Va. Teabagger Senate Candidate Hosts Fundraiser at Shooting Range

It's $500 a pop to attend, so save up your Ameros, folks

Virginia candidate for US Senate, Jamie Radtke, has had the novel idea of pandering to her "base" by holding a fundraiser -- the "Shoot For Liberty" -- at a nearby shooting range on February 17th and 18th. What could possibly go wrong here?


Blast from your past: 04.19.10: Area Gun Nuts Infest DC, Nearby Virginia Parks

Virginia Teabaggers Take Issue With Allen's Endorsement Claims

Senator Macaca steps in it

Wesley P. Hester reports in the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

While surfing the Web last week, Kerry Scott was surprised to learn that she had endorsed U.S. Senate candidate George Allen.

After receiving a quizzical email from a friend, Scott found her name attached to a release from Allen's campaign titled: "Virginia Tea Party Patriots Endorse George Allen for U.S. Senate." The list includes more than 100 individuals from across the state, and in most cases, their respective organizations.

But while Scott is indeed affiliated with the movement, heading the Alexandria Tea Party, she never lent her support to Allen, a former Virginia governor seeking to reclaim the Senate seat he lost to Jim Webb in 2006.

"I don't know where that list was generated or who put it together," she said, noting that she immediately called Allen's campaign and had her name removed from the list on Allen's website.

In fact, Scott was already spoken for - by one of Allen's rivals for the GOP nomination. For months, Scott has been on an endorsement list for Jamie Radtke, a Chesterfield County tea party activist.

"I really, really want a fresh face in D.C., and I really want a citizen legislator who's going to say no to all the spending and growth of government," Scott said.

She noted that Allen's release also had the name of her tea party organization wrong... >more

Alaska Judge Rules Against Miller In Senate Suit

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Sean Cockerham reports in the Anchorage Daily News:

A Superior Court judge has ruled on all counts against Joe Miller's challenge of Alaska's election for U.S. Senate. The judge on Friday found the state tallied the ballots properly and there was no evidence for Miller's suggestions that fraud tainted the election.

The state judge, William Carey of Ketchikan, gave Miller until early next week to appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court. The timing is critical because a federal judge has blocked certification of Sen. Lisa Murkowski as the winner until the lawsuit is settled.

The newly elected Senate is to be sworn in Jan. 5, and state officials have argued that Alaska will be left with just one senator, Democrat Mark Begich, until the election is certified. Murkowski argues a delay could cost her seniority and top positions on committees... >more

Formerly Bold Alaska Tea Party Senate Candidate Runs, Hides From Media

"Run away! RUN AWAAAAYYYY!" Alaska Teabagger Senate Hopeful Joe Miller.
AP foto by Chris Miller (no relation)

Is there not one single Tea Party candidate who isn't a totally spineless pussy when it comes to dealing with the media?

Justin Elliott reports at Salon:

In a bizarre press conference Monday, Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller announced he will no longer answer questions about his past and blamed the media for focusing on personal attacks instead of the issues.

"We’ve drawn a line in the sand. You can ask me about background, you can ask about personal issues — I’m not going to answer. I’m not," he said, continuing:

This is about the issues. This is not about continuing the personal attacks, it’s not about continuing the diversions based in illegal acts. This is about moving the state forward. And that’s our commitment.

There has been a steady stream of revelations in recent weeks about Miller, who was a little-known attorney until he beat Sen. Lisa Murkowski in an upset in the August primary (she is now running as a write-in candidate). It has emerged in recent weeks that Miller took advantage of various programs that he thinks are unconstitutional or should be gutted, like Medicaid and federal farm subsidies.

The press conference appeared to be a response to a report on the news website Alaska Dispatch about Miller's employment at the Fairbanks North Star Borough, where he worked for seven years as a part-time attorney before leaving last year under unclear circumstances. (A borough is the Alaskan equivalent of a county.)

Citing an anonymous former borough employee, Alaska Dispatch reported that Miller was caught in 2008 using borough computers to do personal politicking. Miller has conspicuously not denied the report, but he blasted Alaska Dispatch at his press conference Monday. "Their so-called journalistic objective is anything negative about Joe," he said. He also claimed, without citing evidence, that someone in the media had illegally gained access to his personnel file. ...>more

Another Teabagger Welfare Queen Exposed

US Senate Candidate From Alaska Received Federal Farm Subsidies In 1990s

Sean Cockerham writes in the Alaska Politics Blog:

U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller, who in a recent Project Vote Smart survey opposed federal spending on agriculture, is acknowledging receiving farm subsidies during the 1990s from land that he owned in Kansas.

Miller spokesman Randy DeSoto said Miller, who is from Kansas, purchased the farmland in 1990 when he was in the Army and essentially rented it out to be farmed, finally selling the last of the 140 acres that was being farmed in 1998.

Miller moved to Alaska in 1994. ...>more

Teabagger Sharron Angle's Fringe 3rd Party Sponsored Virulently Anti-Gay Flier in '90s

"Sodomites, Brazen Perverts" Howls 1994 Newspaper Insert Sponsored by Angle's Independent American Party

Justin Elliott reports in Talking Points Memo:

The far-right third party that Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle called home in the 1990s supported abolishing "the debt money system" and ran a vitriolic anti-gay insert in state newspapers that portrays LGBT people -- or, as Angle's party called them, "sodomites" -- as child-molesting, HIV-carrying, Hell-bound freaks, according to documents obtained by TPM.

As we reported earlier this month, Angle was a member of Nevada's Independent American Party, a Christian conservative-cum-libertarian third party, for at least six years while she was getting her feet wet in politics in the 1990s. Independent American Party members told us that Angle switched to be a Republican in 1997 out of political expediency as she was preparing to make a run for state-level office.

But the details of her time in the Independent American Party have been somewhat shrouded in mystery -- which brings us to the two documents we obtained from that era.

This is a 1992 petition, signed and circulated by Angle, that was part of a successful push to get the Independent American Party on the ballot. It features the Independent American manifesto -- including the acknowledgment "That many Americans have ignored the Laws of God."

The petition says that party members support a proposed Constitutional amendment called the Liberty Amendment, which would "compel the Federal Government to halt its unconstitutional programs and wasteful expenditures such as foreign aid and welfare corruption. It will prohibit the financing of the New World Order with American taxes." ...>more