There's a terrible dynamic at work in Alaska that allows the state's politicians to do nothing to help the state solve any of its problems, as long as they promise to secure millions of federal dollars for industrial and infrastructure projects that may or may not be related to those problems. Take the state's senators, Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens. They are able to work directly and openly against their state's long and short term interests yet secure sure-thing re-elections by scaring voters with the probably true charge that Democratic challengers will not participate in the federal-funds racket to the same extent--or with as much success--as they the incumbents do.
Read that story. Stevens will undoubtedly work dog hard to get disaster relief funds for the affected people, that money will doubtlessly be spent inefficiently but will help him win re-election by an enormous margin, and meanwhile he and the junior senator will continue to obstruct federal action against climate change. Of course, the argument against this sort of Republican welfare state is a bit too complicated to make in today's media market.
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