In his work “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell explains that “In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.” If so, the news this week took a truly Orwellian turn as Democrats rationalized or even praised the effort in Alaska to put a decoy “Dan Sullivan” on the ballot to confuse Alaskans and cause mistaken votes. Other Democratic politicians are entirely silent on the allegation that the campaign of Democratic candidate Mary Peltola engineered this grossly unethical tactic. The very same people running on “saving Democracy” are, once again, defending ballot manipulation designed to negate the votes of citizens. It is the ultimate expression of rage politics, excusing any act needed to achieve power.
On NewsNation Now, Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) went beyond many of his colleagues in saying that the Alaskan scandal shows precisely where all states, including Virginia, should go. When asked about the scandal, Subramanyam insisted that it showed how all states should embrace the widely criticized ranked-choice voting system. (Alaskans may finally reject the system this year). While asked about the use of a decoy candidate, Subramanyam bizarrely spun the question as third-party candidates — a bizarre claim since the fake Dan Sullivan has not campaigned, has never run for office, and is obviously on the ballot solely to confuse voters.
Nevertheless, Subramanyam insisted, while he would not run a decoy, “I also don’t have a ranked-choice voting system in Virginia. I wish I did, honestly. But, in Alaska, they have ranked-choice voting, and third-party candidates are very relevant. And so, if you recruited a third-party candidate who can take votes away from your opponent, that’s part of the process, and that’s just how it works in Alaska.” Previously, Subramanyam also supported the most radical gerrymandering effort in the nation (which was later struck down as unlawful).
Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) seemed to snowball as he tried to rationalize the move. He first attempted to blame it on one woman who was a “disgruntled former employee.” When CNN host Kaitlan Collins noted that The New York Times was relying on a large number of sources in the Peltola campaign, Murphy said it wouldn’t bother him at all to have decoys on his ballot because no one would be confused when voting. Of course, the entire reason you put another Dan Sullivan on the ballot is to confuse voters and cause citizens to throw away their votes on the wrong man. In a close election, that can easily make the difference in the outcome of the election. Murphy also praised the Peltola campaign and said he “trusts” them, despite the New York Times saying they actively sought to cause such voting errors.
In 2025, Murphy appeared on any cable show that would have him to declare that “those of us who believe that the threat to democracy is urgent” need to “act like it.”
Most Democratic leaders refused to say anything at all in the face of an open effort to nullify votes through candidate confusion.
Pundits and party officials have dismissed the scandal as brass-knuckles politics or even as humorous. The head of Alaska’s Democratic Party, Eric Croft, insisted that the sole consideration is whether it is a crime, not whether it is unethical: “I reread all of Alaska’s statutes. I’m kind of a recovering attorney up here. And there is nothing, there’s no legal issue to it. On your, you know, sort of dirty tricks thing, I think Alaskans have a different take there too.”
When pressed whether it is a good thing to try to confuse Alaskan voters and nullify their votes, Croft responded “No, I think it’s funny.”
That knee-slapper involves a politician and campaign that allegedly lied to the public about their involvement. It involves a decoy who is also accused of lying when he said he had no interaction with third parties and did not enter the race to confuse voters. (Notably, the decoy, when asked by the Division of Elections how his name should appear on the ballot, reportedly asked to use “S” as a middle initial (like the senator) as opposed to his own initial of “J.” ).
One would think that this would be an easy question for candidates who insist that they are defenders of democracy. However, in 2024, Democrats moved to remove Trump and other Republicans from ballots while claiming to be protecting voters by denying them the choice of candidates. The fact that the voters gave Trump the popular vote and swept every swing state only magnified the hypocrisy of these Democratic leaders. Yet, some of the same figures are back at it again with efforts to manipulate balloting to confuse or nullify votes in the name of protecting democracy.
Some of the same figures, such as Marc Elias, have reappeared in yet another election scandal. The Elias Law Group was named by the New York Times as involved in the controversy. Elias was a central figure in the Russian hoax as the campaign lawyer for Hillary Clinton. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) fined the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for violating election rules in hiding the funding for the infamous Steele dossier. Before the election, Clinton officials denied any such involvement.
