He’s Baaaack…

The thing that most characterizes Joe Miller is his execrable, terrible, wretched, appalling and very bad judgment. And bad judgment isn’t what WC is looking for in a politician, let alone a U.S. Senator. There’s enough politicians with bad judgment already.

Miller’s bad judgment isn’t exactly news; his decision to “explore” running against Begich is just the latest evidence. And confirmation that his pre-existing bad judgment issue isn’t improved.

You don’t have to look much further than his website to see what WC is talking about. He buffs his resume by calling himself a “judge;” he was never a judge. He was a magistrate, an appointed position. The closest a magistrate gets to being  judge is small claims court. But to support WC’s claim that Miller has terrible judgment, let’s revisit one of WC’s favorite posts.

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On the 493rd anniversary of Martin Luther‘s posting his 95 Theses on the door of Castle Church, Wittenberg, Germany, WC offerred his own 95 Theses, 95 reasons not to vote for Joe Miller. Trust WC, readers; it was difficult to narrow the field to just 95 reasons.

Have you taken your anti-nausea medicine? Rubber gloves and boots on? Good, let’s get started.

1. He engaged in unprincipled, unscrupulous behavior in an attempt to defeat a fellow Republican, Randy Ruedrich.
2. He lied to his employer about whether he had misused his Borough computer.
3. He lied to his employer about whether he had misused his colleagues’ computers.
4. He tried to stuff an electronic ballot box.
5. He tried to cover his crimes by deleting the cache files on his colleagues’ computers.
6. He blamed the victims for his crimes, the conduct of a scoundrel.
7. He appears to have committed a Class C Felony, Criminal Use of a Computer, AS 11.46.740.
8. He has attempted to minimize his criminal activities by claiming he performed the crime on his lunch hour.
9. He deliberately and falsely claimed he could not disclose his Borough personnel file because of the attorney-client privilege.
10. He quit the Borough in an unprofessional way that injured his client, the Borough.
11. He deleted his emails when he quit, injuring his client.
12. He allowed Randy Ruedrich and Ralph Seekins, among others, to claim he had done nothing wrong, when he knew he had.
13. He misled the voters about the seriousness of his misconduct at the Borough.
14. He allowed Randy Ruedrich and others to defame Jim Whitaker, when he knew Whitaker had spoken nothing but the truth.
15. He attempted to intimidate Jim Whitaker by filing a meritless lawsuit against him.
16. He attempted to conceal his misconduct at the Borough from the voters.
17. He attempted to stonewall the voters as to his conduct at the Borough, rather than coming forward with the truth.
18. He complains incessantly about invasions of his privacy while hiding critical information from the voters.
19. He has denied and continues to deny voters access to critical information about his past.
20. He was arrogant enough to believe he could get away with hiding his misconduct.
21. He was arrogant enough to say, or permit an undisclosed staffer to say, he was measuring the drapes for his Senate office.
22. He is arrogant enough to really believe he has “Mastered the law,” and posted the statement on his website.
23. He describes his career at the Borough, where he was disciplined for very serious misconduct, as “second to none.”
24. He believes himself to be smarter than Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot.
25. He is so arrogant he thinks the beard is attractive.
26. He has failed to timely file reports with election officials.
27. He has filed incomplete reports with election officials.
28. He believes a Constitution written in 1789 can be applied, unchanged, in 2010.
29. He believes social security is unconstitutional
30. He falsely claims that the social security system is bankrupt.
31. He falsely implies that privatization is the only solution to the funding challenges facing social security.
32. He falsely claims that Congress has “raided” the social security trust fund.
33. He believes medicaid is unconstitutional.
34. He has accepted the very Medicaid he claims is unconstitutional.
35. He believes farm subsidies are unconstitutional.
36. He has accepted the very farm subsidies he claims are unconstitutional.
37. He believes unemployment insurance is unconstitutional.
38. He falsely claimed that unemployment insurance is an entitlement program.
39. His spouse has claimed the very unemployment insurance he claims are unconstitutional.
40. He accepted a free undergraduate education from the U.S. Army, but quit the Army at the very earliest opportunity.
41. He called, or permitted an undisclosed staffer, to call his opponent a prostitute.
42. He permitted his security goons to assault and handcuff a newspaper editor who was asking him hard questions.
43. He has apparently committed or assisted others in committing the crime of Interference With Constitutional Rights, AS 11.76.110, a Class A misdemeanor.
44. He forced or permitted an undisclosed staffer to force Anchorage Daily News reporter Julia O’Malley to leave a meeting advertised as open to the public.
45. He has a demonstrated record of profound disregard for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
46. He accepts the support of Sarah Palin.
47. He accepted money from a PAC, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, monies that are tainted by contributions from foreign corporations.
48. He has hypocritically complained that one of his opponents accepted money from a PAC.
49. He has suggested a Berlin Wall on the U.S.-Mexico border as a solution to illegal immigration.
50. He thinks the Federal minimum wage is unconstitutional.
51. He claims federal farm subsidies are unconstitutional, yet has personally accepted federal farm subsidies.
52. He has claimed he was a judge, when he was never more than a magistrate.
53. He is a global warming denier.
54. He has lied about the evidence for anthropogenic global warming.
55. He has ignored incontrovertible evidence in his claimed home state of Alaska that there is global warming.
56. He falsely claims two-third of Alaska is owned by the Federal government.
57. He falsely claims that Federal government has broken promises to Alaska.
58. He has intentionally disregarded the Republican Party’s Statement of Principles by refusing to disclose important information.
59. He has been called out for his conduct by moderate Republicans in an open letter dated October 20, 2010.
60. He has engaged in unseemly, inappropriate boasting about his military honors.
61. He has engaged in unethical behavior in violation of the Alaska Bar Association’s Code of Professional Responsibility (“the CPR”) by lying about his activities to a client.
62. He has violated the CPR by using computers in violation of the law.
63. He has violated the CPR by withdrawing as counsel without taking adequate steps to protect his client.
64. He has published campaign advertising that deliberately and materially misstates his opponents’ positions.
65. He has permitted others to publish campaign advertising that deliberately and materially misstates his opponents’ positions.
66. In his 2004 campaign against David Guttenberg, he supported government spending for education; now he opposes it.
67. In his 2004 campaign, he supported government health care; now he opposes it.
68. In his 2004 campaign, he was in favor of government spending; now he opposes it.
69. He has called for an end to federal spending in Alaska, even though it constitutes 40% of the Fairbanks economy.
70. He doesn’t even pay his Borough property taxes on time.
71. He cannot responsibly manage his own financial affairs; he has more than $100,000 in credit card debt.Nearly done. WC recommends aspirin and a cold compress for the headache.
72. He is knowingly helping “camouflage a billionaires’ coup as a populist surge.”
73. He is a Tenth Amendment absolutist, but only so long as it serves his interests.
74. He has demanded national treasures like Denali National Park be surrendered to the State of Alaska, in violation of the Alaska Constitution.
75. He accepts, without criticism or apology, the parade of weapons-brandishing beer-bellies carrying his signs in a children’s parade.
76. While he waxes hysterical about the federal deficit, he hasn’t offered one specific proposal to substantively reduce it.
77. He has lied about the causes of the federal deficit.
78. By acting as a stooge for the Koch brothers, biggest supporters of the Tea Party, he is once against betraying Alaska to billionaires.
79. He rails against government spending, yet almost all of his life he has worked for and accepted government paychecks.
80. He opposes a woman’s right to choose.
81. He opposes abortion in the case of rape or incest.
82. He has single-handedly contributed to the overpopulation of the planet, when over-population is one of the great crises of our time.
83. He is, in the words of Paul Krugman, “the epitome of short-term, narrow-minded selfishness.”
84. He opposes meaningful health care reform.
85. He has ignored the fundamental economics of recessions, and risks prolonging and worsening the economic downturn.
86. Despite the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, he opposes a moratorium on off-shore drilling.
87. He has grossly exaggerated his legal experience.
88. He believes creationism should be taught in schools.
89. He has held at least six different jobs in 15 years, raising serious questions about his commitment.
90. His claimed beliefs and principles are belied by his actual conduct.
91. He is an unscrupulous opportunist.
92. He is too ignorant of Alaska’s economics and history to be a U.S. Senator.
93. He is too arrogant to be a U.S. Senator.
94. He is too dishonest to be a U.S. Senator.
95. He is utterly unworthy of your vote.

