Alaska's election could, plausibly, be a determining factor on the nation's (and the globe's) path forward toward (or away from) a clean-energy future.
Joe Miller up in Alaska is refusing to speak with the media about his "personal" life. So the media, as it is wont to do, is going around him to find out the details anyway. Check out this piece from the Anchorage Daily News:
Borough's ex-mayor says Miller was disciplined over ethics
'LESS THAN HONEST': He was politicking on borough time and computers, says ex-official.
Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller used borough computers in Fairbanks for partisan political purposes in 2008 when he organized the failed effort to oust state GOP chairman Randy Ruedrich from his post, the borough mayor who supervised Miller said Wednesday.
Jim Whitaker, the mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough when Miller was the borough's part-time attorney, said Miller was disciplined in writing for violating the borough's ethics policy.
Whitaker said he decided to speak out publicly now after Miller vowed this week to not answer questions about his past. Miller told reporters he has been the victim of "lies and innuendos" after questions were raised about his work history with the borough.
"Statements that Mr. Miller made on Monday led me to believe he was not going to be forthcoming. And I felt that the statements he made were less than honest," Whitaker said in an interview Wednesday. "This entire event happened on my watch. I know what the truth is and I felt obligated to tell the truth."
Whitaker, who was borough mayor from 2003 to 2009, has long expressed reluctance to speak about the matter, but gave interviews Wednesday to the Daily News, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Alaska Dispatch.
[...]
Whitaker, a former Republican state legislator, said Miller got in trouble in March 2008 for misusing borough computers. Miller was the Interior regional chairman of the Republican Party at the time and, along with then-Gov. Sarah Palin, was trying have Randy Ruedrich replaced as party chair at the annual GOP convention.
Then-mayor Whitaker said he was informed by his chief of staff, the borough attorney and the personnel director about what Miller had done.
Whitaker said Miller was caught using multiple computers to try to oust Ruedrich as party chairman. He said he was under the impression that Miller was trying to get himself elected to the position. Whitaker said he wasn't sure why Miller was using different computers.
Whitaker said the borough employees whose computers Miller used didn't know he was doing so. He said one of them "informed the acting borough attorney that something was amiss with her computer." He said borough technicians investigated and found that the computers had been used to send information to the Republican Party.
The borough's ethics policy does not allow employees to engage in politics on government time and with government equipment. Whitaker said his understanding is that Miller was reprimanded by the borough attorney and was to be suspended without pay. "I do not know if the time off without pay was enforced," Whitaker said.
Miller acknowledged, in writing, improperly using the computers, Whitaker said. Whitaker said he's never seen Miller's personnel file but believes the admission is in it.
This summer, the borough released a heavily blacked-out set of documents in response to a public records request from the Daily News and other news organizations seeking information related to any disciplinary action Miller faced while employed there. Many documents were withheld, including several from around the time of the 2008 Republican convention.
The withheld denied files included "web activity" reports of four employees from the day before the Republican convention, as well as statements that had been taken from four employees.
Read the rest of the piece for more, it's all pretty grimy. With that kind of track record, it's no wonder, as Chris Bowers notes in his newest analysis, that Scott McAdams is gaining. As I said in my Senate update last week, Alaska could be one of the sleeper races of the year.
While some leaked emails have revealed a bit of a lover's quarrel, it is clear that Joe Miller's political strategy is 100% based on Sarah Palin's playbook. The latest example: upset that some in the media are questioning some things about his personal history, he has decided that he will no longer answer "personal" questions. Not sure yet how "personal" is defined (does the fact that he wants to abolish safety net programs that he and his family took advantage of every chance they got count as personal?), but he is clearly following in his heroine/role model's wake- Sarah stopped doing pretty much all interviews except Fox News once she had made a fool of herself in the first couple of interviews on the campaign trail in 2008.
So even without being able to get him to answer questions, here's what we do know about Joe Miller: extremist right winger. Flaming hypocrite. And now we know he is also a coward. Heck of a guy.
The modern Republican Party has certainly had its share of flaming hypocrites over the years: Newt Gingrich calling for impeachment over an affair while having one himself; closeted gays like Mark Foley voting against gay rights while trying to seduce 16-year-old pages; holier-than-thou Christians like Tom DeLay happily taking Jack Abramoff's ill-gotten cash. The list is long and keeps growing. But in this year's election, I think you have to give the award for the paragon of Republican hypocrisy to one other Joe Miller, who apparently has never met a public welfare program he hasn't (a) been a recipient of; and (b) is now trying to get rid of.
