Wally Hickel and Sarah Palin's Betrayal - Geoffrey Dunn at The Mudflats

[Blue_In_AK]

http://www.themudflats.net/2010/05/09/voices-from-the-flats-wally-hickel-and-sarah-palins-betrayal/

The death of Walter J. “Wally” Hickel (1919-2010) in Anchorage this past Friday marks the end of a remarkable era, not only in Alaska, but throughout the entire United States.

The two-time Governor of the Last Frontier (elected once as a Republican in the 1960s, the second time as an Independent in 1990) and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior under Richard Nixon was a larger than life figure, a legend in his own time, whose driving ambitions and relentless personal energy helped to both shape and define Alaska’s 50 years of statehood. He had arrived in Anchorage in 1940 with 37 cents in his pocket, and it proved to be all the stake he would ever need. His robust spirit and seemingly boundless energy assured his success, not only in Alaska’s bare-knuckle politics, but in the arenas of business and public policy as well.

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But when I asked Hickel about then governor Sarah Palin, his disposition turned hard. Hickel had played a major role in her victory as governor in the 2006 election–his stamp of approval went a long way toward getting her elected–and he expected a place at the table with the young governor as she was set to guide Alaska into the New Millenium.

In the immediate aftermath of Palin’s election, however, Palin cast Hickel aside. As anyone who has ever worked with or for Sarah Palin knows full well, her capacity for deceit and betrayal knows no bounds. She stabbed Hickel in the back.

As a result, Hickel viewed Palin with personal disdain, describing her “political opportunism” in the most condemnatory terms possible. He had lost all respect for her. She “used” him like she would use many other patrons as she scratched and lied her way to a strange form of national political celebrity, and Hickel was not afraid to call it like he saw it. He was not bitter–he was a much bigger man than that–but at the same time, he was not afraid to show his disgust. “I don’t give a damn about her,” he told me.

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Not surprisingly, Palin did not dignify Hickel’s passing with a formal acknowledgment on her Facebook page, but instead issued a shameful and shallow “reflection” on Twitter in her distinctive Palinese:

Upon his passing,we honor Gov Walter Hickel’s life,he made real difference in the world.Unsurpassed impacts on Alaska,the Arctic&her people

That was it. Palin was well aware of Hickel’s disdain, and she could not rise above her pettiness to issue the formal acknowledgment that his life and career warranted.

Indeed, these two figures represent the anithesis of Arctic politics. Whereas Hickel was a man whose destiny was always greater that his own, Palin’s has always been wrapped up in her own self-interest. Whereas Palin is all about style, Hickel was a man of substance. In the end, the shadow of his political legacy in the Last Frontier will forever loom long beyond that of Sarah Palin’s. His was real and transcendent–while hers is small and remains nothing but a fantasy.