This is the place to talk about Alaska politics -- state, local, national. Public life in the Last Frontier has probably never been more interesting than right now -- the governor as candidate for vice president, the broad and still-evolving corruption investigation, a big election, powerful members of Congress under scrutiny, and the usual hardball Alaska politics. Come here for news, tidbits and information, and join the discussion. Keep your comments civil and on point. Avoid personal attacks. Do not use profanity. Posts that violate the Terms of Use will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be banned.
Erika Bolstad
Erika Bolstad covers Alaska issues, including the congressional delegation, from Washington, D.C., for McClatchy Newspapers. Before joining the bureau in 2007, she spent seven years as a reporter at the Miami Herald, where she covered politics, government and the state legislature. E-mail Erika at ebolstad@adn.com.
Sean Cockerham
Sean Cockerham writes about Alaska state politics. He spent three years based in Juneau for the ADN before joining the Tacoma News-Tribune to write about Washington state politics. He went to Iraq twice for the News Tribune, and previously wrote about Alaska government and politics for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. E-mail Sean at scockerham@adn.com
Kyle Hopkins
Kyle Hopkins covers politics and other stories for the ADN. He covered the 2006 campaign for governor, has blogged extensively about Alaska politics, covered Anchorage city government and was a reporter based in the Mat-Su. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and previously was a reporter at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Anchorage Press. E-mail Kyle at khopkins@adn.com
At one point the races with Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young promised to be the highest-profile campaigns in Alaska history.
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The FBI raided state legislatures offices in Aug. 2006, and the fallout since has been epic in Alaska's political world.
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Photographer Marc Lester is blogging on Sarah Palin and the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis this week.
Stevens/Allen phone calls (Updated with transcripts) - 10/6/2008 12:22 pm
Congressional debate tonight - 10/6/2008 9:10 am
Palin, Obama, Ayers & Wright - 10/6/2008 8:34 am
Colberg: State employees will testify in Legislature's Troopergate inquiry (Updated) - 10/5/2008 4:08 pm
SNL - 10/5/2008 8:39 am
Berkowitz on bailout bill - 10/3/2008 7:19 pm
Palin tax returns, financial disclosure (Updated) - 10/3/2008 1:58 pm
The wink - 10/3/2008 1:00 pm
Don Young on the bailout bill - 10/3/2008 12:38 pm
Sarah Palin, St. Louis and 2012 - 10/3/2008 12:24 pm
Overnight reviews - 10/3/2008 12:07 pm
Judge's Troopergate order - 10/3/2008 9:51 am
Another name in the corruption investigation - 10/2/2008 7:18 pm
Ready, set, debate (Updated with transcript) - 10/2/2008 5:02 pm
Senate 'Debate-gate'? - 10/2/2008 4:16 pm
The controversy over the VP debate moderator - 10/2/2008 3:58 pm
(UPDATED) Troopergate hearing, Part 2 - 10/2/2008 11:42 am
Buzzword bingo - 10/2/2008 11:16 am
At the courthouse: Troopergate hearing - 10/2/2008 9:12 am
The polls - 10/2/2008 7:16 am
Palin, Biden on Roe v. Wade and church v. state - 10/2/2008 6:11 am
Palin the debater - 2006 primary - 10/1/2008 6:15 pm
Posted: August 5, 2008 - 11:08 am
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, second right, applauds as President Bush makes remarks to military personnel in Eielson AFB, Alaska. (AP/Gerald Herbert)
August 6, 2008 - 12:36am | bubbaboy
Try his eldest child, Susan, a woman universally respected in Kenai and around the State, "Wasilla Girl."
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August 6, 2008 - 6:59am | wasillagirlz
I've never seen her in my life. And, yes, Ive lived here over 40 years. Where's Ben?? I do recognize him.
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August 6, 2008 - 7:08am | pixieteeth
What season is it? 40 something?
He's busy. Some people aspire to private, Alaskan life.
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August 6, 2008 - 7:57am | wasillagirlz
To be with his dear dad? or too busy making a real living instead of living off lobbyists? Or too busy amassing money to pay for his lawywers?
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August 6, 2008 - 7:46am | Cartman3_15
like Bennie boy, are enjoying their freedom while they still have it.
