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The Only Candidate Who Can Beat Begich is Miller

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The Republican elite are skilled at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Their arrogance in dealing with social conservatives, libertarians and the Tea Party underscores the continued rejection of the “big tent philosophy” they allegedly promote. If you don’t adopt D.C.’s version of big-government conservatism and war-machine foreign policy, you can expect open opposition.

The worst perpetrator of this jihad on unconventional Republicans is Karl Rove (and his minions at the Crossroads committee).

Photo Credit: Wall Street Daily

Photo Credit: Wall Street Daily

And now, Rove and the rest of the D.C. consultants controlling the GOP are going to lose their best chance to win the U.S. Senate majority in a decade. How? Well, it starts with Alaska, where the GOP’s misguided Puritanism has created astounding resentment.

In Alaska, the GOP elite are concerned with two things: helping the companies that they run to get federal contracts and keeping control of a Tammany Hall-type patronage system in state jobs.

On top of that, the consultants in D.C. smack their chops at a race in Alaska because their favorite campaign tactic – saturating the market with TV ads – costs chump change in Alaska compared to many other media markets.

But this thinking has inspired a series of stiff-armed moves that have laid waste to the Alaskan GOP. Six years ago, for example, Mark Begich – a generally unaccomplished unknown – was able to snatch the U.S. Senate seat away from long-term Republican Ted Stevens.

This election cycle, Begich is vulnerable… but the GOP elite would rather play blood sports to stop Tea Party leader Joe Miller than simply beat Begich.

In the end, either Joe Miller will win or Alaska will re-elect Begich.

A Vicious GOP Backstabbing

How can I be so sure?

I’ve watched Alaskan politics closely since I agreed to speak at their Lincoln Day Dinners in Juneau and Fairbanks over a decade ago. And to understand why either Miller or Begich will win, you need to know what happened in 2010, in Miller’s last race, as it left a residual distaste for Republican elite tactics.

You see, Miller is typical of the candidates whom D.C. consultants dislike: He’s too smart, too pro-life, too anti-government and too anti-establishment. He’s also a decorated war veteran and a former Judge who cut his political teeth challenging the Alaskan GOP establishment owned by the Murkowski family. Alaska’s senior Senator, for example, is Lisa Murkowski, whom Miller challenged – and beat – in the 2010 Republican primary.

When Murkowski lost the GOP primary, the D.C. establishment circled the wagons, helping Murkowski run an independent race as a write-in. The Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, didn’t remove her from leadership even when she decided to launch her bid against the legitimate Republican nominee.

Meanwhile, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) manipulated the very grassroots, fresh-faced Miller campaign and used his name to raise money… then subsequently spent the money helping Murkowski win her race.

Time to Widen the Circle

But the plan has backfired this election cycle. Emotions run deep because of the viciousness of the Murkowski campaign against Miller. And this time, he’s the only GOP candidate who can win the general election. Polling shows that if anyone else wins the primary, scores of general election voters (in the double-digit percentages) intend to write in Miller as a protest against the aggressive backstabbing in 2010.

Miller’s opponent in the primary is a Karl Rove favorite, Dan Sullivan… a Bush administration appointee and member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum’s “World Agenda Council.” Sullivan is committed to aggressive War Party policies in Syria and elsewhere. Yet Miller, a veteran tank commander who has seen bloody conflict, is much more wary of American intervention abroad.

Frankly, Miller cares more about America than he does the Republican Party, and many of his supporters are encouraging him to just skip the GOP primary and run an unconventional campaign as an independent. Even if he went this route, it would still be disastrous for the GOP’s hopes of recapturing the U.S. Senate.

With recent polling showing Miller’s candidacy beginning to surge in a matchup against Begich, the GOP’s best hope for picking up the seat is to embrace Miller as the Party nominee. The question is, will the Republican elite do their best to snatch defeat from victory again, or will they lengthen the tent cords enough to stand with a true conservative from Alaska?

Your eyes on the Hill,

Floyd Brown

Floyd Brown boasts a lifetime of political involvement, ranging from political appointee in the Reagan campaigns and consultant to the Bush, Dole and Forbes presidential campaigns – to his current role as the President of the Western Center for Journalism, a nonprofit dedicated to informing and equipping Americans who love freedom.

