Alaska: Baying at The Moon?

Ever since President Richard Nixon fired him as Interior Secretary in 1970, Walter Hickel has coveted the Alaska governorship he gave up to go to Washington. He has tried everything short of a coup d'etat to reclaim it -- Republican primaries, write-in campaigns, even lawsuits. Last week, at 71, Hickel found yet another way to pursue his goal: he became the candidate of the Alaskan Independence Party, a fringe group that wants the state to secede from the U.S. Hickel named as his running mate state senator Jack Coghill, 65, who defected from the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket.