Say it ain't so Joe. Judge rules that Miller must pay Alaska Dispatch $85,000 in legal fees.

Courtesy of, who else, the Alaska Dispatch:  

With his eye on a possible 2014 U.S. Senate run, Alaska Tea Party politico Joe Miller has been dealt a financial blow after losing a legal fight with the media, stemming from his last attempt to win a Senate seat three years ago. 

On Friday, Alaska Superior Court Judge Stephanie Joannides ordered Miller to pay more than $85,000 of Alaska Dispatch’s attorney fees and costs stemming from the news organization’s 2010 lawsuit to make public Miller’s employment records during his time as a part-time government lawyer. 

Alaska Dispatch had already won the suit, arguing that Miller’s records -- which detailed episodes of misconduct for which he was punished and barred from rehire for three years -- should be available for Alaska voters to review. At the time, Miller was a Republican candidate in a three-way race for the U.S. Senate. In the wake of the election, Miller -- a Yale Law School grad -- dragged out the litigation for nearly two more years. 

“Miller’s conduct, which included taking inconsistent positions, failing to disclose information during discovery, and his procedural filing, which the record did not support, all caused unnecessary delay and costs for both Alaska Dispatch” and the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the judge wrote in her ruling.

Because Joannides found Miller's dragging out of the lawsuit and his other conduct in the case to be in bad faith and vexatious, she ordered him to pay 75 percent of the fees and 50 percent of the costs, for a total of $85,436. The borough must pay 10 percent of the fees and 50 percent of the costs, a total of $12,392. 

The amount of the award -- nearly $100,000 combined -- is among the highest ever assessed in Alaska in a suit over wrongful withholding of public records, McKay said. 

Oh man, THAT is certainly going to put a kink in any plans Miller had to run for office!

Gee I wonder if Miller will be able to get the Teabaggers to send him money to pay THIS bill? After his choice for the Republican party chairman was ousted, and now this, I seriously doubt that there are too many people left who are willing to send Miller their hard earned cash.

Boy that Sarah Palin curse has some serious longevity don't you think?