Joe Miller and the criminal use of North Star borough computers to oust Republican chairman Rudy Reuderich. Did he, or didn't he?

Now I am sure all of you have heard the story from ex-Fairbanks Mayor Jim Whitaker about Joe Miller's use of multiple computers in a failed attempt to replace Randy Reuderich as head of the Alaska GOP.

Whitaker said Miller was caught using multiple computers to try to oust Ruedrich as party chairman. He said he was under the impression that Miller was trying to get himself elected to the position. Whitaker said he wasn't sure why Miller was using different computers.

Whitaker said the borough employees whose computers Miller used didn't know he was doing so. He said one of them "informed the acting borough attorney that something was amiss with her computer." He said borough technicians investigated and found that the computers had been used to send information to the Republican Party.

So you would think, well that is it!  Stick a fork in Miller because..he..is...done! Right?

Unless of course in the an effort to save face the Alaska Republican party circles their wagons and covers for him. Which is EXACTLY what they have done.

"That dog just don't hunt," Ruedrich said Thursday.

In interviews Thursday, Ruedrich, Ralph Seekins (the party's national committee man) and Steve Colligan (the party's vice chairman) all said Whitaker's claims that Miller was sending out "proxy votes" to install himself as chair simply couldn't have happened.

For his part, Seekins can't figure out why Miller would have bothered to use the borough offices to send out anything political, let alone use other people's equipment. Miller had a great technological set-up with fast computers at his private office in Fairbanks' old federal courthouse building, Seekins said.

Like Ruedrich, he questions Whitaker's version of events. If the ethics breach was truly that serious, Miller should have been fired -- not "nearly fired," he said.

Plus, Joe was never someone to operate in the dark, Seekins said. "He was always upfront with everything he tried to do," he said. "I smell a rat."

Well there you have it.  According to the Republicans in charge (And EVERYBODY knows what a truthful lot they are!), Miller had perfectly good computers at his office where he could have performed such an unethical act, so WHY would he have tried to hide it by using the borough's computers?  It just makes absolutely all of the sense in the world, so of course , according to the leaders of the Alaska GOP, it could NOT have happened.  Oh, and by the way, Jim Whitaker is a rat!

Joe Miller has the GOP stamp of approval, and that is that, case closed!

Or perhaps not.

What if, say Joe told somebody in his family, who may have accidentally told somebody else, who might sometimes write a column for a local Alaska newspaper?  Might that keep the case from being completely "closed?"

Because THAT is exactly what happened.

Mike Rostad, a longtime freelance religion and personalities columnist for the Kodiak Daily Mirror and a Republican and Tea Party activist in Kodiak, sent an e-mail to 10 people late Thursday in which he details a call he said he received from Rex Miller, the father of the Republican Senate nominee. A recipient then widely redistributed the e-mail, which was later obtained by the News-Miner.

According to Rostad’s e-mail, Rex Miller contends his son was never in danger of losing his job as a part-time attorney after it came to light that he had used borough computers to boost support for ousting Randy Ruedrich as chairman of the Republican Party of Alaska.

“One noon hour, on his own time at the borough, Joe participated in an online poll voting against Randy,” Rostad wrote in the e-mail, recounting the Thursday morning conversation he said he had with Rex Miller. “He used four office computers in the office to do it, thinking this was his chance to boost numbers to get rid of Randy. He emptied the cache files on the computers so the users wouldn’t know what he had done.”

"He emptied the cache files so the users wouldn't know what he had done?"  Does THAT seem like the actions of a man who does not think what he is doing is wrong? Who does not KNOW that if he is discovered he might get into trouble?

Well you know it seems to me that if the Miller campaign REALLY wants to clear up this potentially damaging allegation of improper, and potentially illegal, behavior all they have to do is allow the media full access to his personnel file so that the Alaska voters can put their fears to rest.

Is that too much to ask?

Miller, who told reporters earlier this week that he would no longer answer questions about his background, has so far declined to allow the borough to release the full contents of his personnel file or to sign a waiver to allow the borough to release that and other documents related to his time at the borough. The Daily News-Miner, Anchorage Daily News and online publication Alaska Dispatch have filed lawsuits against the borough to gain access to portions of the file related to Miller’s use of borough computers.

Yes, I guess it is.

BTW, while we are on the subject of Joe Miller, and possible skeletons in his closet, can SOMEBODY please explain to me how a person gets out of serving five years of mandatory military service after graduating form West Point, and what being discharged from active service on an FND - Misc reasons (Unqualified resignation) means? (Check boxes 26 & 28) Of all of the separation codes listed by the military I swear this is the most vague, and I have no idea what to make of it.

(H/T to Wickersham's Conscience.)