Tea Party version of First Amendment: Alaska GOP candidate Joe Miller handcuffs editor FOUR UPDATES, WITH VIDEO

Joe Miller, yesterday: "If East Germany can do it, we can do it!"

We all know how tea partiers think of the First Amendment to the American Constitution that protects the press from government interference. Led by Sarah Palin, the baggers believe the reverse. To them, the First Amendment means that the government and candidates for government positions are protected from the press.

So it goes in Alaska. Joe Miller, the authoritarian nutjob running for Senate, is a Sarah Palin acolyte with a hatred for the press. But things got a little out of hand with Miller Sunday when security forces for the candidate handcuffed and detained a prominent Alaska editor for asking tough questions. Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger was detained after a town hall and turned over to local police who promptly let him go.

The good news is that the entire thing was videotaped by Hopinger.

Hopfinger was reportedly pressing Miller on whether the candidate had ever been reprimanded for politicking while working at the Fairbanks North Star Borough in 2008. Alaska Dispatch and other media have sued for the release of records related Miller's time at the borough. Various accounts of what happened next generally agree on this course of events:

• Two or three bodyguards told Hopfinger to stop asking questions and to leave the building.

• Hopfinger continued to ask questions while apparently videotaping the candidate.

• Bodyguards told him that if he persisted they would arrest him for trespassing, but refused to identify themselves to Hopfinger.

• Hopfinger asked why he was trespassing, as the event was at a public school. Seconds later, he was then put in arm-bar and later handcuffed and sequestered at one end of a hallway for at least 30 minutes. He was told, "You're under arrest." 

• Anchorage Police arrived on the scene shortly after.

The right is almost unanimous in its approval of Miller's actions. To them Hopfinger is a dirty fucking hippie who dares ask politicians the hard questions and persists when filibustered. That's the job of the press, to persevere in digging for answers when being given bullshit. In most cases, the media does not do its job. They are cowed by the right's loud and persistent claims of 'left-wing media' and refuse to engage GOP politicians in any meaningful discourse, giving the likes of Palin and Miller a virtual free ride. So, hats off to Hopfinger for doing his job.

Of course, Miller is blaming ignorance of Hopfinger's role as journalist, saying that the editor made 'threatening jestures and moverments'. On the other hand, Miller's opponent Linda Murkowski sees things differently.

This behavior is particularly disturbing, especially for someone who claims to be a ‘constitutional conservative’. Apparently Joe Miller has forgotten both the first and fourth amendments to the United States Constitution. Joe Miller should immediately issue an apology to the editor of the Alaska Dispatch, a legitimate member of the Alaska press corps, who he had handcuffed by a private security firm. We call on him to immediately disavow the actions of his private security guards for violating the constitutional rights of a United States citizen by illegally detaining him. I find it alarming that Joe feels he needs to hire security forces to protect him from Alaskan voters and members of the press.

UPDATE: Tony Hopfinger speaks:

"Getting handcuffed by somebody you don't know at a public school, no one had said it was a private event or cast it that way, I mean intimidated, yeah [I was]. But I guess I was more pissed off. Miller, I felt, was going to answer my question on the reprimand part," said Hopfinger.

"I think, just like in other parts of the country, the media is finding itself having a hard time doing its job in this political cycle because, whenever we ask questions, there are certain candidates out there who decry 'lamestream media' or whatever. Mr. Miller has had plenty of time to answer questions. He has been given plenty of opportunities. He somehow believes he shouldn't be questioned about his background and yet he wants a job in six years, to a post where there are only 100 in the entire country, and we are not supposed to ask questions about anything of his past. There is a little bit of shoot the messenger. It is happening up here, and other parts of the country. There are certain candidates who just want to turn this around and act like it's the media causing the problem. That has always been there, that element. It is just more ramped up this political cycle." 

UPDATE II: Memories of Joe the Plumber. Appears the security firm hired by Miller was not licensed.

UPDATE III: Newsy report with interview of Hopfinger.

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UPDATE IV: Kos provides more detailed info on the DropZone thugs. Check out their digs! Here's a pic from their front window.