In an age of rage, consistency, like decency, is a stranger to politics. We are left again in that moment with lawyer Joseph Welch in the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954: “Have you no shame, sir, at long last? Have you no shame?” The answer today is clear: No, but I have the votes.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
I can see the confusion this is for MAGA. The word “Incumbent” was next to the existing Senator, a “registered Republican”
Incumbent – A word way too complicated for the MAGA brain. Instead of “Incumbent” they should have labeled him “Toady for Trump” This, MAGA might be able to understand. Wait, are MAGA smart enough to know what a Toady is?
Lots of crying this morning. Lost your nipplesucker? On sale at Walmart.
Just read a bit of news. Perhaps it should read “toady for Putin” since trump is a Putin puppet. IS that what you are Anonymous?
Dumb as usual from Crybaby!
You can read? Find your nipplesucker I see.
Is murder not a crime if the victim is stupid ?
Attempting to deceive people to steal their right to vote is a crime, even if no one is deceived.
Even attempted murder is a serious crime.
Logic eludes you.
Maybe that is because such an enormous percent of left wing nuts are so stupid as to beleive that socialism works.
Those of you on the left should not be insulting anyone else’s intelligence.
Right now, Europe is coming apart.
The Socialism light of Europe has resulted in a standard of living more than 1/3 lower than the US.
Germany has a standard of Living equal to Mississipi – the lowest standard of living i the US.
European growth is prjected to be zero – if they are lucky. It has been more than a full percent lower than the US for more than 2 decades.
Europe is stagnant – probably dying. It is deindustrializing, while the US is reindustrializing.
In most of Europe incomes are lower than the US and cost of living is higher, and nothing hs improved for decades.
That is the BEST outcome we have seen from Socialism anywhere.
And that is what you stupidly wish to inflict o the US
Professor Turley, aren’t these latest “antics” of the democrats enough to get that party completely banned from running candidates in ANY ELECTION IN THE US??? Our nation, our constitutional republic, is fully entitled to take all necessary measures to protect its citizens from marxism & the evil actions of people who seem to want to bring back all the glories of the Confederacy!
If it were so, he would have stated it.
The political establishment manifests the soft bigotry of low expectations for the intelligence of the low information voter. The electorate has given them every reason to. Groucho Marx would have put it this way…..”I could never respect a constituency which would raise ME to high office!!”
The line is not attributed to Groucho Marx. However it appears to be a political variation of his famous club-membership joke: “I don’t want to belong to any club that will have me as a member.”
“The line is not attributed to Groucho Marx.”
Precisely. Reworded it reads…’might have put it this way.’ A political variation of his joke which I appropriated years ago. It held true then, holds true today. The electorate treads water in a political cesspool while political the establishment circles around them in high speed boats making waves.
””the political establishment”’
Trump openly deceives people when he promises them $5,000 for voting for Republicans.
It is brazen bribery.
Like Biden paying off $75,000+ student loans???
Trump has raised the real income of working americans by $5000 in the past two years.
That is what they got for voting for him in 2024.
Seems like Trump delivered.
3Q REAL GDP is out. It is not quite the 5.1% the atlanta Fed projected – but it is a respectable 3.8% annually – so far.
It is likely that REAL Gdp over 4 years of biden was negative – working families lost about 3500/year is real income.
Republicans have done a poor job of selling this economy – but the Data is VERY GOOD. People are better off than they were 2 years ago.
Adn the odds favor that continuing.
We were headed into Recession at the end of 2016 – that reversed with Trump’s election. Real Growth in Trumps first term was 9% – It would have been 12 but for Covid, that is very near total growth under 8 years of Obama. Trump is doing better in this term.
We were likely going into recession at the end of 2024. We did not probably because Trump was elected.
Teh US economy is doing well.
European economy sucks and has for 2 decades,
Canada’s economy sucks.
“Subramanyam insisted, while he would not run a decoy”
The Democrat initiative to undermine all traditional US political and cultural institutions by means of massive, unfettered immigration still has some distance to cover before the numbers of South Asians here reach the numbers of assimilated Irish with surnames like Sullivan. Otherwise the scumbag would be on that tactic in a heartbeat.