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But wait! There’s more! Those 95 Theses were only current as of October 30, 2010. Since then, Miller has continued to display the same kind of bad judgment that should disqualify him from any job where common sense, good judgment and logical thinking are required. Among the post-election instances of terrible judgment:

1. He lost his fight to keep secret his felonious conduct at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Department of Law.
2. He lost the general election by 12,000 votes to a write-in candidate.
3. He lost his attempt to defeat the will of the voters in Alaska Superior Court.
4. He lost his second attempt to defeat the will of Alaska voters in the Alaska Supreme Court.
5. He lost his attempt to overturn the election in U.S. District Court.
6. He has lost his complaint to the Federal Election Commission.
7. He  dismissed his lame lawsuit against the Fairbanks North Star Borough, taking just $5,000 of the Borough’s money – a pittance by any measure – to avoid being forced to disclose who was paying his attorneys’ fees for all of these silly lawsuits.

But Miller thinks he should be a U.S. Senator. There’s a reason he’s never won elective office. All but the dimmest voter has looked at this record and studiously voted for someone else. His decision to run again, while perfectly foreseeable, is only the latest example of the kind of bad judgment that characterizes the man.

Joe Miller. Just say no.

The opinions in this post are solely those of WC. This post has not been approved by any candidate. No expenses were incurred in creating this post. No electrons were harmed in creating this post.

Whatcha Hiding Now, Joe?

Failed U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller dismissed his lame lawsuit against the Fairbanks North Star Borough. He took $5,000 of the Borough’s money – a pittance by any measure – to avoid being forced to disclose who was paying his attorneys’ fees for his silly lawsuit.

So the obvious question is, what’s Joe hiding this time?

There’s not much question that he is hiding an inconvenient fact of some kind. It’s what he does. Joe wants to control what the public knows about him. Whether it’s committing crimes while employed at the the Borough, quitting without notice and getting blacklisted for three years, farm subsidies or a host of other entitlements, Joe’s record is a string of unsuccessful attempts to conceal the truth.

And we know Joe will do almost anything to hide the truth. He’ll have his goons handcuff a reporter who asks hard questions. He will lie like a rug. He’ll refuse to answer questions. And he will pout.

You think WC is overstating the facts? Compare Miller’s claims in his press release with the reality of a $5,000 settlement. When a litigant says “It was never about the money” you can be certain it was always about the money. Miller claimed in January 2011 that he had John Tiemessen’s law firm hired on a flat fee of $10,000 per month. Call it 18 months, or $180,000. And he settled for $5,000. Two weeks worth of fees. On the eve of being forced to say where all that money was coming form.

WC won’t presume to speak for other Alaskans, but that’s not the kind of candor, honesty and forthrightness that WC looks for in a candidate. It’s bad enough his politics are bizarre. What’s really scary is that you can’t trust him.

It’s very possible Miller will decide to run for office again. If so, it’s very likely he’ll try to hide the truth again. WC hopes that, this time, he’s called out early and often. Including explaining where the attorneys’ fees came from, and the timing of his “settlement.”

Joe Miller: Moving Beyond Merely Vindictive

Joe Miller’s lawsuit against the Fairbanks North Star Borough drags on; reportedly he has been spending some $10,000 a month in attorneys’ fees in his effort to prove … what, exactly? While WC is happy that his friend John Tiemessen is taking home Miller’s money – well, Miller’s PAC funds – exactly what is this lawsuit about? Besides demonstrating an astonishing vindictive streak in candidate Miller?

Miller is unhappy because the story about his attempted fraud and criminal misconduct, as well as the story of the end of his employment at the Borough, were leaked out before Judge Burbank ordered that they be made public. To be specific, Miller thinks his rights were violated because former Mayor Jim Whitaker and possibly others talked about Miller’s attempted fraud through the use of his law department colleagues’ computers. Whitaker talked about Miller’s initial lies when confronted with his fraud.

