Alaska: All Your Congress Are Belong to Oil

It's a little like watching a drugged elephant get to its feet, but the Anchorage Daily News wakes up to the Talking Points Memo story on Sen. Murkowski's sweetmeats land deal, which looks rather worse than first reported.

Still, it's late, and the Daily News should be BREAKING these stories, not issuing a foggy, naggy response a couple of days later. They've been scooped by us, the New York Times, Roll Call, the Washington Post, TPM and their own political blogs: time to go back to Reporter School.

First, Be First.

Second, Be Comprehensive. This would be just another minor corruption case except that dozens of state officials appear corrupted by oil money directly or indirectly. It's one thing to have one dorky legislator on the take, it's quite another to have whole sections of government up for sale, potentially for years. The whole congressional delegation, sections of the legislature, past governors appear involved. A serious daily should be putting this all into a coherent narrative, and McClatchy has a record of backing this kind of work. So what's the hold-up?

Third, Get to Work.

UPDATE (7/20): The story has legs. U.S. Senator Murkowski is now facing strong local scrutiny.

My question, when they finally arrest the entire Alaska delegation, can they save money by carpooling in the perp van?