Let the Alaska GOP bloodbath begin...Palin endorses Joe the Candidate - THE MUDFLATS

[Blue_In_AK]

This race is going to be fun to watch over the next few months. Jeanne Devon has such a way with words


http://www.themudflats.net/2010/06/02/let-the-alaska-gop-bloodbath-begin/

Maybe the Todd Palin announcement didn’t have quite enough oomph, because now the full-fledged Sarah Palin endorsement has come. Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Joe Miller will be challenging the GOP behemoth Lisa Murkowski in the primary with the support of both Palins.

The saga of Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) is an interesting one. When her father Frank Murkowski (R) left the Senate seat he’d occupied in D.C. since 1981 to relocate to the governor’s mansion in Alaska in 2002, everyone suddenly realized they didn’t like him - not one little bit. When he was off in D.C. nobody really paid much attention, but when he got home everyone suddenly realized how deep in the pocket of the oil industry he was, and how shallow his ethics were. Hence, he was run out on a rail pulling in only 19% of the vote as an incumbent Republican, losing the governorship in 2006 to some upstart mavericky Wasilla mayor who fulfilled everything we were looking for in a governor – she was not Frank Murkowski.

Other than corruption, “Frank the Bank” left another legacy – his daughter Lisa. Far more moderate than dear ol’ dad in many ways, Lisa was appointed to the empty seat in the U.S. Senate. Frank went through a little dog and pony show where he interviewed a bunch of people for the seat, including that Wasilla mayor I mentioned before. But he knew all along that he’d keep things all in the family. The throne and crown went to daughter Lisa.

Well, Alaskans were furious. We stomped around and pulled our hair and shoted, “NEPOTISM!” We were outraged to the depth of our being. And we put an initiative on the ballot proclaiming that no senator should ever be allowed to appoint someone to their seat. (You can thank Democratic candidate for congress Harry Crawford, and his fellow lawmaker at the time Eric Croft for that.) We agreed that the people should decide in a special election who gets to be our Senator, because no way would we ever have elected Lisa Murkowski.

<snip>

Once Sarah Palin was elected governor in 2006, we had Palin the ”Murkowski slayer” in the governor’s office, and the daughter of the slain in the U.S. Senate seat. As you can imagine, tensions ran high. Rumors ran wild that Palin would challenge Murkowski for her Senate seat as a stepping stone to a bid for the White House, knocking yet another Murkowski off the pedestal and into political obscurity – another notch on the lipstick case. We were assured that wouldn’t happen. Palin even pried open the purse that she usually keeps sealed tightly with duct tape to make her very first PAC donation to Lisa Murkowski, just to prove her point.

But now that Palin apparently thinks she needs no stepping stone, and may actually try to use her half-term as governor as all the experience necessary to run the country, and now that Murkowski has a primary challenger in her race for Senate, things have changed. A few weeks ago Todd Palin endorsed uber-conservative Joe Miller. And today, his wife has followed, announcing her endorsement on her Facebook page.

<snip>

So if Palin’s diabolical plan works, and the extreme conservatives are called out to vote in the primary (as they often are), and put Miller on the ticket in November, Alaskans will be faced with the choice between Tea Party guy, and Sitka mayor Scott McAdams who declared yesterday, and is bright, thoughtful, capable, hard-working, ethical, popular, and…. wait for it…. a Democrat.

Here’s a little nugget from Joe Miller’s front page:

Are we going to keep faith with the Founders and defend our Constitutional Republic? Or will we continue our head-long plunge into socialism and more government control?

Tea, anyone?

Two Democratic Senators from Alaska? This race just got a whole lot more interesting.

Good comments, too

[Mind_your_head]

1. Who the h*ll keeps "pushing the stupid"?

palin, palin, palin .....the name is ALWAYS in my/your face! Even though MOST PEOPLE have (rightfully) written her off as *bad news*.

Geez. STOP ALREADY!

[Blue_In_AK]

2. Well, excuse me.

If you didn't want to read about it, you didn't have to open the thread. I find politics fascinating, and in this instance stupid Palin may allow another Democrat to be elected senator in Alaska. This may not matter to some people, but to me, it's an exciting prospect.

Also, some members of DU have asked me to continue posting things about her that are relevant, which I think this is.

[pinboy3niner]

3. You're right

The prospect of dems taking Murkowski's Senate seat IS exciting.

Please keep posting.:thumbsup:

:kick:

[HipChick]

8. +100...

[Bravo Zulu]

4. Thanks for keeping us informed!

Palin runs the tea bagger party, so it is good idea to keep an eye on her.

[patrice]

9. Don't worry about it Blue. We need to know. But I am hiding all SP threads except yours.

And though I will be reading yours, this reply is just one exception to my new rule not to respond to SP threads.

[tanyev]

10. Thank you for the post, Blue.

[DefenseLawyer]

12. I agree! I don't want to have any idea what is going on anywhere!

Alaska politics? A senate seat? It's all so boring and it makes me think about Sarah Palin and I really don't like her. Enough with the news already! I insist on being uninformed.

[Democat]

5. Palin endorsement is like the kiss of death!

Just ask John McCain!

[skeptical cynic]

6. Palin news is depressing

But we can only afford to ignore Palin when we can ignore the power of stupid people in large numbers.

I don't believe Begich has much of a chance of getting re-elected. It will be a pleasant surprise if he is, but this is still Alaska. Split Republican votes are a rare occurrence here, and it would be amazing to have two in a row, then a third.

My long-time Nonpartisan (and democratic voting) friends say they are going Green Party this time around. This administration's economic and military policies have taken their toll, and the administration's initial response to the BP Spill has a lot of EVOS survivors turned off. So, we could have a diluted Democratic vote to counterbalance the split Republican vote.

I checked out of our pseudo-two-party system and have been Green Party for many years. I voted Nader in the presidential races.

But you're right. Politics is fascinating.

[Are_grits_groceries]

7. Keep us informed.

Just because we consider her a clown and an idiot doesn't mean she doesn't bear watching. Clowns and idiots have gone far at times:
W
Bachman
Steve King

[skeptical cynic]

11. For example...

Her recent claim that environmentalists have driven oil exploration and production offshore, which makes the spill in the Gulf of Mexico the fault of environmentalists, not of a company with a history of systematically putting profit before worker safety and environmental protection.

But she has a following.

"Who's the bigger fool--the foool, or the fool that follows him." ~ Obi Wan