Joe Miller, the teabagger candidate for Senate in Alaska, takes a page from the Palin playbook and says “he will not answer any more questions about his personal background for the rest of the campaign.” Here’s why:
Multiple sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Alaska Dispatch that Miller used other employees’ computers to send out proxy votes in a failed effort to unseat Alaska GOP chair Randy Ruedrich.
Those computers belonged to Fairbanks borough employees, and Miller was the borough attorney at the time. Though, in Miller’s defense, this was way back in 2008, so it has no bearing on a race taking place almost 800 days later. My calculator doesn’t even have enough digits to calculate how many milliseconds ago that was.
At some point, the stupidity and uselessness of the one-size-fits all “shut up and blame the media” stragedy will dawn on these teatards, but it hasn’t happened yet.
JCT
It won’t dawn on them until there are actually real-world consequences, such as being ignored by the media.
Seems to still work for the failed half-term grifter-governor.
bleh
I’m afraid I must take issue with your general proposition that:
At some point, the stupidity and uselessness of [ FILL IN THE BLANK ] will dawn on these teatards
No, it won’t. They don’t think; they react emotionally. That’s why they’re teatards.
hatmandu
When can we sell Alaska back to the Russians? Here in Jersey we could really use the tax dollars back that now subsidize that welfare state, especially since our Governor Cheetoh Ass cancelled our Tunnel to Somewhere.
El Cid
He had to avoid gotcha questions from the librul medja like ‘what newspapers do you read’.
meh
@bleh:
QFT
MM – what in the world makes you think, for a nanosecond, that this country is not comprised of complete morons? We have been eating hormone/pesticide/ laced food since birth which has somehow managed to create a country of ADHD addled fucktards who have the attention span of a gnat. What makes you think it won’t work? Of course it will work. People will forget that they guy is toxic and vote for him because he’s for smaller government and states rights and keeping teh gheys away from our kids. Wake the fuck up, man.
cleek
or maybe the media will learn to treat these clowns with all the disrespect they deserve.
El Tiburon
This story does not involve Sarah plain or penis pictures, so who really cares?
Steve
By my calculations, that was approximately 80000 days ago.
beltane
Why would anything have to dawn on these people. The media fully aids and abets this strategy, and so far the voters have shown no inclination to punish them for it. We have reached the point where no Republican anywhere will be held accountable for anything. When will it dawn on us that this is a form of asymmetrical warfare?
NonyNony
@cleek:
The beautiful thing about the Know Nothing strategy is that if the media does that, the Know Nothing teahadist can play the victim. With “real evidence” that the media is “out to get him” because “look at how disrespectful they are to me”. Sarah Palin played this hand very, very well and is now quite beloved by the die-hard 20%ers who she grifts for money.
It really is an awesome thing to behold – it’s the way the Republican Party has operated since Reagan with regards to the media, but with a slightly different spin. From Reagan onwards conservatives would blame the media for a “liberal bias” with a two-pronged strategy in mind of getting their own people to ignore the media and “working the refs” to get the media to go easier on conservatives by forcing them into a “balanced” narrative. The teahadis are the folks who never realized (or didn’t care) that there was a two-prong strategy. They’re all about the “media doesn’t matter because it’s got a liberal bias” narrative and screw the working the refs angle.
beltane
@meh: You are absolutely correct. The majority of this country has been tranquillized with a potent combination of television, a high-fat, low-nutrient diet, and anti-depressant and other drugs. It’s a macro version of they way prison inmates are kept relatively passive. If we lived in a society where people hung out on street corners and cafes, playing cards and talking with their neighbors, they would have rioted against the status quo a long time ago.
Tuffy
Considering that he’s the favorite to win election to the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body, I think his media strategy is going to work out just fine.
Redshirt
Frankly, like it will matter. Like there’s anything a Republican could do that matters. A democrat sneeze funny and it’s a week long story in the wingnutosphere, but there’s apparently nothing a Republican could ever do that would actually get them in trouble.