Remember, Judge Burbank later ruled that the records be made public. Miller didn’t appeal that decision. All Miller can whine about is the interval between when Whitaker and any others talked and the date of Judge Burbank’s order. That part of the case is settled law.

But there are two problems with any claim about the conduct of anyone prior to Judge Burbank’s order. First, such a claim is based upon a profound misunderstanding of public records law in general and Judge Burbank’s order in particular. Second, it is utterly unsupported by the Borough policies Miller tries to rely upon.

Alaska law requires any doubts about whether records are public be resolved in favor of disclosure. The exceptions are quite narrow. Municipalities like the Borough are free to narrow the exceptions still further, but they cannot make them broader. The records of Miller’s criminal antics and ineligibility for rehire were never inside an exception to the general rule of disclosure. If anything, the Borough was wrong for failing to immediately cough them up, rather than insisting on a court order. Judge Burbank’s order found that there was no basis for failing to turn them over; he didn’t find they should be made public. Judge Burbank found Miller’s records – less a few redactions – were public records. No one who “leaked” the records can have done anything wrong. The records were never private. They were always public, always subject to disclosure.

It gets worse for Miller. The Borough has chosen to make the exception for personnel records even narrower than state law requires. Borough policies provide that only a narrow subset of personnel records are private:

Documents that contain information to which an individual has a legitimate expectation of privacy that outweighs the public interest in the request.

Policy No. 75.01(D)(3)

Miller was a candidate for the U.S. Senate. The records in his file went to his fitness for that office. The public’s interest in the record of Miller’s malfeasance strongly outweighed any legitimate expectation Miller might have in their privacy. The personnel records showed Miller engaged in paranoid behavior under stress. The records showed Miler would engage in criminal use of computers to achieve his goals. The records showed Miller would lie about this conduct to cover it up. Can you imagine any records more highly relevant to the public, as the voters are asked to accept Miller as their U.S. Senator?

Any claim by Miller that it was improper for Borough officials to leak information about this conduct simply fails to pass the Red Face Test. The Red Face Test is whether a lawyer can make an argument without his face turning red from embarrassment. Miller flunks the test.

So why is this turkey of a lawsuit still around? WC can speculate.

1. He is punishing his “enemies,” including Tony Hopfinger, the editor of the Alaska Dispatch, who Miller’s security goons illegally arrested.
2. He’s maneuvering to avoid an award of attorneys’ fees against him.
3. He’s delusional.
4. He thinks the publicity associated with the lawsuit is beneficial, under the “any publicity is good publicity” theory.

The problem for Miller is that none of these reasons is a legitimate basis for a claim. It’s a problem for John Tiemessen, Miller’s lawyer, too. Civil Rule 11 and all that.

So the floor is open for suggestions: what is Miller’s real motive for keeping this stupid lawsuit alive?

What Part of “No” Don’t You Understand?

The New York Times reports that political committees like American Crossroads, on the Republican side, and Priorities USA, on the Democratic side are outraged that the IRS is investigating their eligibility to be tax-exempt.

The usual hyperbole is already being thrown around – “McCarthyism,” according to one noisy lawyer named Jay Sekulow, a conservative known more for his strange interpretation of the First Amendment than for his tax work. The Times reports Mr. Sekulow said,

This is obviously a coordinated effort by the I.R.S. to stifle these Tea Party and Tea Party-affiliated groups, and to stifle free speech activities. It’s as onerous as what they did to the N.A.A.C.P. in the 1950s, and I plan to make that point.

No. No one is controlling speech. No one is telling Teabaggers what they can and cannot say. The issue is whether the Teabaggers – and, for that matter, progressive groups as well – can claim to be social welfare organizations entitled to being excused from paying taxes on income under §501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.

(A private note to Mr. Sekulow: this part of the tax code didn’t exist in the 1950s. It would have been mighty hard for the IRS to apply it to the NAACP. Oops.)

Despite what the Times says, the law here really isn’t very ambiguous. This is from the IRS’s website:

Promoting social welfare does not include direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public of­fice. However, if an or­ganization is organized exclusively to promote social welfare, it may still obtain exemption even if it participates legally in some political activity on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office.  Political activities may not be the organization’s primary activities, however.

WC has helpfully emphasized the last sentence. Political activities cannot be the primary activity. So if the primary activity of Teabagggers is to promote social welfare by standing around in silly costumes, waving signs demonstrating poor grammar and spelling, all they have to do is answer the questionnaire the IRS sent honestly. On the other hand, if the Teabaggers are attempting to, you know, get their buffoons elected to office, then the IRS is going to have bad news for them.

Let’s be clear. If the IRS grants your organization status as a §501(c)(4), you agree to play by the rules laid down by Congress. You don’t have to pay taxes on your income. In return, you agree not to engage in political activities. If you break that rule, you lose your tax-exempt status and get to pay some penalties. Technically, you risk jail for tax fraud, but those kinds of enforcement efforts are extremely rare.

Since there’s real ambiguity in the law, the shrill hysterics of the Teabaggers and their spokespersons must really be over something else. Perhaps it’s the threat by the government they pretend to loath to deny them a perk they pretend to despise? Like Joe Miller taking farm tax subsidies.

That would mean the Teabaggers are, you know, hypocritical.

Sounds right.

Joe Miller: Republicans’ Worst Case Scenario

From a progressive’s point of view, Joe Miller’s run up the flagpole in his CPAC interview is the best case scenario: if there’s one Republican that Dem. Mark Begich can certainly beat, it’s Joe Miller. From the Republicans’ perspective? Not so much.

It’s all about greed and arrogance.

Miller has baggage that approaches Newt Gingrich’s. He has ongoing, pointless lawsuits against in state court  complaining that his efforts to hide some of those footlockers and steamer trunks were unsuccessful. It’s consistent with the mean-spirited, moderately delusional behavior he has shown from the start. In Alaska, after his stunts in the U.S. Senate race, you would think he couldn’t get elected village idiot if he was the only name on ballot. In fact, he’s already lost to a candidate whose name wasn’t even on the ballot.

There are, however, a number of fools who have money and are willing to spend it on Miller’s candidacy, because he says the words they want to hear. Not that he walks the talk. He’s retired WC’s monthly hypocrisy reports with his willingness to accept every federal benefit he claims to detest.

