DSCC Getting Its Dream Candidate, Joe Miller, Against Begich In Alaska?

DSCC & Tea Party agree Joe Miller should be the GOP nominee. The GOP... not so much

In the Quinnipiac poll released yesterday, voters across the country were clear that after weeks of intense right-wing propaganda and Establishment media drummed up poutrage, the GOP Scandalpalooza isn't as important to anyone as it is to deranged Republicans. By enormous margins-- 73-22%-- voters said dealing with the economy is a higher priority than the IRS, Benghazi, and Associated Press controversies the congressional Republicans are putting virtually all their energy into.

American voters say 43- 32 percent that congressional criticism of the Obama Administration's handling of the terrorist attack in Libya is 'just politics.' Voters say 44- 33 percent, however, that members of Congress who criticize the way the Obama Administration handled the IRS are raising 'legitimate concerns.' Criticism of the Justice Department's seizure of journalists' phone records also raises 'legitimate concerns,' voters say 37- 24 percent.

...But voters say 73- 22 percent that dealing with the economy and unemployment is a higher priority than investigating these three issues.

And the highest priority for Democrats is working to improve the economy-- especially Senate Democrats. As Greg Sargent pointed out in his Washington Post column yesterday, after reading the same Quinnipiac poll, "a variety of indicators, from rising home prices to buoyed consumer confidence to falling gas prices, suggest that the economy is improving at a stronger clip than previously anticipated."

If the recovery is strong next year, it could help Dems hold the Senate. That’s because, with Democrats fighting on defense across the board, Dem control of the Senate hinges on whether a half dozen incumbents can hang on. And an improving economy can help incumbents. As Amy Walter of the nonpartisan [actually it's extremely skewed towards Republicans but Greg writes in DC so...] Cook Political Report explains:

Good economic times are good for incumbents. After all, voters are more apt to look for change in tough times than they are in good ones. Significant economic anxiety contributed to the “wave” elections of 2008 and 2010. In 2012, the economy improved just enough to help President Obama win re-election.

This year, Americans’ confidence in the economy is as strong as it’s been in years. If that continues, it would probably mean a status quo cycle; which is the best that Democrats could hope for.

Democrats are the underdogs in 2014. They are defending seven Senate seats in deep red states, while Republicans have no vulnerable seats to protect…The best case scenario for Democrats is 2014 to limit their losses. An improving economic outlook could help them do that. The economic environment is much improved from where it was right before Election Day 2010. And, it’s even a bit better than it was in the fall of 2012.

And one of those deep red states with a Democratic senator is Alaska-- and Mark Begich, who has upset his own base with a series of wrong-headed right-wing votes, like backing the NRA demand to kill background checks (which is very popular in Alaska). Alaska is a tough environment for Democrats in statewide races. Obama only drew 41% of the vote there last year, worse than he did in Georgia, South Carolina, or Mississippi. And when Begich first won, in 2008-- with the incumbent Republican embroiled in a series of outrageous corruption scandals on the front pages of every newspaper-- it was a very slim lead: 151,767 (48%) to 147,814 (47%). Two years later, Scott McAdams, the Democratic challenger to GOP incumbent Lisa Murkowski, came in third. Murkowski, who had narrowly lost the primary to a neo-fascist teabagger named Joe Miller, ran in the general as an independent write-in candidate and won with 101,091 (40%), while Miller, the official Republican candidate took 90,839 votes (36%) and McAdams trailed with a mere 60,045 (23%).

Many Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents abandoned McAdams when polls showed he had no chance and voted for Murkowski to prevent the crazed teabagger from winning the seat. Well... the crazed teabagger is back. He wants to Republican nomination again, this time to run against Begich. A recent PPP survey found that Alaska voters are angry at Begich for voting against background checks. But will they vote for a certifiably insane militant gun loon instead?

When we polled Alaska in February Lisa Murkowski was one of the most popular Senators in the country with a 54% approval rating and only 33% of voters disapproving of her. She's seen a precipitous decline in the wake of her background checks vote though. Her approval is down a net 16 points from that +21 standing to +5 with 46% of voters approving and 41% now disapproving of her. Murkowski has lost most of her appeal to Democrats in the wake of her vote, with her numbers with them going from 59/25 to 44/44. And the vote hasn't increased her credibility with Republican either-- she was at 51/38 with them in February and she's at 50/39 now.

Mark Begich is down following his no vote as well. He was at 49/39 in February and now he's at 41/37. His popularity has declined with Democrats (from 76/17 to 59/24) and with independents (from 54/32 to 43/35), and there has been no corresponding improvement with Republicans. He had a 24% approval rating with them two months ago and he has a 24% approval rating with them now.

60% of Alaska voters support background checks to just 35% opposed, including a 62/33 spread with independents. 39% of voters say they're less likely to vote for each of Begich and Murkowski in their next elections based on this vote, while only 22% and 26% say they're more likely to vote for Begich and Murkowski respectively because of this.

Alaska will definitely be a high-profile, high-priority Senate battleground state this year. There's probably no one Begich would rather see as his opponent than Miller.

Apparently, the 2010 loss still smarts. Miller seems almost to be running as much against Murkowski as Begich.

“Though I was labeled an ‘extremist’ by the likes of Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich for telling the truth, both of our sitting senators now routinely engage in such ‘extremist’ rhetoric with respect to federal overreach, government spending, and entitlement reform,” Miller writes on his Restoring Liberty website.

Miller’s political manifesto is straight out of the tea party wing of the Republican Party.

“With the re-election of Barack Obama, our very way of self-government is in peril,” he says. “The Constitution is under attack, the value of human life degraded, religious liberties are threatened, the Second Amendment is increasingly in jeopardy, and the right to protection from unlawful search and seizure is giving way to a virtual surveillance State.”

He warns of a “looming debt crisis” and “the coming downgrade of America’s credit rating.” The US senators he says he most admires: Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Mike Lee of Utah-- those who will “confront President Obama, not one who will cut a deal to negotiate the terms of our surrender to his radical socialist agenda.”

...Earlier this month, a state judge ordered Miller to pay $85,000 in attorney’s fees to the Alaska Dispatch online news organization in Anchorage tied to a 2010 lawsuit to make public Miller’s employment records during his time as a part-time government lawyer. At one point in the dust-up, Miller’s security men at a town hall meeting handcuffed the editor of the Alaska Dispatch.

“Miller’s conduct, which included taking inconsistent positions, failing to disclose information during discovery, and his procedural filing, which the record did not support, all caused unnecessary delay and costs for both Alaska Dispatch” and the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska Superior Court Judge Stephanie Joannides wrote in her ruling.

