By ALEX GIMARC
If you play sports long enough, you eventually play against (or with) someone who is viewed as a dirty player.
In basketball, this is generally seen as throwing elbows or undercutting you when you drive, shoot or rebound. Sometimes the foul is called. Usually, it isn’t. Your first job is to make sure you don’t get hurt. Your second is to make sure the miscreant suffers sufficient painful return fire that he (or she) chooses to apply their dirty skills elsewhere.
President Donald Trump, true to his word, signed an executive order this week restoring the name of Mount McKinley.
This was return fire to Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s loud promise to install herself as the “resident opposition” to Trump during his second term.
Lisa’s problem is that in this case, Trump is correct, as McKinley was renamed by President Barack Obama by fiat in 2015. Obama himself announced the name change during a visit summer to Alaska that year. This was part of his governing via pen and phone initiative as he was pandering to every Native American entity at the expense of the interests of anyone who was not Native.
The problem with the renaming by Obama is that the name McKinley was set into stone during ANILCA (Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act) in 1980. It was a compromise when the smallish park surrounding the mountain was expanded to the current Denali National Park and Preserve.
Congress, including Senators Ted Stevens, Frank Murkowski, and Congressman Don Young hammered out a compromise that retained the name of the mountain as McKinley. President Jimmy Carter signed the legislation Dec 1980, one month before Ronald Reagan took office.
If Congress sets the name for this particular rock, it is up to Congress to change it. If the delegation offers a simple piece of legislation to rename it once again and gets it through Congress either as stand-alone legislation or as an amendment, I expect Trump will sign it.
This is not the first time Trump brought up renaming McKinley, as he reportedly asked the delegation (Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan and Don Young) in 2016 if he should rename it. They said no, and he dropped it for that term in office.
This is where returning fire against dirty players comes in.
Lisa has been out there throwing rhetorical (and other) elbows at Trump ever since the release of the Billy Bush tape intended to take him out of the presidential race Oct 2016. Her latest foray after the election was to demand FBI background checks for all Trump nominees, while ignoring the FBI’s devolution into a partisan secret police force. Her comments in December about leaving the Republican party didn’t help either.
It is not a surprise that Lisa was not prominently mentioned in relation to Trump’s EO reversing Biden’s closure of Alaska to mining, oil and natural gas. It is unknown at this time how much she participated, leaving one to wonder that if she is allowing personal animus against Trump to get in the way of her job of furthering the interests of Alaska in Congress. If so, why pray tell is she in DC?
Renaming McKinley was a sharp elbow in the chest, return fire from someone Lisa has been tossing elbows at for the last 8 years.
Keep this up, Lisa, and the next one will be in the chops.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
I would say it’s more about Obama, then again Lisa and Obama are just different brands of the same product.
Either way, most of us don’t think it’s that great that Trump is toying with Alaska out of his petty personal grievances. And a petty dictator is what 49.7% of this country voted for, so let’s just rename New Mexico to Trumpistan and move the capital to Texas, or Mar-a-Lago. Our leadership isn’t about country, it’s about personal power, including extracting a pound of flesh over perceived slights. Alex’s commentary here sounds like he supports Trump getting even with Murkowski–or Obama, as suggested here–so maybe this is exactly what he expected with his reelection.
I’m indifferent to the name change, but all for Trump going full NYC on her.
I thought she was leaving the GOP. How can we miss her if she won’t go away?
“…….I thought she was leaving the GOP……..
She won’t leave until the party cuts her off from party funds, and she has nowhere to go but the retirement home.
Alaska’s congressional representation for years fought to change the name to Denali. In the House Don Young would fight for it, and it was blocked by Ohio representatives.
During his first term, Trump wanted to change the name. Dan Sulivan and Lisa Murkowski said not to. Both. Alaskans support the name Denai 2 to 1. So because Trump is mad at Lisa he is making the change? didn’t this state vote for him 3 times now? Why is he not listening to the representatives of the state? Dan, Lisa, and Nick have not supported changing it back. If this is him getting back after a “hard foul” then why is he doing it against his own team.
He’s a bully
They do what they want
Bet none of them got grabbed.
And, yeah, Lisa’s an opportunistic contrarian, only being a crank when she thinks she can get away with it. You’ll see much more of a Republican Lisa during this admin.
Her training is complete. She has honed her ability to be a political succubus to both the Democrat and Republican parties with equal enthusiasm.
Good analysis, Mr. Gimarc. Alaska’s nepo-senator was treated very well by president No. 45 in his administration of Alaska’s federal lands. But could Murky be reasonably grateful, and at least vote to confirm a great justice to the U.S. Supreme Court? Noooo. And we know the rest of that story, which includes her vote to confirm the court’s DEI justice, the lightweight jurist Katanji Brown Jackson.
Anyhow, I prefer the name ‘Denali,’ as do the majority of us Alaskans. I plan to just keep on referring to that great big ol’ hill as ‘Denali.’ It’s so simple that any Neanderthal senator could do it.
Hasalaska, I disagree with you. I have always and will forever always call Mt. McKinley exactly that, and I believe that it is mostly just radical leftists and others who desire to pander to the dysfunctional but political over-influential native element in Alaska who wish to call it “Denali”.
majority? sure about that?
oh, you are always a hoot. never correct but fun to see your foolishness.
Alex,
Thanks for the history lesson on ANILCA.
It’s always been Mt. McKinley for me. Probably cause I’m old.
Trump merely reinstalled the LEGAL name for the mountain as it was agreed to with the 1980 ANILCA agreement. Oddly, it is Donald Trump that knows the law here – this requires a movement from congress.
Did someone just pull a salmon from the net?
She has “the look” again.
Princess Lisa ALWAYS has that look.
I’ve pulled happier-looking salmon from my dipnet many times.
