The very sad death of former Alaska Republican senator Ted Stevens in an airplane accident in remote Alaska highlights for me the unique perils of life in that state, namely that the land is so rough, the roads and rail systems so (necessarily) inadequate, that there are many places in the state that are accessible only by airplane.
A culture has thus developed in which many people own small planes, and they fly them in all kinds of weather. I remember my visit there, in 1985 I think. We now have in America the big-box stores like Costco and Sam's Club where you can buy a 24-pack of paper towels. But those didn't exist in America then.
Except in Alaska. It was a stunning sight, on the outskirts of Anchorage, to walk into a store the size of two or three airplane hangars where customers could buy paper towels not just by the dozens but by the gross. They had to sell things that way because a fair number of shoppers could get to Anchorage only a few months out of the year. People could drive (when the roads permitted) or fly to that store. I was there in November, and the roads were about to be impassable for months.
Stevens never put his name on any major legislation that I'm aware of in all his years in the Senate. He was considered policy-smart and was well-prepared for hearings, as I understood things.
But he was instead mostly a home-state guy, which was understandable. He was from a wilderness, and he helped build it into a state. If the "Bridge to Nowhere" was his, well, so was Anchorage's International Airport, about which there was nothing shady, and many other projects like it. As you know, I'm pro-pork, or pro-reasonable pork, and if I defended Bob Byrd's useful projects, I will also defend Stevens'.
