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Title: Wally Hickel and Sarah Palin's Betrayal
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URL Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoff ... kel-and-sarah-pa_b_569419.html
Published: May 9, 2010
Author: Geoffrey Dunn
Post Date: 2010-05-09 21:17:28 by Skip Intro
Keywords: None
Views: 44011
Comments: 124
Wally Hickel and Sarah Palin's Betrayal
The death of Walter J. "Wally" Hickel (1919-2010) in Anchorage this past Friday marks the end of a remarkable era, not only in Alaska, but throughout the entire United States.
The two-time Governor of the Last Frontier (elected once as a Republican in the 1960s, the second time as an Independent in 1990) and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior under Richard Nixon was a larger than life figure, a legend in his own time, whose driving ambitions and relentless personal energy helped to both shape and define Alaska's 50 years of statehood. He had arrived in Anchorage in 1940 with 37 cents in his pocket, and it proved to be all the stake he would ever need. His robust spirit and seemingly boundless energy assured his success, not only in Alaska's bare-knuckle politics, but in the arenas of business and public policy as well.
Born in Kansas in 1919, Hickel was raised in an era when a handshake secured a deal and a commitment still meant something. He was a casual friend of my great uncle, an Italian fish vendor from California of the same generation, and they lived their lives under a code of conduct defined by integrity and an unyielding loyalty to friends and allies. Hickel was forced out of the Nixon White House after criticizing Nixon's handling of student protests during the Vietnam War. "Regardless of how I, or any American, might feel individually, we have an obligation as leaders to communicate with our youth and listen to their ideas and problems," he wrote. He refused to compromise his personal ethics.
I spent a fascinating morning with Hickel this past summer, in the office of his downtown Anchorage landmark, the Captain Cook Hotel, and he was every bit as dignified and gracious as he was when I first encountered him 35 years earlier in Anchorage, then a raw and wild oil town.
As he approached his 90th birthday, his grip was still strong and his "boomer" vision of Alaska remained his passion. A former boxer, he looked like he could still go a few rounds and I wouldn't want to cross him. He may have lost some of his intellectual edge after nine decades, but his spirit remained undaunted, his eyes bright, particularly when his bride of 67 years, Ermalee, later joined us in the conversation.
Hickel was still pushing his vision of an "owner state"--articulated in his book Crisis in the Commons: The Alaska Solution--and he remained upbeat about the possibilities facing Alaska. He was convinced that the "Age of the Artic" was still ahead and he still believed in "big ideas."
But when I asked Hickel about then governor Sarah Palin, his disposition turned hard. Hickel had played a major role in her victory as governor in the 2006 election--his stamp of approval went a long way toward getting her elected--and he expected a place at the table with the young governor as she was set to guide Alaska into the New Millenium.
In the immediate aftermath of Palin's election, however, Palin cast Hickel aside. As anyone who has ever worked with or for Sarah Palin knows full well, her capacity for deceit and betrayal knows no bounds. She stabbed Hickel in the back.
As a result, Hickel viewed Palin with personal disdain, describing her "political opportunism" in the most condemnatory terms possible. He had lost all respect for her. She "used" him like she would use many other patrons as she scratched and lied her way to a strange form of national political celebrity, and Hickel was not afraid to call it like he saw it. He was not bitter--he was a much bigger man than that--but at the same time, he was not afraid to show his disgust. "I don't give a damn about her," he told me.
I found his candor refreshing. Not only did he view Palin as a political parvenu, he viewed her as a puppet. "She's not her own woman," he said to me several times. He was strongly opposed to her plans for a TransCanada pipeline--he did not believe it would ever be built--and he championed instead an All Alaska gas-line project from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. In a stinging opinion piece he wrote a year ago this week, he declared, "If I were governor, we would start building the All-Alaska gas line tomorrow. All it takes is some guts and a decision."
It didn't take much to read between those lines.
When I asked him for a formal, on-the-record response to Palin's stunted career as governor, he took a deep pause. "She fell in love with the national spotlight and lost her ethical compass," he said thoughtfully. "That was a sad day for Alaska and America."
In the aftermath of Palin's resignation, Hickel wrote a prescient opinion piece for the Anchorage Daily News (where he was a regular contributor until just last month), in which he expressed his criticism of Palin for being a polarizing figure along both class and racial lines during the national campaign. He urged her "to rise above the worn-out, negative tactics of presidential politics and assume the role of stateswoman."