Is there any chance that Ms. Palin could jump into Alaska’s 2014 US Senate race? It may be unlikely, but recent polls could tempt the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential nominee.

She enjoys a 62 percent favorable rating among Republican voters in the state, according to a Harper Polling survey earlier this month, and she leads Miller 52 percent to 19 percent in a hypothetical head-to-head match.

Miller, meanwhile, has a 49 percent to 34 percent unfavorable-favorable rating in that poll.

So, will the Democratic base forgive Begich his dalliance with the NRA and his generally conservative Republican voting record? Blue America certainly will not be adding him to our Senate page of endorsed candidates but I suspect that Alaska Democrats will hold their noses and vote for him... IF Miller is the nominee (or Palin). Miller is now publicly embracing the term "extremist" to describe him and his agenda:

Republican Party Civil War Roils Illinois And Alaska

Joe Miller is back

Right wing extremists moved to take over the Republican Party apparatus in Illinois and Alaska. They failed in Illinois and, predictably, succeeded in Alaska-- just in time for the reemergence of neo-fascist politician Joe Miller. And recently, teabaggers nearly succeeded in taking over the Republican Party organization in Michigan and is angling to do just that in Ohio. We'll come back to Alaska in a minute. First Illinois.

The state party chair, Pat Brady, an ally of lightly closeted Rep. Aaron Schock (who is eager to run for governor), had told the state's Republicans that if they're going to win statewide elections they need to be more inclusive and welcoming. Earlier in the year he had backed the marriage equality bill in the state legislature. So, of course, radical right elements within the party, calling him "divisive," tried to oust him this past weekend. A long closed door session resulted in a compromise: Brady will not seek another term but can remain on as a lame duck chairman.

In Alaska, party chairman Debbie Brown didn't fare as well... although the situation seems still fluid, bitter and murky. Brown is pretty hard right and she claims it was the "Old Guard" that has been fighting her. The actual vote to oust her came from teabaggers allied with Palin and a contingent of libertarians. She claims her ouster and replacement by retired Army Colonel Peter Goldberg was illegitimate.

State Republican chairwoman Debbie Brown, a self-described "strong conservative" who shuttered party headquarters in midtown Anchorage as a part of her war with the party's old guard, says she is still the party's leader despite "shenanigans" by its executive committee, who removed her from the job on Monday.

...The leadership upheaval followed months of infighting pitting longtime party leaders against activists including supporters of former Governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, former Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller, and libertarian-minded supporters of Ron Paul, the former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

But national politics have little to do with the turmoil among Alaska Republicans.

"This is much more specific to Alaska than it is a reflection of the national issues," said Gerald McBeath, a political science professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Brown has found herself at a national Republican meeting in Los Angeles this week alongside her appointed successor, Goldberg, with both identifying themselves as head of the state party-- and both denied that title at the meeting, she said in a text message to Reuters on Friday signed "Debra Holle Brown, Chairman, Alaska Republican Party."

The national Republican leadership "decided the best solution, for all parties, was to deny Alaska a Chairman's seat," she wrote.

Brown's ouster followed a similar move in January against her fellow Tea Party ally Russ Millette. He had been elected to succeed longtime chairman Randy Ruedrich, who left the job voluntarily.

Ruedrich had long feuded with Palin and Miller.

Miller, who is mulling a 2014 campaign against Democratic Senator Mark Begich, defended Brown in an essay published on his website, Restoring Liberty. He said charges against her were spurious and that she had been the victim of "a kangaroo court-type proceeding orchestrated by long-time party bosses."

Miller, a product of Alaska's Tea Party and various secessionist and militia movements, announced "an exploratory" committee for the Senate seat held by Mark Begich over the weekend. Republican Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell is also running for the nomination. Miller won the GOP nomination in 2010 but then lost the general election to incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski, who had launched a successful write-in bid. She's generally viewed as a mainstream conservative. If he were elected, he would probably be the furthest right member of the Senate.

“The choice before Alaskans in 2014 will be stark. Voters must choose between the easy lies of an insider politician or the hard truth of a reformer,” he said. “As of the writing of this article, I am unaware of another potential candidate who has demonstrated a willingness to challenge the status quo, and confront the culture of corruption that reaches to the highest levels of American government.”

If he wins the nomination, which is likely, Murkowski will be in an awkward position.

Streams Of Consciousness

Does this sound to you that recently reelected Lisa Murkowski will actually vote in favor of repealing DADT? It sounds like someone told her there are no more foxholes in the wars we fight and therefore she's ok with getting rid of it... or something like that:



Joe Miller, the crackpot Palin put up to run against her vows to never surrender. He's threatening to sue and has asked a judge to prevent Alaska election officials from certifying the results.

The House Ethics Committee voted 9-1 in favor of recommending that the full House censure Charlie Rangel for 11 ethics violations, none of which rose to the level of corruption. But he is corrupt and everyone knows it. Of course most members of Congress are corrupt, so it gets a little sticky when it comes to "everyone knows."

The Republicans tried to defund NPR first thing this morning. They failed 239-171, every Republican voted for their parliamentary maneuver and only three horrid ConservaDems going along with them, Gabby Giffords (Blue Dog-AZ), who squeaked by a tough reelection bid, and two losers, John Adler (NJ) and Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS).

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, Boehner has his hands full trying to persuade the teabaggers who have infected his caucus that the GOP is now part of the government and that demonizing the government means they're demonizing themselves. And that they can't not raise the debt ceiling and let the whole house collapse because they have to start acting like grownups now. He's going to be hitting the bottle again real hard, real soon.

“We’re going to have to deal with it as adults,” he said, in what apparently are his most explicit comments to date. “Whether we like it or not, the federal government has obligations and we have obligations on our part.”

...The challenge for Republicans is that many of their highest-profile newcomers are on the record strongly opposing a debt limit increase. Tea party protestors and activists will likely watch the vote as an indication of whether the new lawmakers are sticking by their principles or, as they see it, caving in to Washington ways.

The campaign of Rep.-elect Kristi Noem (R., S.D.) attacked Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin for voting to raise the debt limit. Rep.-elect Tim Scott (R., S.C.), who like Ms. Noem is joining the House Republican leadership, reiterated Friday that he wouldn’t vote to raise the ceiling.

In February, Republican Reid Ribble blasted Rep. Steve Kagen (D., Wis.), whom he defeated, for voting to increase the debt limit, calling it “unconscionable” and “insane.” He added, “Congressman Kagen is on notice that the people of northeastern Wisconsin are watching and we are outraged.”

Similarly, Rep.-elect Steve Stivers (R., Ohio) blasted Democratic Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy for voting to raise the debt ceiling. “That shows a reckless desire to spend money we don’t have, and borrow money we can’t afford to pay back,” he said.

Rep.-elect Lou Barletta (R., Pa.) cited the raising of the debt limit during the campaign in saying that “Congress and the president are spending our country into servitude.”

Yeah, slow day today, other than the House Democrats' announcement that they'll be calling for a vote on the middle class tax cuts alone after the Thanksgiving break, but here's a great radio ad some of our friends did. You know the story, right?



Oh, and in preparation of family get-togethers around the holidays, I can't forget this:

Sunday Random Notes-- Banksters, Joe Miller, The GOP Nazi Guy, And Getting Out The Vote

I don't know if it was more about being exposed as a crook or because he was exposed as a fascist thug, but last week Joe Miller's campaign started to implode-- big time-- and in a state where fascist thugs are pretty mainstream and corruption is the name of the game. I guess voters just don't want that stuff in the headlines so much. Today, the NRSC signaled what teabaggers always suspected, that they're throwing the Craziest Catch overboard and getting behind primary sore-loser Lisa Murkowski's write-in campaign as the GOP's last desperate attempt to keep Alaska from winding up with two Democratic senators!

Cornyn, of course, is publicly denying the GOP is finished with Miller, petrified teabaggers will turn against establishment Republican candidates already distrusted by teabaggers, particularly Mark Kirk (IL), Roy Blunt (MO) and Rob Portman (OH), 3 Republicans with solid voting records against everything the tea party claims to stand for. If the extreme right of the fragile GOP coalition turns against these 3 as revenge for the betrayal of Miller, any hopes for a Republican takeover of the Senate will be immediately dashed. ABC News reported that "a high level GOP source" had let them know that the NRSC is now banking on Murkowski, who is widely hated-- as much as Kirk, Blunt and Portman-- by the teabaggers and especially by Palin, who would rather see Scott McAdams win than her mortal foe Murkowski. Teabaggers are very aware that all NRSC ads attack McAdams and none have attacked Murkowski. When someone close to her explained this to Palin it drove her into a frenzy.

It's a remarkable turnaround for Murkowski.  She was punished by party leaders last month-- unceremoniously stripped of her position as ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and her role in Senate leadership -- when she refused to bow out of the Senate race and endorse Miller.  But she has consistently said she is still a Republican and will caucus with the Republican party if she wins.

The nightmare scenario for Republicans is that McAdams comes in second on Election Day, trailing "write-in candidate."  Those write-in votes won't be counted unless there are more write-in votes than there are votes for any candidate on the ballot.  Once the write-in votes are counted, however, some of them will inevitably be disqualified (illegible writing, wrong name, etc.).  And a small number will be for candidates other than Murkowski.  If enough are tossed out, second place McAdams would be the winner.

I don't think anyone who's followed the election campaign even minimally believes that Miller-- or for that matter corporate shills like Kirk, Blunt, Portman and Murkowski-- believe it is the job of an interventionist government to act as a counterbalance against gigantically powerful and completely self-interested corporate-- often multi-national corporate-- forces. Today's NY Times asserts that the banks tanked the economy. That may be true but isn't government supposed to protect society from powerful predators and punish the evildoers? I wish the YES that most people would answer that question with would lead to a Democratic sweep Tuesday, like it did in the somewhat similar 1934 midterms (after Roosevelt's initial election and 2 years of GOP obstructionism and right-wing fanatics screaming about socialism. But, even if all Republicans are evil corporate shills-- and they surely are-- these days not all Democrats fight against their corporate paymasters with requisite vigor. Some, including many who will be looking for new careers after Tuesday (think Blanche Lincoln and a pack of Blue Dogs), every bit as in the tank to the corporations and the wealthy as the Republicans are. As the Times points out, the International Monetary Fund found that the persistently high unemployment in the United States is largely the result of foreclosures and underwater mortgages, rather than widely cited causes like mismatches between job requirements and worker skills. The Republicans, Blue Dogs and other conservative Democrats have saved their efforts to fight to protect the evildoers rather than punish them or even stop their rampage against law and order.

Tomorrow night (Monday) Alan Grayson will be at a rally with three Democrats who are all better than Republicans, Bill NAFTA Clinton, Alex Sink and Kendrick Meek. Doors open at 9:15 at Lake Eola Park, 600 N. Robinson St. in Orlando. You can reserve tickets at http://www.alexsink2010.com/billclinton.

The Ohio Republican Nazi guy, Rich Iott, campaigned with his political benefactor yesterday, John Boehner. Embarrassed that Iott had gone on TV and admitted dressing up for years in an SS uniform and then defending it by telling a stunned Anderson Cooper than SS collaborators and volunteers were just "freedom fighters" (remember, right-wing "freedom," whether Republican or Nazi, is about the freedom of the wealthy and powerful to exploit the vulnerable without being hassled by countervailing forces), Boehner tried keeping the event closed to non-rightists. The closed-door appearance was at a call center in Lucas County-- although I'm surprised the GOP hasn't outsourced their call centers to India-- and the Toledo Blade captured the event on video. The would-be SS officer is on the left, beaming at the would-be Speaker (in the red jumper).

"I just ask you for three days for all of you to be 'all in' to make sure we bring home [John] Kasich [Republican candidate for governor] and [Rob] Portman [Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate], and the whole statewide ticket," Mr. Boehner said.

Prompted, he then added, "and Rich," in reference to Mr. Iott, who was standing near him.

Wisconsin has 6 large newspapers that, between them, cover the state. Most of them are pretty conservative and some have never endorsed Russ Feingold in the past. This year, with an actual agent of China and Wall Street running for the Wisconsin seat, all the papers endorsed Russ Feingold. The Oshkosh Northwestern isn't one of the state's bigger newspapers, although it is reliably conservative. It's also Ron Johnson's hometown paper. And it also endorsed Russ Feingold.

At a time when America needs intelligent, principled, grounded and inspiring leadership, voters should send Russ Feingold to the United States Senate to help lead us out of tough times dominated by angry and divisive politics. Feingold embodies the best qualities of Wisconsin we could hope to send to Washington to represent the best interests of our state and nation.

...Candidate Johnson has railed against government programs but businessman Johnson has enjoyed the benefits of those programs.

His answer to questions in the limited interviews and appearances he has made have shown a propensity for vague and scripted talking points that strike emotional chords without substance or thought. For instance, he refused to spell out in any detail what federal programs he would cut in an appearance at the Milwaukee Press Club in September in response to a question about the major theme of his campaign, smaller government.

"There's billions of dollars . . . that from my standpoint would be available for cutting. But I'm not going to get in the game here and, you know, start naming specific things to be attacked about, quite honestly," according to a news story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. That is precisely the type of information voters should have to evaluate whether Johnson's choices line up with their own.

Johnson has simply not run a campaign that has made a compelling and substantive case to replace a senator as effective and well regarded as Russ Feingold. On Nov. 2, voters should return Feingold to the Senate.

The Final Thought: Sen. Russ Feingold is the most qualified candidate and should be re-elected.

Although DSCC chair and egregious Democratic corporate shill Robert Menendez very pointedly torpedoed her chances, one populist Democrat who never wavered a minute from fighting for ordinary working families is North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. She's closing her campaign with the same feisty and incisive focus she started it with-- laser-beam attention to what really bothers ordinary North Carolina voters. “This election is about whether the middle class really survives or not,” she said. And that reminds me of a video you can't watch too many times-- one I really suggest you send to everyone you know tonight and tomorrow:



Or, if you don't like sending videos, think about sending Jed Lewison's post from Friday's Daily Kos, a post that many brainwashed voters will probably find challenges their preconceptions about the last few years. He asks 4 questions-- and answers them.

1. What was the average monthly private sector job growth in 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency, and what has it been so far in 2010?

2. What was the Federal deficit for the last fiscal year of the Bush presidency, and what was it for the first full fiscal year of the Obama presidency?

3. What was the stock market at on the last day of the Bush presidency? What is it at today?

4. Which party's candidate for speaker will campaign this weekend with a Nazi reenactor who dressed up in a SS uniform?

Answers:

1. In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month. (Source) That's a difference of nearly five million jobs between Bush's last year in office and President Obama's second year.

2. In FY2009, which began on September 1, 2008 and represents the Bush Administration's final budget, the budget deficit was $1.416 trillion. In FY2010, the first budget of the Obama Administration, the budget deficit was $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion. (Source) Yes, that means President Obama has cut the deficit-- there's a long way to go, but we're in better shape now than we were under Bush and the GOP.

3. On Bush's final day in office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 closed at 7,949, 1,440, and 805, respectively. Today, as of 10:15AM Pacific, they are at 11,108, 2,512, and 1,183. That means since President Obama took office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have increased 40%, 74%, and 47%, respectively.

4. The Republican Party, whose candidate for speaker, John Boehner, will campaign with Nazi re-enactor Rich Iott this weekend. If you need an explanation why this is offensive, you are a lost cause.

Republican Obstructionism Turning To Naked Right-wing Violence?

Now that Alaska voters have gotten to know what Joe Miller really is all about-- self-serving corruption mixed with bizarre and authoritarian extremism-- he's fallen to the back of the pack, behind Democrat Scott McAdams and write-in sore loser Lisa Murkowski (also corrupt and reactionary but not as bizarre and authoritarian). The handcuffing and kidnapping of a reporter doesn't fit in with too many people's idea of a freedom and liberty and "Don't Tread On Me" agenda.

Similarly, after taking a hit for running an Aqua Buddha ad that a DSCC consultant persuaded skeptical Kentuckians was a good idea, Jack Conway is bouncing back-- and big-- on the heels of a repulsive display of jackbooted thuggery by a Rand Paul staffer (see video below). Yesterday the Lexington Herald-Leader published a chilling editorial, "Thuggish Behavior Stains Kentucky."

The ugliness outside a U.S. Senate debate in Lexington Monday night was not a mere act of incivility. It was a violent assault.

It was the kind of thuggish intimidation you expect against a political protestor in Tehran today or a civil-rights marcher in Birmingham in 1963. It has no place in an American election today or ever.

Rand Paul supporters knocked down an anti-Paul activist who was trying to get her picture taken with Paul as he and Attorney General Jack Conway arrived at KET for their last debate.

A man identified as a Paul campaign volunteer from Bourbon County used his foot to push the woman's head into the concrete. Video of the assault is being watched around the world.

The Paul campaign condemned the attack, disassociated itself from the volunteer who stomped the woman's head and called on activists "on both sides" to avoid "physical altercations of any kind."

The problem with the Paul statement is that only one side, his side, resorted to violence.

We keep hearing this is the year of the angry voter. But what motivates people to physically assault a woman who's carrying a political sign they don't like?

Certainly not respect for the Constitution, which enshrines the right of all citizens to express their opinions without fear. Not a belief in the rule of law. Not common decency.

Some members of Paul's Tea Party issue paranoid warnings that President Barack Obama and Democrats are totalitarians out to impose Marxist control over our country.

But look which side produced the goon squad.

This follows similar behind the curtain look at right-wing violence and authoritarianism. In their books Over The Cliff by Dave Neiwert and John Amato, and American Taliban by Markos Moulitsas the anti-social, violent-- including murderous-- behavior of the far right is shown to be an integral piece of the right's vision for where they plan to take the country. It's as much a part of their greater vision as it was to Hitler's... and the Taliban's. From Rich Iott (Boehner's Nazi buddy), Allen West (a Florida thug who thinks hanging out with a drug-dealing motorcycle gang is cool), Sharron Angle's threat of a "Second amendment solution" if she isn't elected and Texas GOP House candidate Stephen Broden's similar "armed insurrection is on the table" comments, to the violent attacks on Raul Grijalva's office and the sickening violent attacks on women by Republican candidates like David Rivera and Tom Ganley (not to mention the Rand Paul Bourbon County coordinator), only a fool could deny the American right is headed right down the same road as the German right headed down in the 1930s. Tuesday Digby warned about it quite eloquently at Daily Kos as part of an attempt to remind complacent and impatient progressives that a disappointing friend, which is probably a fair characterization of Obama, is far preferable to a deadly enemy hellbent on mayhem and destruction. (Obama may not be the "fierce advocate" gays had reason to believe would finally be occupying the White House, but-- let's be real-- he's not Virginia Foxx, Michele Bachmann, Steve King or... Clint McCance.)

Although the vast majority of Americans would like to see the Republicans work in harmony with Obama-- which, for better or worse, is exactly what Obama would like as well-- Boehner, Miss McConnell and Pence have all indicated clearly that their only priority is to sabotage Obama and obstruct his attempts to work for ordinary American families and the good of the country. To them he isn't and will never be a legitimate president and they do not care how much damage they cause people in their jihad against him. In fact Miss McConnell, when not consumed with trying to clean up for Rand Paul and his brownshirt thugs in Kentucky, went so far as to blurt out that "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president. Our single biggest political goal is to give [the Republican] nominee for president the maximum opportunity to be successful."

The one teababgging extremist who is guaranteed a Senate seat-- since he'll represent a theocratic state with only the most tenuous of ties to anything remotely resembling a democracy-- is far right kook Mike Lee. And he's already pumping up the idea of a right-wing government shut down.

