Today, one day before the Sunday political squawk shows and ten days before the country decides whether they want to hire Democrats to move the country forward or hire tea partiers to make it go Beck, Alaskan Senatorial hopeful, Joe Miller has an October surprise delivered to him by retired Superior Court Judge, Winston Burbank.
In an unusual Saturday hearing, retired Superior Court Judge Winston Burbank ruled that the public's right to know about candidates outweighed Miller's right to privacy.
"I hold that although Mr. Miller has a legitimate expectation of privacy in those documents, Mr. Miller's right to privacy is indeed outweighed by the public's significant interest in the background of a public figure who is running for the U.S. Senate," the judge said. He noted that U.S. senator is among the highest elected offices in the nation.
Burbank ordered that nothing actually will be released until Tuesday afternoon, however, to allow for the ruling to be appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court.
The judge said a handful of documents being sought would not be released, and some would be redacted.
The case was brought by a group of Alaska news media organizations, who have been trying since summer to see borough documents concerning Miller's employment as a part-time borough attorney.
Read more: http://www.adn.com/...
Today is not Joe's day. But then for the last few weeks every day ending in the letter "y" hasn't been Joe's day.
Joe Miller's worst political moment happened a few days ago after Joe Miller put an invite on his Facebook for a townhall to meet and greet the public.
Town Hall Meeting with Joe Miller Sunday, October 17th at 3pm Central Middle School, 1405 E St, Anchorage, AK 99501 Your friends, colleges, family, acquaintances, neighbors, need to be informed and hear Joe Miller speak for himself.
Don't let the media skew your views.
Seems innocuous enough. Come one, come all to the Town Hall--unless you're reporter Tony Hopfinger, an award-winning journalist and editor of the on-line news source, The Alaska Dispatch.
Hopfinger said he approached Miller as the candidate was talking to a small group of people just after his town hall ended. As soon as Hopfinger asked a question about whether he'd been reprimanded for politicking on borough time, Miller pivoted and ducked out a nearby doorway and down a hallway.
Hopfinger said he followed Miller for a few steps and tried to ask another question and that Miller suddenly went another direction, leaving Hopfinger surrounded by campaign supporters and blocked by the security team.
"These guys were bumping into me," Hopfinger said, "bumping me into Miller's supporters."
Hopfinger said Fulton was the main antagonist and that Hopfinger pushed him away because "he was bumping into my face."
"He didn't take a step back and he didn't allow me to take a step back," Hopfinger said.
Fulton has said he was not the one who got pushed, and that Hopfinger "shoulder checked" someone else into a locker.
But Hopfinger said Tuesday he is sure it was Fulton whom he pushed. He also pointed out that no one else has come forward to say they were the one who was "assaulted," as Fulton has alleged.
Once the guards grabbed him and shoved him into a wall, where they handcuffed him, Hopfinger said, he did not resist because "these guys would have had me on the ground; it ramped up that fast."
http://forum.starnewsonline.com/...
Joe Miller's security, who happened to be active duty military moonlighting for a security firm with anti-government sentiments and paranoia-drenched signage, roughed up and handcuffed a reporter for asking questions that a Superior Court judge has just ruled must be answered because the public has a right to know.
Craig Medred at the Alaska Dispatch does a good job of explaining why Joe Miller's media hostility is so woefully inept and calls into question his fitness for office:
Running away is a cowardly thing to do. But at least before fleeing, Murkowski is willing to stand up and answer questions, no matter how lamely, about her past.
Miler has shown himself afraid to do even that. The partisans in his camp embrace this. They buy into some myth that politics in America today is such a rough business that good people won't run because of it. They like to call up the names of the Founding Fathers. They need to go back and read their American history.
The questions asked of Joe Miller these days are nothing compared to the beating the Founding Fathers took in the early years of this Republic. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were hounded and vilified by the press. Even George Washington was called out.
"Ten thousand people in the streets of [then-capital] Philadelphia, day after day, threatened to drag [then-second-term President] Washington out of his house and effect a revolution in the government," wrote John Adams of his predecessor. Newspaper cartoonists portrayed Washington with his his head in a guillotine to protest of his refusal to join the Napoleanic Wars. "The president was much inflamed" at the press, wrote Jefferson, who was then serving in Washington's cabinet. "[He said] that by God he had rather be in his grave than in his present situation."
Being a powerful, national politician in America is a tough job. It's why the job interview needs to be tough. People who can't stand up and answer simple questions during the campaign -- when they have nothing to lose -- certainly cannot be counted on stand up and answer questions once in office when they have everything to lose: The fat salary, the big office, the fawning staff, and the power and the influence.
http://alaskadispatch.com/...
I remember back when October surprises used to be worrisome. But not this October. With Democrats demonstrating an early voting enthusiasm to counteract the Republicans polling enthusiasm and the public's palpable anger about the Citizen's United cash flowing into our democracy like a BP gusher and now Joe Miller's October 23 surprise, I think this October has been a wonderful antidote to the silly season that preceded it.
Thanks to ParkRanger for reminding me that the best October surprise of all to deliver to Joe is ensuring that Democrat Scott McAdams joins Democrat Mark Begich, to form the Alaskan delegation to the U.S. Senate.