The laws regulating how you can spend campaign contributions are pretty loose. So Miller may mount a campaign because it is yet another way to get money without working. Sure, there are limits and restrictions, but those rules are for other people, not for Joe Miller. It’s clear from what we know. It’s what he’s been doing mostly since the election. More of the same would be no surprise at all.

But that’s just the greed; we must not overlook the arrogance. He is arrogant enough to think the beard is attractive, which qualifies as at least moderately delusional. He may be sufficiently arrogant and delusional to think he can somehow spin his thoroughly checkered past enough to delude Alaska voters. There’s evidence for that possibility, too. He thought he could keep his record at the Borough a secret, after all.

Would Alaska Republicans be dumb enough to let him win a primary again? The question almost answers itself.

Small, Mean and Petty: Joe Miller’s Lawsuit

Failed U.S. Senate candidate and multiply-failed litigant Joe Miller is at it again. He continues to demonstrate he is unfit for any office, let alone any position of public trust. He is vigorously prosecuting his lawsuit against the Fairbanks North Star Borough and former Mayor Jim Whitaker. He remains furious that evidence of his criminal activities while employed at the Borough leaked out. His campaign for the U.S. Senate was premised on hiding the truth from the voters. His lawsuit is kind of weird inversion of a slander claim: he’s suing because someone told the truth, rather than lying about him.

Readers will recall that Miller tried to hide his crimes behind a claim that the Borough’s employment records were confidential. One of the lawsuits Miller has has lost determined that the public interest outweighed any claim to privacy. Judge Winston Burbank ordered that the Borough records be made public. So Miller’s beef is that someone at the Borough leaked his personnel file early, before Judge Burbank ordered that it be made public. He can’t argue it shouldn’t be public. He can’t argue that they are properly of public interest. He can only argue that it shouldn’t have been public so soon. His crimes shouldn’t have been outed so early. Someone at the Borough, Miller is claiming, should pay for reporting that Miller had committed crimes and was lying about it.

Now normally WC supports the general idea of enriching lawyers, and a glance at the docket for this turkey will demonstrate riches are being spent. But there’s a point where even the most jaded lawyer has to ask what this is really about.

WC has been involved in the legal system for more than three decades. But this is the stupidest, most bone-headed, self-destructive lawsuit WC has encountered. What is Miller’s motivation? Cripes, what is his upside? This is delusional behavior. If nothing else, Miller is violating Jack Coghill‘s Second Rule of Politics: “When you find you are in a hole, stop digging.”

Nor will WC bother to debate these issues with Miller or his supporters. That would violate Jack Coghill’s First Rule of Politics: “Never get in a pissing contest with a skunk.”

Joe Loses. Again

Miller and His Beard

For a lawyer who claimed on his website to have “mastered the law,” Joe Miller’s record in the last twelve months is dreadful. He’s now 0-6. Ouch.

1. He lost his fight to keep secret his felonious conduct at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Department of Law.
2. He lost the general election by 12,000 votes to a write-in candidate.
3. He lost his attempt to defeat the will of the voters in Alaska Superior Court.
4. He lost his second attempt to defeat the will of Alaska voters in the Alaska Supreme Court.
5. He lost his attempt to overturn the election in U.S. District Court.
6. And now he has lost his complaint to the Federal Election Commission.

The Federal Election Commission slapped down Miller’s complaint against the regional Native corporations. The case was summarily dismissed. Miller claimed that the regional Native corporations – Doyon, CIRI, Sealaska et al. – were “federal contractors.” A “federal contractor” is not permitted to make most kinds of campaign contributions. Joe “I’ve Mastered the Law” Miller failed to distinguish between a parent corporation and a subsidiary. Federal law doesn’t attribute the conduct of a parent corporation to its subsidiary. You’d think an avowedly really smart guy like PAC Man would have a grasp of the law of corporations. Apparently, you’d be wrong.

Miller seems to have only mastered arrogance.

Two other notes:

(1) WC thought candidate Miller was opposed to all forms of federal government not specifically authorized by the U.S. Constitution. The FEC sure isn’t mentioned there. So what’s he doing filing a complaint against the regional Native corporations of Alaska before a federal agency he professes to believe is unconstitutional?

(2) The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, that removed all restriction on corporate contributions to political campaigns, remains a disaster for the American electoral process. But, just this once, it was sweet to see karma work against Teabaggers.

Okay. So Miller has mastered hypocrisy, too.

PAC Man: Joe Miller Redux

Another scary Hallowe’en story:

Joe Miller, unindicted criminal, defeated senatorial candidate and chronic resumé exaggerator reports he is “presently chairman of the Western Representation PAC, Restoring Liberty Alaska PAC and Restoring Liberty Action Committee.” So WC will call him PAC Man for short.

Pac-man Screenshot

For those who are new to these events, Joe Miller has a footnote in Alaska history as the first major party Alaska political candidate to lose to a statewide election to a write-in candidate. His candidacy careened from one disaster to another, as one of his avowed principles after another crashed on the rocks of his opportunism.

He’s still calling himself a judge, even if he was never more than a magistrate. For a partial listing of his bizarre history, visit WC’s 95 Theses.

This time he is railing against “Alaska Native Corporations,” and his acid resentment that they supported Lisa Murkowski drips from every sentence. But he seizes on old events and recent events to characterize Alaska Native Corporations generally as “crony capitalism.” His argument is a mash-up of several arguments.

The first is that it was unfair for the Native Regional Corporations to gang up on him in a super-PAC. The argument would be embarrassing coming from a guy who boasts about chairing PACs, but even someone new to the strange world of PAC Man recognizes he has no more sense of self-reflection than a rabid stoat. If he was surprised that the Native community reacted strongly when he attacked their rights, he’s even more naive than WC thought.

PAC Man has conveniently forgotten that in addition to the big regional corporations he references there are about 198 village corporations, and all of them are eligible for §8(a) contracts. The contracts have netted jobs and impressive shareholder dividends to the regions and villages involved. The distribution of wealth hasn’t been uniform, but the thing about capitalism is that not everybody wins. In any event, this is old news: the Washington Post investigation and Senator McGaskill’s investigation were in 2009. PAC Man also fails to note that the three largest Regional Corporations have called for reform. Perhaps Miller only became aware of it now?

