Following up on John’s post yesterday on Joe Miller’s effort to disenfranchise Alaska voters, the latest from the Miller campaign is that they’ve decided to bypass state courts and file their premature lawsuit in federal court.
As a candidate, one of Miller’s central messages was that the federal government has overreached into areas that should be run by the states, whether that was Social Security, health care, education or resource protection. Now the state says it is Miller who is overreaching by asking a federal court to interfere in what should be an Alaska affair.
At least Miller’s action has helped him to clarify his position on the teen amendments. Previously, he had been “noncommittal about his stance on the 14th Amendment”. Now that it helps his quest to disenfranchise Alaskan voters, he cites it as grounds for throwing out Murkowski ballots.
Fargus
It’s not entirely hypocritical, is it? If his belief that the 17th Amendment should be repealed is stronger than his noncommittal feelings about the 14th, then disenfranchising voters by any means really fits into his larger stated agenda.
bjacques
He should do some venue-shopping. Maybe one of those Constitutional Courts where survivalists slap liens on the buildings of people they don’t like.
stuckinred
This Qui Bids that is showing up on my left nav bar is a total ripoff.
Comrade Javamanphil
Shorter 2010 GOP: Federal protections (and $$) for me and not for thee.
funluvn
Say it ain’t so, Joe! (hey moosealini? This is how you use this correctly. It’s all about context…)
If you can’t win fairly, you turn to the Republican way? Courts again. Worked for Shrub.
Redshirt
There’s so many pithy phrases which can neatly encapsulate our Teahadist brethren. How about “Good for me, but not for thee?”
Pretty much sums up everything they do, yeah?
PeakVT
Instead of studying katydid genitalia, scientists should spend more time on finding out what is wrong with the brains of conservatives. I want somebody to develop a new psycho-pharmaceutical or gene therapy or whatever it takes to make conservatives feel shame when they are hypocrites.
Dennis SGMM
This in the midst of non-stop braying by the GOP that the recent election has given them the sacred right to overturn everything they don’t like and that the will of the people means that Obama has to give in on everything that they want.
Miller is now busily shopping for a good, activist judge to stick a Federal oar into Alaska’s state election. If that doesn’t pan out he can certainly push it to the SCOTUS which has already demonstrated its willingness to overturn an election.
LosGatosCA
So a crony capitalist Republican and an ignorant Neanderthal Teabagging Republican get into a fight. . .
That’s the punchline to the joke our country has become.
mak
If Joe is forum shopping, he may not find the federal courts – his former employer – very accommodating either. At least one judge has already recused himself because he thinks Joe is a dick.
BTW, that ADN is a damn fine local paper, especially for a city smaller than Corpus Christie and a state with the population of Milwaukee.
Ross Hershberger
Great song. I love The New Pornographers. Even when Neko’s not singing.
Pongo
@PeakVT: I think it is some sort of mass sincere delusion. Does it ever strike anyone else that a lot of these righty heroes act very much like dry drunks? Every time I listen to Rush or Sean or Bill O* I think of my awful un-recovered mean, selfish, untrustworthy uncle. He quit drinking without going through treatment so remains an abusive dry drunk. He’s a half person. Alive, but only experiencing the negative aspects of life. I can barely stand to spend time with him at family events and would never consider inviting him to my home to terrorize my kids. Can’t imagine why millions purposely invite these guys into their lives every day, unless the American public is so dysfunctional dry drunks seem normal to them.
*I don’t include Glenn Beck because he is a special case. I fear he may actually be a malignant sociopath, so even a step beyond the dry drunks. Either that, or his whole schtick has been a years-long performance art piece and he will ultimately reveal how he pushed the envelope of hatred and malice just to see how many normal ‘good Americans’ would respond and is mortified by the results.
Joseph Nobles
Wow. I guess this guy is going to be living out in a dog sledding camp when this is all over.
Jay in Oregon
@Joseph Nobles:
He can take Sarah Palin with him. I hear she prefers that to being in a dry, stuffy old office.
Triassic Sands
Miller has got to have his eye on the SCOTUS. He knows that they have zero respect for the role of state courts in elections. At least not when they find state courts to be an obstacle to their obtaining their desired goal.
On the other hand, the Supremes may not care about Joe Miller and his Tea Bagger brand of politics. I could imagine Thomas being in Miller’s corner, but it’s more difficult for me to see Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, and to a lesser extent, Scalia siding with Miller. I doubt if any of the lefties (such as they are) will line up with Miller.
Election disputes can sometimes tell us more about a candidate’s true beliefs than anything else. What Miller really believes in is winning and power. Everything else is secondary.