Okay, point of publisher's privilege. Please indulge me.

One of our favorite stories of 2007 was Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-AK) sweetheart, half-price vacation house deal from Alaska sportsfishing mogul Bob Penney. It was some great shoe-leather investigative reporting by TPMmuckraker.com alum Laura McGann.

Well, this week Murkowski sat down with the editorial board of the Alaska Daily News and among other things they asked her what she'd learned from the land deal experience.

Her answer?

Shouldn't have blown off that call from TPMmuckraker.com. As the ADN editors described it ...

She gave a lame answer about what lessons she learned from the controversy over her now-canceled purchase of a Kenai River waterfront lot from Bob Penney, a wealthy sportfish activist and campaign contributor who is also a family friend. She suggested her biggest mistake was blowing off the first media inquiry about it, because it came from an unfamiliar web organization with "muckraker" in the title.

If you click this link they actually have audio of her answer, which is a good deal funnier than the description.

For what it's worth, Murkowski pretty clearly turns out to be the honest and ethical member of the Alaska congressional delegation. But it's not too high a bar since the other two members of the delegation, Sen. Stevens (R) and Rep. Young (R), are both under criminal investigation for various corruption.

For a fun trip down memory lane ...