I view it as my public duty to explain part of the paragraph penned by former Gov. Palin in her endorsement of Joe Miller for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat.

Said Sarah: "... (Miller) has fought alongside me and others to help clean up the Republican Party here in Alaska by bringing in new leadership, new ideas, and commitment to putting government back on the side of the people, not any political machine."

There is only one accurate translation of Gov. Palin’s reference to her comradeship with Joe Miller fighting alongside her and this is it: Our former governor refers to March 2008 when Miller awkwardly attempted an unsuccessful, banana republic-like coup at the Republican Party state convention in Anchorage.

Two years earlier, in an open and fair election, the Party chairman had been re-elected to a four-year term in Joe’s hometown of Fairbanks. Anyone familiar with political party process understands that the way to topple leadership is to use the rules and get your supporters to show up at the correct convention. Then, in an orderly and transparent manner, you outvote the incumbent and install your own people. It happens like that every day in civilized organizations and governments of all sizes across the globe.

While he had every opportunity and motivation to do so at the 2006 convention, Joe couldn’t figure this out. Earlier, he had grumbled to me about the Chairman but never bothered with the constructive work of recruiting a replacement. Joe wasn’t interested in the unpaid, time-consuming and thankless job himself – it was beneath him. So the Party Chairman ran unopposed and was appropriately re-elected to the position.

When the next convention rolled around in 2008, Joe ignored the inconvenient reality that electing a chairman was out of cycle and not on the agenda. Instead, the self-proclaimed lover of law and order and all things Constitutional conspired to enlist the usual malcontents and rabble rousers to disregard the process and overthrow the Chairman.

Joe’s plan was to change the previously approved and published agenda and call for a vote of no confidence in Randy Ruedrich – and then force him to resign. That would have resulted in the vice-chair, Cathy Giessel, becoming chair. Pandering to those whose militant hatred for Ruedrich is legend, Joe took the revolutionary route and led the charge with angry rhetoric and cat-calling. But his band of rebels never cited specific, actionable grounds for removal. This made most delegates uneasy so when they voted, the majority rejected chaos and stuck with the Chairman and the Rules.

Good leaders respect rules and work the system. Real leaders also have followers and can do basic math (read: count votes). What should be gleaned from Joe’s convention stunt is the fact that there weren’t many willing to follow his flaky lead nor could he count. It’s bad enough that a wannabe U.S. senator would display such contempt for organizational rules and process but laughable that he didn’t have the smarts to gauge his strength or numbers before disrupting the convention and making a complete fool of himself.

Toward the end of the convention when it was apparent his fireworks had fizzled, in what can only be described as paranoid and bizarre, a security detail - yes, pretend Secret Service suits with Aviator glasses and earpieces - showed up to flank and apparently protect the silly, self-important Joe from a bunch of mostly middle-age Republican delegates who had voted against him and were now genuinely embarrassed for him. The following Monday the sulking, delusional drama queen quit the Republican Party.

Coming up next: The drama queen shows up for an encore.