RCV is supposed to allow minor candidates to compete so you can vote for them and also vote for a major candidate 2nd. People voting for incumbents or major candidates aren’t going to mark any 2nd choices. The old same name trick (and it has been done before) is especially pernicious with the system that Alaska has.
ICE RUSES: FROM DECEPTION TO DEPORTATION
Min K. Kam*
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ICE RUSES: FROM DECEPTION TO DEPORTATION
In 2005, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency enacted a policy sanctioning its civil ICE agents to use strategic deception, known as “ruses,” to facilitate community immigration enforcement operations. This policy provided agents a means to overcome the limitation that civil immigration arrest warrants are administrative as opposed to judicial in nature, which effectively precluded agents from entering a target’s home without first obtaining consent. Since, civil ICE agents have deployed various ruses to lure targets outside of their homes or, more controversially, elicit consent to gain entry into their homes. Once inside, agents often conduct sweeping searches and execute “collateral arrests” of nontarget bystanders who are also suspected to be undocumented.
The Fourth Amendment has always tolerated some degree of law enforcement deception. But the existing body of law that delineates the constitutional limits of government deceit contemplates the use of ruses in only the criminal context, which assumes that criminal law enforcement officers are employing subterfuge only against purported criminals. Legal analysis of the use of deception in the civil immigration context is almost entirely lacking, largely because ICE ruse practices have escaped judicial scrutiny. This Note seeks to close this gap by examining both the legal and policy questions raised when a civil government agency uses deception against those who have committed a civil immigration infraction. It then proposes two limitations on the current policy that would address the constitutional concerns and better align it with the policy justification underlying the use of government deception.
Cops use ruses all the time (like telling you that you won a prize). Entering the US illegally is a crime (misdemeanor) that is rarely prosecuted as such, but it is still a crime.
Your legal analysis is crap.
You are making a due process argument where there are no rights implicated and therefore no due process requirements.
No one being deported is being deprived of their life, liberty or property.
They are being sent home, from the US where they have no right to be.
You are also completely upside down and backwards.
The protections of the 4th amendment are GREATEST – as are ALL rights in the criminal context.
Why ? Specifically because in the criminal context your life, liberty or property are threatened with government infringement.
You rant that ICE officers are lying to illegal immigrants – correctly noting that LEO’s can lie to people.
But Government lies to people all the time.
Those of you on the left tell us over and over that Trump is lying.
The lies Biden told were legion.
Regardless, you have no recourse against government (or anyone else) as a consequence of lying to you UNLESS that lie took from you something that is actually yours. Illegal aliens have no actual rights at risk. They have no recourse. Even ordinary citizens have no recourse regarding Government lies – unless those lies cost them something that was theirs by right.
You can not get into court claiming that someone decieved you – unless you have a credible claim that you were harmed – that a right of yours was violated. Real harm – not hurt feelings. Real; harm – not the loss of something that was never yours to begin with.
The criticism of Democratic Party tactics as if Republicans don’t do it, from a party whose only home is gerrymandering which still won’t save the House. Elias, BTW, is kicking Republican ass in lawsuits across the country, something Turley always fails to mention.
Yes gerrymandering, something that Republicans use but Dems don’t???? What a damn liar you are. In MA we had Republican governors win the office consecutive times while at the same time not one Republican won a congressional seat. How is that possible without the dreaded gerrymandering? In NE there isn’t ONE Republican in the House. How is that possible? Look at CA, look at IL, look at NY and look at what VA tried to do. Enigma I am so sick of Democrats lying about their own actions simply because the media lets you get away with it.
Only a partisan hack like you would defend this blatant attempt at chicanery in order to win a senate seat.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-rough-year-in-court-for-marc-elias/ar-AA1TdbBW
is kicking Republican ass in lawsuits across the country, something Turley… um, because the article is about Elias antics in Alaska perhaps?
Now backup the rest with proof. Just because you’re Black doesn’t make you credible.
EB – please name a blue state that was not massively gerrymandered BEFORE 2024 ?
