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December 23, 2005
Editor’s Desk
by Aaron Selbig, insurgent49

     It’s been a pillorous week here at Insurgent Headquarters.

     I’m feeling an ounce of remorse at the moment. But just an ounce.

     Over the last couple of weeks, there has been no bigger topic on the radio show than the childish antics and bullying tactics of Senator “Uncle” Ted Stevens. Most of the discussion has little to do with the issue at hand (Uncle Ted’s attaching ANWR drilling to the Defense/Katrina Relief bill), and everything to do with the man himself.

     Uncle Ted, of late, has made himself even more of a lightning rod than usual. And I have not been able to resist joining the chorus from across the state and the country calling for a stop to his out-of-control behavior.

     "In the last month or two months, I've been pilloried by almost every newspaper in this country because of what's been said on this floor," said Ted in the Senate, immediately after his ANWR provision was stricken from the defense bill, "I've been called a liar. I've been told I violated the rules. I've been told I did things in the middle of the night when no one knew it. I ask the Senate, is that right? Should I lose the reputation I've gotten for 37 years in the Senate?"

     A fair question, to be sure. Is it fair to ‘pillory’ Uncle Ted, when it is undeniable that he has done an incredible amount of good for Alaska?

     Just when I’m about to answer, “Hell YES, it is!”, I read a story like this.

     And then I remember that Uncle Ted was a pilot with the Flying Tigers during WWII, earning two Distinguished Flying Crosses. And then I recall that, in 1978, he survived a horrific plane crash at the airport that is now named after him, which killed five people, including his wife.

     That Uncle Ted is one tough son of a bitch.

     And then there’s the bounty ... airports, highways, hospitals, schools, radio and TV stations ... the list is as long as the Alcan, and everywhere Alaskans look, in all corners of the state, we can see what Ted has brought us. It matters little whether we call all of this stuff ‘pork’ or not ... the benefits of his work in the Senate will survive him and all of the rest of us, leaving a tremendous foundation on which our children can build.

     I’ve never met Ted Stevens. I’ve never had the opportunity to sit down and talk with him, like I have so many other politicians and Alaskan leaders. Perhaps if I did, I would be able to relate to the stories, like the one linked above, about how Ted Stevens did everything he could to help a community, or a family, or a friend when they needed it most.

     Instead, the only story I have about Ted Stevens is this one:

     A friend of mine, who had just returned from a humanitarian mission in Palestine, got into an argument with Ted Stevens at Humpy’s in downtown Anchorage. She accused him of being unsympathetic to the plight of Palestinians. He accused her of being "brainwashed". The exchange got progressively louder and more heated until Senator Stevens, red in the face with anger, reached out his hand and jabbed two fingers into her chest, forcing her backward.

     This was a couple of years ago ... right around the time when Uncle Ted’s behavior in Washington started to take a turn for the bizarre.

     First he was ‘clinically depressed’. Then he was threatening to retire if the “bridges to nowhere” didn’t get their earmarks (they didn’t and neither did he). Then he acted the part of ‘enabler’ to a sorry group of deceitful oil company execs, allowing them to boldly lie to Congress. And now, with his cheap and mean-spirited trick of attaching ANWR drilling to a hurricane relief bill at the last possible second, Ted Stevens has gone too far.

    He is an embarrassment to all Alaskans and he should make good on his promise to retire.

     Only then will we be able to truly honor his legacy, untarnished by his actions of late.










Regards,
Aaron Selbig
Editor, Insurgent Media AK
- Columnists -

Editor's Desk
by Aaron Selbig

Red Alert
by Soren Wuerth

Alaskan In Exile
by Neil Zawicki

The
Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford





- also by this writer -

Stop Requested

Drunk Until Proven Sober
Copyright 2005 Insurgent Media. All rights reserved.
in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which  revolts against the policies of its leadership.