Ugly Politics in the Last Frontier

The race for the U.S. Senate in Alaska is getting uglier.

New ads are appearing which make further allegations of wrong-doing on Joe Miller's part ... or rather, they hint that he might have done something wrong, without coming right out and saying so. One such ad has been running for the last week or so, claiming that when he & his family first moved to Alaska, they applied for (GASP) a low-income hunting permit.

I'm here to tell you that it takes a metric boatload of money to move a family & household up here. We arrived with only our clothes and two cars, and had to start over. Literally, from scratch. Although my wife was blessed with a good job after only one week, I bounced around for a year, from one barely-sufficient job to another, before landing a decent income.

So his income was low when he first arrived? Sorry, Murkowski-ites, but that's normal.

The newest ad claims that his wife worked for him several years ago. Omigosh, it can't be nepotism*, can it? (/sarcastic whisper) The ad doesn't exactly SAY it was nepotism, you see; it hints that it might have been.

Typical.

He was a part-time federal magistrate from 2002 - 2004. It's entirely likely that his budget didn't allow for a full-time staff.

The latest move is literally from the 2008 Obama/Democrat playbook. You'll recall that Missouri Democrats formed a hit squad of sorts, purportedly to go after any local TV or newspapers which supported McCain/Palin. The Governor of that state had to step in & slap a few local pols into place, to make it stop.

Now, the Murkowski campaign (she's running now as an independent, write-in candidate) is accusing the Tea Party Express of running ads "littered with lies and mischaracterizations."

The 2008 tie-in?  I quote: "They're demanding that the ads not be aired and have sent a letter to Alaska broadcast stations reminding them that they will be liable for knowingly running false information."

Murkowski, who claimed to be a conservative during the last 2 weeks of the primary campaign, then toyed with the idea of running as a Libertarian. When the Alaska Libertarian Party stated clearly that they wouldn't make room for her on their ticket - AND that she does not share their values - she stated that she is a moderate, and wouldn't change her views just for a chance to get party backing.

Right. So now her campaign muscles up, and in true Chicago-esque manner, leans on local news outlets with thinly-veiled threats.

Sorry, Princess; you'd be my second choice.  My first, you ask?

Whomever else is running ... and in this case, the Constitutionalist.


* As Jenny points out in comments, this charge of nepotism, coming from the camp of a Senator who was appointed to her father's Senate seat by her father, is ironic, no? Yes, she won reelection in 2004 - but let's not forget how she got there in the first place.