That “look” used to be a lost deer in the road staring at the headlights. Now, it’s that look of a deer laying on the side of the road wondering what happened to all the other smart deer who no longer come to the road at all.
Not nice.
You are right, Greg.
Princess Lisa is never nice. Nor does she ever look nice.
“…….The problem with the renaming by Obama is that the name McKinley was set into stone during ANILCA (Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act) in 1980……..”
Great catch. So let’s continue the “Rename the Mountain” game until the fools get tired.
I’m game………….
Let’s put it on the next Ballot, let Alaskans decide … Yes or No. Given Trump swept Alaskans with 55% of the vote, I’m betting we’ll see Mt. McKinley restored! However, I’m quite positive Daddy’s Little Princess doesn’t want to see that outcome!
I thought he campaigned with inflation as his main focus. I haven’t seen grocery prices drop yet nor the Ukraine war ending as promised. There is no time to waste on petty issues such as this mountains name. We’re not in the 3rd grade anymore!
Trump campaigned with border security as his main focus. The U.S. Army has already been sent down there to stop the flow.
Lisa asked me if she should float a proposal in the US Senate to rename Mt. Edgcumbe to Mt. Murkowski. Sure, why not, was my reply. But not after me, after Lisa. An extinct old volcano crater seems like a nice fit for her. Mt. Murkowski. A low IQ mound that looks as old as the hills.
….and took as long to pass the Bar Exam as it took nature to create the hills. A tired, worn look is what’s left of Lisa.
Very good article, Alex.
Good She needs it
If Trump is throwing elbows, then I hope he connects with Lisa and knocks some sense into her. I guess you can crap in one hand and hope in the other and see which hand gets filled first. Lisa would rather choke and die that take sides with Donald J. Trump. That’s why I like watching her. It’s so fun to see her lose her mind whenever he says or does anything.
Murkowski is a complete obstructionist to all things truly needed in Alaska and she is going to ultimately cause Alaska to pay a price.
Trump asserts his white power credo, landmarks should be named only after white leaders.
I saw a truck driving around Fairbanks. It was a white Ford F350 diesel. The windshield banner said “WhitePowerStroke”. LMFAO!
Ha ha ha.
To heck with Murkowski, she needs to go, but changing the name of OUR mountain is just wrong! I’m glad President Trump was elected, but he has NO RIGHT whatsoever to change the name from the Athabaskan name of Denali! This is disrespectful to Alaska natives, and to Alaskans all around! Stay on YOUR side of the road, Mr. President!
In two years when running for re-election Nick will be running away from his comments, a real Alaskan will always call Denali by it’s traditional name
could you provide us with the legislation casting the name Mckinley in stone? I just read the full text of ANILCA and did not see that. It appears to me that the total Alaska legislation was never onboard with a compromise. It appears Ralph Regula spent the better part of his career blocking the name change through a procedural maneuver. In 1999 Don young introduced a bill to change the name of Mount Mckinley. In Don Young fashion:
“I respectfully suggest the gentleman from Ohio redesignate a federal forest or similar landmark of his district after President McKinley if he wishes to honor this great president’s memory,” Young said.
Don Young would of probably said the same to Trump
Public Law No. 353 established Mount McKinley National Park and became law on February 26, 1917 – the original withdrawal was “dedicated and set apart as a public park for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, under the name of the Mount McKinley National Park.” This did not give the mountain that name but it recognized it had been given that name, as did ANILCA, which renamed the (enlarged) area Denali National Park and Preserve. I am not sure either action by Congress would support a claim that only Congress, and not the President, can name the mountain.
I got this! Let’s just call it Mount McNali. Ok, group hug!
Good one!
Im calling it that from now on. Group hug!
I understand “Denali” is an Athabascan word. What is it called in Yupik? Tlingit?
Treating the tribes as a single entity is foolish. It’s what the liberals tried to do with Hispanics as well. They lump people into categories and tell them how to think.
Whites do it all the time.
This is closer to the issue at hand:
how this order reflects the racism of Trump, or his desire to stoke those embers, for political purposes.
You are wrong on both points. Pres Trump is not a racist, that is just an attempt at smears and character assassination made up by people with TDS. Plenty of p
All kinds of people who actually know him have said that it isn’t true.
P.S. Trump WON. GET OVER IT and move on.
I looked up the origin of the Mt. McKinley name in Alaska,Saga of a Bold Land. It turns out to have been named by a gold prospector, William A. Dickey. Here is the account on Page 220 of Walter A. Borneman’s book: “Then in January 1897, the New York Sun published a dispatch from a prospector named William A. Dickey, who had spent the latter half of 1896 prospecting in the Susitna River Valley at the head of Cook Inlet. More than a little presumptuously–this was, after all, only a private prospecting party–Dickey wrote, “We named our great peak Mount McKinley after William McKinley of Ohio, who had been nominated for the Presidency, and that fact was the first news we received on our way out of that wonderful wilderness. By the time Dickey’s dispatch was published, McKinley was president-elect. Later, Dickey’s rationalization for the name was that he was tired of the guff from free-silver prospectors and had chosen McKinley, a solid supporter of the gold standard.” Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land, Walter A. Borneman First Edition, published 2003. Harper-Collins publishers
Let’s just name it Mount Trump the Great–I’m sure Dunleavy, Sullivan, and Begich III will support that wholeheartedly and we can screw over Murkowski and the people who live there. Hell, maybe they can even find a little funding from Medicaid to divert to creating a Rushmore-like monument at 20,000 feet.
A great idea I fully support, but the Rushmore like monument should have both Presidents Trump and Mckinley and should be facing Murkowski’s house with hands waving so she could see them every day. Disagree that ir would screw over people who live here. I would smile every day.
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