Fritz Pettyjohn: Our new congressman was elected on merit to serve in an exciting time

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Nick and Dharna Begich

By FRITZ PETTYJOHN

It’s better to be lucky than good. It’s best to be both. Our new congressman got elected on merit, and he’s lucky to be a member of the 119th Congress. The next two years will be the most exciting time of his life, and the most productive. I admit I’m a little jealous.

He’ll be treated well by the Republican leadership. He took a seat away from the Democrats, and they want to see him to keep it. And they know that developing Alaska’s resource wealth is a key not only to energy dominance, but to the overall health of the American economy. Prosperity is good politics.

It’s true, I believe, that he has yet to develop any rapport with President Donald Trump. He lost to Mary Peltola two years ago only because of the vainglorious Sarah Palin, who was a Trump candidate.

Trump only endorsed him this year after he beat the candidate Trump did want, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom. But it is in the mutual interest of both men that the other succeed, and self-interest will be enough for a good working relationship.

Talk about an interesting time to be a member of the House Majority! For a while, at least, it looks like a 217 to 215 split, which means any one Republican defection can deny the Speaker a majority. It’s hard to imagine any Republican Congressman actually doing such a foolish thing, but any collection of 217 politicians will contain a few odd ducks. Actually, more than a few. For an old pol like me, this is great entertainment.

Every day seems to bring something new to get excited about. Take NASA, for instance, the organization that got us to the moon. If you’re old enough, you vividly remember where you were and who you were with when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. I was in a tiny apartment on West 27th in Spenard, watching a little black and white TV with the original Fritz Pettyjohn and his wife. It was one of the most memorable moments of my life.

Those were the glory years of NASA, but it’s been more or less a boondoggle ever since. It’s been captured by Boeing, the company that builds planes with exploding doors.

But it’s got a new boss, Jared Isaacman, a big customer of Elon Musk. He paid Musk for a ride on a SpaceX rocket and got to do a spacewalk. What a guy! He’s going to have a $20 billion budget to play with, and I think he’s going to use it to help Elon get to Mars.

Aside from seeing an Article V Convention, and walking my granddaughter down the aisle, my dearest wish is to see a man land on Mars. I like pointing out Mars in the night sky and telling my grandsons that it is not a star, it’s a planet, like Earth, and some day they will see a man walk on it.

That’s one day, and one announcement, about one federal agency.

What a brave new world it may be!

Nick will be in the middle of all of this. What’s curious is that his grandfather, Nick Begich I, was in the same position 54 years ago. He was as good as Nick III, but he didn’t have any luck. He died with the House Majority Leader, and Speaker-to-be, Hale Boggs in a tragic airplane crash somewhere in the Chugach range/Prince William Sound area. What a waste!

If you’re a Christian, you might just believe that Nick I is in heaven watching all this, and he’s very proud.

Fritz Pettyjohn was a prosecuting attorney for the City of Ketchikan, Alaska in 1973 and served in the Alaska Legislature in the 1980s. He blogs at ReaganProject.com

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Mr. Pettyjohn:
    Having now completed 72 laps around the Sun I am old enough to vividly remember being at my high-school girlfriend’s home, where she and I viewed the TV broadcast of Armstrong’s Moon landing and first steps in her family’s living room. Naturally, she was of greater interest to me than even the great complexities of the Moon mission, so that the afternoon/evening of July 20, 1969 was memorable for me in two distinct ways. But should ‘we, the people’ now support a risky and costly manned mission to Mars…? Nah. In all respects, robotics is the better way to explore Mars.

    My heartiest congratulations to Nick Begich, III. Representative-elect Begich has worked long and hard to win the confidence of Alaska’s voters, and we now may expect his very best efforts on our behalf. Win!

  2. I’m confused by Pettyjohn. I don’t believe Begich’s election had much to do with luck. It was mostly a result of very hard work, determination and sacrifice, which combined with his conservative ideology, appealed to the majority of Alaskans. If there was magic it was Nick’s blessings of engaging personality, intelligence, and articulation. Furthermore, I’m not the least bit jealous of Nick’s successful bid to serve. I don’t have what it takes and I’m please he’s putting his talent to such good use. I hope Pettyjohn refrains from such strained comments in future. By the way, the “dead know nothing;” they rest in peace awaiting the resurrection….Ecclesiastes 9:5. Yahweh’s words, not mine.

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