While 2010 is shaping up as the year of the conviction politician, the election is also throwing up candidates running on little more than their personal sense of entitlement. On that score, Lisa Murkowski is giving Florida’s Charlie Crist a run for his money.

On Friday, Ms. Murkowski let it be known that she would conduct a write-in campaign for the Alaskan Senate seat against Joe Miller, the tea party favorite who toppled her fair and square in the Republican primary last month. Senate incumbents are always hard to beat, especially in a state like Alaska that has long rewarded seniority, and we assume voters understood the choice.

Though Ms. Murkowski heavily outspent the West Point grad, decorated veteran and federal magistrate, she said over the weekend on CNN that Mr. Miller had only prevailed because of “lies and fabrications and mischaracterization.” She then denounced the “pretty radical things” that the Republican nominee supposedly supports, including “You know, we dump Social Security. No more Medicare. Let’s get rid of the Department of Education. Elimination of all earmarks. You know, he is—he has taken an approach that is just, plain and simple, more radical than where the people of the state of Alaska are.”

If Ms. Murkowski isn’t taking orders from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, it’s hard to tell. The only result of this destructive and false message will be to cut the Republican odds of taking the Senate in November. The best Ms. Murkowski can personally hope for is splitting the GOP vote and throwing the election to Democrat Scott McAdams, the mayor of Sitka.

Ms. Murkowski is current poster child for the out of touch entitlement mentality of the Ruling Class. She is a self-absorbed, self-entitled, petulant politician who cannot accept loss gracefully. Alaska Republicans chose Joe Miller to be their candidate for United States Senate, but rather than except loss graciously Ms. Murkowski  has chosen to thumb her nose at her constituents and the Party by conducting a long shot write-in campaign in and effort to retain “her” seat in the Senate.

The problem is it isn’t her seat, it belongs to the people of Alaska and they opted not nominate her for another term. I don’t know enough about Alaska politics to know how her decision will play with voters there. I suspect at most she’ll split the the Republican vote and ensure that Democrat Scott McAdams becomes the next Senator from Alaska… But maybe that’s her goal — a little revenge on the voters who fired her.

Update: Looks like Ms. Murkowski’s self-serving write-in campaign isn’t playing well with Alaska voters:

Republican Joe Miller attracts 42% of the vote in the first Rasmussen Reports poll of the Alaska Senate race since GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski announced her write-in campaign to try to keep her job.

The telephone survey of Likely Voters in Alaska shows Murkowski picking up 27% of the vote and Democrat Scott McAdams earning 25%. One percent (1%) say they’d prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

I think it’s safe to say voters are more sick and tired of these self-absorbed, self-entitled, career politicians than anyone realizes…. I’m loath to say this out loud, but I suspect Mr. miller will win by an even larger than the polls predict simply because voters are fed up with this kind of garbage and want to send a message that can’t be easily misinterpreted or misunderstood.

Related

• Murkowski likely to be stripped of committee – CNN Political Tracker

Wow, this is a bit of a shocker… The only question is where does she go from here? I tend to agree with Jim Geraghty, her national political career is over. You can’t resign from a governorship you’ve held for roughly 30 months and then run for President.

Update: The Wall Street Journal has the full text of her remarks here.

Update II (5:45 p.m.): MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell claims sources close to Gov. Palin have told her that Palin’s “had it” with national politics and told her top backers to go ahead and commit to other candidates for 2012. Real Clear Politics has the video here.

Given the source I’m taking that report with a grain of salt… To be honest, though, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Mitchell’s report turns out to true. Sarah Palin has been beaten senseless by the media and her family has been dragged through the mud. Why would any sane person want to subject herself and her family to the kind treatment Palin has endured?

Update III (9:35 p.m.): I’ve been without power for the last three hours so I’m playing catch up here… First, Mike Allen at the Politico is reporting that Palin plans to remain “extremely visible and will give serious consideration to running for president in 2012.”

Second, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air points out an interview Palin did with John Ziegler last month and wonders if Gov. Palin hinted at quitting last month?

I’m not sure what to make of Gov. Palin’s decision, my gut feeling is she’s done with elective politics. I suspect she’ll remain an active and visible champion for conservative principle through speaking engagements and by campaigning for other candidates but I doubt she’ll ever run for office again.

JUNEAU, Alaska, May 28 (UPI) — The ethics complaints filed against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are running a tab of nearly “a third of a million dollars,” the state’s personnel board said.

“We’ve spent pretty close to about a third of a million dollars, and it’s getting to be really expensive,” Alaska Personnel Board member Al Tamagni told the Anchorage Daily News.

The board, during its meeting Wednesday, was trying to see whether they publicize the cost of addressing the complaints without violating confidentiality rules, the newspaper reported Thursday.

The panel also dismissed a complaint against Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, and her political action committee.

To date the Alaska Personnel Board has review and dismissed as meritless 13 ethics complaints against Gov. Palin. The money quote comes from Anchorage activist Andree McLeod who has filed several ethics complaints against Palin and her staff:

“The whole way to mitigate all this is for Palin to behave ethically,” said McLeod, who filed the complaint dismissed by the board Wednesday.

If there was long history of proven ethics violations by Gov. Palin and her staff I’d agree with Ms. McLeod… But there isn’t. At this point the simplest way for the State of Alaska to mitigate this is for it to start charging people who repeatedly file frivolous ethics complaints intended to harass the Governor and her staff for the costs associated with investigating them.

Damage to the Wasilla Bible Church was estimated at $1 million, authorities said Saturday. No one was injured in the fire, which was set Friday night while a handful of people, including two children, were inside, according to Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele.

He said the blaze was being investigated as an arson but didn’t know of any recent threats to the church. Authorities didn’t know whether Palin’s connection to the church was relevant to the fire, Steele said.

“It’s hard to say at this point. Everything is just speculation,” he said. “We have no information on intent or motive.”

It’s to early to know what the motivation of the person who set this fire was, hopefully it was just  an act random inhumanity rather than politically motivated. Churches and other places of worship are, unfortunately attacked by nutcases all to often in this country.

That said I can’t help but think this is where the vitriolic atmosphere of American politics will ultimately take us. Somehow we have come to a place where policy differences become tied to a kind of visceral hatred which invites the unhinged to take violent actions against those they disagree with. If we cannot disagree without demonizing each other, the very foundations of our democracy and our society as a whole are in jeopardy.

Ed Morrissey has more @ Hot Air.

Alaska Senator Ted Steven has lost his re-election bid… Steven’s was defeated by Democrat Mark Begich after being convicted on corruption charges in October.

Hey Ted, thanks for the memories

Now just go… and good riddance.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has been found guilty of lying about receiving gifts. Stevens, 84 years old, was charged with lying on financial documents to conceal $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts he received from oil services contractor VECO Corp. Stevens has steadfastly maintained his innocence and had hoped to obtain a jury verdict before Election Day. The 40-year Senate veteran is facing a tough re-election challenge from Democrat Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage.

Republicans should have pressured Steven to resign months ago… They didn’t and now a seat that we can’t afford to lose is sure to go to the democrats.

All I can say is: it’s about time!

More here, here and here.