Why I support Joe Miller

Thursday, October 14th at 5:00PM EST

12 Comments

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This is something I posted in the comments section of adn.com (The website for the Anchorage Daily News). I’ve been mulling things over a bit in the last 24 hours. I have to admit the latest bomb (using boro computers to get rid of Ruedrich) really bothers me, but at the end of the day changes nothing. I’m posting this to, share what may be going through some peoples minds here, but more importantly, hoping that, if someone on RedState is either part of the Miller campaign, or know people who are, that they get moving. There is still no real pushback, and even that (admittedly great) commercial mentioned on here earlier has actually been running for a week or two.

AKSteveB

0 minutes ago in reply to SCGruhn

Look, the three choices at this point are

1) an entitled petulant middle of the roader who was too lazy to campaign in the primary. Without that sense of entitlement, she would have done the standard oppo research (it doesn’t take THAT much, this whole state is an overgrown gossipy small town), and Miller wouldn’t even be a factor. While I can’t know this, given her lack of party loyalty, she could either join the Dems, or more likely, join the Maine Girls and enable at least some of Obama’s agenda. As a fyi, I voted for her in the Primary. It is her behavior since then that has solidified my belief that the Tea Party was correct about her.

2) A (as far as I know) perfectly nice/honest standard issue Dem who Conservatives disagree with on pretty much everything. Just not an option for anyone not of the left.

3) A highly flawed, intelligent, eccentric Conservative running a terrible campaign. It is becoming clear the guy flat out doesn’t like playing by the rules, and he either breaks them, or at least works at the very edge of them.

The thing is ..he is the only conservative in the race. The other choices enable an agenda most of us find detestable, Murkowski to some extent, McAdams to the full extent. Also ..face it, he really is “us” at least in the sense of what brings a lot of outsiders to our state. Clearly he didn’t want a 9-5 job. Doesn’t play real well with others, and is a privacy nut. Willing to work the system in order to avoid the 9-5 life. Would tell an employer to shove it, if he wanted to do something he found more interesting (like elk hunting). Doesn’t suffer fools well, and given a likely very high IQ, I’m sure he finds a lot of fools out there (to his thinking), and if he thinks someone is a fool, doesn’t mind being dishonest with them.

He may turn out to be a total charlatan, but for conservatives, we have two absolute nos and one maybe.

12 Comments Leave a comment

Murkowski shouldn't be an option.

Christine (Diary) Thursday, October 14th at 5:12PM EST (link)

She lost. As you say yourself, she felt herself entitled and didn’t work for the primary. Her fault, and she should take her knocks and go for the next job. It burns me no end, not only that she is playing sour grapes but is even being considered as an option by Alaskans.

Of course, us “non-Alaskans” shouldn’t be putting our noses in your business…

The primary process is FLAWED. Two states should not decide our candidate.

“I would be a poor Commander in Chief”
– Barack Obama, July 3 2008

Thanks for the post, AKSteve

aesthete (Diary) Thursday, October 14th at 5:54PM EST (link)

Gotta have someone pick up Achance’s mantle as Explainer Of All Things Alaska.

The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton

Eh, I'm not fit to carry Art's jockstrap as far as Alaska Politics

AKSteveB (Diary) Thursday, October 14th at 7:26PM EST (link)

I don’t have access to the inside baseball like he does, nor his experience. I really hope to see him back here. He is a professional quality historian/writer and whether you like him or not, there isn’t a single person on this site who can’t say they learned from him.

What I am at this point is ..stunned. In a way that is naive and stupid. I pretty well gave up on morality in politics when Clinton wasn’t removed for perjury. If that doesn’t make someone unfit for high office, why bother considering standard grade cheating, lying, petty larceny etc. I guess I still do expect honor amongst thieves What I disliked the most about Miller before the primary is that he dropped in and out of the Republican party, based on being pissed off at Randy Ruedrich. What I’m seeing now is a feeding frenzy based on (what now seems to be his past) association with Palin.

Hell is other people – Sartre

When it's family feud time in the saloon

civil truth (Diary) Thursday, October 14th at 6:08PM EST (link)

All you know for sure is that there’s going to be a lot of broken furniture around.

The outcome depends on who shows up, what they’re packing, how drunk they are, and when the sheriff shows up. Sure hope when the shooting stops, that the weasel in the corner watching it all doesn’t turn out to be the last one standing.

That said, I’d sure hate to see the reneger end up with the loot.

The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis

http://www.gmsplace.com/

It sounds like Miller will represent AK very well.

itrytobenice (Diary) Thursday, October 14th at 7:08PM EST (link)

he didn’t want a 9-5 job. Doesn’t play real well with others, and is a privacy nut. Willing to work the system in order to avoid the 9-5 life. Would tell an employer to shove it, if he wanted to do something he found more interesting (like elk hunting). Doesn’t suffer fools well, and given a likely very high IQ, I’m sure he finds a lot of fools out there (to his thinking), and if he thinks someone is a fool, doesn’t mind being dishonest with them.

