Even as staunch of a conservative as ex-Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein cannot stomach Joe Miller's brand of politics.

Now much of this must be taken with a grain of salt, because Stein is clearly a Murkowski supporter, however he does make some very valid points.

From the Alaska Dispatch:

The GOP candidate for (much too) high office in Alaska, Joe Miller, who beat the redoubtable GOP stalwart, Lisa Murkowski, in the primary, with major Tea Party help, is a bit reminiscent of Willy Stark. Only stupid.

Joe Miller supposedly is a graduate of Yale Law School, as I am, and I never knew one stupid person at Yale Law, which makes me wonder if Mr. Miller really went there. A Yale Law grad would not have security guards who would for a moment consider "arresting" and handcuffing a member of the Alaska press, Tony Hopfinger, who had the audacity to ask questions about Miller's past transgressions involving computer stuffing of a polling place in an unofficial GOP poll.

A Yale Law grad, especially one supported by the Tea Party, which is all about curbing abuses of power by the government, would not even think of taking away the reporter's video camera, as Miller's guards did. That's what stupid people do. Maybe I am wrong and he somehow slipped through the Ivied doors when they weren't looking. Maybe Miller thinks he is boss of some kind of third world country and his mirrored sunglass-wearing Tontons Macoutes can just bully anyone who gets in his way.

That is not what the Tea Party is all about. It is certainly not what the GOP is about. It isn't even what the Democratic Party is about.

Can you imagine a statewide official doing this or allowing his guards to do this -- and not then sending out a full throated apology? Yet Miller is accusing the reporter of assaulting his guards, who, as apparently seen by witnesses, surrounded Hopfinger and menaced him, and then cuffed him when he tried to escape. How stupid can a candidate be? How can this be happening?

As you can probably imagine Stein, a man of Jewish descent, was especially appalled at Miller's reference to East Germany's success at curbing the flow of immigration as a model for the U.S. borders.

It gets a lot worse. When asked how the USA could seal the border with Mexico, Miller, astonishingly, gave as an example of effective border closure the regime of Communist East Germany. That border sealing involved shooting or blowing up with mines or electrocuting potential border crossers. Can a GOP candidate actually be suggesting such brutal means of border control -- which took the lives of hundreds of East Germans seeking freedom -- as a model for the United States?

Yes, he can and he did.

If you visit the Dispatch you can read the rest of Stein's condemnation, which is followed by a call to write in Lisa Murkowsi.  Of course we all know there is a much better choice than the Senator who has rented her Senate vote to big energy companies time and time again.

(I don't know about the rest of you but I could not read Ben Stein's words without imagining that voice of his calling out to the shadowy Senate candidate, "Miller...Miller...Miller)

While I am on the subject of Joe "The Berlin Wall was keen!" Miller, I thought I would share with you a portion of an e-mail that was sent to me just today from somebody who was very curious about Joey's military discharge papers.

My brother is back in the US and called tonight; I sent him the link to the DD214 for him to look at (he was on a military computer while gone; not smart to be looking at it then, likely). Based on his 30 years of hiring or not hiring people in his military unit he deemed it "definitely covering up something". Said he'd checked with a protocols person and yes, the "unqualified resignation" is a category used to get rid of someone or used when someone is forced out, something used, "usually at the higher levels to keep someone, usually an officer, from facing embarrassment, either at the time of discharge or later".

I asked about the list of achievements, etc, and he said there is nothing there that isn't either the result of a training, most required but possibly one or two elective, or they are the automatic result of what the UNIT (not necessarily an individual) did in the way of military duties. There is nothing, according to him, that wasn't completely triggered by the "usual activities of being a minor officer on duty during a conflict".

Which brings up another thing; he questioned why Miller had advanced no higher in at least the 3 years he was in active duty; said "something's wrong there."

He said there is definitely enough there to warrant suspicion, just on that one document, that something was "seriously wrong with Mr Miller or his performance". When I asked about the "serious disability" Miller himself mentioned, he said that if it had a military cause it was likely in one way or another either a cover for "sexual preference issues" or psychological issues, being as the man shows no sign of physical ailments. He suggested that one of those might be behind the 'unqualified resignation" code.

Now granted this is not definitive, but from somebody with 30 years of experience examining discharge papers, it is still a very interesting take on the reasons WHY Miller's active duty service may have been cut short, and what that might say about his personality and his ability to perform the duties of the job that he is seeking.

Along those same lines I sat in the audience at last night's debate and closely watched Miller's face when he was called out on some of his more outrageous statements, as well as his unethical politicking with North Star Borough computers in Fairbanks, and I could see his jaw tighten in anger numerous times, as his body literally stiffened up in barely restrained rage at being confronted with his own behaviors and remarks.

My feeling while watching him is that he is a powder keg just waiting for his fuse to be lit.  My only question is how much damage can somebody like that do with Senatorial power at his disposal?