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Sen. Murkowski has never seen such vitriol in politics

Suzanne Downing
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13
Sen. Murkowski has never seen such vitriol in politics

TAKE A LONG LOOK AT WHERE IT’S COMING FROM…

Sen. Lisa Murkowski recalled the words of the late Sen. John McCain:

“Remember, the darkest hour is just before … it goes pitch black.”

Alaska’s senior senator is in a funk, she said, as she described how she feels worn out by the intense partisanship in Congress. She spoke these “dark” thoughts to the Alaska Legislature on Tuesday, during her annual legislative address.

While most of her speech focused on Alaska-related policy — violence against Native women, natural resources, and other familiar topics — the beginning of her talk was about how bad things are in Washington, D.C.

The impeachment trial was “perhaps the darkest most deeply partisan experience of my career.” It started out as a partisan exercise in the House, and continued that way into the Senate, and it threatened to drag the Judicial Branch of government down with it, which is why she voted against conviction of Trump, Murkowski said.

Murkowski quoted Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers: “Yet it ought not to be forgotten that the demon of faction will, at certain seasons, extend his sceptre over all numerous bodies of men.”

“We are in the season that our founder warned us about,” Murkowski said.

Our founders didn’t warn us of a national epidemic of unhinged behavioral disorders occurring during the greatest period of wealth and success for most Americans, and perhaps the greatest time of prosperity in the history of the world.

The Democrats have lurched so far left, that they are far past partisan election politics, and are neck-deep in culture wars driven by a self-loathing for all things American:

  • Under President Barack Obama, a flag celebrating people’s sex lives was raised over U.S. embassies. Under President Trump, embassy officials refused a direct order to not fly the rainbow flag.
  • A San Francisco school board spent $600,000 to paint over an historic New Deal-era mural of George Washington because a portion of it showed his life as a slave-owner.
  • Students across college campuses are demanding the removal of statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
  • Democrats are trying to force Christian bakers to bake cakes celebrating gay weddings, even though that violates the bakers’ religious beliefs.
Masterpiece Cakes posts this notice on its website: Masterpiece Cakeshop will happily create custom cakes for anyone. But like many cake artists, Jack cannot create all custom cakes. He cannot create custom cakes that express messages or celebrate events that conflict with his religious beliefs.
  • Nike pulled its line of Air Max 1 USA sneakers after a complaint from former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who said the Betsy Ross flag is a symbol of racism.
Colin Kaepernick and the offending patriotic shoe.
  • Pete Buttigieg—who would be the first openly gay president—was questioned by the liberal media because he is too white: “Is Pete Buttigieg just another white male candidate, or does his gayness count as diversity?” wrote Slate online.
  • Bernie Sanders said there’s no room in the Democrat Party for pro-life Democrats: “I think being pro-choice is an absolutely essential part of being a Democrat. By this time in history . . . when we talk about what a Democrat is, I think being pro-choice is an essential part of that,” he added.
  • Buttigieg was not to be outdone: “My point is that it shouldn’t be up to the government official to draw the line. It should be up the woman who is confronted with that choice.” No matter when in her pregnancy she decides to end it.
  • Joe Biden equated gender identity with racial minorities, declaring: “Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time. There is no room for compromise when it comes to basic human rights.” Some African-Americans have raised an eyebrow to that statement.
  • College campuses have become dangerous places for conservatives, with violent incidents being reported weekly, this one being representative:
Students threaten a conservative visitor and throw water — or something — on her as she passes by to visit OU, while police do nothing.
  • This week the Democrat mayor of Los Angeles declared his city’s police department will not cooperate with immigration officials.
  • In the House and Senate, Democrat women have become practically cultish, with women lawmakers dressing in matching white, as though they are scolding overseers, whenever the president speaks to Congress.
  • Democrats tried for two years to stick a Russian conspiracy story to President Trump, and when that failed, turned to the Ukraine story. And when polling showed that Trump was going to be tough to beat, they pulled the trigger on impeachment as a desperate play.
  • A Republican-run voter registration tent in Florida was rammed by an angry anti-Trump driver who missed hitting volunteers by six inches.
  • Progressives are trying to tell us that gender is a choice, and that the proper pronoun is not the singular he or she, but “they.” And that it’s fine for men to compete as women in sports, so long as they’ve taken medication to suppress their testosterone.

The list goes on.

Murkowski is right — our times are partisan, more than they have been in generations.

But it’s not Republicans who have suddenly become more hardline. Republicans have basically stayed within range of where the party has been in the policy arena for the past 20 years — protection of the unborn, promoting legal immigration, a strong national defense, and not making government the answer to every human problem. Republicans have just been fighting back, finally.