U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller said today that in the past his family received assistance from federal Medicaid and Denali KidCare, the state low income health care program. His write-in opponent, Lisa Murkowski, called him a hypocrite for taking the assistance while now saying federal entitlement programs are unconstitutional.
The Miller campaign for the past week-and-a-half did not answer when asked what low income assistance he received. But Miller today answered the question when asked by reporters after a debate, saying he considers it a distraction but people are entitled to know.
"I have the same sort of struggles in my past that other people have had. There is a proper role for government. The question is, who controls the power, is at the federal level or the state level? It's our perspective that the state is the best arbiter, the state is the best point at which we make those decisions," Miller said.
Miller said he hasn't been on government assistance "for years." He didn't provide a timeline but campaign spokesman said he believes he stopped receiving the benefits in 2002.Miller, who has eight children, said his family received Denali Kid Care, the state program that includes federal Medicaid money.
Miller criticized Murkowski in June during the Republican primary for supporting Denali Kid Care, some money of which funds abortions.
"As you are aware, just last week the Anchorage Daily News reported that the Denali KidCare Program funded 662 abortions last year. Senator Murkowski has been a champion of this program, voting against the majority of her Republican colleagues for CHIPRA (HR 2) in January of 2009," Miller wrote in a fundraising letter.
Miller said today he was critical of expanding the program, not the program itself. "We've also got a federal government today which is in completely different conditions than it used to be. At the time, I don't know what the deficit was but it certainly was less than half I believe than what it was today," he said.
Miller, when asked what other federal or state low income assistance he received, noted that he received a low-income state hunting and fishing license in 1995.
"That was contingent on two things. That you have low income or that you have a program. That was before Denali KidCare, I think at the time we had three children and one on the way, and I believe it was probably some form of Medicaid program we were on at the time," Miller said.
Murkowski said there was nothing wrong with using government "safety nets."
"What I find so hypocritical about Miller is he has stated repeatedly his opposition to these programs, stating that they are unconstitutional. So if you believe they are unconstitutional then why would you avail yourself of these safety nets.you either walk the talk or you don't."
Miller said what he's talking about is state control of the programs. "That doesn't mean we cut off the programs, that is ultimately a state decision. And I think there is a use, in fact the most effective use is probably those programs that help transition the populations from more of a situation of dependency to one where you can be independently economic.
A friend in Alaska tells me he also may be late in paying his property taxes.
I love this guy. He reminds me of the folks at the Tea Party rallies who want to keep the government out of their Medicare, or the man who said that yeah, he was on Social Security and Medicare, but some people didn't deserve welfare, dammit.
Like his on-again, off-again buddy Sarah Palin, I think investigative bloggers in Alaska can probably have a field day with this guy. He will be the gift that keeps on giving.
Rachel Maddow did a hilarious piece on her show last night about all the Republican candidates who are making bizarre and provably false claims about their status as former secret agents or undercover cops or hostage negotiators or- my personal favorite- holders of security clearances so high not even the President can attain one. This Republican crop of candidates has some truly nutty folks in it. But worse even than the loons are candidates like Alaska Republican nominee Joe Miller who has a track record of skating on the edge of the law to get government subsidies and checks while denouncing government spending and welfare.
Miller is on record saying unemployment compensation is not "constitutionally authorized" and should be looked at for repeal- which is a little odd given his family's history with unemployment comp. But it's a story with an even odder twist than just the fact that his wife got unemployment comp. What happened was that Miller was a part time federal magistrate in 2002-2004. Upon getting the job, he hired his wife even though the rules about nepotism were quite clear in this position. Miller claims he received clearance from the federal court to do that, but there doesn't seem to be any documentation of this "clearance" conversation, and shortly thereafter he discovered that- oh, my God- there was a nepotism law and she would have to be laid off. As a newly laid off person, Miller's wife was eligible for- you guessed it- unemployment comp, and even though it was not constitutionally authorized, she decided to take it anyway. A cynical person might think Miller hired his wife, knowing he would have to lay her off because of the nepotism law so that she would be eligible for unemployment comp, but thankfully for Miller I am not a cynical person.
Here's another quirky thing in hard core conservative Joe Miller's past. It seems that when Miller came to Alaska in the mid 1990s, he applied for a hunting license, but applied as an indigent in 1995. The eligibility for that indigent license was a person making under $8250 in household income annually. As ProgressiveAlaska reports:
Miller's mortgage in 1994 with Countrywide for the house on the hillside was a 7-year, $92,000loan @ approximately 8%. (Monthly payment approximately $1400 for interest and principle only.)
