Just two days after he was sworn in as Alaska’s sole member of the U.S. House, Nick Begich should have been happily celebrating and graciously thanking his supporters. Instead, he was flapping his lips. Or, more accurately, flipping his thumbs and other typing fingers.
The freshman member of Congress, elected to fill one of the 435 seats in the House, disagrees with a decision by President Joe Biden to ban offshore oil and gas leasing in vast areas off the East Coast, West Coast and much of the Bering Sea offshore western Alaska.
Begich passionately opposes the president’s move. He strongly supports more offshore drilling. He emotionally advocates for resource development — a big reason why he won the election.
But rather than call Biden irresponsible, wrong, a weak leader or a lame duck bobbing in liberal waves for an environmental legacy, the new member of Congress called the president “a son of a bitch.”
Of course, not to his face. And not on the floor of the U.S. House, at a press conference or while stomping his feet and pounding on the table in a YouTube video. Begich took to X, the 21st century soapbox. In another century, his parents might have used the soap from the box to wash out their son’s mouth.
No sense stopping at a foul one-liner. Begich piled on with deceit masquerading as commentary.
“Hundreds of thousands of Alaskans rely on natural gas from the Cook Inlet to heat and electrify their homes, churches, schools and workplaces,” he said in his X posting, after calling Biden a son of a bitch for his order banning oil and gas leasing in large areas. The factual problem is that none of the closed areas are anywhere close to Cook Inlet. Begich saw an opportunity to stir emotions and dove in off the deep end of dishonesty.
Speaking to an Anchorage television station reporter after his son of a gun post, Begich said there are times in Congress when you have to “shout to be heard.” He added, “I’m sorry that we had to say what we did, but I’m not sorry that we did it.”
Shouting is one thing. But calling out the president with an obscenity, or another member of Congress, or a political opponent or even the referee at the next wrestling match Begich may attend, that’s a lousy role model for any son (or daughter) of anyone to see.
- Wrangell Sentinel
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