Sunday, June 26, 2011

There Is A Little Justice

Tea Party candidate for Senate Joe Miller has been ordered by an Alaska Court to cough up part of the State's expenses in rejecting Miller's spurious challenge to last year's election results.

Remember Miller? He was the Sarah Palin and Tea Party (AKA Right Wing Of The Republican Party) darling who beat Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary for Senate. She turned around and ran an improbable write in campaign that trounced Miller by 4.5 percentage points. Rather than accept the clear rejection by the voters, which was historic for a write in candidate, Miller sued to overturn the results. First he got a Federal Court to temporarily block certification of the election results, and then the case was kicked to the State courts. His argument that elections officials had improperly counted write-in ballots was rejected by a Superior Court judge and that ruling that was upheld at the Alasaka Supreme Court. Miller tried once again to get the Federal court to intervene but the judge told him to go fish.

All of this litigation cost the State of Alaska a ton of money and that gave rise to this suit. Alaska sued Miller to have him reimburse the state for part of its costs in defending against Millers legal challenges to the election. The State Court agreed with Alaska and ordered Miller to pay $17,500.

But here is the really rich part. The whole question in this suit was whether Miller had challenged the election results for his own personal benefit or whether he was trying to vindicate some public interest.The court held that clearly he was only acting for his personal benefit. As reported by Reuters the Court held
that Miller did not qualify as a public interest litigant because his lawsuit sought to secure something of value for himself: A Senate seat with a $174,000-a-year salary and other personal benefits.

"The main thrust of this action was not, in this court's view, to altruistically promote and preserve constitutional protections, but to win an election, with the political and pecuniary benefits that would accrue thereby, . . ."


Talk about stating the obvious.

But, of course, that's not how Miller sees it. For him, it wasn't about trying to get a Senate seat, or the salary or none of that. No. He was on a glorious Mission on behalf of the Baggers to save the country. Or, in Miller's words,
"The Tea Party revolution is not about salary, position, or prestige: it's about bringing America back to its constitutional foundations, where the rule of the law rather than the ruling class prevails," Miller said in the statement.



It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry when reading this self serving drivel.

Can't wait to see if Miller decides to continue his holy crusade by appealing this decision.