Add insurance and taxes and the monthly is over $1600. $1600x12=$19,200. Substantially more than the $8250 annual gross family income limit for an indigent license.
Miller family's gross income in 1994 (qualifying year for 1995 indigent license) included income from the sale of a portion of his Kansas farm acreage, Joe's Army Reserve pay as a First Lt., his farm rental payments from Farmer's Coop, Alta Vista, Kansas, his farm subsidies, legal intern salary from Condon, Partnow & Sharrock (May, 1994) and from the Alaska Dept of Law (June through December, 1994, at least $2,000/month) and child support Kathleen received for two children.
The total is greatly in excess of $8250 and was enough to qualify them for the $92,000 mortgage from Countrywide.
Additionally, in 1996, his wife again applied for a Class 5A license - claiming gross family income of less than $8250 when she was still receiving child support, Joe was still receiving Army Reserve pay, farm rental income and subsidies and had gone to work in May 1995 (1995 was the qualifying year) at Partnow, Condon & Sharrock for $70,000 year.
If he was truthful on the fishing license application then he had to have lied on his home loan application.
Now who knows, maybe the folks at Progressive Alaska missed some kind of explanation here, maybe there is some bit of info about Miller's financial situation they don't have. But for a guy who doesn't believe the government should do very much to help poor people, the idea that he probably defrauded the state of Alaska by claiming indigence when he seems to have had a fair amount of resources seems doubly wrong.
Conservatives like Miller are the worst kind of hypocrites- denouncing unemployment comp when they have taken advantage of it themselves, denouncing programs to help the poor while taking advantage of them when they apparently aren't even poor themselves. Miller will never get the attention that Christine O'Donnell does because, well, he doesn't have to run TV ads like this one denying that he's a witch. But his track record deserves some serious attention, because this guy might become a Senator.
The traditional media outlets can't get enough of the Tea Party story, even when it doesn't merit it. According to counts of people by independent sources at town hall meetings in August of last year, there were considerably less angry Tea Party folks than there were people generally supportive of the bill, or even people less sure who just came with questions, but the screaming Tea Partiers got all the press. When 200,000 pro-immigration reform activists marched on the Capitol earlier this year on the same day a few hundred tea partiers screamed "nigger" at John Lewis and "faggot" at Berney Frank, guess who got the front page stories? And when progressive forces have taken on establishment Democrats and won big primaries, like when Joe Sestak beat Arlen Specter or when Ann Kuster beat Katrina Swett, it hasn't gotten much attention, whereas the media just can't get them enough of tea party craziness and crazies.
Amazingly enough, though, there is one tea party candidate who, once he won his surprise victory, hasn't gotten much media play: Joe Miller in Alaska. Joe's surprise victory in Alaska stirred up a bit of dust, but then Christine O'Donnell and her masturbation/witchcraft videos came along, and that's the last we heard of poor old Joe. I decided, though, between now and the election, some spotlight ought to be shined on this guy- after all, unlike Christine, he might actually become a Senator.
I'm not going to write a lot about him today, but in the coming weeks there will be much to report, because this guy's past is a piece of work. For today, I will just note one thing, and this is about current times not the past: Mr. Outsider did drop by Washington, DC this week. As much as he rails against the establishment, guess what the first place he dropped by when he came to town. It wasn't a tea party demonstration. It was the offices of DLA Piper, one of the biggest corporate lobbying firms in the country, with a powerhouse corporate client roster second to none, for a fundraiser. And here's the kicker: they don't just lobby for big American corporations. One of their clients is United Arab Emirates in Dubai.
Welcome to Washington, Mr. Miller. Glad you are already getting comfortable with our culture here. Maybe on your next trip out of Alaska, you can take an all-expense paid junket to Dubai.
Stick a fork in this one. Begich is going to win. Better Democratic Senate candidates remain undefeated. Now, a victory from either Franken or Martin will deliver the Employee Free Choice Act, and structurally shift the country to the left. This win is a huge boost. We are almost at the point where Republicans just don't matter anymore.
The one drawback: Sarah Palin as a Senator would have been pretty funny.
Yesterday, I asked you to help Democrats Jim Martin and Mark Begich via the Expand the Map! ActBlue page as the Georgia Senate race heads toward a run-off against Shameless Saxby Chambliss and the Alaska Senate race heads toward a protracted vote count and possible legal battle against convicted felon Ted Stevens.
You responded with hundreds of dollars and we are so close to our goal on the Expand the Map! ActBlue page - please help Martin and Begich meet the goal this weekend:
Democrat
Current
Goal
Difference
Jim Martin
$3,385 $3,900
$4,000
$615 just $100
Mark Begich
$5,553 $5,820
$6,000
$447 just $180
Please make a contribution today via the Expand the Map! ActBlue page and help Jim Martin and Mark Begich eject Saxby Chambliss and Ted Stevens from the U.S. Senate.
