Is Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski Waving a White Flag on the Bridge to Nowhere?

Looks like maybe yes, judging by some of Gov. Frank Murkowski's comments in the Ketchikan Daily News, which has a news story accompanied by a a photo of him holding last Sunday's Parade magazine cover feature on the Bridge to Nowhere.

In the newspaper article, which is not available on the newspaper's web site, Murkowski notes that the $223 million appropriated by Congress is at least $100 million short of what is likely to be needed to build the bridge.

"The legislature will make a determination on that. Very frankly, we'll have to see how this thing plays out," Murkowski said of the project that would erect a bridge comparable in size to the Golden Gate to connect Ketchikan with Gravina and Pennock islands. Ketchikan has about 8,000 residents, the islands less than 100.

That comment about the legislature sounds like a politician looking for a way out to me.

As soon as I can get a web link to a PDF of the newspaper piece, I will post it.

NOTE: You may be wondering why there seems to be no banner above this blog, which usually has "Tapscott's Copy Desk" and a distinctive colonial-era quill pen gracing its top. We are having some server communication problems today with the banner's host. As soon as that is worked out, I expect to see the banner back up.

In the meantime, trust me, it's a really neat banner! :-)

UPDATE: 7:55 p.m.

Thanks to Hank Osborne for identifying the banner problem and to Brian Scott for getting a temporary fix up while the search commences for a permanent solution.

UPDATE: 11/17/05

Here's the promised PDF.

Porkbusters
Politics
Congress
Republicans
Conservatives
Blogging
Weblogs
Blogs