Joe Miller: Begich Empowers Washington, Blames Alaskans

Photo Credit: SenateDemocrats U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller today called into question Senator Mark Begich’s “independence” for engaging in hyper-partisanship in Washington and, through his actions, undermining our republic.

In a naked power grab last Thursday Democrats broke with a long-standing Senate tradition requiring a 60-vote majority in order to confirm judges. In so doing, Democrats have abandoned all pretext of governing by consensus, instead seizing more power for unelected government bureaucrats and judges who regulate, tax, and wield arbitrary power over Americans lives.

And what did Senator Mark Begich do? He abandoned bi-partisanship to carry the water for those he truly serves in Washington–Barack Obama and Harry Reid–and then had the gall to blame his constituents for his own outrageous actions. The Los Angeles Times quoted the senator as saying, “. . . the American people are asking us to fix this system.”

US Senate candidate Joe Miller responded:

“The fact that Mark Begich is continuously pushing his ‘independence’ in Alaska, while at the same time engaging in hyper-partisanship back in Washington is bad enough,” said Miller. “But to go a step further and blame his constituents for this naked power grab is, in my opinion deeply cynical.”

Senators Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch, who are both longstanding members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, note there are far more pressing vacancies in the other federal courts nationwide. The DC Circuit has the lightest caseload in the country, and filling its vacancies is simply unnecessary. Incidentally, Democrats made similar arguments in opposition to President George W. Bush’s appointees to the same court.

The junior senator’s move is all the more troubling when one considers the fact that the impetus behind the rules change appears to be an attempt by the White House to stack the DC Appellate Court in hopes of saving the Obama agenda, including Obamacare – a bill Begich was the 60th and deciding vote on.

In recent days, Begich has feigned outrage over the failed healthcare roll-out, even engaging in faux attacks on the White House in an attempt to distance himself from political fallout. But Alaskans can now see to what lengths he will go to save the president’s failed socialist experiment.

While Begich has voted for the Obama-Reid agenda 91% of the time during his tenure in the United States Senate, Joe Miller will work tirelessly to repeal Obamacare, and fight every day to restore our liberties and keep Washington outsiders from meddling in our lives.

Joe Miller concluded, “Mark Begich’s ridiculous claim that there is some public consensus out there to justify his vote to give unaccountable judges more power over our lives is disingenuous in the extreme, and it’s anything but independent. It is partisan, divisive, and deeply troubling for the future of liberty in America.”