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August 6, 2008 - 8:06am | pixieteeth
America the land of the FREE AND THE BRAVE
Or has it become the bastion of gulags. If you aren't in the gulag, you're outside tossing tomatos. You're the kind of people I dislike. You use your own liberty badly and act worse than carnivores to remove the liberty of others. With folks like you around, whereever you are, who would want to business with you? You can never have a good deal with a bad guy. A bad guy who's ravenous to take away the liberty of others. Real American DC.
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August 6, 2008 - 8:06pm | muzungu
Pixie, did you forget to take your meds today?
because your response to Cartman was a complete non-sequitor and makes absolutely no sense. Just whose liberty do you think Cartman desires to take away? I read no such sentiment in his comment whatsoever. But then, I can't understand how anyone can grovel at the feet of certain corrupt and arrogant indicted politicians either, so maybe it's just me.
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August 7, 2008 - 11:59am | pixieteeth
Unfortunately, some feel that each man, woman and child needs to be imprisoned at some time. So I'm for liberty of everyone aren't you? This is ostensibly "America".
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4 August 5, 2008 - 4:05pm | n0se
WORST PRESIDENT EVER
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August 6, 2008 - 12:41am | fairness
Did you forget about Jimmy Carter.....the worst president in my lifetime by far.
Then we had Slick Willie who spent more time with other women than taking care of the country. Bush inherited all his mistakes. We are still paying up here for Clinton vetoing ANWR.
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August 5, 2008 - 6:10pm | Cartman3_15
And no one is happier about it than James Buchanan!
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August 5, 2008 - 6:09pm | TheSdog
He is not even the worst president in the last century...
Jimmy Carter gets that honor.
Nixon also deserves some votes since despite liberals hatred of him he was present when a loy of ridiculous liberal legislation passed.
Liberals also hate Vietnam as much as they hate Iraq so if they hate Bush for that they should also hate JFK and LBJ who clearly created and mucked that situation up before Nixon got in office.
Better not forget FDR as well who dragged the depression along with silly programs. If it was not for WWII we might still be in the depression. Fear not though because his policy ideas live on in the entitlement attitudes of today.
Now you want to see something really bad...
Just wait for The Obama Nation.
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August 5, 2008 - 8:32pm | n0se
Give me Nixon any day over this bOzO
The only questions in my mind are why hasn't he been impeached and when is he going to be tried for his war crimes ?
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August 5, 2008 - 10:45pm | TheSdog
It is way too early to speculate on Bush's place historically.
You need to know where Iraq ends up 20 years from now to really know.
As an example....
Bill Clinton had 8 years of really nothing happening and coasted thanks to an economy churning on innovation spawned a decade earlier. He was also smart enough to get out of the way of Gingrich when he passed 80% of the Contract with America. His apathy towards Fundamentalist Islam and inability to make decisions based on anything but polls ended up causing trouble after he left office.
8 months into his presidency Bush faced 9-11. It was in the face of an economy that was set to fall harder and faster then it should have anyway because of Clinton's inaction. He has also faced his fair share of disasters and international crises.
War Crimes? Are you serious? I suppose FDR should have been tried for War Crimes because of Japanese internment camps. Or Nixon, Johnson, and Kennedy for things that happened in Vietnam?
War is ugly and you need to fight it ugly if you want to win. Our enemies certainly do not play by the rules. The US military already has decided to not recognize everything in LOAC. The whole theory has been that we should no agree to anything that works against our national interest and that is not only acceptable but necessary.
Now the historians in the ivy covered walls tend to love to be revisionists and have a left leaning bias. That will work against Bush as well as the greatest president in modern history, Ronald Reagan. It has already worked in the favor of the extremely mediocre JFK and even blunted the disaster that was Jimmy Carter.
If history is fair it will need to consider the environment that Bush had to navigate. Perspective is everything. No president exists in a vacuum and the modern American habit of looking at the short term is problematic.
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August 6, 2008 - 7:03am | n0se
Have you ever considered becoming a novelist ?
Seriously, you're good at writing fiction.
Again, we should just agree to disagree, Reagan was not the greatest President and internment camps (which were horrible and wrong) pale in comparison to the crimes that this President has committed.