While acknowledging his initial support for Palin's nomination, he expressed his horror at the divisive nature of her political rhetoric:
Palin became the spokesperson for the divisive voices in American politics. She dismissed the greatness of our immigrant heritage, indeed of today's Alaska, where in Anchorage alone nearly 100 languages are spoken in the homes of the children in our public schools.
Not surprisingly, Palin did not dignify Hickel's passing with a formal acknowledgment on her Facebook page, but instead issued a shameful and shallow "reflection" on Twitter in her distinctive Palinese:
Upon his passing,we honor Gov Walter Hickel's life,he made real difference in the world.Unsurpassed impacts on Alaska,the Arctic&her people[sic]
That was it. Palin was well aware of Hickel's disdain, and she could not rise above her pettiness to issue the formal acknowledgment that his life and career warranted.
Indeed, these two figures represent the anithesis of Arctic politics. Whereas Hickel was a man whose destiny was always greater that his own, Palin's has always been wrapped up in her own self-interest. Whereas Palin is all about style, Hickel was a man of substance. In the end, the shadow of his political legacy in the Last Frontier will forever loom long beyond that of Sarah Palin's. His was real and transcendent--while hers is small and remains nothing but a fantasy.
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Were you banned from there also?
#85. To: Fred Mertz (#77)
Hey Tull, say hi to critter, O_I, former lurker, and a few others from me.
Reinstate yourself and say hello when u want.
#86. To: Tull (#85)
You won't last here beyond this weekend. I guarantee it.
#87. To: Fred Mertz (#86)
Shall we bet?
#88. To: Fred Mertz (#84)
Lets just say after fu, I wasn't welcome...no big deal!
#89. To: Murron (#88)
Let me know if you want to meet up at Churchill Downs in a few weeks. You know why.
#90. To: Fred Mertz (#89)
Sorry to hear you were banned from 4UM Fredo, miss seeing your ugly horse stink of a carcass.
#91. To: Murron (#88)
I know you missed me. Please, control yourself; no swooning.
#92. To: Fred Mertz (#89)
Opps, forgot about the pie. There, much better.
#93. To: FredJerx, Tull (#57)
#57. To: Tull (#54)Get the fuck out of here. You're not welcome here.
Fred Mertz posted on 2010-05-10 22:14:08 ET Reply Trace Private Reply
Piss off Jerx......want to make the rules get that stallions last foot out of your exhaust pipe and set up your own site......bwwwaaaahhhhhaaaaaa!!!!
Just imagine the sludge that'll line your membership huh???
Welcome Tull....anyone opposite the lockstepping floorlicking neanderthal brownshirt obamatards that stink up AKA's site (thinking they make the entry rules) has GOT to be welcome here.
Death to everybody who does not get outta my way. And the latest Eisteinian revelation from LF's resident Barack poodleboy...AKA Admiral Dwarf who has "shot at living things"...."Yeah, and Oswald was a right winger, too. He was... war posted on 2010-03-22 20:12:36
#94. To: Fred Mertz (#60)
I know.
I can see NOVEMBER from my House....
#95. To: mininggold (#64)
I was subtly warned by two posters there that the two sacred cows are Tull and Cynicon.
Do you believe Cynicom is who he represents himself to be. I suspect he isn't.
#96. To: A K A Stone (#95)
Cynicom
He couldn't take LP because he routinely had his arguments ridiculed.
#67. To: war (#48) Keep hiding behind the bozo, bozo. (laughing) You've always been a world class pussy. Badeye posted on 2010-01-14 16:12:48 ET Reply Trace
#97. To: A K A Stone (#95)
Cynicom
He's a pompous cuss.
#98. To: A K A Stone (#95)
Do you believe Cynicom is who he represents himself to be. I suspect he isn't.
He said he worked for the FBI and various other LE agencies much like your manipulative newest invite.
I do believe that the Bushees and political groups hired lots of opinion shapers to massage the medium called the internet. A couple of TANGI's a few years back told me that when out in the community they were contacted by companies and offered the free use of computers and a small salary to go on the internet and post crap. Neither took up the offers.
Making the world safe for United Fruit.
#99. To: mininggold (#98)
I do believe that the Bushees and political groups hired lots of opinion shapers to massage the medium called the internet.
