Giving Away Alaska, Land of Giveaways

Frequent commenter Leonardo pointed me to a great column last week by Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein in which the writer jokingly suggested the U.S. should sell Alaska back to Russia.

Among the reasons he mentioned was the unprecedented pork/subsidies brought home by Sen. Ted Stevens, which Pearlstein rightly calls "welfare". Here's more:

Lately, all the attention brought on by his son's activities and the "bridges to nowhere" has generated unflattering coverage for the elder Stevens, prompting outbursts and threats to resign from the Senate. But I'm sure that once Alaska is reunited with the Russian empire and Commissar Stevens has settled into his new office at the Kremlin, those problems will magically disappear.

Joke or no joke, it turns out many experts in Russia love the idea of repatriating America's last frontier.

Alaska buyback? Not for another 10 years - Russian expert

Russian experts are commenting on the proposal by Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein that only Alaska's sale to Russia for $1 trillion would recoup U.S. costs.

Mikhail Delyagin, director of the Institute for Globalization Problems: "Russia should create a civilized state in the first place before buying Alaska. I think in about 10 years' time we will cope with the consequences of our national catastrophe, and the American problems will reach their peak. It is not before that that we can speak of a buyback. Incidentally, Alaska may have a lower price tag by that time."

I'd seriously be willing to give Alaska back to Russia -- providing they promise to take Stevens in the deal and throw in (sight unseen) that weird little nub Russia owns in between Lithuania and Poland. (Though something tells me Stevens would manage to allocate a mail-order Russian bride to every Russo-Alaskan within minutes of his new citizenship.)

[Hat tip: Commenter Leonardo.]