But today’s Democrat party would be unrecognizable to President John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, or even Bill Clinton. It’s a party that has been swarmed an entitled breed of radical socialists braying insults at American values and attempting to weaken the nation’s national defense. The Left has launched an all-out Culture War, and Murkowski is witnessing the effects of the full assault on America in the halls of Congress.

In the words of President Ronald Reagan, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

These are dark times. Which is why Americans must send warriors to Washington, D.C., ones who understand the battle, what’s at stake, and are willing to fight.

There’s that thumb on the scale of justice once again

Suzanne Downing
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10
There’s that thumb on the scale of justice once again

THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET

Some are suggesting the fix may be when it comes to the Alaska Supreme Court’s decision on the Recall Dunleavy effort now waiting to be heard by the court.

From all appearances, they may be right.

The court, without even hearing the first argument going to the heart of the case, lifted a lower court’s on-again, off-again bar on the Division of Elections printing of signature booklets, a move desperately sought by Recall Dunleavy. The group – and the source of its funding remains secret today – claimed any delay in signature-gathering would be harmful.

At the same time, the high court said it would hear arguments on the recall effort’s legality March 25 – and inexplicably said it likely would rule the same day or soon after.

That is pretty darned quick.

Add to that, this: Chief Justice Joel Bolger has refused to recuse himself from the case. Why is that important? He is, in effect, a part of the case.

Bolger chairs the Alaska Judicial Council which forwarded the names of two judge candidates to Dunleavy last year. Dunleavy balked, asking why there were so few. Bolger met with Dunleavy last March to school him on how it all works.

“I believe the governor’s office does not understand the constitutional requirements for these nominations,” Bolger told the public ahead of the meeting. “So I’m going to spend some time outlining the requirements of the constitution and the bylaws and procedures the council has adopted to follow the constitution.”

Dunleavy’s “failure” to quickly appoint one of those two judges is the basis for the first recall “charge” against the governor, although he appointed one of the two a few days later, but beyond the statutory time limit – although the sitting judge remained on the bench awaiting retirement a few weeks later.

Read the Anchorage Daily Planet at this link.

Then, Bolger took the opportunity at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention last year to take a shot at Dunleavy, who had cut the court’s administrative budget and said he did so because of the court’s decision on using Medicaid funds for optional abortions. That accusation become Recall Dunleavy’s third “charge,” a violation of separation of powers by attacking the judiciary.

“It’s absolutely essential that judges maintain independence to make decisions based on the law and facts and not on political or personal considerations,” Bolger told the AFN.

“We are facing a great deal of political pressure. Some people want to make the judicial selection system more political. Others would like to impose political consequences for the content of judicial decisions.

“So I respectfully ask this convention to join me in resisting political influence in our courts.”

So, let’s see: Bolger was directly involved in Recall Dunleavy’s first “charge” and he made public political statements about the the third recall “charge.” And he refuses to recuse himself. That is the definition of rigged, akin to a robbery victim being on the jury of the accused robber. Add to that the court’s promised quick decision in March even before hearing the arguments and a rational person could have real questions about the court and the ethics of its chief justice.

It is as clear as the nose on your face: Bolger, appointed by former Gov. Sean Parnell, should either recuse himself or resign. The people of Alaska deserve a high court that will do everything in its power to keep its thumb off the scale.

Dunleavy: Marine Highway working group forms to restructure ferry system

Suzanne Downing
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31
Dunleavy: Marine Highway working group forms to restructure ferry system

Gov. Mike Dunleavy formed up a working group to begin the process of restructuring the Alaska Marine Highway System.

The nine members of the reshaping work group are:

  • Public: Admiral Tom Barrett (ret.) (Chair)
  • Public: John Torgerson
  • Public: Wanetta Ayers
  • Aviation: Lee Ryan
  • Labor: Ben Goldrich
  • MTAB: Robert Venables
  • Roads & Highways: Tony Johansen
  • Senator Bert Stedman
  • Representative Louise Stutes

The Work Group’s final report is due on or before Sept. 30, 2020 with implementation beginning in Fiscal Year 2023.

Over the years of operation, there has never been a replacement fund for the ferry system, said Commissioner of Transportation John MacKinnnon.

Senator Hot Head: ‘Lives are in danger and I will be holding you accountable!’

Suzanne Downing
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37
Senator Hot Head: ‘Lives are in danger and I will be holding you accountable!’