For decades Red states have been less gerymandered than blue ones.
Things are closer to equal now.
“. . . try to confuse Alaskan voters [. . .] ‘No, I think it’s funny.’”
If you did that on a street corner with a $50 “Rolex,” you wouldn’t be laughing. You’d be in jail.
I fail to see the difference, morally or legally.
To those who keep trying to rationalize this fraud with the child’s response: “But Johnny does it, too.” Do you often pattern your behavior after what others do?
How is the Dan Sullivan lie any different than these lies? I promise to close Guantanamo on Day One by Executive Order. I promise to never use Presidential Signing Statements. I promise to never bomb a nation, unless it is an immediate threat to America’s national security. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Obamacare will bring down health care costs. I oppose gay marriage. Illegal immigrants must be deported, for national security purposes. We should have a Patriot Act that does not wiretap with abandon.
So what is the difference?
Anonymous,
I agree with you. I can’t see any difference either, between the Dan Sullivan lie and Obama’s lies.
Sullivan? Um, its not been proven to be a lie. So your attempt at sounding intelligent fails again. So there is a difference. Must suck being stupid huh?
You would know ANON(Must suck being stupid huh?)!!
Anonymous,
Thank you for not denying that Obama’s lies have been proven.
Proven beyond a reasonable doubt – as required for a criminal conviction – no.
Proven to be more likely a lie than the truth – absolutely.
Were is the Daniel J. Sullivan campaign ? Where are the debates, press interviews, campaign events ?
This idiot doesn’t know the difference between election hyperbole and putting a fake candidate on the ballot. Well idiot, what about “we will have Medicare for all”? What about “we will impeach Trump”. What about “we will lower costs”? What about “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”?
Using a same name candidate is so egregious and only a partisan hack like you would defend it.
“This idiot doesn’t know the difference between election hyperbole and putting a fake candidate on the ballot.”
That is why I write: “They manifest the soft bigotry of low expectations for the intelligence of the low information voter/” They do so because the question ‘HOW??” , after the ‘I will’ or ‘We will’, is never a follow-up. Neither by the electorate nor the Fourth Estate. If there is a reply, it usually begins with…”Once we get into office’…The devil take accountability, Therein lies the rub. At least AOC was clear recently as to what they would be doing on ‘Day One’. It had nothing to do with improving affordability. That’s not their priority. But least, she made that clear. The question remains as to how many heard her.
BREAKING NEWS:
Trump drops pants in Daytona, craps on stage, and flings poop at audience.
Melania files for divorce.
LAME as usual from Anon!!
7 year old Anon!! Poop jokes? Really?
The point is that a Trump rally is practically the same kind of spectacle as a simian slinging sh*t.
ANON is a simian slinging sh*t. Grow up!! 7 year old Anon loves poop jokes!
The point is ANON is juvenile!!
Another side effect of TDS turns you into a 7 year old like Anon?
I’m sorry ANON for saying a 7 year old; I meant 6 year old!!
“Poop jokes? Really?”
What more do you expect from a fudge-packing moron?
It’s the best he’ll ever be able to do.
Trump goes full GG Allin
A million times in 2024, Democrats said that they were “defending our democracy”. Now we know that “our” was meant as a negative prefix.
I remember when then Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill wrote a piece in Politico bragging about how she spent $millions to manipulate the Republican primary to get Republican voters to nominate the candidate she believed would be the easiest for her to defeat in the general election.
How I Helped Todd Akin Win — So I Could Beat Him Later – POLITICO Magazine
The ONLY thing “democracy” sorts for is the ability to win elections. That’s it. It does not sort for “good governance”; optimal policy; virtue; honesty; or anything else.
ONLY how to win.
Now, sometimes promoting what you sincerely believe is “optimal policy” will win. But when your policies are unpopular and your party brand is in the toilet, then you have to crawl down in the sewer and engage in sleazy tactics to win.
Prof. Turley is on thin ice referring to a “fake Dan Sullivan”. The implied individual has always been 100% real Dan Sullivan.
Time to review Reese Witherspoon’s Election movie which might’ve been the inspiration for the butterfly ballot and hanging chads.