I’m just flabbergasted anew reading about the Senatorial confirmation process, just imagining what we’d be hearing about if the situations were exactly reversed, and the Democrats were holding – for few good reasons – every appointment to the Administration.
Gosh! I think we’d be hearing about it every day, non-stop.
Lee
And we will hit peak wingnut.
We will keep reminding you of this prediction just as Mr. Cole is constantly reminded of his brilliant “peak wingnut”.
Comrade Javamanphil
Never thought I’d see the day when Orrin Hatch would be one of the most normal and moderate GOP Senators.
beltane
@Comrade Javamanphil: Ted Stevens would be tarred as a RINO if he were in the Senate today. Yesterday’s far-right nuts are today’s sensible centrists.
Svensker
My favorite quote from the AP article:
Ital added.
See he needed the help cuz they were struggling. Other people who “need help”? Well, they’s all jess lazy ass cheaters who don’t need “help,” they jess need ta pick themselfs up by they bootstraps.
IOW, IGMFY.
cat48
@Redshirt:
Did u hear that Shelby said abt Diamond: Just because the Royal Swedish Committee awards him a Nobel does not make him qualified to be Gov of FED! GAH!!!!!!
Edit: He was Bernanke’s friggin professor!
Comrade Javamanphil
@beltane: Quite true. I just can’t believe some of these people are going to win. Guy known to visit prostitutes? Make him a Senator…again! Woman who proposes “Second Amendment solutions” to her political opponents? She’s got just what it takes to serve! Guy stuffing the ballot box for his own benefit? You’re the next contestant on the Senate is FUBAR! I’m so old I remember when Dan Qualye was drummed out of politics for not knowing how to spell.
El Cid
I gather that Bing insists that we use it to look things up.
eric
Someone should tell this Toni Preckwinkle person that “Healtth” is not the correct spelling and that there is thing called spellcheck. sheesh.
JPL
@cat48: I wonder who Shelby would think is qualified…Phil Gramm perhaps.
JPL
@El Cid: I use Firefox and at the advice of another commenter installed, AdPlus.
I hate bing
I went on Mudflats to see if he/she had updates on the debate yesterday. On the first page was an interview that Greta had with McAdams. I like him and might have to donate to his campaign.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I think it’s odd that while the M$M went all gaga when Joe Miller dissed Pre$ident Paylin and wouldn’t say that she was qualified to be President, when Witchy Woman O’Donnell did the exact same thing the other day there was absolute silence from the M$M.
I figured that the First D00d would write her a nasty email like he did for Miller.
Kristine
@El Cid: Yeah, that auto redirect to the bottom of the page is irritating.
Stefan
Dear god, isn’t there one of these people who isn’t terminally corrupt, stupid, criminal and/or insane? Just one?
Stefan
I’m just flabbergasted anew reading about the Senatorial confirmation process, just imagining what we’d be hearing about if the situations were exactly reversed, and the Democrats were holding – for few good reasons – every appointment to the Administration. Gosh! I think we’d be hearing about it every day, non-stop.
All day long every newsprogram would have on a dozen Republicans to squawk “straight up or down vote! Straight up or down vote! Awwk!” like a bunch of trained parrots…and you know what? It would work. Pretty soon every moron who’s exposed to tv news would have internalized the position that the nominees deserve a straight up or down vote.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@cat48: “Did u hear that Shelby said abt Diamond: Just because the Royal Swedish Committee awards him a Nobel does not make him qualified to be Gov of FED! GAH”
Someone should have told Saxby ‘Dynamite’ Chambliss that ‘just because the people of Georgia think that you are qualified to be Senator doesn’t mean you are qualified to be Senator.’ when he said the above.
I would have paid to see the expression on his face.