Sen. Lyman Hoffman had a few choice words for Commissioner of Administration Kelly Tshibaka during a Senate Finance Committee meeting this week. He verbally raked Tshibaka over the coals for not asking for a supplemental budget item to help rural Alaskans get their REAL IDs.

Take a look:

Tshibaka responded that while the federal requirement has been known about for 15 years, there are many partners, including the Division of Motor Vehicles, which can help people become ID compliant. Drivers’ licenses, she said, are just one form of REAL ID; people may use passports, military id or tribal id to get into secure areas in airports after October, when the rules finally take effect.

“Do your homework!” Hoffman retorted.

Refuse to recuse? Chief Justice Bolger was material witness, deeply entwined in recall question

Suzanne Downing
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19
Refuse to recuse? Chief Justice Bolger was material witness, deeply entwined in recall question

Supreme Court Chief Justice Joel Bolger has refused to recuse himself from the Recall Dunleavy case, scheduled for March 25, even though he is a material witness to the first of the recall “charges” made by the Recall Dunleavy Committee, and even though he has publicly weighed in with his criticism of the governor on another one of the recall “charges.”

That first charge relates to the appointment of a judge to the Palmer District Court in 2019. The Alaska Judicial Council, which is led by Bolger, had forwarded just two candidates’ names to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, and the governor wanted to know why so few names had been forwarded — were that few candidates actually qualified?

The two met on March 26, 2019, in a private meeting in which Bolger and Dunleavy discussed the judicial appointment process, during which time Dunleavy was able to express his concerns about too few candidates being sent to him for his consideration.

“I believe the governor’s office does not understand the constitutional requirements for these nominations,” Bolger said, before his meeting with the governor. “So I’m going to spend some time outlining the requirements of the constitution and the bylaws and procedures the council has adopted to follow the constitution.”

The meeting was lengthy and detailed.

A few days after that meeting with Bolger, Dunleavy appointed someone to the position from the “list of two,” fulfilling the vacancy as prescribed by the Alaska constitution, but a few days past when the Alaska statute says the appointment should be made.

During this time, the retiring judge in Palmer was still on the bench, and would not be leaving for several weeks. There was no vacancy yet.

The delay in the appointment is the first charge on the recall petition, which Bolger and the other Supreme Court judges says must be printed and distributed for signatures. Recall Dunleavy Committee says the governor broke the law by missing the statutory deadline.

There’s no putting the toothpaste back in the tube on this conflict — Bolger was at the center of the discussion about the judicial council’s decision that Dunleavy was questioning.

Bolger has yet another conflict with one of the recall “charges.”

At the Alaska Federation of Natives convention last year, he asked the assembly present to help him:

“It’s absolutely essential that judges maintain independence to make decisions based on the law and facts and not on political or personal considerations,” Bolger said in October 2019.

“We are facing a great deal of political pressure. Some people want to make the judicial selection system more political. Others would like to impose political consequences for the content of judicial decisions.

“So I respectfully ask this convention to join me in resisting political influence in our courts.” – Justice Joel Bolger to Alaska Federation of Natives, referring to Dunleavy

The message had been sent by Bolger. There was no question Bolger was referring to the governor in his remarks to AFN.

The governor had cut the Supreme Court’s administrative budget, and stated that he did so because the Supreme Court insisted the state pay for optional abortions with Medicaid funds. The governor was going to shift those funds from the courts over to the Medicaid accounts to pay for the mandate.

This makes Bolger deeply conflicted on the third recall “charge.”

Today, the Stand Tall With Mike group, which was defending the governor in court, withdrew from the case at the Supreme Court, in part because it appears the judges have already made up their minds, and because Bolger refused to recuse himself. The state attorneys will have to continue on without the independent legal team.

[Read: The fix is in II: Stand Tall With Mike pulls away from lawsuit]

It’s important to note that no formal request was made to ask Bolger to recuse himself. Normally, lawyers who are getting ready to appear before a judge do not make such a request because if the judge thinks he or she should recuse himself, he or she does so “sua sponte,” which means you do something without having to be asked.

But if a lawyer goes so far as to ask a judge to recuse himself, the lawyer can be guaranteed to have a rough time in front of what is then going to be an annoyed judge. Lawyers do not poke that hornet’s nest except in very rare cases.

Chief Justice Bolger has undeniable direct involvement with Recall Charge No. 1, and he has made political statements about Recall Charge No. 3. But voters have little recourse — Bolger himself will not be up for retention for six more years.

Mike Prax named to House for District 3, North Pole

Suzanne Downing
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8
Mike Prax named to House for District 3, North Pole

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has chosen Glenn “Mike” Prax to the vacant House District 3 seat in the Alaska House of Representatives.