Random Notes Du Noir: NutMeg, Vitter, Alaska, Heath Shuler, Bachmann v Boehner

We tried buying cable TV spots in Alaska but there's nothing available in the whole state, not one 30-second spot, until next Wednesday. We're looking into dirigible and light planes with trailing banners. But with McAdams nosing into a winnable position, we really should try to... hmmmm... maybe we should just leave him alone. Whatever he's doing seems to be working. Unlike Meg Whitman. The more ads she floods the airwaves with, the lower she sinks in the polls. And she's spent over $140 million from her own bloated, under-taxed bank account so far.

She has pummeled California airwaves for months with ads painting Brown’s 40-year career in California politics as a failure. But the ads appear not to have had the desired effect.

When Whitman began her first major advertising blitz in March, 40 percent of state voters had a favorable view of her and 27 percent viewed her negatively. Now, her unfavorable ratings have nearly doubled to 51 percent, the Field poll found.

“Her negatives continued to grow as people were reminded day after day that Whitman was spending more time trashing Jerry Brown than laying out her own plans for the state’s future,” says Ms. O’Connor. “This state is really hurting, and people wanted to know what her specific vision was.... They feel she never told them.”

So what's her solution? She'll be releasing a new TV or radio ad every 6 hours from now until election day. Here's a letter in today's Palm Springs Desert Sun that everyone I know in California would agree with: "Where does one go to get away from Meg Whitman? I turn on the TV and regardless of the channel I'm bombarded by her ads. Then I go online to check e-mail and what pops up but another of her ads! Don't you have better things to do with all your billions than trying to buy votes in a governor's race?"

More of right-wing violence tomorrow, but it's worth noting that the right-wing fanatic who was sentenced to prison last week for repeatedly threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) after she voted in favor of health care reform legislation was afflicted with paranoia "grown and fostered by [Glenn] Beck's persuasive personality."

We knew it was a terrible idea in 2006 when Rahm Emanuel persuaded a religious conservative freak who was getting ready to run for Congress as a Tennessee Republican to move to North Carolina and run as a quasi-Democrat. Heath Shuler has been a hideous disappointment ever since, not just as one of the most reactionary and aggressive Blue Dogs, but also as a key C Street cult member. He's voted against women's Choice, against gay equality, against healthcare reform... against just about everything the GOP has voted against. The Democrats just rewarded him for this pattern of behavior with a $231,112.63 Independent Expenditure in his district this week, over ten times what they've spent on loyal progressive Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy (for example). And buoyed by their approval, he announced today that he's considering running against Nancy Pelosi for the Speakership. He joins 5 other Blue Dog scum in pledging not to vote for Pelosi-- Bobby Bright (AL), Jim Marshall (GA), Gene Taylor (MS), Mike McIntyre (NC) and Jason Altmire (PA). I wonder if Michele Bachmann (R-MN) will vote for Shuler now that she's declared it's beneath her dignity, as self-professed queen of the teabaggers, to vote for Boehner as Speaker.

And today's ad of the day, although just late enough to look positively desperate:



Let's try to keep Russ Feingold in office. Or do you agree with Ron Johnson that the U.S. should be more like China? Please help Russ here at the C&L Fundaiser For Russ Feingold.


UPDATE: Krugman Says There's Something To Fear... A Lot

Yep, Krugman thinks it'll be as bad as I do-- "future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness." Which, of course, is exactly why China is pouring money into GOP coffers through their pals at the Chamber of Commerce. Economic weakness? Years of political turmoil? Speaker Boehner? Miss McConnell fighting with DeMint over who's in charge? Clowns like Pence, Boehner, Cantor and Ryan looking like the relative adults next to surging sociopaths like Virginia Foxx, Michele Bachmann, Paul Broun, Louie Gohmert, Darrell Issa...? China's dream come true.

The economy, weighed down by the debt that households ran up during the Bush-era bubble, is in dire straits; deflation, not inflation, is the clear and present danger. And it’s not at all clear that the Fed has the tools to head off this danger. Right now we very much need active policies on the part of the federal government to get us out of our economic trap.

But we won’t get those policies if Republicans control the House. In fact, if they get their way, we’ll get the worst of both worlds: They’ll refuse to do anything to boost the economy now, claiming to be worried about the deficit, while simultaneously increasing long-run deficits with irresponsible tax cuts-- cuts they have already announced won’t have to be offset with spending cuts.

So if the elections go as expected next week, here’s my advice: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Didn't Ronald Reagan used to say, "Mr. Gorbachev, put up those walls"?

Invisible Hand vs. Regulator
Can Invisible-Hand-of-the-Free-Market Man ever be stopped -- or lose popularity?
BY TOM TOMORROW

[Don't forget to click on the cartoon to enlarge it.]

by Ken

Just this morning Howie was writing once again about the craziness of this election season, and quoted this nugget from Digby, who's been chronicling the craziness perhaps more closely than any still-sane person might sensibly dare:

This is an ugly election-- one of the worst I've ever seen-- financed by billionaires who are very happy to let the GOP run completely wild as long as it takes care of the owners. But it isn't ugly because the Democrats have been hurling mud. It's ugly because this ugly political movement is fighting as dirty as candidates can fight.

The craziness is so extreme and so widespread and so widely accepted as, apparently, the New Normal that outside of the people we all read and watch, it's going virtually unremarked on. Oh yes, the infotainment newsterriers may occasionally yip good-naturedly over some little gaffe, but to step back and note the blanket ignorance, incompetence, and sheer craziness of this lot of wackos? Not so much.

So we have to turn to the alternative media -- to, for example, AlterNet's Adele Stan writing about the astonishing surge in the Colorado governor's race of the godfather of Major-Party Wackadoodlery, former Rep. Tom Tancredo (links onsite):

If the latest Rasmussen survey of likely voters is to be believed, in the Colorado governor’s race, anti-immigrant gadfly Tom Tancredo is polling within four points of the frontrunner, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat. The Rasmussen poll shows Hickenlooper at 42 percent, Tancredo at 38 percent and Republican Dan Maes at just 12 percent.

When Tancredo jumped into the Colorado gubernatorial race, most political analysts simply rolled their eyes. After all, this was the guy who, at the Tea Party Nation convention in Memphis earlier this year, advocated a return to literacy tests for voter registration, a practice that was used and abused for decades in the South to keep African-Americans from the voting booth. And this was the guy who called Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor “a racist” who should be “disqualified” from serving on the bench, and a member of “a Latino KKK.” The most Tancredo could hope for, the thinking went, was to be a spoiler by splitting the right-wing vote between himself and Maes, the Tea Party-backed candidate who won the G.O.P. nomination in an upset.

