In case you spent Wednesday "Dancing with the Stars," here's what you missed on "Running 2006," public television's three-hour political forum that featured five candidates for U.S. representative, six candidates for governor and four candidates for lieutenant governor:
True confessions -- Don Young's dad was a Hitler fan. Sort of. While defending the initial decision to invade Iraq, the 17-term Republican spoke about his father's involvement in a 1930s isolationist group. "I am one of the few people in this room that lived through this in 1938 and '39, when I heard my father say that Hitler really wasn't a bad guy, because he belonged to the America First party, the isolationist party."
Saddam Hussein, Young said, was a modern-day Hitler leading "a Middle East axis -- Syria, Kuwait and the other countries that follow his ilk and his talk."
True confessions, Part II -- There he goes again. Andrew Halcro, the independent candidate for governor, just can't help himself when it comes to speaking unpleasant truths. During his time in the Legislature, Halcro said, the education bill routinely turned into "political gamesmanship" used to curry favors or force concessions rather than serve Alaska's children.
Common language -- In what could be a first, every word Young used was an actual word. No mention of our myramid problems, no talk of astronoids hurtling through space toward Earth. OK, so he called the preponderance of political debates and forums "debate-itis." But that's a pretty good fake word, so he gets a pass.
He did suffer a minor pronunciation faux pas when he said Saddam Hussein was a far greater threat to our nation's security than "Bin Lidden."
Common ground? -- Lieutenant governor candidate Sean Parnell seemed unenthusiastic about Republican running mate Sarah Palin's position against a subsistence preference for Alaska Natives. "I'm backing her," Parnell said in a tone so lukewarm that I didn't believe him.
Fringe benefits -- The forum included those often referred to as "fringe candidates," and as is often the case, they brought in what Palin would call new energy (a term she used three times in her opening statement alone).
Bill Ratigan, the Impeach Now! candidate for U.S. representative, called George Bush a spoiled brat. Eva Ince of the Green Party referred to her "current ex-husband," making us wonder if there's an ex-ex as well. And Alexander Crawford, the camouflage-wearing Libertarian, won our hearts a couple of times, including when he said a vote for him, Ratigan or Ince is a wasted vote that instead should go to Diane Benson, Young's Democratic challenger.
Fran and Ted's Excellent Adventure -- From the demand that Tony Knowles withdraw from the governor's race (his sin: appointing Ben Stevens to the state Legislature) to the claim opponents of their message have repeatedly hacked their Web site (which was up and running Thursday morning), the husband-wife team of write-in candidates Ted and Fran Gianoutsos was never dull.
Ted called Frank Murkowski's quest for a gas pipeline a "four-year hoax to hide the fact" that Murkowski had 20 years as a U.S. senator and governor to open ANWR and couldn't do it. Fran recalled her experience registering voters at the Northway Mall, where many people told her they couldn't vote because of their criminal pasts.
"I was shocked at how many felons there are," she said. "Maybe this is special to the Northway Mall."
"We'll be hearing from them," host Michael Carey deadpanned, prompting Fran to hurriedly note that the same thing had happened at the Anchorage 5th Avenue mall.
Concentrated host -- Carey deftly handled some tricky names, including the Gianoutsoses and Fay Von Gemmingen, the Halco running mate whose name can be a tongue-twister. Yet he repeatedly stumbled on an easy one -- Green party candidate David Massie (Mass-ee). He scored massive points for repeatedly prodding Massie, who's prone to rambling monologues, to get to the point. And he scored a big laugh when, reacting to repeated spellings of "Gianoutsos" by write-in candidates Ted and Fran, he signed off with "This is Mister C-A-R-E-Y, saying good night."
Final thought -- Is it just me, or does anyone else think it wouldn't be a bad thing if Palin traded places with Parnell and Knowles did the same with running mate Ethan Berkowitz?
Beth Bragg's opinion column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Her e-mail address is bbragg@adn.com.