The second argument PAC Man makes involves two instances of alleged misconduct by specific Native corporations: Sealaska Corporation’s bid to swap for some National Forest land in southeast Alaska and alleged corruption by two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officers that allowed two employees of a Native corporation subsidiary to embezzle serious money from the Department of Defense.

Sealaska wants a land swap for Tongass National Forest land. WC thinks the idea is dead on arrival; the days when this kind of deal could be slipped through by Uncle Ted are long behind us. It’s not a crime, or even crony capitalism, to try. It’s politics. You can bet that if PAC Man had won the election, and the Koch-owned North Pole Refinery has approached him for some kind of special deal, Senator PAC Man would have accommodated his biggest benefactors. Yes, WC thinks the whole quid pro quo business with campaign contributions is dirty and corrupting, but it’s nothing new or notable.

The embezzlement scheme involved two allegedly corrupt Corps of Engineer mid-level managers and a subsidiary of Eyak Corporation, the Cordova village corporation. There’s no evidence anyone at Eyak itself knew or benefited, so far as WC knows. And the reported $20 million scheme, big as it was, doesn’t even make the Top 10 List of biggest embezzlements in U.S. history. The federal officials who were supposed to keep watch were corrupt; PAC Man doesn’t explain how Section 8(a) caused the problem, or why the whole program should be thrown out because crooks stole money. Reformed, yes. But thrown out? PAC Man is indulging his penchant for hyperbole again.

And from these two instances and his acid resentment of Lisa Murkowski and the traitor Alaska Republicans, PAC Man ran this opinion piece under the headline “Alaska: Poster State for Crony Capitalism.” Excuse me? Using “capitalism” and “Alaska” in the same headline? And PAC Man is fumbling with a mighty big brush and precious little tar. It’s almost as if John Lindauer were railing against investigative reporting. Alaska seems to be able to avoid electing these idiots and charlatans, but they don’t shut up, do they?

Please Make It Stop

It’s too much for WC. Both Joe “The Footnote” Miller and The Quitter making headlines for doing nothing faintly newsworthy? Please.

Miller’s historical value is and will remain as a footnote, the major party candidate who lost to a write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate. He’s tainted by an amazing number of scandals, lies, half-truths and hypocrisy. There is no reason, no reason at all, for any Alaskan to listen to anything this man has to say. And yet he was able to attract a small crowd at a Teabag rally recently, according to the News-Miner. The newspaper reports he says he is “’not backing off’ on his belief that the U.S. should not have a Department of Education, even if it was not popular in the election.” Hey Footnote, just because the education system didn’t work so well for you doesn’t mean it should be abolished.

WC said earlier, “WC’s guess is that Miller will be the bad penny that keeps turning up. It’s too much to hope he will go back to Kansas. Or shut up. Or stop running for office.” It’s sad to be proven right so soon.

And then there’s The Quitter. First she embarrasses the Mat-Su School District with her appalling ignorance of early U.S. history. Paul Revere, indeed. Second, she insults the intelligence of any thinking American by claiming to be on a “family vacation,” as if your family vacation vehicle looked like this:

Palin's RV

WC didn’t think so, either. The various flubs, lies, misstatements, ignorance and hypocrisy are mildly amusing, but the act is already old. To paraphrase a quote about another publicity-seeking woman, “Sarah, when the cameras are off do you cease to exist?”

So please make it stop. The whole thing. The Footnote’s and The Quitter’s narcissism have gone on long enough.

The Advantages of Cluelessness

WC’s spouse gave him a gigantic, lap-crushing compendium of Doonesbury cartoons for Christmas. Allegedly, it holds only 14% of Trudeau’s 40-years of production. WC suspects that a volume of all of them would require a forklift to move about. Or collapse into a black hole.

Anyway, Trudeau included some introductory notes and some comments on some of his long-term characters. Writing about reporter Roland Hedley, he says,

I’ve always believed that cluelessness evolved as an adaptation to allow the truly appalling to live with themselves. Imagine, for example, looking into the mirror one day and seeing Geraldo Rivera staring back at you. Only Geraldo Rivera could stand the shock.

- G. B. Trudeau, A Doonesbury Retrospective, p. 385.

What struck WC was that you could substitute the name “Sarah Palin” or “Joe Miller” into that little put-down and it would explain a great deal. Thanks to Trudeau’s insight, WC understands that Palin’s utter cluelessness, her willful ignorance and general obliviousness to societal norms is a behavioral adaption that lets her get through the day.

That’s different than the stark cynicism or Rush Limbaugh, who knows most of what he says is utter garbage, but doesn’t care. Or Glenn Beck, who is simply in it for the money. Palin has developed her armor of obliviousness to cope with the terror of looking in the mirror each day.

Ordinarily, WC wouldn’t look for wisdom in the comics, but this just rings true.

You Won’t Have Joe Miller to Kick Around

Miller finally conceded on December 31, ending 2010 on a bright note for WC. Of course, WC’s blog traffic will take a hit. Six of WC’s ten most popular blog posts ever involved the man. And Miller did try to leave the door open for a some kind of public role in the future.

For WC, Miller’s concession speech had a strong flavor of another famous five o’clock shadow, Richard Nixon. After losing to Pat Brown in the 1962 California governor’s race, Nixon famously said, “You won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around any more.” Alas, it wasn’t true. Even after resigning to avoid impeachment, Nixon kept turning up. And his obituaries in 1994 had to be among the most revisionist in history.

But WC believes that, like Nixon, we haven’t seen the last of Miller. His web site threatens that this is “The end of the beginning,” and still has a large, possibly illegal “Donate” button. Like Nixon, Miller has that mix of paranoia, an unseemly need for approval and appalling arrogance. And since Miller, like Nixon, has apparently disavowed re-opening his law practice, and has a football team-sized family support, he’s going to have to do something to keep them fed. Unlike his would-be mentor, Princess Sarah, Miller has precious little charisma. In fact, to paraphrase a better writer, Miller has “charismain’t.” Part of the problem is that when he tries to be charming, he comes off as smarmy. At least to WC. WC can’t see him in a Fox News role, or publishing a successful book.

