Former senator Ted Stevens killed in Alaska plane crash

[DRW50]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/10/national/main6760221.shtml

http://www.ktuu.com/global/Story.asp?s=12952729

Alaska seems to have a history of this -- Stevens's first wife was killed in a plane crash in 1978 and another crash in 1972 killed the House Majority leader and an Alaska Congressman (his son is now in the Senate).

Anyway, Ted Stevens was controversial but he was one of those who basically built Alaska over the last half century.

[soapfan770]

Ironically the airport in Anchorage is named after Stevens. I've always thought it was the unpredictability of the weather in Alaska which causes the frequent plane crashes dating all the way back to Will Rogers' plane crash in the 1930s. Not to mention frequent volcanic eruptions in remote areas, see the 1989 Redoubt eruption of what happens when a 747 passenger jet encounters volcanic ash.

Stevens seems interesting, a hero in his own state yet from what I know of Stevens this past decade Stevens became one of the more vilified Senators with his Bridge to Nowhere and eventual downfall from grace in 2007.

[DRW50]

Yeah he became a very polarizing figure -- it's interesting though, as both he and Don Young, in spite of all the charges of corruption, both proved very popular to the end (Stevens narrowly lost reelection, but Young somehow hung on). Compared to many today he was probably a moderate.

I guess I remember him most for the Hulk tie he wore on the Senate floor, and also for the priceless comment about the Internet being a series of tubes...although, I have a feeling many in Congress probably feel the way he did.