I joined the state to put pressure on Exxon to honor their contract commitments."

This is typical Gara socialist Bull Shi*. 

Gara never wanted to put pressure on Exxon to honor their commitments; he wanted the state to march into court and take back the leases ala Hugo Chavez.

Gara first came to Alaska to work on the state's suit against Exxon after the 1989 Exxon Valdez. During the AGIA hearings this past summer, Gara spent two days attacking Exxon both during the hearings and on the six o'clock news, raging that the state should kick them out and take back the leases.

On Monday June 16, Gara stood up before the Federal Energy Regulatory  Agency and accused the producers of wanting to build the gas pipeline so they could kill competition and prevent independents from shipping gas. 

On Tuesday June 17, Gara stood up before the DNR and the AOGCC and in his most visceral tone yet accused Exxon of stealing from the state for the last thirty years by failing to develop Point Thomson and assaulting their corporate credibility.

Then Gara finally had his chance. On Tuesday afternoon Gara addressed the lone Exxon executive who had just completed outlining the company's plan for Point Thomson.

"I'd like the lease back", Gara demanded, referring to the ongoing litigation at Point Thomson over the unit agreement and leases.  "Your company has conceded to 16 different work violations since 1983" Gara asked rhetorically stating the company had 30 years to develop the field.

Then Craig Haymes, the lone Exxon executive, slowly leaned into his table top microphone and sounding as cool as an October evening, politely began.

"Representative Gara," and the rest was an absolute blur, a virtual three minute drive by verbal ass whipping. 

What proceeded was Haymes offering a thirty year chapter and verse explanation how Gara didn't quite understand what those terms meant and how Exxon had satisfied all of their previous plan requirements, and the fact that those work violations were on optional tasks and not under contract.

Haymes embarassed Gara so bad, the shell shocked lawmaker looked like a timid seventh grader who had just been given a wedgie in front of the cutest girl in school.

Gara was so overwhelmed by the answers and unable to offer a response he bailed out. "I don't think its useful for us to go back and forth on respective positions, I suspect the Attorney General has a different view", Gara said as he seemed to be desperately sinking in his own hypocrisy. 

Go figure this; the guy challenges Exxon on their respective position and then says it's not useful to go back and forth on respective positions.

For the last few years Gara has been a vocal advocate of the state pursuing their fools errand in trying to take back the leases at Point Thomson. Even though others, including myself, have warned the state's case was non-existent.

Then, just three weeks ago, DNR Commissioner Tom Irwin realized he had a loser of a legal case and backed down allowing Exxon to go to work while recognizing they had legal rights to leases in Point Thomson.

I can guarantee you two things; when Gara heard that Irwin caved in to Exxon he was pissed, furthermore if Gara had any say in the matter the state would still be headed to court with a loser of a case.

But now Gara has the nerve to say he "joined the state to put pressure on Exxon to honor their contract commitments."

That's funny, because when Haymes of Exxon spent two hours this summer in Anchorage and another Exxon executive spent two hours this summer in Juneau explaining the exact same plan that Irwin just approved, Gara didn't give a damn about their commitments, he raged that the state should sue Exxon and take the leases back.

But Gara's problems run deeper than just his passionate dislike of companies who pay state taxes, presumably, so he can complain endlessly about how the state isn't spending enough of them.

Last month, three Democrats left the Democratic Minority Caucus to join the Republican Caucus in the House. In a recent interview on a local radio station, Gara was asked why they left his caucus.

It's been my experience that Republicans have threatened rural lawmakers with refusing to fund their capital project requests, so that may have been it, Gara told the host on KUDO radio.

Yeah that's it, the three Democrats were threatened.

Lets see; Reggie Joule a Democrat from Kotzebue got to keep his seat on the powerful House Finance Committee, Bryce Edgmon a Democrat from Dillingham was named Chair of the Fisheries Committee and Co-Chair of the Energy Committee and Bob Herron a Democrat from Bethel was named co-chair of both the Community and Regional affairs and Health & Education Committee.

Yeah that's it, the three Democrats were threatened by offering them prime committee seats.

According to Republican sources in the House, these Democrats jumped ship because they were tired of being in a caucus where they had to listen to shrill and combative voice of Les Gara. 

After the 2006 election, gone were the intelligent moderate voices of Ethan Berkowitz and Eric Croft, replaced with Gara's constant barking in the media. That's what drove a veteran Democratic statesman like Reggie Joule to change sides.

Wit-Les indeed.