Episodes in his Senate campaign seem likely to haunt him the rest of this life. The photo of Tony Hopfinger handcuffed. Walking out of the press conference to avoid confronting the truth of his conduct the the Fairbanks North Star Borough. The amazing amounts of hypocrisy. It would stop a thoughtful person from seeking any public office. Miller may not be that thoughtful.

And Miller has some other challenges. His escapades at the Borough may not yet be resolved, and if an Assistant District Attorney or Bar Counsel for the Alaska Bar Association were feeling so inclined, Miller’s life could be pretty interesting for a while. And Miller needs to get those email messages he deleted back to the Borough.

WC’s guess is that Miller will be the bad penny that keeps turning up. It’s too much to hope he will go back to Kansas. Or shut up. Or stop running for office. Even as a New Years wish.

Nothing to See Here; Move Along

U.S. District Court Judge Beistline, in a slightly surprising move today, not only lifted the stay on certification of the U.S. Senate election; he also threw out Miller’s lawsuit. Judge Beistline was brief, but he wasn’t kind.

For those of you who are keeping score, since his upset win in the Republican primary, Joe Miller is 0-5:

1. He lost his fight to keep secret his felonious conduct at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Department of Law.
2. He lost the general election by 12,000 votes to a write-in candidate.
3. He lost his attempt to defeat the will of the voters in Alaska Superior Court.
4. He lost his second attempt to defeat the will of Alaska voters in the Alaska Supreme Court.
5. And he lost his attempt to overturn the election in U.S. District Court.

Miller will, no doubt, appeal his U.S. District Court loss to the Ninth Circuit. After all, he’s not spending his own money, and the man is plainly delusional. But while he may not be done, he is finished.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, Miller claims through his lawyers:

The number of votes by which a candidate loses an election is an important consideration that affects public opinion and perceptions regarding the candidate; the candidate’s continued viability as a public spokesperson or representative for the causes that he or she supports; the candidate’s fundraising ability, both for himself and others; and his or her future viability as a candidate.

A personal note to Joe Miller: Dude, WC thinks you need to see a professional. Right away. Your “future viability as a candidate” after your conduct during and after the vote count can be measured in single digits. And not very large digits, either. You have embarrassed everyone in Alaska. Except maybe Joe Miller, who is obviously oblivious. Your name has become a watchword for futile litigation, arrogance and self-deception.

So move along, folks, nothing more to see here. Move along.

Miller’s Muddle

Joe Miller announced over the holiday weekend that he “will not oppose state certification of the U.S. Senate race in Alaska. For the sake of the integrity of the election, Miller will go forward with the federal suit.”

Now before WC’s readers get all maudlin about Miller’s Christmas gift of new found sensitivity to protecting Alaska’s representation in Congress, consider that he didn’t have a prayer, not a proverbial snowball’s chance, of avoiding certification, possibly as early as today. After the Alaska Supreme Court decision last week, there was no credible basis for avoiding certification. So that part of the announcement is simply putting the best possible face on Miller’s ongoing post-election defeats.

As for the “sake of the integrity of the election, the only threat for which there is any evidence is Miller’s own shotgun barrage of unsupported claims. If you wanted to undermine the integrity of Alaska’s electoral process, what better way to do it than to bring in some outside meat axe like Floyd Brown? Have him make a lot of wild, unsubstantiated allegations, and then slink back out of state. WC thinks it’s roughly like a wolverine pissing on a wolf kill. It smells really bad. Nothing else will touch it. But the only thing wrong is what the wolverine did.

As both the superior court and the supreme court have pointed out to Miller, there’s no persuasive evidence for his claim of felons voting, or massive numbers of ballots with the same handwriting. His claim that he hasn’t had time to investigate fully is laughable: the election was almost two months ago. He has the very impressive financial resources of Senator Jim DeMint and his cash machine at his beck and call. If there was anything out there that made a difference, they’d have found it. The strong inference is that there isn’t.

WC’s prediction is that U.S. District Judge Beistline will have no more sympathy for Miller’s unsupported claims than Superior Court Judge Carey or the Alaska Supreme Court did. The case will be dismissed in due course, with Miller muttering about the unfairness of it all.

The ironic thing is that the Alaska election system seems to have worked perfectly. The problem is that Alaska has a sore loser.

A Few Words About Senator Jim DeMint

WC approaches a discussion of the Joe Miller-backing, Lisa Murkowski-bashing Senator Jim DeMint in the same dispassionate way he approaches all his blog entries: WC wishes that hypocritical busy-body DeMint would mind South Carolina’s business, and not meddle in Alaska’s.

His fund-raising site, Senate Conservatives Fund, has finally taken down its plea for money to support Miller’s endless, frivolous litigation. Although copies of his message are still all over the Web. The copy posted at Texas for Palin averages bout 1.5 lies per paragraph. And the paragraphs are pretty short, doubtlessly targeted to DeMint’s intended audience.

This is the same man who has stated gays should not be permitted to teach in public schools, that single mothers living with boy friends should not teach in public schools and that unmarried, sexually active people should not teach in public schools. South Carolina is welcome to elect this kind of homophobic bigot if it wishes, but WC would respectfully ask that it refrain from inflicting DeMint and his far-right values on Alaskans.

Or Senator DeMint could pay attention to his state’s embarrassing problems, rather than blasting vitriol in campaigns 3,500 miles away. South Carolina has the 8th highest poverty rate in the nation, for example, and a truly abysmal high school graduation rate – next to worst nationally. Or its 13th place finish in unwed teen pregnancies. Or South Carolina’s next-to-last finish in No Child Left Behind test scores. WC’s not picking on the great state of South Carolina; he’s suggesting that Senator DeMint may be playing Find the Lady with the voters of that great state.

If WC were to engage in similar fundraising efforts against Jim DeMint in a South Carolina Senate race, the calls of “carpetbagger” would be heard clear out in Nome. It works both ways, Senator. Please take your bigotry, lies, distortions and twisted priorities back to South Carolina. And stay there.