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August 6, 2008 - 12:47pm | akmooster
It was Reagan's seeds that flowered for clinton, there is absolutely no doubt. The few things clinton had to deal with, he handled just okay, or poorly.
There are no war crimes, there isn't even an impeachment by the democrats. Why? Because the US acted on bad intelligence that the president AND congress believed at the time. I would still love to know why and how it came to be that tenet (clinton's cia director) said that sadaam's possession of WMD's was a slam dunk.
Bush did not have much of an opportunity to do anything he had planned to do because of 9-11 and the war. You should look at it all with less prejudice, which is why it is impossible to tell how bad he was at this point in time.
He did get rid of sadaam, and that was a very good thing for the people in Iraq who now have a struggling democracy.
On the other hand, i really think gwb was a very poor president and probably (with the bias of it being current) the worst.
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August 6, 2008 - 12:46pm | TheSdog
There are likely some German and Japanese Americans that would disagree with you.
I keep forgetting you blame him for Katrina. Look at how San Diego dealt with the fires and you begin to understand that New Orleans woes are all about local people and not Bush. Some people cry and whine like in New Orleans and others right themselves.
Bush has faced more challenges than any president in modern history. He made a huge blunder with Iraq which complicated things but not since WWII has someone had as much to deal with domestically and internationally.
Reagan is the greatest president of the 20th century. It is not even close.
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August 6, 2008 - 3:46pm | Cartman3_15
is especially prominent today.
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August 6, 2008 - 12:53pm | pixieteeth
Would anyone care for a constitutional right for lunch?
Oh, a fourth amendment who needs that...may I borrow your DNA please...I knew you wouldn't mind...any way...you have a schism of rights. Some "do's"; some "dasn't".
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August 5, 2008 - 9:25pm | Cartman3_15
for the days when the only thing to worry about were stains on the Oval Office carpet.
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August 5, 2008 - 6:21pm | Diogenes_lamp
Now that you mention it doggie...
Herbert Hoover and Bush have a lot in common.
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August 5, 2008 - 5:47pm | Diogenes_lamp
hands down the worst president ever. Ted and Ben might rank high on the most corrupt father and son contest too.
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2 August 5, 2008 - 11:19am | muzungu
It's sad to see all the sycophantic applause for our traitor-in-chief. That's why he only makes these kinds of appearances at military bases --- because the troops know that they will be disciplined if they dare show their disapproval of "der Fuhrer" (meaning Dubya, not Ted, although the confusion would be understandable).
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August 6, 2008 - 12:52pm | akmooster
you have obviously never served your country...
and you should apologize to those who are serving it now.
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August 6, 2008 - 12:40am | counterpoint
It's an all volunteer military and the majority currently serving joined after 9/11. They support their commander in chief and their country. Thank you Mr. President for keeping our country safe, even for those who wanted us to fail in Iraq for political gain. These are the same people who want a recession for the same reason. Shame.
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August 6, 2008 - 8:10pm | muzungu
for taking this country into a totally unnecessary and tragically counterproductive war --- and oh yeah, for pouring trillions of dollars down the toilet to boot. Not to mention shredding the US Constitution ("That God-damned piece of paper", in your own immortal words). Yes, thanks for everything you have done for us, you traitor and criminal!
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August 6, 2008 - 9:20pm | LilysDaddy
I'm not so sure 27 million Iraqis, living now in freedom, would agree with your assessment that the war was "...totally unnecessary and tragically counterproductive." Or is freedom and democracy just for those people you, gugu, determine deserve it?
And of course you'll be happy to cite for us one instance (just one) of President Bush "shredding" the U.S. Constitution?
Thanks.
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1 August 5, 2008 - 11:12am | Syntax
Ted is praying for a pardon while sitting next to our shadow governor.
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5 August 5, 2008 - 8:58pm | wasillagirlz
Old Man Ted
don't you like how Ted's relegated to the end of the line and next to Todd so that he's not photograhed next to Sarah Palin and he's placed next to some unnamed woman? used to be that he had "clout" and he would have been in the photo op WITH the president. Poor Ted. It's all fun and games until someone is indicted--7 times!
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