This describes 90% of the Alaskan’s I’ve known or heard of.

Proper grammar saves lives.

Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.

Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

Yep, that was exactly my point

AKSteveB (Diary) Thursday, October 14th at 7:16PM EST (link)

n/t

Hell is other people – Sartre

Sorry if I was being too obscure above

civil truth (Diary) Thursday, October 14th at 7:52PM EST (link)

You come a fair way in being willing to look at candidates on their own merits without dragging in all the GOP ongoing family drama.

Overall, your reasoning seems quite sound – and as our former Secretary of Defense once said: you got to go to war with the army you got rather than the army you want.

I sure hope the result of this feud is not to put the Democrat into office.

http://www.gmsplace.com/

I guess I have the soul of an accountant

AKSteveB (Diary) Thursday, October 14th at 10:43PM EST (link)

though I work in IT. It seems to me that everything eventually comes down to a bottom line.

Hell is other people – Sartre

Good post

fbks (Diary) Thursday, October 14th at 10:29PM EST (link)

and clarifies the situation for a consevative backer of Miller. We have a similar online comment section for the Fairbanks Daily News Miner. Most are garbage posts, but one makes me concerned,
This is: “when the rest of his vetting process drops the bomb shell?”
No doubt Borough workers close to Lisa are behind the leaks, is there a “bomb shell” coming and if so, when? Why not now, or is closer to Nov 2 better to end the possibilty of recovery?
This seat is critical and I will keep working hard for Miller.

This thing has really crossed into strange-land today

AKSteveB (Diary) Sunday, October 17th at 11:46PM EST (link)

Alaska Dispatch founder and editor Tony Hopfinger was grabbed and handcuffed by a private security detail working for U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller on Sunday while trying to ask the Fairbanks Republican questions following a town hall meeting at Central Middle School in Anchorage on Sunday.

Hopfinger was reportedly pressing Miller on whether the candidate had ever been reprimanded for politicking while working at the Fairbanks North Star Borough in 2008. Alaska Dispatch and other media have sued for the release of records related Miller’s time at the borough. Various accounts of what happened next generally agree on this course of events:

Two or three bodyguards told Hopfinger to stop asking questions and to leave the building.
Hopfinger continued to ask questions while apparently videotaping the candidate.
Bodyguards told him that if he persisted they would arrest him for trespassing, but refused to identify themselves to Hopfinger.

Hopfinger asked why he was trespassing, as the event was at a public school. Seconds later, he was then put in arm-bar and later handcuffed and sequestered at one end of a hallway for at least 30 minutes. He was told, “You’re under arrest.”

Anchorage Police arrived on the scene shortly after.

(update: Hopfinger was released by APD)

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/news/7186-alaska-dispatch-editor-detained-at-miller-event-updated

Hell is other people – Sartre

It appears Mr. Hopfinger intends to go after Miller

texasgalt (Diary) Monday, October 18th at 12:40AM EST (link)

as diligently as he went after Palin. All this fuss over whether Miller was or was not about to be fired years back. Why does it matter?

I’d like to know why Mr Hopfinger no longer works at the Coeur d’Alene Press in Idaho or any of the numerous papers he has been associated with. There is some interesting stuff over at Huffpo by Hopfinger.

I believe the Alaska Dispatch is the online publication that Art Chance said only a handful of lefties read. He got after me pretty good for linking to it.

I guess this is the only way it can work in Alaska. I wonder how many lawsuits will be filed against Miller.

GO JOE
http://joemiller.us/

According to Miller's father, Joe (allegedly)

AKSteveB (Diary) Monday, October 18th at 1:37AM EST (link)

used some other workers computers to try to stuff a poll about replacing Randy Ruedrich (not a proxy vote as first reported, but some poll), then erased cache on his computers. He said he wasn’t in any danger of being fired, but was suspended for a few days without pay. It’s stupid but hardly criminal, then again ..pretty much the same thing can be said about what Ruedrich did

The Dispatch is definitely more left than right. Hopfinger is married to Amanda Coyne, a longtime leftist columnist up here and the owner has donated to Murkowski in the past. They generally have a pretty good reputation. If you are curious at all, KFQD’s Dan Fagan had an interview with Hopfinger and someone else I can’t remember in hour 2 of his show on Friday. www.kfqd.com and look for Friday’s podcast.

In a way it is enjoyable to see a candidate flat out declare war on the mainstream press and refuse to do business with them. Having said that, hiring security to enforce that just looks bad, bad, bad. A couple of pretty strong public Miller supporters are jumping to Murkowski based on this. You’ll see an article or two from them on the Alaska Conservative sites in the next day or so. I guess we’ll see what happens. If Miller wins, perhaps this is
where the revolution started..
.

Hell is other people – Sartre