After Miller wrapped himself in the Constitution before an audience of 100 or more Alaskans for an hour, his private security guards arrested journalist Tony Hopfinger during a minor dust-up with a Miller supporter. Hopfinger was handcuffed until police officers arrived to restore order.
Hopfinger was allegedly trespassing. How do you trespass at a public event?
Well, perhaps Miller got his inspiration from the leaders of the late East Germany who he told his audience had an effective immigration policy. You may remember East German border guards shot their countrymen bidding to escape to West Germany.
I have met every Alaska senator since statehood. None of them traveled with security guards. Ted Stevens sometimes traveled alone, without even a note-taking aide. What is Joe Miller afraid of?
Over the years, I have heard politicians say they would like to have reporters arrested -- me, for example. They were blowing off steam, not launching a new season of "Law and Order."
Joe Miller apparently doesn't realize it, but he's in the process of convincing Alaskans that, despite his West Point education, medals for military service and Yale law degree, he's just another nut from Fairbanks.
A dangerous nut because he's the Republican nominee for the United States Senate.
Miller won the nomination after running a smooth anti-incumbent campaign abetted by tea party money. But for the last six weeks he has done little but clothe himself in controversy and generate bad publicity.
Nobody made him attack the Division of Elections employees responsible for counting the primary ballots. Nobody made him offer inflammatory comments on the constitutionality of Social Security, unemployment compensation and the minimum wage. Nobody made him declare war on the Alaska press corps over their request for his Fairbanks North Star Borough employment records.
He did all this on his own. By choice.
Which leads us to this conclusion: Joe Miller wants to be elected senator but only on his own terms. His terms are that of the know-it-all, the smartest kid in the class who can't shut up about what he knows -- and what others don't. Now the smartest kid in the class has security guards who handcuff people.
If you see Miller in person a few times, it eventually dawns on you that he's a man without a sense of humor. He's too grimly focused on saving the world for a laugh.
Well, if he wins this election Joe Miller won't need a sense of humor. The joke will be on us for sending him to Washington.
Michael Carey is the former editorial page editor of the Anchorage Daily News. E-mail, mcarey@adn.com.
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