Miller Calls Out Begich for Vote to Override Alaskans’ First Amendment Rights

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Photo Credit: LifeNews

Photo Credit: LifeNews

Joe Miller today urged the United States Supreme Court to protect Americans’ constitutional rights by striking down the ObamaCare contraception mandate. He also called out Senator Mark Begich for not only being the 60th and deciding vote for ObamaCare, but also voting last year to uphold the Department of Health and Human Service’s controversial regulation.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in the Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius cases, which address whether the Department of Health and Human Services can require private business owners to provide abortion-inducing drugs, regardless of their religious convictions.

“Alaskans must always remember that Mark Begich was the 60th and deciding vote for ObamaCare, a vote he made contrary to what the majority of the people he is supposed to represent wanted,” said Miller. “Having cast that egregious vote, Begich had the audacity to double-down last March and vote to affirm the HHS contraception mandate, which requires healthcare coverage to include abortion-inducing drugs, regardless of the deeply-held religious beliefs of those paying for the coverage.”

Our nation was founded on the belief in God-given rights. One of our God-given rights, according to both Thomas Jefferson (the author of the Declaration of Independence) and James Madison (the father of the Constitution), is the right to worship and exercise ‘the duty which we owe our Creator’ in a way our conscience directs. The very first right recognized in the Bill of Rights is this freedom: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” According to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, another of our most fundamental rights is the right to life.

“It should come as no surprise to Barack Obama, Kathleen Sebelius or Mark Begich that the owners of Hobby Lobby and other companies around this nation, in seeking to honor and worship God, cannot participate in the taking of human life,” said Miller. “It is my hope that the Supreme Court will see this for what it is, a clear violation of Americans’ First Amendment rights.”

Miller Blasts Begich for ‘Promoting a Culture of Executive Lawlessness’

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Photo Credit: SenateDemocratsJoe Miller today responded to news this week that junior Senator Mark Begich joined a large block of Democrat senators and representatives in urging President Obama to bypass Congress and implement a truncated version of the federal ENDA legislation via executive fiat.

“Apparently Mark Begich skipped out on high school civics,” Miller said. “For a United States Senator to essentially petition the nation’s chief executive to assume legislative powers is absolutely chilling. Mark either doesn’t understand the Constitution, or he is willfully violating its clear intent, and by doing so is promoting a culture of executive lawlessness.”

The letter Begich signed specifically urged Obama to fulfill his State of the Union promise to “make this a year of action” by signing an executive order to impose the failed ENDA legislation on federal contractors, though the President failed to mention it as one of his executive action priorities.

Perhaps just as disturbing is Senator Begich’s utter disregard for the democratic process, not just in Washington, but also in Alaska. Similar legislation has gotten no traction in the Alaska Legislature, and went down to overwhelming defeat when Proposition 5 was placed on the Anchorage Municipal ballot in 2012.

Miller concluded, “While I vehemently disagree with offering special rights based upon one’s sexual preference and thereby creating government-mandated discrimination against people of faith, the idea of government by fiat should be repugnant to all Americans, regardless of their political ideology.”

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, businessman, and advocate for constitutional liberty, who believes in limited government, individual rights, private property, free markets, and the right to life.

Miller Calls on Begich to Fulfill His Constitutional Duty and Support the ENFORCE the Law Act

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Photo Credit: Breitbart Today, U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller called on Senator Mark Begich to fulfill his constitutional duty and support the ENFORCE the Law Act, which passed handily in the House of Representatives earlier this week.

“The most chilling words this President has stated during his last five-plus years in office are, ‘Where Congress won’t act, I will.’ Nothing could be more antithetical to the government that our Founders established, which created a nation of laws and not of men. A renowned and liberal legal scholar recently testified before Congress that we have reached a ‘constitutional tipping point.’ I agree. The time has long since passed to hold this President accountable for his numerous Constitutional violations,” said Miller.

The list of unconstitutional executive decrees is legion from the dozens of changes to ObamaCare clearly crafted for political gain, to changing our immigration laws, to the re-writing and re-interpreting of the EPA’s authority in order to create new ‘climate change’ laws out of whole cloth, to altering the work requirements for welfare recipients, to refusing to enforce DOMA and thereby appropriating unto himself both the authority of the legislative and the judicial branches of government, this President’s lawless acts threaten the present and future liberty of our nation.