If you think his rhetoric is scary, consider this: To make his third-party bid, Tancredo signed on with the American Constitution Party, which despite its secular-sounding name, is a party based upon the principles of Christian Reconstructionism, whose adherents seek to have biblical law — including the execution of LGBT people and the stoning of adulterers — instituted as the law of the land. (Both Rand Paul and Sharron Angle have links to the Constitution Party, as we reported here.) . . .

Also on AlterNet, there's a post by Brad100 called "Christian Conservative Leaders Ignore Their Values in 2010 Election," pointing out that those reliably right-wing "religious leaders" such as Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Focus on Family, Moral Majority, and Family Research Council, who could always be counted on to go all fire-and-brimstone on any pol in whom they detected (or if necesssary imagined) any moral shortcoming, have lost their voice in the face of people like lech and perv Carl Paladino, the R candidate for governor of New York; WWF depravity entrepreneur Linda McMahon, the R candidate for U.S. senator from Connecticut; and the apparently former witch Christine O'Donnell, the R candidate for U.S. senator from Delaware.

Then there's Crazy Joe Miller, the official R candidate for U.S. senator from Alaska. Howie was writing just this morning about Joe:

Sunday night, during a town hall in Anchorage, crooked Tea Party thug Joe Miller -- who has already announced he will not be answering any questions about his shady background -- had members of his private militia attack and kidnap Tony Hopfinger, a journalist who asked him some embarrassing questions. Do you think any conservatives have come out and chastised Miller? Let me know if you find any. After all, Miller's professed love of the Constitution is just a talking point, nothing something he or his followers take seriously.

Unfortunately, we haven't heard the last of Crazy Joe. Today on Greg Sargent's Plum Line blog featured a post by The American Prospect staff reporter Adam Serwer, which began:

Joe Miller, tear down this wall

Yesterday, my colleague Tim Fernholz had this to say about the news that bodyguards of Alaska Senate Candidate Joe Miller had handcuffed a journalist:

What is it about the fear of big-government fascism that makes Tea Party candidates act like big-government fascists?

For Miller, this irony doesn't end with his private security handcuffing reporters he sees as hostile. As a way to stop illegal immigration, he suggested emulating Communist East Germany by simply building a wall:

"The first thing that has to be done is secure the border. ... East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow. Now, obviously, other things were involved. We have the capacity to, as a great nation, secure the border. If East Germany could do it, we could do it."

This seems to be one of those moments where it's worth reflecting on what the reaction at Fox News would be if a liberal, sarcastically or otherwise, suggested replicating the "triumphs" of East German communism, or had his private security detain a journalist they thought was being hostile.

None of which is to suggest that in other years we are vouchsafe nothing but, or even large quantities of, candidates radiating wisdom and mental health. But really, are there limiits? Well no, apparently not.

My impulse is to leave it at that, but I think I had better finish the thought of Digby's which I quoted above.

Where I began quoting, she had just written:

When this new progressive movement started, one of its tenets was that if progressive candidates would take risks, would be aggressive against the Republicans, would shake up the establishment and stop being the milquetoast campaigners that had turned the Democratic party into an embarrassment -- we would get their backs. Some of them believed us and they went outside the normal cautious "don't make trouble" approach and came out swinging. It's risky, and sometimes it misses. But taking risks is what we asked them to do and that's what we signed up for.

Here, then, is the full paragraph that follows:

We have two weeks to go and some of these races are very, very tight. They may all lose, some might win, we just don't know. This is an ugly election --- one of the worst I've ever seen --- financed by billionaires who are very happy to let the GOP run completely wild as long as it takes care of the owners. But it isn't ugly because the Democrats have been hurling mud. It's ugly because this ugly political movement is fighting as dirty as candidates can fight. Some Democrats aren't rolling over and playing dead. The least we can do is have their backs as we promised we would.

Digby went on to provide a link for donating to the campaign of Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Jack Conway, the target of the savage campaign being waged on behalf of quasi-libertarian Rand Paul, whose libertarianism disappears whenever it becomes inconvenient to his financial backers and Teabagger fans.

The link is for the Blue America "Senate Candidates Worth Fighting For," including Scott McAdams, the Alaska Democrat running against Crazy Joe Miller (and, as a write-in candidate, incumbent GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, current representative of the state's famous family of political kleptomaniacs) -- and also including Roxanne Conlin (IA), Paul Hodes (NH), Elaine Marshall (NC), and Joe Sestak (PA). Imagine what a different place the Senate might be if they all won.

#

Rand Paul Is Offended, Joe Miller Is Offensive

Barbara Boxer's first ad defining Carly Fiorina-- watch it if you haven't seen it yet-- was devastating for the failed business executive running for the Senate. Boxer's polling numbers started climbing from the day the ad was released. It was tough and stark and clear as a bell-- targeted exactly to what California voters are worrying about when they think of Republicans getting their hands on the levers of power again. Over the weekend, Boxer released another, obviously made by the same company, and even more powerful. Neither ad is playing footsie with these fascists.

"Oh, don't call them fascists," pantywaist hand-wringers and pearl clutchers whine. These are also the craven self-styled adults who bemoaned the "mean-spiritedness" of Markos' insightful and brilliant new book, American Taliban and Alan Grayson's stark ads about the religionist crackpot he's running against, Daniel "Taliban Dan" Webster, who the mass media has tried to paint as a mainstream conservative but who is actually far more radical and extreme than even Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell, Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul, Ken Buck, Pat Toomey or Sharron Angle. (I left Joe Miller out for a reason and we'll get back to him shortly.) Friday night I went to the filming of Bill Maher's TV show because Markos was a guest. I was reluctant to go because Maher, the creator of the great documentary religionism takedown, Religulous, had made a craven, boneheaded remark about Grayson's Taliban Dan ad that showed a disturbing lack of comprehension and/or attention-- and on the part of someone who fancies himself a social commentator. I had a feeling he would also ambush Markos. And he did. It was completed obvious that the distracted Maher-- sexy girlfriend-- hadn't bothered to read Markos' well documented book he decided to savage.

Digby's kept a steady commentary up on these smelling salt users for some time and she hit it out of the ballpark yesterday.

Rand Paul, the pot smoking libertarian Tea Partier is now rending his garments like a typical social conservative Christian and condemning Jack Conway for being insensitive to his religion. (And once again the liberal intelligentsia is abandoning Conway because he's made an ad that they feel in "inappropriate.")

The fact is that Rand Paul, once a hardcore libertarian, condemned religion and certainly didn't believe in social conservatism. Tens of thousands of libertarians sent him money just this year believing that's the kind of Tea Partier he was. Now, like the rest of them he's changed his tune and he's become a Church Lady Bible thumper, excoriating Conway for saying the word "hell" at a political picnic. This is a bullshit game and Conway has every right to call him out as a hypocrite.