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One: Miller Loses – Again

The Alaska Supreme Court today issued a per curiam decision rejecting each of Joe Miller’s challenges to Superior Court Judge Bill Carey’s earlier decision. Bottom line: Miller loses, again, and badly, even worse than in the Superior Court.

For example, here’s what the Alaska Supreme Court had to say about Miller’s argument that minor misspellings should invalidate the vote:

Miller urges that only his interpretation of the statute will “preserv[e] the integrity of the electoral process as a whole.”  But it is Miller’s interpretation of the statute that would erode the integrity of the election system, because it would result in disenfranchisement of some voters and ultimately rejection of election results that constitute the will of the people.  We have consistently construed election statutes in favor of voter enfranchisement.

When the Supreme Court turns your own argument against you, it’s a really bad sign.

Notably, the state supreme court takes Miller to task for choosing to initiate a lawsuit in federal court, rather than either obtaining a recount or filing an election contest. The case is in the Alaska state courts only because U.S. District Judge Beistline forced it there. By choosing the litigation path he did, Miller, in effect, limited the issues he could raise.

Whatever sympathy WC might feel for Miller’s pleading himself into a corner has to be tempered by Miller’s claim to have “mastered the law.” You see, Mr. Miller, we are stuck with the choices we make, the words we use and the tactics we choose.

Slight change of subject: All bloggers and most Alaskans are quick to take state officials to task when they get something wrong. WC thinks it is equally important to offer praise and congratulations when they get it right.

Director of Elections Gail Fenumiai had to make thousands of difficult, high pressure decisions under tight time constraints, the national media spotlight and the badgering of hordes of lawyers, including her own. WC notes she appears to have made each and every one of those decisions correctly. As much as telling Miller his claims are wrong, the Alaska Supreme Court has affirmed all – every one – of Director Fenumiai’s decisions. Congratulations to her on a job well done. WC is deeply grateful to her.

Which leaves WC with Joe Miller and the ruins of his campaign. Under Judge Beistline’s order, Miller has 48 hours to resume his case in federal court. He doesn’t have a prayer. While WC has the lowest possible expectations for Miller and his advisors, surely now even Joe Miller can see that it is over. He has lost. It’s time to do the right thing, to concede, and allow the election to be certified.

Miller Loses – Again

One of the advantages of going on sabbatical for most of a month is that WC was spared the tedious circus of Joe Miller’s briefing in his legal challenge to the voters’ will. Instead, WC could simply read the briefs and read Superior Court Judge Bill Carey’s decision, announced yesterday in Ketchikan.

As WC predicted two months ago, Miller went down in flames. His argument that Alaska’s election write-in rules were to be strictly construed was rejected as contrary to everything the statutes, regulations and earlier decisions of the Alaska Supreme Court have ever said. Mark this well: Miller’s only hope of winning his lawsuit was to persuade the Alaska Superior Court to disenfranchise, to disallow the votes of several thousand Alaska voters. Judge Carey wasn’t having any of it. All of Miller’s claims, everyone one of them, was carefully and methodically rejected. Most of them were rejected on multiple grounds.

A prudent litigant would conclude the lawsuit is over, the election is over and Lisa Murkowski is Alaska’s U.S. Senator. But Joe Miller has already established he isn’t a prudent litigant. Certainly he has no financial incentive to be reasonable: someone else – Senator Jim DeMint’s political action committee – is funding his silly lawsuits. Joe Miller and his lawyer, Tom van Flein, can probably carry out their threat to litigate all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It costs Miller nothing and van Flein will have no objection to serial losses, as long as he is being paid.

So, absent the unlikely event of someone suddenly being overcome by reasonableness, Alaska faces the prospect of having a single U.S. Senator for the first months of the next Congress. Miller will elevate his interests over those of Alaska and Alaskans. The only bright spot is that eventually Alaska voters, even his hard-core of supporters, may get as sick of Miller and his antics as WC is.

Why Joe Miller Has Lost – Updated

Update for Results through November 12:

Murkowski’s unchallenged ballots are now up to 90% of total ballots cast. That would take the write-in candidate to 83,681 votes, against Miller’s 82,180, with some 72% of the precincts counted.

Absentee ballots aren’t all tallied yet, but unless they are statistically aberrational, they won’t affect the outcome. Bottom line: Murkowski wins, even without a single contested ballot.

You can smell the sleazy hand of Floyd Brown in the latest claims and lawsuits. They aren’t going to make any difference either, although they will have the potential to drag the process out.

Update for results through November 11:

Murkowski continues to hold an unchallenged 89.78% of the write-in votes, as statistics would predict, with a little less half of the total write-in votes counted. Today’s percentage is actually slightly higher, which translates into a handful of additional votes.

WC will say it again: despite ridiculously lousy excuses for challenges to write-in ballots and sudden, unsupported claims of voter fraud, Miller has lost.

And, gentle readers, when a candidate starts touting talk radio hosts as authority for anything, the candidate knows he has lost. Call it Wickersham’s Law.

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Original Post

The unofficial election results as of November 10 have “Write-In” getting 92,979 votes to Joe Miller’s 82,180. Absentee ballots are still coming in.

As of 6:30 PM on Wednesday, the Division of Elections had counted about 20% of those write-in ballots. Assuming the ballots counted so far are  statistically random selection, Miller has lost the election. Here’s why:

About 89% of the ballots are in favor of Lisa Murkowski and are not challenged by Joe Miller’s election watchers.

89% x 92,979 = 82,751 uncontested votes

Even if Joe Miller were to win every single disputed ballot – including the ones he is challenging because they say “Murkowski, Lisa” instead of “Lisa Murkowski” – he still loses by more than 500 votes, a landslide in Alaska’s infamously close election contests.

And Miller’s not going to win on many of his contested write-in ballots. Voter intent is the key, not a twisted, absolutist view of the law. The view is particularly reprehensible in a state where Alaska Native voters have limited English skills, triggering, on the one hand, federal laws designed to protect those votes, and, on the other, a certain racist tinge to Miller’s tactics. Miller, after all, knows those Alaska Native votes are heavily weighted against him.

