The Murky Murkowskis
Fund, John H.
I n a country in which the last presidential election featured the son of a former president squaring off against the son of a former senator, it's safe to say that nepotism is making a comeback in...
...Adam Bellow makes a fresh if not totally convincing argument for merit-based nepotism...
...It's true that any Republican Senate appointee will have had a tough time against the veteran Knowles...
...Murkowski's appointment, the Anchorage Daily News noted, "tens of thousands of Alaskans have no idea who she is...
...A Democratic poll taken in July shows Mr...
...That's one reason why Senator Stevens told a group of Republican women last year that he opposed naming either Ms...
...Bellow is refreshingly honest about how his own blood ties—he is the son of famed novelist Saul Bellow—helped him land an entry-level job in publishing...
...history to achieve dynasty through a child...
...Senator Lisa Murkowski may indeed blossom into a highly effective legislator, though twenty-two months is a short time for her to prove herself...
...They have only one piece of information about her: she was handed a U.S...
...At the time of Ms...
...Now-governor Murkowski compounded the appearance problem with the way he handled the appointment...
...Murkowski or his own son...
...Republicans counter with a May poll that shows Ms...
...Now is not the time for backsliding on official nepotism, no matter how unfair or discouraging what Mr...
...Knowles with a twelve-point lead...
...He was thus able to name his own successor and in so doing became the first governor in U.S...
...Take the case of Alaska's Lisa Murkowski who last December after only four years in the Alaska House was elevated to a seat in the U.S...
...then he proceeded to interview several of them, including state senator Ben Stevens, himself the son of Alaska's senior U.S...
...But the unseemly way in which Ms...
...Murkowski's credentials...
...When asked what quality he had looked for in a successor, Murkowski offered one word: "re-electability...
...So are her father's own sinking poll numbers, the result of tough decisions he has taken to address a budget deficit...
...A moderate Democrat who breaks with his party on many environmental issues, Knowles is hoping for a bitter Republican primary that tarnishes Ms...
...Then there's an experience factor...
...We've progressed a fair bit from 1960 when a Scripps-Howard reporter shocked the country and won a Pulitzer Prize with the revelation that one in five members of Congress had relatives on the official payroll...
...That wariness can certainly be overcome, as the electoral success of political workhorses Senator Evan Bayh and Rep...
...Bellow thinks this trend is a good thing and actually represents a "new nepotism": your family connections may open doors for you, but only merit and effort will prevent you from being shown the door...
...First he released a list of twenty-five names under consideration...
...Two generations after anti-nepotism laws began to open up civil-service positions to excluded groups like Jews and blacks, "the pendulum seems to be swinging the other way," says Adam Bellow, author of a new book entitled In Praise of Nepotism...
...That's because the Democratic candidate will be former governor Tony Knowles, who stepped down last year after finishing his legal maximum of two consecutive four-year terms...
...Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University Law School professor, has called his move an extreme version of "Take Your Daughter to Work Day...
...Senate through an appointment by her father, who had to give up his Senate seat because of his election as governor...
...Voters are more likely to end up disliking two Murkowskis rather than make distinctions," says one GOP pollster...
...Murkowski was thrust onto the national stage is clearly an added burden...
...Senate seat by her father?' Robert Novak calls her a "heavy underdog" for election in normally Republican Alaska...
...There's the nepotism/family thing...
...Harold Ford demonstrates...
...Murkowski with a three-point lead, and a 57 percent favorable rating, one point above her Democratic opponent...
...But most observers believe that Murkowski intended to nominate his daughter all along and that the interview process was a sham...
...But when it comes to politics, he downplays the deep-seated American belief that those who gain public office through artificial privilege should be viewed with suspicion...
...Murkowski is more liberal than her father, having favored both abortion rights and a statewide tax increase while in the legislature...
...But nepotism is reaching new heights...
...Democratic pollster Ivan Moore says, "She's going to have a tough time...
...As his numbers go down, so do hers tend to...
...Knowles won both his terms as governor when the Republicans fractured along liberal and conservative lines...
...In 2002, she nearly lost her House seat in a GOP primary, turning back a conservative challenger by only fifty-six votes...
...senator, and fellow Republican Ted Stevens...
...In fact, his in-your-face nepotism could cost the GOP a critical Senate seat, risking its narrow 51 to 49 majority...
...I would prefer today's modern nepotism have bright lines separating the natural impulse of human nature to care for one's kin and the blatant creation of a political dynasty that Governor Murkowski is attempting...
...Bellow calls "the hereditary principle" can be to those offspring who are truly talented and don't deserve a raised eyebrow...
...I n a country in which the last presidential election featured the son of a former president squaring off against the son of a former senator, it's safe to say that nepotism is making a comeback in America's public life...
Vol. 36 • August 2003 • No. 4
