55°

As the elected leader of Alaska, could Gov. Murkowski stand up in front of high school seniors in a civics class and say without so much as a blush that Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich and Attorney General Gregg Renkes have done absolutely nothing morally wrong and that's why he hasn't fired them? (I am using high school students because it's fairly obvious that the governor's usual audiences aren't too excited about this ethics thing and speaking to them could result in a false negative.)

The Red Face Test requires that he could not engage in any fancy footwork about the law, or policies, or their past performance - just a simple, "Yes, they behaved ethically. I'm proud of both of them and I'll defend Randy and Gregg until my term ends," or, "Nope. What they did was flat out wrong. What was I thinking? Thanks, kids. Who's got a cell phone?"

Barbara Belknap

Juneau