ADN's Hit Piece
The Anchorage Daily News (ADN) today published what can best be characterized as a hit piece on Joe Miller. The article implies that Joe Miller is akin to a petulant child, who should just "quit," "know his place," and let Sen. Murkowski "take what she won" and move on. Why? Sen. Murkowski might lose her seniority on Senate committees, and that would be a such a tragedy. Alaska would be denied her representation while this matter is resolved. Why the state might slide off Canada and sink in the ocean without the great Murkowski's representation, and it's all bad old Miller's fault with that blasted lawsuit of his!
Follow the Money
Let's get real. Let's follow the money. Alaska's Regional Native Corporations - Federal 8a entities - receive enormous amounts of money in the form of federal earmarks, in addition to being no-bid contractors. These multi-billion-dollar corporations are exempt from federal and shareholder oversight. They have foreign entanglements. They work at prices far above market rates. Nice work if you can get it.
From Miller's letter to the Washington Times:
[Native] corporations made dizzying profits using their “disadvantaged” status to gain federal work, in practice they did very little to lift the lives of most Alaskan Natives. While the desperate poverty of many villages has remained unchanged over the past 30 years, the corporations have sprouted a crop of shiny new office buildings in Anchorage. And while unemployment in native villages continues to be unimaginable, white corporate officers of many of these corporations profit handsomely.
Native Corporations: Earmarks or Bust
The Native corporate officers and their shareholders are the ones desperate for Murkowski - at any cost. After all, the conservative Joe Miller, backed by Gov. Palin and Tea Party Express was going to shut off or at the least curtail the 8a gravy train that only Murkowski pledged to continue. Something had to be done to reverse the Miller juggernaut, and while these corporations are traditionally in the tank for the Democrats, the Democratic candidate was not their meal ticket either. They wanted Murkowski and her earmarks. Thus, their traditional support of Democrats went out the window. This took a lot of doing.
Chicanery
In his letter to the Washington Times, Miller described the chicanery pulled by these corporations to ensure their candidate won, thus keeping their gravy train running. The Native corporations spared no expense in ensuring Natives knew how to write Murkowski's name on the ballot, from paid workers going door-to-door, to wristbands, and campaign materials. They did not anticipate the gift of voter intent and figured Alaska's election law was going to actually be followed. But, these Native corporations did provide "security" for the completed ballots enroute to their counting sites. That should give average Alaskans a real warm and fuzzy feeling and confidence that their votes were actually counted. Did I tell you that I have a bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn for sale? It was built in 1883 and I've got a special running on it for today only.
The ADN conveniently omitted these minor details. Something is rotten in the State of Alaska with this US Senate election, and it distills to that earmark gravy train. Far from being tragic, if Miller's lawsuit denies Alaska Murkowski's representation for a while, I think he would be doing the state and the nation a huge favor. The lack of Murkowski's representation means less debt being added to the $14-trillion train wreck we now have.
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