The Constitution of the United States is a document based upon centuries of history in the advance in the cause of liberty. The Founders knew their inheritance as English citizens and as beings created in the image of God and crafted a document to “secure the blessings of liberty” for themselves and future generations. Our inheritance as Americans is the freedom to govern our own lives free from tyrannical rule. This is the truth contained in the Declaration of Independence, the abolishment of the Star Chamber, the Magna Carta, and based upon the laws of nature and nature’s God.

The Constitution divides power among the three branches of government, so ambition would counteract ambition as the document’s ‘Father’ James Madison wrote, and guard against any taking of authority a particular branch does not have. The ENFORCE the Law Act is a powerful and much needed step to restore the balance of power between the branches.

“We have not come through centuries of hard fought gains in the cause of liberty, through war and peace, only to have its cause reversed in our day. I urge Senator Begich to support the swift passage of the ENFORCE the Law Act,” said Miller.

Senator Mark Begich Trying to Fool Alaskans about His Recent Anti-gun Actions — GOA Holding the Senator’s Feet to the Fire

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Photo Credit: GunOwner.orgQUESTION: How do you tell when an anti-gun politician is lying?

ANSWER: His lips are moving.

On February 10, GOA alerted Alaskans to Democrat Senator Mark Begich’s role in defeating the Rand Paul pro-gun amendment that would have allowed individuals to carry firearms in Post Offices.

But rather than just admit his complicity in helping to kill the pro-gun amendment, Senator Begich is trying to fool Alaskans into thinking that he was the hero who saved the day.

However, these claims couldn’t be further from the truth.

Read more from this story HERE.

Miller Calls Out Begich for Promoting IRS Tyranny

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Photo by Joshua DoubekJoe Miller called out Mark Begich today for the Senator’s support of new IRS rules that would grant the agency even more power to shut down the political speech and the political involvement of tea party and other conservative groups.

“After all we have learned about the egregious acts by the IRS against Americans’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, that Mark Begich would come out in support of granting the agency even more power to target political groups demonstrates he is no longer willing to offer even the pretext of protecting the rights of all Alaskans,” said Miller.

While President Obama initially labeled the IRS targeting of tea party and other conservative groups as “outrageous and unacceptable,” in a recent interview he stated there was not “a smidgen of corruption” found in the actions of the agency. However, the public learned that the subsequent DOJ investigation of the IRS is being conducted by a high-dollar campaign contributor to the President. Apparently, there is no known public record of any of the targeted tea party groups being interviewed in this supposed months long “investigation.”

“If Mark Begich is willing to not only condone, but advocate the use of the IRS in this capacity, he has shown he does not want to represent all Alaskans and no longer deserves to hold his office,” said Miller.

Miller concluded, “We have to ask ourselves, what kind of nation do we want to be? One in which the President unilaterally changes laws and uses executive agencies to spy on Americans and to shut down political speech, or one in which our constitutional liberties are secure and all are free to engage equally in the political debate? We must protect against this abuse of power, whether it is exercised against the political right or left.”

Vulnerable Dems Seek More Aggressive IRS Crackdown on Conservative Groups for 2014 Elections

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Photo Credit: AP/Jacquelyn MartinEven with so many unanswered questions still surrounding the Internal Revenue Service targeting scandal, Democrats are demanding the tax agency be even more aggressive in monitoring spending from outside groups going into the 2014 midterm elections.

“There are two things you don’t want in political money, in the fundraising world and expenditure world,” Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) told The Hill newspaper. “You don’t want secret money, and you don’t want unlimited money, and that’s what we have now.”

Pryor is considered among the most endangered Senate Democrats up for re-election this year.

But that’s no reason to attack the First Amendment rights of citizen groups, said Washington attorney Cleta Mitchell, who is suing on behalf of several conservative organizations given extra scrutiny by the IRS in the 2012 election cycle.

“It is absolutely outrageous that these elected officials are distressed about having a citizens group discuss their voting records – and then calling on the IRS or any agency of government to ‘protect’ them from having to explain, justify or defend their voting records in Congress,” Mitchell told TheBlaze.

Read more from this story HERE.

Miller Blasts Begich, Big-Government Republicans for Surrender on Debt Ceiling

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Photo Credit: APMark Begich and the Washington Establishment claimed victory after yesterday’s vote to raise the debt ceiling blocked a filibuster attempt by Senator Ted Cruz, who was hoping to gain some spending concessions in exchange for more debt authorization. 

