Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski So Mad That Senator Mark Begich Won't Stop Telling People They Hang Out

We had utterly and completely forgotten the fact that one of Alaska's Senate seats is up for grabs this year. Hell, even the RNC couldn't be arsed to throw much money at any attack ads against sitting Democratic senator Mark Begich. However, the race is apparently actually A Thing, with another Democrat mounting a primary challenge against Begich and everything.

So, since Mark Begich lives in Alaska, in order to win he's put together an ad that explains how very much he's just like the senior senator from Alaska, Republican Lisa Murkowski, and how they both like all the same things like Orange Julius smoothies, the R&B stylings of Keith Sweat, and voting together 80% of the time. Except that Lisa Murkowski does not want the world to know how much she and Mark hang out, probably because all her cool Republican friends will shun her in the Senate lunchroom if they find out.

Murkowski's lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter Thursday to Begich, demanding the ad be taken down. The ad, called "Great Team," shows an image of Begich and Murkowski smiling side by side, and the narrator says that the two vote together "as much as 80 percent of the time."

To be fair, though the voiceover talks about the 80% figure, the ad actually has text that shows that the 80% figure is only from a six-month span earlier this year, so Mark Begich isn't totally lying about how he and Lisa have totally decided they're both going to go to Alaska Bible College in the fall and room together.

"This advertisement is factually incorrect," Murkowski's lawyers wrote in the letter. "It also misuses Senator Murkowski's image, and implies her support, without her permission -- and, in fact, over her known objections."

We'd probably beef about someone using that photo of us too, because Murkowski looks for all the world like she is going to start blinking in code to indicate she's been captured, while Mark Begich grins on like a Wayne's World -era Mike Myers. But too bad, so sad, says Bergich, because it's an AP photo and fair use and she shouldn't have hung around so much and copied his math homework if she didn't want people to know they were friends.

Both the GOP and Democratic primaries are August 19. We're assuming, without any research whatsoever, that Begich will sail through for the Dem nod, but it looks like the GOP challenger slot is up for grabs. The possibility exists, however, that it may be our favorite scruffy bearded dude with anger management issues, Joe Miller. If that's the case, we will be ALL about this race from now on.

[ TPM ]