Miller’s Waffling and Flopping

Candidate Miller has waffled and flopped on his position on federal spending in Alaska. Before, he opposed all spending, and in fact signed a pledge against earmarks. Over the weekend, he “Set the Record Straight” (Miller-speak for waffled) and said:

Given our current deficits, we, as a nation, will clearly have to curb overall federal spending over the course of the next several years. But concurrently, the federal government needs to honor the promises made at statehood, and transfer control of our land and resources to the people of Alaska. Until that process is complete, I will fight for Alaska to get necessary federal dollars; however, it is imperative that we as Alaskans not settle for a few paltry crumbs from the federal table. We must vigorously fight for the future of Alaska, and that is bound up with control of the land and resources of our great state.

So now Miller’s anti-spending promises are held hostage to the federal government’s obligation “to honor the promises made at statehood, and transfer control of our land and resources to the people of Alaska.”

What “promises made at statehood” have been broken?

He’s already demanded that places like Denali National Park be given to the State, even though Alaska’s own Constitution formally and unconditionally abandoned all claim to those lands. So if Miller means, say, deeding Glacier Bay to the State of Alaska, he’s really saying he wants Alaska to get the special earmarks he rejected earlier, forever. WC will simplify this paragraph for any Tea Baggers who wandered in by mistake: he wants Alaska to get earmarks forever. Flip. Flop.

If Miller is talking about the royalties due from production of resources on Federal lands, WC challenges Miller to identify a single instance, however small, where the Feds are in arrears on payments. Flip. Flop.

And if he’s complaining that the 104 million acres promised under the Alaska Statehood Act still haven’t been conveyed, then he’s being criminally cynical and simplistic about an extremely complex problem, that’s already mostly addressed.

In 2004-2005, Congress recognized that the Feds still owed Alaska about 15 million of the 104 million acres promised at statehood. The state land selection process was seriously gummed up by the Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act, the Native Allotment Act and the Alaska Native Veterans Allotment Act. To a lesser extent, even the 1929 law creating the University of Alaska complicates the process. Lands the State lost under the Alaska National Interest Land Act were another complication. And then there’s the whole issue of easements and access. The mess is partially summed up in a Background and Summary available on-line. And let’s be clear: Alaska contributed to the mess; it’s by no means all the fault of the Feds.

Congress – through the efforts of two real Republicans named Stevens and Murkowski – made a serious effort at clearing the logjam by passing the Alaska Land Transfer Acceleration Act in 2004, which attempted to sort out the biggest problems, and delegates a lot of authority to the Secretary of the Interior to speed the process up. Congress required priority reports, which were made in 2006 and 2008. While WC is skeptical that the deadline of 2011 for all conveyances will be met, the process is truly under way and seems to be working. If Miller has a better way of untangling the mess, WC wants to hear it.

So what’s Candidate Miller talking about when he waffles? Which specific “land and resources” haven’t been turned over to “the people of Alaska”? What specific “promises made at statehood” have been broken? And if there are such broken promises, how do they justify earmarks? Flip. Flop.

Or is it possible – and even likely – that Candidate Miller doesn’t have the faintest idea what he is talking about?

WC has landed salmon that didn’t flop around as much as Joe Miller. But Joe Miller and WC’s salmon have this much in common: they’d stay out of trouble if they kept their mouths shut.