The butterfly ballots and hanging chad were things democrats did to themselves.
Eric Croft, insisted that the sole consideration is whether it is a crime, not whether it is unethical: “And there is nothing, there’s no legal issue to it…”
All’s fair in love and war. And it is war, do not doubt it.
I agree. The more important question is this. Do the Dems think voters in Alaska are that stupid? If so what does that insult say about the Dem Party?
Stupid? Yes!
“I agree. The more important question is this. Do the Dems think voters in Alaska are that stupid?”
Of course they do. They think ALL voters are stupid, I have addressed that in comments elsewhere in this conversation.
“I reread all of Alaska’s statutes. I’m kind of a recovering attorney up here. And there is nothing, there’s no legal issue to it…”
I suspect there could easily be a legal issue to it. As we all saw in NY, perfectly legal actions taken during a federal election campaign, can lead to a conviction for multiple felonies. It would appear, that any minor criminal act, even misdemeanors related to bookkeeping (Alaska also has a law against the falsification of business record), when committed in connection with a federal election, assuming that these actions were a violation of federal campaign law, could become the predicate for felony charges.
It would be hard to believe that the fake Dan Sullivan did this without being compensated, or that the Peltola campaign didn’t pay the expenses of putting him on the ballot, or more likely, that Elias’s law firm didn’t pay the expenses (which would be another campaign finance violation), to set all of this into motion.
Or if any of themselves perjured themselves on a legal filing.
Yep, that’s where I’d look first.
“It would be hard to believe that the fake Dan Sullivan did this without being compensated…”
I have seen it mentioned in reports of this that he and his wife do a lot of traveling. Why do I suspect that they have been made recipients of a *lot* of discounts and vouchers that are extended at the discretion of airlines, hotel chains, travel agents (etc.) who are beholden to Elias & co, and are therefore fundamentally difficult (probably impossible) to introduce as courtroom evidence of “compensation”.
““It would be hard to believe that the fake Dan Sullivan did this without being compensated…”
Comments attributed to him suggest that he sees himself as a patriot, where his support of the candidiate is concerned.
campaign finance
Can’t wait for X to offer up a hundred words recited from AI as to why this isn’t illegal, why Republicans once did this in 1880, why Turley should write about something he want written about and why he is almost an attorney.
Of course our resident juvenile delinquent will follow my comment with his very own calling me old, drunk and any other personal invective that is irrelevant.
“calling me old, drunk and any other personal invective that is irrelevant.” But its true Robert Howard.
Total Wine!
Did you mean whine? Illiteracy is not a compelling element in a debate.
But you forget the sick and deranged comments you always attack everyone here with. Mass*hole huh?
Are you really from MA? Where?
Bridgewater State Hospital.
If the sum of the “Dan” votes wins the election, the true Dan is the candidate who should be declared the true winner by the Senate.
Mega dittos, I thought the simple solution to this issue is giving all Sullivan votes to the real candidate. Decoy Dan even admits he is not a serious candidate! And now he’s in hiding
I do believe the Democratic Party would embrace the Flat Earth Society if they thought it would help win an election. The faux Dan Sullivan entered for humor or whatever betrays their belief in the motto of famed football coach Vince Lombardi, who said, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” Once again, Republicans need to play catch-up on postmodern morality.
Another fake vote scheme in the news James O’Keefe. Illegal or unethical?
“Once again, Republicans need to play catch-up on postmodern morality.”
That road leads to no useful, productive, or constructive end. Far better would be to repudiate your “postmodern morality”, which is nothing more than nefarious deceit by another name. That might not produce positive electoral results, either, but it would at least identify some small moral oasis in the sea of immorality we are forced to navigate.
Here, here…they’re animals and the food bowl is a senate seat.
Let us again save time by cutting to the chase in the deceitful Democrat Alaska obfuscation gambit: the fingerprints of Marc Elias and his minions being all over the gambit, this tells you all you need to know. Democrats are sinister and evil. They should never again be allowed near — as in 52 factorial cubed parsecs — of governmental office or authority. Ever.