This race in Kentucky is a vicious dogfight that very possibly may end up being the only chance the Democrats have to hold the Senate. The Teabaggers and other right wing deviants are running disgusting ads all over the country ripping Democrats to shreds and appealing to basest instincts of the voters.

...But the good news is that if we can help Rand Paul drag down Conway and give the villagers an "even the liberals" narrative for Paul to use as his sanctimonious fainting couch, at least on the morning after the election, when the US Congress is taken over by antediluvian throwbacks, we'll all be able to say that we didn't stoop to their level. I'm sure that will be very comforting.

When this new progressive movement started, one of its tenets was that if progressive candidates would take risks, would be aggressive against the Republicans, would shake up the establishment and stop being the milquetoast campaigners that had turned the Democratic party into an embarrassment-- we would get their backs. Some of them believed us and they went outside the normal cautious "don't make trouble" approach and came out swinging. It's risky, and sometimes it misses. But taking risks is what we asked them to do and that's what we signed up for.

We have two weeks to go and some of these races are very, very tight. They may all lose, some might win, we just don't know. This is an ugly election-- one of the worst I've ever seen-- financed by billionaires who are very happy to let the GOP run completely wild as long as it takes care of the owners. But it isn't ugly because the Democrats have been hurling mud. It's ugly because this ugly political movement is fighting as dirty as candidates can fight. Some Democrats aren't rolling over and playing dead. The least we can do is have their backs as we promised we would.

Joe Miller & Rand Paul have you in mind-- and your family

Sunday night, during a town hall in Anchorage, crooked Tea Party thug Joe Miller-- who has already announced he will not be answering any questions about his shady background-- had members of his private militia attack and kidnap, Tony Hopfinger, a journalist who asked him some embarrassing questions. Do you think any conservatives have come out and chastised Miller? Let me know if you find any. After all, Miller's professed love of the Constitution is just a talking point, nothing something he or his followers take seriously.

The Senate race in Alaska is a three-way neck-and-neck scramble between Democrat Scott McAdams, Miller and conservative Republican sore loser Lisa Murkowski. If she were to drop out, McAdams would win a sweeping victory. Unfortunately, her colossal ego is keeping her in a race that splits the sane people on one side and the insane people on the other (Miller's). This could end badly. If you'd like to help McAdams in the final round, you can do it here, same place you can help Jack Conway fight back against Rand Paul.

If teabaggers like Joe Miller, Sharron Angle, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Pat Toomey and Ken Buck (and don't forget rightist Florida thug Allen West) are elected in two weeks, our country will be one step closer to this, the Republican vision of "freedom" and "liberty":

Joe Miller Overboard

It's patently impossible-- considering a field of candidates ranging from Christine O'Donnell (DE), Pat Toomey (PA), Carl Paladino (NY), Paul LePage (ME) and Taliban Dan (FL) on the East Coast, Joe Miller (AK), Dino Rossi (WA), Dan Quayle's slow, porn-addicted son, Ben (AZ) and Carly Fiorina (CA) on the West Coast, and Ron Johnson (WI), Rand Paul (KY), Ken Buck (CO), and Sharron Angle (NV) in between-- to be able to pick out the single most deranged and unhinged candidate for office this year... and that's just the challengers. Incumbents like Jim DeMint (R-SC), Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), Matt Blunt (R-MO), Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Steve King (R-IA) are in a category all their own. This week, however, despite crazy Christine O'Donnell's obsession with her old days as a witch-- possibly a deft move to get people's minds off her former obsession with the great masturbation issue-- it seems like a winner is emerging, Alaska's craziest catch, Joe Miller.

He's been bouncing around from declaring Social Security, unemployment insurance (for anyone other than his own family), Medicare, the minimum wage, the EPA, the Department of Education, and the 17th Amendment all unconstitutional to talking about himself in the third person and giving Miss McConnell the middle finger. And, like all Republican insurgents early on, he "vowed that he won’t be changed by Washington, even if he winds up living here."

“Joe is not gonna change. Trust me, I’m not gonna be boring,” he said.

Miller also said he’s not prepared to commit to supporting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as leader of the GOP caucus.

“Fitting in is not my concern,” Miller said.

That's lucky for him... since he doesn't even fit in with the Palins any long-- and they practically created him! As Alaska blog Mudflats reported yesterday, Palin is getting ready to run for president-- no doubt the White House's dream coming true-- and the Palin's went nuts when Miller said he isn't sure she's qualified.

An irate email written by Todd Palin seems to confirm his wife’s presidential ambition, and revealed his anger at Alaska Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller. The email demands that the treasurer of SarahPAC, Tim Crawford, “hold off on any letter of support for Joe,” and came on the heels of an interview Miller gave to Neil Cavuto on Fox News Sunday.

In May, the then dark horse Republican/Tea Party senate candidate Joe Miller gleaned an endorsement from long-time friend Todd Palin, followed on June 2nd by an official endorsement via Facebook post from Sarah Palin. Miller’s subsequent stunning upset over Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski may have had more to do with a ballot proposition calling out social conservatives,  but has been widely credited, at least in part, to the Palin nod. Certainly, the Palins’ endorsement helped Miller receive an official endorsement, as well as substantial financial backing from the national Tea Party Express, which made possible a massive media buy in a small, easily-dominated market.

When Cavuto asked if Palin is qualified Miller hedged-- "I don't know if she is"-- the Palins sent an e-mail instructing one of their operatives to hold off on Sarah Palin's official letter of endorsement of Miller.

In the email Todd Palin went on to ask, “Joe, please explain how this endorsement stuff works, is it to be completely one sided.” The specific use of the word “endorsement” and the Palins’ anger at the endorsement being “one-sided” appears to be strong evidence that the Palins were, in fact, not only expecting a quid pro quo endorsement from Miller for a yet-to-be-announced Palin presidential run, but were furious that they didn’t get it.

The email continues “Sarah spent all morning working on a Face book post for Joe, she won’t use it, not now. Put yourself in her shoe’s [sic] Joe for one day.” Though the exact contents of the Facebook post and the previously mentioned letter are not clear, it is obvious that the Palins did not, at the time of the email, intend to put any more political muscle behind Miller’s candidacy, and were specifically withholding support they had intended to give in retribution for Miller’s failure to support Palin’s presidential aspirations.

Palin has been putting all her energy into Christine O'Donnell's campaign and has ignored Miller's race (in her own state). It's a race up for grabs, with Palin's mortal enemy, Lisa Murkowski. mounting a surprisingly strong write-in vote against Miller, while moderate Democrat is looking more and more like the alternative to the bloody fraternal bickering between the Murkowskis, Millers and Palins. I hope you've already seen Blue America's Craziest Catch ad. If not, please have a look. We can really use some help getting it up on the air in Alaska-- something you can do right here.



