Akidis: Lyda's Spin

We already addressed the problems with the article printed by the Fairbanks Daily News Miner, but let's assume that the quotes of Portia Babcock, Lyda's legislative aide, are accurate. The Daily News Miner asked Portia if the state's interests were served by replaced the most experienced people on the council with those who are underdeveloped and uneducated. The article reads:

Portia Babcock, Green’s chief of staff, said the state’s interests were being served. She said Green appointed the oil and gas point people under the bipartisan majority, including the chair of the Senate Resources Committee, Sen. Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla; and the co-chairs of the Senate Finance Committee, Sens. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, and Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, who is also the vice chair of Legislative Budget and Audit.“You need to develop and educate new people,” Babcock said. “That’s a good thing.”If the Legislature just keeps sending the people who already know a lot about oil and gas, it won’t expand the group of knowledgeable legislators, she added.

Portia is right to say that Sen. Davis is underdeveloped and uneducated when it comes to oil and gas issues, but fails to justify the use of valuable spots on the Energy Council as a means to "develop" and "educate." Portia, you don't appoint people to make them qualified; you appoint qualified people. Anything else is bass-ackwards and foolhardy.

The article continues

Babcock denied Dyson’s claim that the appointments amounted to “partisan politics” and noted that the majority group was bipartisan — it’s comprised of six Republicans and all nine Democrats in the 20-member Senate...

Pure spin.

Babcock also denied a suggestion by Therriault that the appointments were payback for challenging former Gov. Frank Murkowski’s gas pipeline and oil tax proposals in the last session.“Not everyone gets what they want,” she said, “and that’s just life.”

Excellent advice, Portia. It's too bad you didn't give it to Lyda when she first wanted to be Senate President.

Dyson and Therriault are two very big reasons Alaska did not get screwed over by the contracts that Murkowski was pushing on the state. Even now, their names are found on bills that hold the oil companies accountable. For an example look here.

Finally, I would ask, why didn't Lyda face the music and explain this herself? It is because she cannot lead. She has the authority to do what she did, but authority is a poor excuse for leadership. (This is not the first time Lyda conveniently avoided the firing line of the press. The last Bipolar Working Group press availability found her absent, ironically enough, after she said she signed up to co-sponsor a bill by the minority. Sen. Stevens said nothing more than that she had “another commitment.”)