The iceberg cometh — Alaska vs. Seattle

Is that a draft I feel from up North?

Alaska-Seattle relations are pretty sour, especially among our politicians, who come from very different planets — Alaskans are from Mars, Seattleites are from Venus.

There is no denying some Alaskans are vexed by our Washington, and especially Seattle's politics, which is Left Coastish and somewhat snobbish. The Alaskans respond by being icebergs of anger. Given a big enough broom, you could have swept a dozen or so CEOs up off the carpet at last week's closed-door, off-the-record session with Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska. They were dropping like shot pigeons.

Speaking afterward outside the dining hall, comments such as "appalling," "arrogant" and "offensive" were privately flung at Young, who strode out of the room after a 30-minute tempest that was famously flamboyant and threatening.

Young, described later in the week by fellow members of Congress as a man who uses power like a harpoon and keeps an egg timer ticking to cut off committee debate, can be charming in person, especially when fundraising. In Seattle, he glowingly accepted the acquiescence and contributions of the industries he has the power to legislate.

Young is not wild about Seattle, although it is not the city, the waterfront or the people that earn his ire, but the politics that have kept Alaskans from having it their way. Alaska wants to dip into more oil fields, wants to build bridges in Ketchikan without getting hassled about it, wants to keep foreign energy at bay, wants to dispense taxpayer money like personal poker chips to this project and that, and is disdainful of the entire Washington congressional delegation, described by Young, and reliably reported later, as "puppies."

Ah, the Last Frontier.

Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, on the other hand, is a man of fewer words. Much fewer. Alaska's senior senator gave a noontime talk in Tacoma and later that day told The Seattle Times editorial board there was no animosity from Alaskans toward Seattle, but some puzzlement.

"There hasn't been a project I have said 'no' to, or a request I have not considered," said the powerful chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and chair of the Subcommittee on Defense within the Appropriations Committee.

Stevens and Young, who together have enough time in Congress to span almost a century of legislation, do not like to be questioned or frustrated. Stevens was stymied by Democrats over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, something the senior senator said was planned for as early as 1980 by such former colleagues as "Scoop and Maggie" — Washington Sens. Henry "Scoop" Jackson and Warren Magnuson.

Indeed, lectures from both Alaskans centered on a different time and place, when deals could get done without noisy intrusions and people had the grace to obey their seniors.

"It's been up and down before," said Vern Chase, co-chair of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce Alaska Committee, a group of more than 100 members with a committee legacy that extends back to just before the Gold Rush.

"We have our differences, but they aren't much when compared to what we share," said Chase, who recently rounded out 40 years of doing business in Alaska.

"Right now, a lot of Alaskans are just frustrated over the drilling issue and the whole development of the state," Chase added. "When they ask for something, we should at least respond with an open mind. This disagreement we have all goes back to ANWR, and rightfully so. It's important for Alaskans and they believe it is just as important to the rest of us."

The differences are acute, brazen and center on how two Pacific Northwest states view their places in the world. Elected Alaskans want more and more domestic fuels, from oil to natural gas, and want to have a hand in controlling the source and taking the profit. Meanwhile, the mayor of Seattle wants the city to join the Kyoto Accords all by itself.

"If you sit in the Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage," Alaska co-chair Chase said, "you see the tons of cargo coming through and the future of traveling across the Arctic. Anchorage and Alaska are doing quite well right now, and oil is going to keep it that way."

Stevens, himself a walking monument to senatorial privilege and dispensation, sits in a meeting room as if you have been called before one of his committees. He smiles at the reference to other eras of the Senate when he and I were younger, and is stone cold when it comes to being filibustered by the Democrats over ANWR.

"I'm not here campaigning," Stevens said in reference to his trip to Washington. "I've never come to a state to campaign against anyone. I'll campaign for someone, but not against anyone."

And yet, the Alaskan campaign in Washington has begun. Stevens was scheduled to be part of a fundraising event in Anchorage Thursday on behalf of Washington's Republican Senate candidate Mike McGavick.

Young didn't seem to be politicking for anyone but himself, but they all steam to where the money is. And for the powerful, sole representative from Alaska, Seattle is a money port.

This is a political campaign down to its roots. It might be less about oil and more about power, but the two commodities have always had much in common.

James F. Vesely's column appears Sunday on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: jvesely@seattletimes.com