“Mike Prax has demonstrated for many decades that he has the experience, knowledge and leadership abilities to make an effective legislator for the North Pole area,” Dunleavy said. “He also understands and reflects the values of its residents, so I am proud to appoint him to the House District 3 seat.”    

The Republicans in the Alaska House must confirm the appointment by a simple majority vote. If approved, Prax will be the third legislator appointed by Governor Dunleavy.

Prax was a longtime volunteer on the Dunleavy campaign in the Fairbanks area and a well-known grassroots Republican. He will need to run this year for the seat if he wants to to retain it, and word from Fairbanks is that there will be a Republican primary in August.

Video: Sen. Donny Olson reveals what he really thinks of women leaders

Suzanne Downing
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13
Video: Sen. Donny Olson reveals what he really thinks of women leaders

WON’T LET COMMISSIONER SPEAK DURING HEARING ABOUT HER BUDGET

In a Senate Finance subcommittee meeting this week, Sen. Donny Olson put Public Safety Commissioner Amanda Price in her place. Women are to be seen, not heard, evidently in his committee. Not once, but repeatedly he would not allow Price, who is the department leader, to answer questions about her budget or needs of her department, but continued to refer the questions to her subordinate, Col. Barlow, while telling her to shut up.

Price is the first woman to lead the Alaska Department of Public Safety in state and territorial history, and this isn’t the first time a male lawmaker has shush’d her since she was sworn in back in 2019.

Take a look at how Olson treats Price in this hearing:

The fix is in II: Stand Tall With Mike group pulls out of lawsuit, says it’s prejudged

Suzanne Downing
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32
The fix is in II: Stand Tall With Mike group pulls out of lawsuit, says it’s prejudged

SUPREME COURT HAS ALREADY DONE IRREPARABLE HARM

Today, Stand Tall with Mike has decided that pursuing the case against the recall of the governor in the Alaska Supreme Court is hopeless, and has instructed its attorneys to withdraw its appeal. The arguments are scheduled for March 25, when those on each side of the recall fight are scheduled to make their case to the Supreme Court.

The actions made by the Supreme Court last week, ordering petition booklets to be issued before the case is even heard by the court, indicate that further participation in the legal process would not be a productive use of its resources, Stand Tall With Mike wrote in a press release.

In other words, it’s a waste of money to send lawyers in when the outcome has been predetermined by the court, over the objection of the Superior Court judge, who said that starting early on signatures would sow confusion and cause irreparable harm.

“To counteract this harm, Stand Tall With Mike believes the public is better served, and its resources are better used by turning its full attention to educating the public why the recall of the governor is unjustified, a waste of public resources, an affront to the 145,000 Alaskans who voted for this Governor, and a distraction from the critical issues facing Alaskans,” the group said.

Also on Friday, the court held a scheduling conference setting oral arguments for March 25, telling the lawyers the court will issue its ruling rapidly, perhaps even the day of the argument, the group said.

“This blistering pace is simply unnecessary. At issue are constitutional questions of first impression that deserve careful consideration. In combination with lifting the stay, when there was no harm in allowing the legal process to conclude next month, it is clear the Court is determined to let the recall effort go forward before it has even reviewed the parties’ legal briefings,” STWM said.

“Also on Friday’s call, the court indicated that Chief Justice Joel Bolger would not recuse himself. Chief Justice Bolger is a material witness in the case, and directly participated in the events that gave rise to one of the recall charges. Since then he has made public statements criticizing vetoes made by the Governor.”

The Stand Tall group said they fully expect the Supreme Court to move ahead with a recall election and that voters, rather than unelected judges, will need to stand up to protect the integrity of elections.

It appears the State of Alaska will continue its case, in which it is defending the Division of Elections’ decision to not issue booklets because the grounds for recall are invalid.

Stand Tall With Mike has been a legal defense group, but will now transform into an independent expenditure group to become a campaign organization.

Crawford drops race against von Imhof; residency issue

Suzanne Downing
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2
Crawford drops race against von Imhof; residency issue

Jim Crawford, who filed to challenge Sen. Natasha von Imhof in the Republican primary for Senate Seat L, will officially withdraw his candidacy due to not having lived in the South Anchorage district long enough.

State election law requires a person to have lived in the district for one year before filing for office.

Crawford, born and raised in Anchorage, had lived in midtown, where during the last Senate race in 2018 he ran against now-Sen. Elvi Gray Jackson, a Democrat, for Senate Seat I.

Crawford moved to Klatt Road in 2019.

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