October 26, 2010 - Joe Miller, the Tea Party candidate who knocked off Senator Lisa Murkowski in Alaska’s Republican primary, says that Border Security is the nation’s most pressing problem. "The first thing that has to be done is secure the border.” He said,. “East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow. Now, obviously, other things were involved. We have the capacity to, as a great nation, secure the border. If East Germany could do it, we could do it."  Alaska is a far cry from Mexican Border and he seems to have forgotten that the East German border fences, machinegun sprouting guard towers and barren mine fields were designed to keep people from escaping to freedom.  Not many were clamoring to get in to East Germany in order to find job but the would-be Senator thinks America should emulate East Germany.

Tea Party darling Christine O’Donnell, who deprived Mike Castle of the Republican nomination for Joe Biden’s Senate seat, dabbled this week in Constitutional Law arguing that the First Amendment does not call for the Separation of Church and State.  In a debate with her Democratic opponent she expressed incredulity with the proposition that the Constitution actually means what it says. 

Sharron Angle, the Tea Party favorite to replace Harry Reid in Nevada’s Senate seat, told a classroom full of Hispanic students at Rancho High School in Las Vegas that they “looked Asian.” She claimed that the three menacing looking men featured in her anti-immigration campaign ad weren’t Hispanics.  Then she told the high school students that border security was our number one problem and that our most porous border was with Canada because that is how the 9/11 terrorists got in.  Canada’s Ambassador was quick to correct her misstatement in a letter reminding her that none of the hijackers entered the United State from Canada. 

In Illinois Republican Mark Kirk last week released a campaign ad specifically accusing his Democratic opponent for President Obama’s former Senate seat of not paying his federal income taxes in 2009.  That comes on the heels of a great Republican hue and cry saying that Governor Quinn’s ad saying that Illinois deserves “a Governor who pays his taxes” was lying about Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bill Brady.  Alex Giannoulias, the Democratic nominee, like Republican Senator Brady, had business losses to offset his state paid salary and owed no Federal Income Tax.  

Rand Paul told Kentuckians that he wanted to abolish the IRS and the Federal Income Tax and replace it with a 23% national retail sales tax championed by the Texas based Americans for Fair Taxation and its affiliate FairTax Support Team.  Paul’s Primary election campaign manager, David Adams is a member of the affiliates governing board.  On Friday Paul backed off, blaming the Tuesday statement on an “overzealous aide”.  AP obtained e-mail from Paul’s current campaign manager to Adams which approved and authorized the statement that Adams released.  

Stephen Broden, the Republican Candidate in the heavily Democratic 30th District of Texas appeared at a Tea Party rally last year in Fort Worth and told the activists that the nation’s government has become tyrannical.  He said, “We have a constitutional remedy. And the Framers say if that don't work - revolution."

He repeated the sentiment in an interview with Brad Wilson, political reporter for WFAA-TV broadcast on Thursday.  Wilson asked whether he stood by his declaration of the right to revolt if the election doesn’t work that he made to the Tea Party last year.  Broden replied, "If the government is not producing the results or has become destructive to the ends of our liberties, we have a right to get rid of that government and to get rid of it by any means necessary… The option is on the table. I don't think that we should remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms.  However, it is not the first option.”

And that is the way it goes in Election 2010.