Alaska Dispatch

When one of my colleagues at Bloomberg News came to Anchorage last week to report on the charges against U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, I suggested that he interview former Gov. Wally Hickel, the man who appointed Stevens to senator four decades ago. Hickel gave the reporter this juicy quote that's now grabbing state headlines: Stevens "has served Alaska for 40 years, but his time is over."

This morning I visited with Hickel at his Hotel Captain Cook and asked him about the quote. Under direction from an advisor, Hickel refrained from elaborating too much on his feelings about Stevens and the federal investigation that's snared the senator. Hickel appointed Stevens after the death of Alaska Sen. Bob Bartlett in 1968. Forty years hence, a federal grand jury has indicted Stevens on seven counts of failing to disclose more than $250,000 in gifts he received in recent years, including a major house renovation overseen by his friend, Bill Allen, the former head of VECO Corp.

"I appointed him (Stevens) for only one reason - to get the state seniority," Hickel told me today. "Ted's been alright, but now he's just going where the money goes."

I also interviewed Hickel on July 30, the day after Stevens was indicted, for a Newsweek article. At that time, he told me that he appointed Stevens "not because he was a friend but because he was a survivor. I wanted a young guy who could be back in Washington for the next 20 or 30 years so we could gain some seniority to get things done up here. And that's what he did for us."

Hickel will celebrate his 89^th birthday on Monday, but he's as feisty as ever. During my hour-long visit with the former governor, we mostly talked about his passion - the owner state, as he refers to it. "We need these resources for the people. I don't care who owns them. They are for the people," he said, pounding his left fist on his desk. The conversation drifted from his young days as a boxer fighting his way through the West to his tenure in Washington, D.C., as U.S. Secretary of Interior under the Nixon administration.

At one point, Hickel expressed his unhappiness with Gov. Sarah Palin, who last month pushed the Alaska Legislature to grant Calgary-based TransCanada an exclusive state license to build a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline. Hickel, of course, has long favored an "all-Alaska gas line," with the pipe running to Valdez, where the gas would be turned to liquid and shipped on refrigerated vessels. When Palin was running for governor in 2006, Hickel appeared in advertisements supporting her and the Alaska pipeline.

"I made her governor," Hickel told me, "but when she did that deal with the Canadians, I wrote her a letter and I told her, '˜I'm never going to support you again.' Now we've got to replace her.'"

At a time when it feels as though virtually every Alaskan politician is either under investigation or going to prison, Hickel is a reminder that the state wasn't always tainted by corruption. He may be brash and loose with his words, but there's something refreshing when he speaks his mind. As I was readying to leave his office, Hickel was still talking about managing the world's resources for "the people."

"The world is so rich, and it doesn't belong to the rich people. God didn't make it for John D. Rockefeller. He made it for the human race. And this state. It's also rich, so damn rich..."

It's guys like Hickel who've made our state rich.

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