[bilhosty]

I remember when he was first elected to the Senate in 1968. He was a Young man of 39 and defeated Senator Ernest gruening the father of Alaska statehood in the primary. He was really a nobody in the Senate in one bizarre incident he nominated himself for Vice President at the Dem convention in 1972( I guess he still has Potomac Fever). He was not respected and was soundly defeated by Frank Murkowski in 1980.

[fieldmarshaldj]

"He was not respected and was soundly defeated by Frank Murkowski in 1980."

Actually, he didn't make it that far. Avenging his grandfather's loss to Gravel in the '68 'Rat primary, Clark Gruening upended Gravel in '80. Murkowski would then defeat Gruening.

When I saw the news alert this morning that a 'Rat had declared for '08 and I saw it was the nutty Gravel, I was laughing about it all day. ;-)