Four Out Of Five Alaskans Agree: This Is Wacky, Even For Us

Alaska is a difficult place to figure out if you’re not an Alaskan. Just ask anyone from The Last Frontier — or the fictional doctors that get marooned there by astronauts. “It’s An Alaskan Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand” could be the state’s official t-shirt, and doubtless most Alaskans would gladly wear one.

But in the 24 hours since Gov. Sarah Palin’s surprise resignation, Alaskans and Outsiders (as natives call any of us not hailing from Seward’s Folly) have finally found some common ground. Editorial pages, columnists and blogs across the state agree with their brethren in the Lower 48 : Palin’s resignation is an enigma at best and a harbinger of future scandal at worst.

From the Anchorage Daily News, the state’s largest paper:

“Gov. Palin baffled Alaskans with her explanation that, having decided not to seek a second term, she doesn’t want to be a lame duck until December 2010. That explanation is more lame than the duck. The governor spoke as if her decision not to seek a second term automatically left her irrelevant, when the fact is that the rest of her term’s quality was up to her … It’s one thing when an elected official tries for higher office, wins and leaves the old post. It’s another when an elected official, eyeing higher office or some other pursuit, decides to quit in midterm. That looks like self-service, not public service. Lacking any other family or political reasons for resigning, the governor’s explanation simply doesn’t make sense.”

Over at his blog, ‘06 Palin gubernatorial opponent/political observer Andrew Halcro — the man who added “Troopergate” to the lexicon about Palin last year — suggests, like many journos Down Here, that Palin’s resignation was an attempt to pull a John Ensign-esque attempt at CYA.

The oddest thing about Palin’s resignation is that if there isn’t a brewing scandal on the verge of rearing its head, then quitting her job with sixteen months to go represents the antithesis of Sarah Palin.

Halcro includes a tick-tock of the annoucement day in Alaska that he suggests backs up his claims there’s more than meets the eye on the Palin resignation.

A day of interviews with some of Palin’s closest allies on various media outlets, including her own brother, showed that they didn’t know about the decision until this morning. Palin’s commissioners had no idea and Lt. Governor Parnell was told Wednesday night. In addition, earlier this morning I received an email from a friend who wrote, “I just heard from some of my friends that Todd was in Dillingham fishing and had to quickly abandon his boat and leave other people in charge of the setnet to get back to Sarah, doesn’t sound like a planned resignation.”

On its editorial page, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner is one of the few outlets in the state — or the country — to praise Palin on her decision.  But it’s not exactly the kind of praise that’s likely to be found on future campaign literature.

Palin’s decision to resign from office later this month is a good decision for the state of Alaska. The governor seems to have lost interest in the job and is doing the state a favor by quitting now … The most telling evidence that she now cares more about herself than finishing out the job she was elected to came in her galling failure to explain exactly why she is resigning. She owes Alaskans a real explanation, not the offered “reason” that she doesn’t want to be a lame-duck governor and have to take lots of trips like lame-duck governors do.

One legislator I spoke with yesterday, state Sen. Bill Wielechowski (D-Anchorage), agreed with the news outlets’ take. Rather than add a Palin-style outside-the-box closing chapter to Palin’s Alaska political career, the announcement has left Alaska politicans scratching their heads rather than considering her legacy. “I suspect this question will linger for months to come,” he said when asked to speculate on her motives. “There are all sorts of rumors floating around,” he said.

The confuison was bipartisan. “I’ve talked with Republicans and Democrats,” Wielechowski said. “And nobody saw this coming now.”

Still, there was one silver lining, the senator said. With Palin soon to be out of the way, he said Alaskans are hoping their state can return to its status as our crazy uncle who lives in the garage.

“I don’t think many Alaskans would mind that, quite frankly,” he said.  “We’re up here for a reason.  We like our privacy.  We like to go out and camp and hunt and fish, and really don’t like Outsiders telling us how to live or think. (No offense).”