JUNEAU -- As the Alaska House of Representatives was passing new gas legislation late Monday, something inappropriate happened, and it wasn't just fart jokes that had legislators giggling and at least one doubled over with laughter.
"It's Alaska's gas, let's pass it," said Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, supporting his House Bill 4, providing subsidies and incentives for a small natural gas pipeline.
The session, which stretched until after 11 p.m. on April Fool's Day, also featured titters to repeated "butt" references.
But what got several of Hawker's colleagues incensed Tuesday were reports Rep. Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks, stuck out his tongue at a Gavel-to-Gavel camera as House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, a House Bill 4 co-sponsor, was speaking in favor of the bill he and Hawker sponsored.
That went beyond the pale, said Rep. Pete Higgins, R-Fairbanks, and could even jeopardize House support for a plan to truck natural gas to Fairbanks that Interior legislators think is crucial for their region.
"The floor of the Alaska House is sacred, and his conduct last night was patently inexcusable and disrespectful" to Chenault, said Higgins at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
Kawasaki apologized to Chenault Tuesday morning. Then after Higgins and other members of the Interior delegation demanded an apology, Kawasaki did so again publicly.
"My actions on the floor last night were inappropriate," Kawasaki said, attributing it to the late hour. Kawasaki was one of the few minority Democrats to support Chenault's bill.
Later Tuesday, the Republican-led House Majority caucus issued a press release, again demanding an apology.
No kidding
The press conference didn't go well for the Interior representatives, as they found themselves denying the fart and butt jokes had been intentional, instead of talking about Kawasaki's tongue.
"I didn't see it that way. If you saw it that way, I'm sorry," Rep. Tammie Wilson, R-North Pole, told a reporter at the press conference.
The Interior representatives said they held a press conference instead of confronting Kawasaki about his making faces to the camera while Chenault was speaking to show the speaker that they did not support Kawasaki's actions.
Wilson said she assumed someone was disturbed by what Kawasaki had done because they had printed images from television of the tongue incident.
"I saw the pictures, I don't know where they came from," she said.
Where some of them came from was Will Vandergriff, press secretary for the House Majority caucus, led by Chenault. How Vandergriff came to distribute the copies, including to the Fairbanks News-Miner, Kawasaki's hometown paper, was not clear.
"Nobody told me" to pass them out, Vandergriff said, adding that it was not a "unilateral" decision on his part, either.
After the press conference, Chenault dodged the question of his involvement, but pulled from his pocket a different image of Kawasaki, saying he had better quality ones than did Vandergriff.
'No wonder'
Chenault, who spent years in the construction business, joked about being offended while talking with reporters later. "I'm terribly distraught, and I'm probably going to go outside and get some fresh air," Chenault said. "Fresh air" is Chenault's term for smoking a cigarette. Chenault said he did have some serious concerns about the appearance to the public of the incident.
"If people are watching this on TV, it's no wonder they don't take the Legislature seriously," he said.
Earlier this year, however, in a response to the City of Valdez on the same bill that was discussed Monday evening, Chenault's office had some issues of its own. The office responded to the city clerk's letter opposing the bill with an email reading, "What a crock of shit."
Interior delegation press conference attendees were struggling to explain why Kawasaki's actions were different from rude and disrespectful comments made by other legislators, who were often their Republican colleagues.
Last session, Rep. Alan Dick, R-Stony River, referred to "Japs" on the House floor, but there was no public rebuke for him then. Kawasaki, who is of Japanese-American heritage, said he had dealt with the representative directly. "I talked to Rep. Dick, and he talked to me personally, and that's how we solve problems," he said.
Rep. Doug Isaacson, R-North Pole, was one of the Interior representatives at the press conference. He wouldn't say who had brought the complaints about Kawasaki to him, other than they'd come from Kenai residents. Chenault is from the Kenai Peninsula.
"When people come to us and say 'what's going on?' it is no longer in our control, and it's no longer a secret we can sweep under the rug," he said.
"It's not that we want to have a witch hunt against Scott or against any member," he said. But House Democratic leader Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, called the Interior delegation response to the incident "overblown."
Contact Pat Forgey at pat(at)alaskadispatch.com