My senator threatens to throw a HUGE fit if they try and take away our truckloads of highway money.

A freshman senator from Oklahoma, saying he was answering America's call to stop wasteful spending, tried Thursday to divert $452 million from two massive Alaska bridge projects and spend some of it on a hurricane-damaged bridge in New Orleans.

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn's amendment to rescind federal money from the Knik and Gravina bridges won him the fury of Sen. Ted Stevens and only a smattering of votes.

His attempt failed 82-15 after fist-pounding arguments from Stevens, R-Alaska.

Stevens threatened to quit, to become a "wounded bull on the floor of this Senate," and he vowed that if his colleagues passed the bill, "I will be taken out of here on a stretcher."

"I will put the Senate on notice -- and I don't kid people -- if the Senate decides to discriminate against our state, to take money only from our state, I'll resign from this body," he said. "This is not the Senate I came to. This is not the Senate I've devoted 37 years to, if one senator can decide he'll take all the money from one state to solve a problem of another."

Oh snap! That will teach that young whippersnapper to go against our Uncle Ted. One thing you can say about Ted Stevens is that he always so dignified in how he deals with the opposition. He always maintains his cool.

Besides that the bridges do not go to "nowhere". One goes to Ketchikan, Alaska. Ketchikan is not "nowhere". It is right next to nowhere.

The other bridge actually does go to "nowhere". But the hope is that once we build the bridge then "nowhere" will become "somewhere".

You see you have to think big. Big and expensive. That is the Alaskan way.