Hard to get through the day without a conspiracy theory, isn't it kookie?
(laughing)
I can see NOVEMBER from my House....
#100. To: Badeye (#99)
Hard to get through the day without a conspiracy theory, isn't it kookie?
It's a proven one and already caught a fish.
Making the world safe for United Fruit.
#101. To: Ferret Mike, A K A Stone (#91)
"I know you missed me. Please, control yourself; no swooning."
#102. To: Murron (#101)
Did you tie that knot yourself?
#103. To: mininggold (#98)
Neil pegged the Boofer as a paid poster. It certainly explained more than left open for questioning.
#67. To: war (#48) Keep hiding behind the bozo, bozo. (laughing) You've always been a world class pussy. Badeye posted on 2010-01-14 16:12:48 ET Reply Trace
#104. To: Murron (#101)
Looks like the noose a silly goose like you would tie. A noose is supposed to have 13 wraps.
Do better next time, you will be graded on how well you do this.
Also, for a fathead like you love, you need to double up the neck loop.
#105. To: Ferret Mike (#104)
"Looks like the noose a silly goose like you would tie. A noose is supposed to have 13 wraps."
You're right, it's 13 for women, 10 for leftwing, tree hugging faggots....
"And the Secret Service is in the modus to investigate the remotest possibility of a threat environment endangering someone on their 'A' list of whom they look out for".~ Corn Flake Girl aka Ferret Mike
#106. To: Murron (#105)
hee hee, sure thing, fatso. Frankly love, I would not care a bit if I had turned out that way. Homosexuals do not bother me.
So you did the absolutely expected, I am shocked.... not. ;-D
#107. To: Tull, Fred Mertz (#87)
Shall we bet?
You won Fred. The pussy went and changed his id here again.
That makes three so far by my count.
#108. To: Skip Intro (#107)
I changed one of his names to Jethro Tull. I didn't tell him so he made another one. He found out and started using Jethro Tull. No problem.
#109. To: A K A Stone (#108)
What about 20 Percent Unemployment? Wasn't he using that at the same time he was posting here as Jethro Tull?
"#1. To: 20 Percent Unemployment (#0)
Same IP as Jethro Tull. Go away asswipe.
A K A Stone posted on 2010-05-09 14:16:47 ET"
It looks like you didn't have to invite him here after all. He was here already.
#110. To: Skip Intro (#109) (Edited)
I switched the name 20 percent on him to Jethro Tull. If you notice all those posts by 20 percent are now attached to Jethro Tull. He didn't know I did that so he made a new name "tull".
#111. To: lucysmom (#51)
What's up with banning posters on one site and then going to another site to engage the posters you've banned? Doesn't make sense to me.
It would if you were a sociopath.
#112. To: A K A Stone (#110)
If you notice all those posts by 20 percent are now attached to Jethro Tull.
Which shows he's been here since January.
#113. To: Ferret Mike, Murron (#106)
Homosexuals do not bother me.
Especially when they are behind you!
Sneakypete, have you ever been married? Said things you later regretted?
#114. To: Skip Intro (#112)
I hope he slithers away. He will in due time.
#115. To: Fredo Mertz (#114)
No way Fredo....
#116. To: Fred Mertz (#114)
I hope he slithers away. He will in due time.
He's hoping Stone will give him access to the ban button like he has at 4um.
#117. To: Skip Intro (#116)
I can't believe Stoner let him here since he banned Stoney at 4um.
What a soap opera...
#118. To: Fred Mertz (#117)
I can't believe Stoner let him here since he banned Stoney at 4um.
He was already here using the name 20 Percent Unemployment. He's been here since January.
#119. To: Skip Intro (#118)
He'll soon be gone.
#120. To: Fredo Mertz (#119)
He'll soon be gone.
No way Jose. Stone begged me to come, and here I be! Ask him.
#121. To: Jethro Tull (#120)
Stone begged me to come, and here I be!
But you were already here. You lied to Stone.
oh, forgot. bout your dead mom. You don't have her propped up in the sun room, ala Bates in Psycho, do you? (chuckle) - Boofer
#122. To: Jethro Tull (#120)
I wouldn't say i begged you. I did ask you though.
#123. To: Fred Mertz (#117)
The more the merrier Fred. We all get mad sometimes.
#124. To: A K A Stone (#123)
I'm not asking you to ban him. I'm just saying he's a fuckhead.
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