“In the face our staggering national debt, it is simply unconscionable that Mark Begich and his big government friends continue to play politics with our future,” Miller said. “Washington is declaring victory, but unfortunately this is a zero-sum game. For Washington to win, America must lose.”

Some in the mainstream press are describing the bipartisan Senate vote to kick the can down the road until after the mid-term elections as part of the Republican Establishment’s war on the Tea Party. 

CNN quoted New York Senator Chuck Schumer as stating that the vote was a sign that “the American political world is moving in our direction. Republicans are trying to put Tea Party politics in the rear view mirror.”

Senate Republican leadership, along with senior Senator Lisa Murkowski who called the deal “a good outcome,” voted to allow Democrats to raise the debt ceiling while opposing final passage.

“Alaskans are sick and tired of this kind of duplicity,” Miller continued. “There’s a reason my Republican opponents have the blessing of the Washington Establishment. While they will criticize Mark Begich all day long for a vote like this, they’ll never take on the party bosses. Mr. Begich needs to be replaced, but the last thing we need in Washington is another feckless Republican.”

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, businessman, and advocate for constitutional liberty, who believes in limited government, the Right to life, individual rights, private property, and free markets.

Miller: Begich Voted for Cutting Veterans’ Pay, Twice, Before He Voted Against It

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Photo Credit: SenateDemocratsJoe Miller praised both houses of Congress today for voting to restore the cut to veterans’ pay enacted last month with the passage of the Omnibus spending bill, which implemented part of the Murray-Ryan budget agreement. He also noted Senator Mark Begich’s reversal on the issue, during this election year. Miller previously came out in strong opposition to the Murray-Ryan agreement and called on Senator Begich and the rest of the Alaska delegation to vote against it.

“I am very pleased that Congress has corrected the most egregious part of the Murray-Ryan budget agreement. It was unfathomable to me how Congress could vote to increase spending by $63 billion over ten years, while breaching trust with our veterans and voting to cut their pay by $6 billion,” said Miller. “I am glad Senator Begich finally saw the error in his ways, having voted twice for the cut to veterans’ pay before voting against it.”

Miller was the only candidate for the U.S. Senate in Alaska who came out publicly in opposition to the Murray-Ryan budget.

Miller: President Engages in Another ObamaCare Lawless Act

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Photo Credit: Fox News Joe Miller called Monday’s announcement by the Obama Administration of its decision to unilaterally grant medium-sized employers two additional years, rather than one, to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate, yet another example of the lawlessness of this Administration.

“But for the November elections, I question whether we would see this decision by the President to delay some of the law’s most devastating impacts on job creation and job retention for yet another year,” said Miller. Just last week the CBO reported that the ACA will result in 2.3 million jobs being lost.

Today’s announcement follows several other unilateral acts by the Obama Administration to change provisions of the law without congressional authorization including: its earlier decision to delay the employer mandate for one year, delaying the individual mandate for one year, delaying the enrollment date, and delaying the requirement in out-of-pocket caps. In all, the Administration has changed at least sixteen provisions of the law without Congress.

“President Obama may find it inconvenient or messy to work through the legislative branch in order to change the law, but that is what the Constitution requires,” said Miller. “During the legislative process he may get more, less or none of what he wants, but this is the way the Founders intentionally established our government. That is the nature of separated powers.”

The Founders divided power between three branches of government with legislative elections falling every two years (including one-third of the senators) rather than four with the President, because they wanted a check against the abuse of authority by both the legislative and executive branches. The peoples’ representatives must stand up and be held accountable for their votes.

Although members of all three branches have an independent duty to uphold their oath to the Constitution in all their actions, Miller noted that “No authority is granted to the President to simply suspend or change laws temporarily, or otherwise make changes in the law that benefit those who support his policies. In America the law is king, and neither a king nor the President is the law.”

President Obama is clearly seeking to do everything he can to mitigate the damage caused by the Affordable Care Act so senators like Mark Begich, who voted for the law against the wishes of the vast majority of his constituents, can somehow retain power. Indeed, it was reported last week by Congressional Quarterly that Senator Begich votes with the President 97 percent of the time. Obama has a 33 percent approval rating in Alaska.

“Alaskans will not be fooled. They know Mark Begich was the 60th and deciding vote for ObamaCare, and they know he has been carrying the water for the President in the Senate since they both took office. The people will hold him to account in November for a record that is out of touch with our state,” said Miller.