Latest round of the blood sport that the democrat and union led majority in the Alaska House is engaged in is an attempted removal of Representative David Eastman from committee assignments. Rationale for this is membership in an organization of former military and law enforcement called Oath Keepers.
And their excuse for going after Oath Keepers? It took the Harris – Xiden Department of Justice a mere year to indict its leader and 10 other members for sedition in connection with the Jan 6, 2021, protests.
In the eyes of the House majority, mere membership in the organization confers guilt sufficient to remove Eastman from House committees, in other words, guilt by association. And they are doing their level best to do so.
This little stunt was most recently performed by Nancy Pelosi’s House majority last year, removing Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, GA) from her committee assignments based on the notion that she had unacceptable public views. House Minority Leader McCarthy vowed a response in kind should Republicans take the majority next January.
Alaska democrats are gleefully attempting the same thing up here, having found a shiny new toy to use in the political wars. But like a three-year-old with a match and a firecracker, they are about to lose some fingers.
Why? Because Republicans are counterpunchers, adept at taking the new rules in congress and the legislature and using them on the democrats. Good and hard.
We don’t have to go back any farther than 2005, when senate democrats first started using the filibuster to block Bush judicial nominations. Republicans afterwards used that rule change to block Obama judicial nominations, frustrating Senate Majority Harry Reid to the point where he gutted the filibuster for judicial nominations in 2013. This change, in turn cost the democrats Supreme Court seats during the Trump years, flipping the court.
How should Alaska Republicans respond to the new precedent being demanded by House democrats? Well, if the new standard is an indictment, any indictment, for any reason, then anyone touched by that organization, membership in that organization, or accepted campaign donations from that organization would be liable for the same treatment.
For instance, former UCIDA head Roland Maw has been indicted multiple times on PFD fraud. This is a commercial fishing organization. Does this mean that anyone touched by commercial fishing in the legislature should be removed from committees? How about union membership? Any union member or officer indicted for anything would then be a vehicle to remove any legislator who took union campaign donations. Don’t forget APOC rulings on campaign finance / reporting violations. These are worse than indictments, as a paid fine is a defacto admission of guilt. Can’t have any of that in the legislature either. And who can ignore anyone who supports or is supported by BLM, which burned, looted and committed mayhem nationwide in 2020?
There are more, but I expect you get the idea. If we are now operating the legislature on the basis of guilt by association, I say bring it on. Do it early. Do it often. Do it with impunity. Do it gleefully. And when you do, you better hope and pray to whatever it is that you pray to that Republicans never, ever get a majority in anything in this state again. For payback will be devastating. It will also be demanded by the voters. In the words of Kurt Schlichter, you guys really, really aren’t gonna like playing under your new rules.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
