Lots of you have sent me this article on Ted Stevens’ meltdown yesterday in the Senate. Stevens, who could very well be remembered as the GOP’s Dan Rostenkowski, inveighed on the Senate floor against the Coburn Amendment, which would have pulled much of the pork from that damned highway bill for use rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Stevens, who has an airport in Anchorage and about a thousand other landmarks across Alaska named for him, is notoriously corrupt (I’ll have more on Stevens next week).

But I want to focus on a passage that comes at the end of the article. It’s this one:

Lisa Murkowski, Alaska’s junior senator, defended the bridges, saying they were essential to economic development in the state. She says it was - quote - “very difficult to stand here as an Alaskan and not take this personally.”

For those of you who don’t remember, Lisa Murkowski was apopinted to the U.S Senate by her dad, Frank Murkowski, when he gave up his seat to run for governor, then got to fill it when he was elected. He filled it by appointing his daughter, naturally.

Lisa Murkowski’s choice of words ought to come back to haunt her. Because you see, for Lisa Murkowski, it really is personal.

Gravina Island (population: 50) is home to one of those $250 million bridges targeted by Coburn’s amendment. Alaska’s triumverate of greed — Rep. Dan Young, Gov. Frank Murkowski, and Sen. Ted Stevens — all say the bridge to Gravina will spur “development.” But much of Gravina is protected wilderness. In fact, just a handful of private citizens own land there. One of them happens to be Nancy Murkowski, wife of the governor, and mother of Senator Lisa Murkowski. Nancy Murkowski owns 33 acres on Gravina, valued at about $225,000. I suspect that valuation will soar once the federally-funded bridge is completed, and what little private land exists on the island begins to be eyed by developers. Oddly enough, the Murkowskis neglected to list their Gravina Island property on the financial diclosure forms requried by state law.

So I guess it shouldn’t surprise us that Lisa Murkowski takes the Coburn Amendment so personally. Part of her inheritance is at stake.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 21st, 2005 at 12:44 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.