The "Lamestream" media's daily attempt to paint Joe Miller in a negative light finally hit on something of substance. The daily attacks have been ridiculous in their pettiness up to this point. But the Alaska Dispatch story reported Friday by Jill Burke hits the mark. And as a Miller supporter it's disappointing to read.
As someone who has worked in the media all his adult life watching politicians pulling fast ones, (I covered news for years in Louisiana where a disproportionate number of politicians end up in jail) there is no case that seemed more clear cut to me then when Sarah Palin abused her power as governor to carry out a personal vendetta against her former brother-in-law.
We've all been tempted to get back at folks we don't like especially those who have hurt family members. Sarah Palin, her husband Todd, and the smarmy Frank Bailey clearly used the special powers endowed to them by voters that the rest of us don't have to get back at Trooper Mike Wooten.
The notion that a bi-partisan launched legislative investigation into the obvious abuse of power was unconstitutional as Joe Miller argued is frankly laughable. It's disappointing to think Miller would argue such a thing.
Burke reports in Friday's edition of the Dispatch:
"Miller argued that another government entity -- the state Personnel Board -- was the appropriate jurisdiction to pursue claims about ethics problems within the executive branch. Allowing the Legislative Council to investigate opened the process to unfair political influences, he said. With a Democratic senator leading the charge and hinting the outcome wouldn't be good for Palin, the process lacked integrity and fairness, Miller argued.
Among Miller's direct claims was the charge the investigation violated separation of powers by exceeding the constitutional authority of the Legislature. The Legislative Council had no authority to fund the investigation, on which it had agreed to spend to $100,000. And, he said, Democratic Sen. Hollis French's oversight of the process violated constitutional due process guarantees by putting a partisan legislator in charge of what was supposed to be an independent investigation of an elected official.
To Miller's way of thinking, the investigation was "blatantly unlawful," as he wrote in a column for the Catholic News Agency published less than a week after he filed the lawsuit."
I remember vividly how disappointed I was in my party as Republicans like Gene Therriault, Fred Dyson, and John Coghill all conspired to obstruct justice to cover for their beloved Sarah Palin. They looked the other way as Todd and others ignored subpoenas. With all the evidence proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Palin abused her power to get Wooten fired even though due process had exonerated him, did they really think they were doing the right thing by covering for her? They couldn't possibly have.
To realize now that Miller was involved in the effort to obstruct justice is even more disappointing.
Will this change the way I vote in the senate race? Of course not. I still believe Joe Miller to be an honorable man who served his country with distinction. I believe Miller, unlike Murkowski, is a true conservative who understands we must fundamentally change the direction of this country.
With Murkowski we get more of the same. Bankrupting our kids' futures while we spend spend, spend. Lisa is liberal and is the last person we need to lead a conservative revolution to turn this country back to what our founding fathers envisioned.
Why would Miller join in with so many other respected Republicans and not only look the other way at Palin's abuse of power, but actively try to remove the consequences for her actions? That's a question that resides in the hearts of those Republicans and Miller.
We've all done things we regret and look back at and realize we were wrong. Keep in mind Palin was still enormously popular during Troopergate and we all know how charming and persuasive she can be, especially when it comes to males. Those winks are no coincidence. You can see how the Millers, Coghills, Theriaults and Dysons of the world might be taken off their game and were led to do what they must have realized deep in their hearts was wrong.
No candidate is perfect and a lot of conservatives lost their way during Palin's awful two and half drama filled years as our governor. She clearly brought out the worst in conservatives, causing many to endorse excessive taxes, the giving away of hundreds of millions of dollars in free cash, and a war on business.
Many conservatives let Palin's charm fool them into abandoning their basic core principals. We see how despite her obviously being an empty suit, she's hoodwinked the Sean Hannitys, Glenn Becks and Rush Limbaughs of the world. I'd like to think Joe Miller was fooled by her charms like so many other good conservatives were.
Palin has left Alaska's political stage and moved onto better things. Alaska Republicans can now go back to being conservative instead of being enamored by Palin. It's time to look past the dark period that was the Palin era and let's now open our state back up for business and move on.
A lot of us fell for Palin's charm. I did and I regret it. I hope Joe Miller does too.
Dan Fagan is a talk show host on KFQD and the publisher of The Alaska Standard, where this article first appeared.