THE DAILY BLADE: Lisa Murkowski’s Fish Stories
By Lemonfemale
The New York Times’ Deborah Solomon’s latest Q&A interview of erstwhile Sen. Lisa Murkowski was not only insulting to Alaskans – starting with the headline, “Northern Exposure,” which refers to a short-lived sit-com supposedly set in the Mat Valley that was very popular Outside, but universally excoriated here for how little it resembled the real Alaska - but Murkowski told more than one fish story. Here, the relevant bits of the interview, along with my comments:
Deborah Solomon: Do you find this moment reminiscent of your father’s loss to Palin four years ago?
LM: We had seen his numbers going south at that point in time, so it was not unexpected. It was not what we experienced here on Aug. 24 where the rug literally was pulled out from underneath.
[Note: Frank Murkowski’s numbers were so bad, he took out a full-page campaign ad in the Juneau Empire and Anchorage Daily News conceding that he was as popular as a skunk at a garden party: "I agree. I admit it. I'm a long, long way from perfect. At one time or another I've made the whole state mad at me. Maybe I should consider a personality transplant.”]
DS: Palin and her fellow Tea people basically presented you, your father and your mentor, the late Ted Stevens, as representatives of a self-serving elite.
LM: Yes, but you’ve got to remember now, this is a person who had supported Ted Stevens for a long period of time before she changed her mind. She supported my father before she changed her mind.
[Note: Only after a jury convicted Stevens of several felonies, did Palin suggest that he ought to resign. It wasn’t the horrible turncoat thing that Murkowski makes it out to be.]
DS: Her most famous boast when she was the vice-presidential candidate was that she sold the private plane that your father wasted taxpayers’ money on when he was governor.
LM: It actually belonged to the state of Alaska, the state trooper’s office, and this is the story that never gets told, but we would transport prisoners who needed to go to a federal penitentiary in Arizona, because we didn’t have one here in the state of Alaska.
[Note: It was a $2.7 million executive jet that cost $1,689 an hour to fly, unsuitable to ferry prisoners. And most air strips would not accommodate the plane, so it would have been limited to places with real airports. Finally, the Legislature didn’t think it was needed and refused to buy it, so her father financed it by selling off a state police King Air turboprop and entering into a lease-purchase agreement for the balance of the purchase price.]
DS: It is often said that you lack charisma. Do you hunt or fish? Palin really milked that.
LM: All right. I want you to go on my official Web site. I want you to look at the picture of me holding my 63-pound king salmon.
DS: What about a moose? I think you need a moose to win an election in this country.
LM: My fish is bigger than anybody else’s fish out there. My fish is so big that I was one of the answers on “Jeopardy!” with the picture of my fish.
[Note: Murkowski caught that salmon July 7, 2006 during the annual Kenai River Classic. It was the second-largest king salmon caught during the event. I guess Solomon doesn’t fact-check what her interview sources tell her. Also, if you need to shoot a moose to win public office around here, Wayne Ross would have been elected governor (the living room of his Tudor-style home was designed to accommodate a moose head with antlers 70 inches wide). I should disclose that I know Ross personally. He does legal work for Alaska Right to Life and defended me and a few others who got arrested after a sit-in; I take homemade bagels to him every Christmas].
In Memoriam
Stephen J. Cannell, February 5, 1941 – September 30, 2010
Editorial Note: As much as The Stiletto loved such Cannell classics as “The Rockford Files,” “Riptide” and “Wiseguy,” she most looked forward to his clever production logo at the end of each episode.
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