Alaska Senator Ted Stevens has been found guilty on all counts. This might come as a disappointment to the prosecution, but apparently they didn't screw it up somehow.
I have to believe this puts the Alaska Senate race in the bag.
Unbelievable. Politico is reporting key evidence against Stevens has been thrown out. The chances he'll get off just increased significantly.
Judge Emmet Sullivan threw out two big pieces of evidence in the Justice Department's prosecution of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) after it was disclosed that prosecutors failed to provide defense attorneys with all the information they needed to put on their case.
Stevens' attorneys are also expected to offer a motion for acquittal on Thursday, once the government finishes putting on its case for conviction. Stevens' defense team has repeatedly sought to have the case dismissed or a mistrial declared due to alleged prosecutorial misconduct.
(Oh, Yeah! The SENATE! - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
So with the Alaska primary and the conventions now over, it's time for another look at all the 2008 Senate races. There are 35 seats up for election because of a scenario in Wyoming and Mississippi where both seats are up, due to the passing of Craig Thomas and the resignation of Trent Lott, respectively. Obviously, quite a few of the races are considered "safe" for the incumbent. So what are the competitive races?
Again, just to be clear, I don't do predictions. Every time I do, horrible things happen. So I won't even make an actual prediction on the Virginia Senate race, because doing so would effectively jinx Mark Warner. So, I'll rank these in terms of tiers. The top tier will be the races where the party holding the seat has a legitimate chance of switching (but I ain't guaranteeing anything). The second tier are races that could become top tier races, but are not at this point. Tier III are ones where a major event would need to happen for the seat to come into play. And the safe seats? Well, Mike Gravel has a better shot at winning the presidency than those incumbents have of losing their races.
This is meant to be a primer for both newcomers and political junkies alike, so some of the information may seem repetitive for you junkies out there. Also see my previous August diary to see what things have changed since my last update.
ABC News has exclusively learned that Alaska Senator Hollis French will announce today that he is moving up the release date of his investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired. The results of the investigation were originally scheduled for release Oct. 31 but will now come almost three weeks earlier, according to sources.(...)
"It's likely to be damaging to the Governor's administration," said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation.
This is a good response to the new stall and avoid tactics of the McCain campaign. Palin had earlier refused to testify before the commission, in an obvious tactic to delay the release of the report until after Election Day. It is part and parcel with their strategy of not talking to the media, and while simultaneously attacking them at a partisan institution. Fortunately, Hollis French is not going to put up with it.
Stevens also said that Senator Daniel Inouye, the Democrat from Hawaii who Stevens refers to as his "brother," was in Alaska with his wife, to join Stevens while he campaigns across the state (Inouye didn't join Stevens at this rally). Inouye is scheduled to appear with Stevens in Anchorage at the Alaska Federation of Natives' Leadership Roundtable Partnership for Affordable Energy at the Hotel Captain Cook Tuesday morning and at the dedication of the Opinsky Mail Center at 4141 Postmark Drive Tuesday afternoon.
Stevens said he would fly to Fairbanks today to join President Bush and meet U.S. troops at Eielson Air Force Base, and return to Anchorage this evening.
As Republicans return money from Ted Stevens hand over fist, the only politicians will to still appear with Stevens appear to by Hawaii Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye and George W. Bush. Nothing like a sitting U.S. Senator working against creating more Senators from his own party.
In my experience, this is what bi-partisanship appears to most frequently mean in Congress: long-term, powerful, elite insiders protecting one another. While increased partisanship is not a sufficient threat to make our political system less responsive to powerful elites in and of itself, it is a partial threat that moves power away from individual masters of the universe like Ted Stevens and toward more collective party structures. This is actually one of the reasons why the punditry fosters a public hatred against a shadow partisan enemy that is responsible for... something.
There is an individualist streak in the American psyche that recoils against partisanship, but the truth is that the vast majority, like 99.9%, of Americans are not personally powerful enough to make even the smallest dent on the political process without joining up with a larger collective structure like a political party. Unless you are individually wealthy, have a large media platform from which to pontificate, or have accrued decades worth of favors and relationship from being in Congress, good luck getting anything done on your own. In this regard, Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye are in a very different position than most Americans, and thus have no use for partisanship.
It is always important to keep in mind who would benefit from whatever change is suggested in Washington. When it comes to reducing partisanship, elites would benefit far more than average Americans.
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