UPDATE: Miller Disses Palin Again

I don't watch Fox... ever. But Time reported this afternoon that Miller was on with Megyn Kelly and again refused to endorse Palin, although he acknowledged that she's older than 35 and was born in the U.S..A.

MEGYN KELLY: Let me just put it out there then: are you willing to say now whether you think Sarah Palin is qualified to be President?

JOE MILLER: You know, I'll tell you the exact same thing that I just said this last week while I was in D.C., and that is -- she, if she puts her name in the hat and that's totally up to her, there are a number of others that are there, as well, any of which would be a far better Presidential candidate than what we've got right now in the Oval Office -- but her decision to run is hers and hers alone.

It's not our decision as to whether or not she runs. It certainly is a sideline to what's going on in Alaska, and we aren't going to fall into the trap again that the media's trying to plant and create this as being some sort of a struggle between the Murkowskis and Palins, because that's not what this race...

KELLY: [interrupting].... I hear you, I hear you. I'm not trying to lay any trap. I'm just wondering, you know, she endorsed you, and Todd Palin was clearly upset that you wouldn't say whether she was qualified, and I wanted to give you the chance to, you know, say "yes" or "no", and it sounds like you're not really going to say "yes" or "no."

MILLER: No, let me make this unequivocal. She's done phenomenal things for this country, there's no question about that. She's elevated the debate critical to our race, and let me tell you also: we know what qualified means, don't we?

We know that we have a constitutional requirement for somebody that's gonna run for President. Of course, she's qualified.
And, you know, with the press trying to continue to create this as some sort of a debate or as some sort of fight between the Murkowskis and Palins, I think it really does a disservice to Alaskans.

Maybe Miller saw that Pew poll that shows that 42% of voters say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate backed by Sarah Palin, while only 15% say Palin's endorsement would make them vote for a candidate.

Joe Miller (T-AK), The Craziest Catch

Last night we all marveled at how the teabaggers and their billionaire backers struck another blow at the heart of the already far too conservative Republican Party. This time they ended the political career of mainstream conservative Mike Castle and nominated bizarre extremist and anti-masturbation fanatic Christine O'Donnell. This was the mirror image of what Palin and the Tea Party Expressed accomplished in Alaska by defeating Lisa Murkowski and handing the GOP nomination over to far right fanatic Joe Miller.

Blue America and our allies at the Americans For America PAC are working with Alaska bloggers to make sure voters from Nome to the Ketchikan Gateway and from Atka and Kodiak to Barrow and Kaktovik know just who Joe Miller really is. Our plan is to run this ad in Alaska's relative inexpensive cable TV markets. Please take a look-- and if you like it, please chip in here.



This will be the first of a daily-- or almost daily-- video release we'll be doing. Most won't be for TV but you'll be able to see them here at DWT, at Crooks and Liars, at Digby's place and, of course, at the Blue America Facebook page. As you can see, this first video, masterminded by Manatt Media, presents Miller’s radical tea party agenda as part of a parody of the hit Discovery Show The Deadliest Catch.

Brett Di Resta, Americans for America PAC's co-founder, said of their debut video and its target, Joe Miller: "It's hard to fathom that there would be an Alaskan politician more extreme than Sarah Palin. But after looking at his record, Joe Miller made a believer out of us. Republican primary voters hooked him, but in the general election Alaskans should throw back in the water."

Is Joe Miller More Of A Crackpot Than Palin, Angle & Aqua Buddah?

As you know, Sitka Mayor/Democratic Senate nominee Scott McAdams will be the Blue America guest at Crooks and Liars this coming Saturday. You can contribute directly to his campaign here. And with the Alaska Libertarians having withdrawn their offer to allow corporate shill Lisa Murkowski to run on their line, this is looking like a head-to-head race between a populist Democrat and a... well... I can't think of a word that works better to describe Joe Miller than "crackpot," although I guess "extreme right-wing ideologue" works too.

As TPM pointed out, Miller washes up better than kooks like Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Kent Buck, Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio and Ron Johnson, but he's at least as far off the mainstream as they-- or any of the Jim DeMint candidates-- are.

Among Miller's views: He wants to eliminate the Department of Education, believes the government shouldn't pay for unemployment insurance and says of climate change on his campaign site that it "may not even exist." Among the more mainstream GOP positions he's taken: Miller would cut welfare; eliminate health care for the poor by scrapping Medicaid; and the Anchorage Daily News reported that he has called for sweeping cuts to Medicare and Social Security with a goal of phasing them out entirely in favor of total privatization... Miller is backed by the Family Research Council and opposes abortion even in the cases of rape and incest, a view far to the right of the mainstream of the GOP.

... Miller told ABC's TopLine in July that he wants to look at the constitutionality of the government paying for unemployment benefits. He's also said he would repeal health care reform entirely, a view differing from most GOP leaders who want to just repeal the unpopular parts and keep the rest.

"I don't think Alaskans are that crazy, and Miller is very fringe," an Alaska Democrat backing Democratic nominee Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams told TPM in an interview. The source added that McAdams is "not a flaming liberal" and can appeal to sensible members of both parties, adding a predication that because Murkowski supporters are mainstream, they will flock to McAdams in November.

Another source who has worked in Alaska Democratic politics said Miller is "radically outside of the mainstream" and "makes Sharron Angle and Rand Paul look normal."

That may be stretching the point since it would take a lot more than a picture of Joe Miller crawling around on all fours on a dark Alaska night scraping up the permafrost to bury guns in his backyard to make Angle or Mr. Aqua Buddah ever look "normal." Nonetheless, yesterday's Anchorage Daily News carried a very damaging report on Miller's calls for Alaskans to ween themselves off federal subsidies. I suspect a lot more Alaskans like the theory of no government handouts and no pork than who actually want to see America's biggest welfare recipient and pork state go without. His call for actual "belt tightening" might not have the same ring when Alaskans start thinking about what he's talking about.

Miller holds that position, articulated throughout his campaign against incumbent GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, despite Alaska's historic reliance on federal resources, needed to develop the vast territory of the young state.

"The government is going bankrupt. I don't think anybody can deny it," he said in an interview on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday. "I think the answer to this is to basically transfer the responsibilities and power of government back to the states and the people. That is really the only answer, I think, out of this crisis."

Meanwhile, Miller is showing himself to be delusional and paranoid by running around insisting that John Cornyn of the NRSC is trying to steal the election for Murkowski. He's come pretty close to saying that if Murkowski is declared the winner-- an unlikely event in any case-- it will only be because of fraud and he'll go dig up the guns he buried in his yard. This guy is really... well, like I said, a crackpot.