Lisa Murkowski is determined to retain her seat as the US Senator from Alaska for some reason, and it seems like there is nothing she won't say and do to derail the candidacy of Tea Party conservative Republican Joe Miller. She stated flatly during a recent debate that Miller was "unfit" to hold public office. Joe Miller for his part is on defense when maybe he should be on offense.
Enter Conservatives4Palin, who have jumped to Miller's defense in an attempt to prevent Murkowski from derailing Millers candidacy by way of her write-in campaign. Murkowski has pulled dead even with Miller in the last poll taken, while Democrat Scott Adams has almost faded into oblivion.
They have done this by encouraging conservatives everywhere to register as write-in candidates for the office of the Alaska Senate.
As of the last count, there are now fifty-six candidates for the office on the write-in ballot. The hope is there will be a lot more than that by Tuesday, and that this will discourage much of Murkowski's softer support, who won't be so inclined to go through a lengthy list of "candidates" in order to find Murkowski's name.
Unfortunately, and I might be a bit of a downer here, but I think there is something the Palin folks haven't considered. And that is, the Democrats, who have probably come to the unpleasant conclusion that their candidate doesn't have much of a chance anyway. As such, as much as they might dislike the Murkowski's, there might well be enough of them who hate Miller's brand of conservative politics even more to make a difference. And there is nothing about them that can be considered soft when it comes to their desire to derail anything even resembling a candidate with a Tea-Party platform.
On the other hand, while their support for Murkowski might well be temporary, there are others who are very much in her corner, and who are probably the ones who encouraged her write-in campaign to begin with.
I am referring to that group of Alaska politicians, bureaucrats, and lobbyists known as The Alaska Mafia.
There is nothing about them which lends them to the ideals of fiscal conservatism (other than tax breaks and regulatory relief). As the article states, they are the ultimate purveyors and beneficiaries of federal pork, and it is so obvious, the article describes Alaska as a socialist haven controlled by the state Republican Party. That might be somewhat of an exaggeration, but probably not as much as it might seem. In fact, this was the exact kind of culture that Sarah Palin fought against during her abbreviated tenure as governor of the state, which is why she was so loved and lauded by conservatives, while being universally reviled and detested by the party hacks that typify the GOP power structure every bit as much as by Democrats and leftist environmentalists.
When you think of that old saying "politics makes strange bedfellows" there is no situation in recent memory that comes close to illustrating that truth than the write-in campaign of Lisa Murkowski.
Its easy to see that. Miller has been the target of slurs and dirty campaign tactics. One so-called "reporter" even went so far as to accuse the Miller campaign workers of assaulting him during a recent Miller appearance, when come to find out, the reporter himself actually instigated the incident by shoving a Miller campaign volunteer.
Murkowski has not been the victim of any such similar attempts, as Democrats suddenly seem to treat her with kid gloves. After all, they see Miller as the real threat here. And its easy to see why. In a state like Alaska, the Murkowski dynasty, though strong, is still a lightning rod for attacks both from within the party and outside of it. They can be brought down easily enough, over time, perhaps. Just maybe. Joe Miller might not be so easy to deal with.