Miller’s options are either to object to more ballots for even flimsier reasons (“That “i” isn’t crossed.”), lie to himself about the unlikely chance that the first 20% isn’t statistically random, or go home and figure out how to pay his $100,000 in credit card bills. We already know Joe Miller will lie to his colleagues; it’s even easier for him to lie to himself.

WC will update this post for daily results as they come in.

Dead Miller Campaign Starts to Draw Flies

WC believes that in any fair political system, the Joe Miller Senate campaign is dead. Sure, it can be hard to tell. Decades ago, when WC was a young pup. he was coming down French Pete Creek Trail in the Oregon Cascades and stepped on a big timber rattler, breaking its spine just behind the head. The snake thrashed around for a while afterwards, but it was dead. The dead snake that was Joe Miller’s political campaign continues to thrash around, too.

And dead critters attract flies, and one of the nastier species has arrived in Juneau: Floyd Brown. Here’s some quotes about Joe Miller’s latest “consultant”:

• Salon.com magazine: “He has given conservatism a rank smell for two decades –and if there is a racist odor to the coming general election campaign, it is likely to emanate from his vicinity.” (April 25, 2008)

• Mary Matalin: “I’m not a big fan of Floyd Brown…He gave us the Willie Horton ads that the Republican Party has had to eat for two election cycles now.”

• USA Today: “[Brown has] established himself as one of the nation’s dirtiest political strategists.”

• George Stephanopoulos: “Floyd Brown is a slimy thug for hire.”

In addition to the infamous Willie Brown attack ad, he’s given us Hillary: The Movie, a pay-per-call number to listen to misleadingly edited Bill Clinton telephone calls with Genifer Flowers and, of course, Citizens United. That’s the group and the case that gave corporations the right to secretly spend as much money as they want in political campaigns, without accountability or reporting.

And what was Floyd Brown’s first contribution to the Miller campaign’s efforts to avoid the inevitable? To raise unsupported, unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. WC won’t presume to speak for other Alaskans here, but WC knows some of the local election officials, and they are, to a person, scrupulously honest. Attacking their integrity, accusing them of complicity in supposed cheating, is simply evil. And, in the long term, could have a terrible impact on the Alaska election process. No one wants to sign up to be called names.

Shame on Joe Miller for bringing this thug to Alaska. Shame on local media for treating any of Brown’s unsupported, unsubstantiated claims as newsworthy. And shame on Brown for bringing his slime to Alaska.

Why Joe Miller Has Lost

Update for results through November 11:

Murkowski continues to hold an unchallenged 89.78% of the write-in votes, as statistics would predict, with a little less half of the total write-in votes counted. Today’s percentage is actually slightly higher, which translates into a handful of additional votes.

WC will say it again: despite ridiculously lousy excuses for challenges to write-in ballots and sudden, unsupported claims of voter fraud, Miller has lost.

And, gentle readers, when a candidate starts touting talk radio hosts as authority for anything, the candidate knows he has lost. Call it Wickersham’s Law.

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The unofficial election results as of November 10 have “Write-In” getting 92,979 votes to Joe Miller’s 82,180. Absentee ballots are still coming in.

As of 6:30 PM on Wednesday, the Division of Elections had counted about 20% of those write-in ballots. Assuming the ballots counted so far are  statistically random selection, Miller has lost the election. Here’s why:

About 89% of the ballots are in favor of Lisa Murkowski and are not challenged by Joe Miller’s election watchers.

89% x 92,979 = 82,751 uncontested votes

Even if Joe Miller were to win every single disputed ballot – including the ones he is challenging because they say “Murkowski, Lisa” instead of “Lisa Murkowski” – he still loses by more than 500 votes, a landslide in Alaska’s infamously close election contests.

And Miller’s not going to win on many of his contested write-in ballots. Voter intent is the key, not a twisted, absolutist view of the law. The view is particularly reprehensible in a state where Alaska Native voters have limited English skills, triggering, on the one hand, federal laws designed to protect those votes, and, on the other, a certain racist tinge to Miller’s tactics. Miller, after all, knows those Alaska Native votes are heavily weighted against him.

Miller’s options are either to object to more ballots for even flimsier reasons (“That “i” isn’t crossed.”), lie to himself about the unlikely chance that the first 20% isn’t statistically random, or go home and figure out how to pay his $100,000 in credit card bills. We already know Joe Miller will lie to his colleagues; it’s even easier for him to lie to himself.

WC will update this post for daily results as they come in.

Tired of Joe?

Joe Miller’s incessant whining is really starting to grate on WC. And WC is talking about the post-election sniveling, not all the nonsense that came before.

For example, whining that he wasn’t give time to ramp up staff to keep an eye on the evil Division of Election’s officials. If, in his arrogance, he was so certain he was going to defeat Murkowski that he didn’t do any contingency planning, then he needs to get used to the smell of chicken manure, because the birds have come home. If it wasn’t arrogance, then it was a complete failure of contingency planning. And, again, it carries its own punishment.

For example, whining that the Division of Elections didn’t give him notice of events. It’s clear now that it was his failure to investigate his obligations as a candidate, including his obligation to provide contact information for a single person to serve as his liaison to the Division. If he would step away from the mirror for just a moment, Candidate Miller would possibly appreciate that it is impossible for the Division to know who to contact, and unreasonable for them to be forced to guess. And any questions about the reasonableness of that requirement are washed away by the flood of his Dan Fagan-inspired allies who named themselves as write-in candidates.

For example, he’s whined about “electioneering” by supposed federal contractors and Native corporations. But he hasn’t disavowed Dan Fagan’s stunt,

Finally, Candidate “Write-in” leads him by more than 13,000 votes. Sure, he is counting on absentee voters and his dubious connection to the military, but absentee voters have rarely deviated by more than 25% from the regular voting ratios. Miller’s drawing to an inside straight with three of the cards he needs face up on the table.

Worst, his post-election studio assumes the voters are massively incompetent. That’s pretty cynical, isn’t it? Granted, this is politics we are talking about, but in the best case he needs, what, at least 10,000 people to be unable to spell “Murkowski”? That’s his strategy, right? WC would wish Miller good luck, but he wouldn’t mean it.

But at least stop whining. It’s unbecoming a senator wannabee, at best, and borderline paranoiac, at worst.