JD Rhoades
When I did a satirical column on how the Naked Cowboy (the guy who plays guitar in Times Square dressed in his underwear) was running for President as a Teabagger candidate, I was inundated with e-mails and comments about how he “was as viable a candidate as Obama” (except they didn’t give the President the respect of using his name–it was “The One” or “The Community Organizer”, etc. )
Which is when I realized…these people have lost the ability to cringe. The most insane shit seems perfectly normal to them.
Jose Padilla
Has Miller ever had a private sector job? I read that he was a magistrate, and he’s had several county attorney/district attorney/borough attorney type jobs. Has he ever had his own practice, where he had to make payroll and pay the rent?
Dennis SGMM
@Redshirt:
During the previous administration there was a daily parade of Republicans being given media face time to squawk “Upordown vote! Upordown vote!” every time the Dems had the temerity to challenge them. At the time I thought that the tune would change as soon as they were out of power – just as I thought that they would rediscover a reverence for Original Intent. The ineluctable modality of the douchebags.
Redshirt
@Stefan: Indeed. And this is the obvious answer – obvious I’m sure to most of the folks here.
So, why is no Democrat doing this? Why are they completely silent except for an occasional, meek “But the mean old Republicans won’t let us vote!!!! WAH!”!!!
I can see only two reasons: They are who we thought they were (spineless, cowardly politicians afraid of all things Republican), or they are in league with this entire system, playing the “hapless good guy” to the Repuglicans “ruthless bad guy”.
And even worse – given the Susan Collins editorial this weekend, the Dems even cede this ground to the Repuglicans. Woe Susan Collins, just looking for some bi-partisanship from those nasty Dems.
Bella Q
@Jose Padilla: He was with a firm in I believe Anchorage, and I read (somewhere – Halcro’s blog maybe) a current partner there was quoted as noting “that when he [Miller] decided to leave, no one said ‘please don’t.'”
What I think is most interesting is that his “I will not discuss personal issues; if asked, I will not answer” presser basically confirmed that he was fired for misuse of borough equipment. He said that it’s “clear” to him that confidential files have been released to the press in violation of his privacy. Which, it seems, they have not, as they aren’t quoted. But the moron doesn’t get that he essentially admitted the file contains that finding with his stupid accusation that someone has the file. Tee hee hee. For some reason, however, the librul media has not hammered on this point that’s obvious to me.
Steve
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I am not sure how you got Saxby Chambliss mixed up with Richard Shelby there.
PeakVT
@cat48: The Nobel Prize* will just make the conservatards dig in their heels. Liberals like the Nobel prizes, dontchaknow?
*Yes, I know it’s not quite the same as the other Nobels.
kc
He worked for the borough, I read somewhere else that he was a federal magistrate – geez, has he ever NOT been on the public payroll?
Wonder if anyone ever reported his conduct with the borough’s computers to the Alaska state bar.
Martin
It’ll dawn on them when it stops working. It will never stop working, though.
Put it in the same category as Democratic strategy, though. The wingnuts attack Obama, the guy in charge, 24-7. Democrats attack a candidate for NY governor who is 20 points down and a candidate for DE senate who is 15 points down. The tight races? [crickets]
At what point will Dems stop running attacks for their own personal entertainment and start doing it to win elections?
Pooh
@Jose Padilla:
Yes, for a few months at least he worked at at least one firm in Anchorage.
And as alluded to earlier, he was not super well thought off – an acquaintance of mine who worked there at the time described him as “extremely conservative (duh) and very chauvinistic.”
Pooh
This whole thing is also showing just how little actual political talent there is up here – every single member of Miller’s senior staff should be fired for allowing him to throw that temper tantrum, and McAdams response of “let’s talk about the issues” is pretty weak sauce.
Murkowski being the only real pro in the race can barely contain here glee when told of what Miller had just done/said (see video).
scarshapedstar
I nominate “stragedy” for neologism of the year.
Stragedy: A strategy that fails. Tragically.