Posted on 09/23/2010 7:36:50 PM PDT by listenhillary
Dear Friends:
You're not going to believe what happened yesterday. Just when I thought Republicans in Washington were beginning to get the message, they went back to business as usual.
As you know, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski lost the Republican primary to her conservative challenger, Joe Miller, in a fair fight. But instead of graciously conceding and endorsing the Republican nominee, Murkowski announced that she will continue her campaign as an independent write-in candidate.
Senate Republicans held a closed-door meeting yesterday afternoon to elect someone to replace Senator Murkowski as the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Or so we thought.
Rather than taking away Murkowski's leadership position on the committee, Senate Republicans decided to let her keep it. One senator after another stood up to argue in favor of protecting her place on the committee -- a position she will no doubt use in her campaign against Joe Miller, the conservative Republican nominee.
It was bad enough to watch my colleagues work to support her in the primary after she had built a record of betraying conservatives principles. But watching them back her after she left the party and launched a campaign against the Republican nominee was more than I could bear.
I spoke out against the motion and I voted against it. But the good ol' boys Senate club, which always protects its own, prevailed. The motion was adopted by secret ballot and the final tally was not disclosed.
Support Joe Miller for U.S. Senate
Keep in mind that I was attacked just last week by the Washington establishment for supporting Christine O'Donnell -- a conservative -- because they believe her nomination will hand the seat to a Democrat in Delaware. This week, however, that same establishment voted to help Lisa Murkowski -- a moderate -- defeat the Republican nominee, which could hand the seat to a Democrat in Alaska.
Marc Thiessen addressed this double standard in a column he wrote for the Washington Post on Tuesday, which you can read here. Here's an excerpt:
In that sense of entitlement, Murkowski is not alone. All last week, we heard the GOP establishment complain how the Tea Party is threatening Republican unity by pursuing "ideological purity" at the expense of a "big tent" party. But Tea Party-endorsed candidates are the ones who have stayed within the GOP tent. Rather than launching destructive third-party bids, fiscally conservative insurgents have contested GOP primaries -- and when they have lost, they have endorsed their establishment opponents virtually without fail.
Contrast that with the record of the establishment candidates. When it became clear Charlie Crist would lose to Marco Rubio in Florida's Senate race, Crist bolted the GOP and decided to run as an independent. When Arlen Specter saw he would lose to Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania's Senate race, he became a Democrat. And, after losing the GOP nomination in Alaska, Murkowski is running as an independent write-in candidate. And yet, we are told that it is the Tea Party that is dividing the GOP and threatening party unity. For establishment candidates, unity seems to be a one-way street. The message to Tea Party activists across the country is: We want your votes but not your candidates.
The idea that DeMint and the Tea Party are threatening the GOP's chances for reclaiming the majority is absurd. Republicans wouldn't have a shot at taking back either the House or Senate were it not for the Tea Party movement, which has both energized the conservative base and attracted independents to the GOP by promising to reform the party and restore fiscal sanity in Washington. The best way to dispirit the conservative base and lose those independents would be to take back the majority and go back to business as usual. (click here to read Thiessen's column)
Support Joe Miller for U.S. Senate
Yesterday's decision by Senate Republicans to hurt the conservative nominee in Alaska is certainly dispiriting, but it's also a healthy reminder that we must keep fighting to elect new Republicans who won't continue business as usual. If we're going to change Washington, we have to change the people we send to Washington. It's that simple.
Please join me today in supporting Joe Miller for U.S. Senate in Alaska. The Washington establishment is doing everything it can to help Lisa Murkowski hold on to power. The grassroots defeated her once in the primary election and we can do it again in November.
We've set a goal of raising $150,000 for Joe Miller's campaign. Please help us reach it and please give a little extra to the Senate Conservatives Fund while you're at it. Senator Murkowski said the "gloves are now off" when she announced her write-in campaign against Joe Miller. By giving to SCF, we will be able to run ads in Alaska that stops her campaign dead in its tracks.
Thank you for standing up for freedom. Washington may not be listening now but it will be in November.
Respectfully,
Jim DeMint United States Senator Chairman, Senate Conservatives Fund
This bitch is EXACTLY the kind of liberal elitist that we need to get rid of.
Then we need to all be writing to the various oil companies and telling them if they continue to stab us in the back (by pressuring senate republicans to keep Lisa in her position) then we will stop supporting them. Let them find out what it would be like to have the republcans across the country turn their backs when the congress goes after them for profits.
Meet the new RNC...
Same as the old RNC...
My disgust for them is second only to the EMOrats.
Maybe we could get Dick Cheney to take her on a hunting trip?
Names, we need names. Someone needs to leak the names of those who stood up and backed her (beside the obnoxious twins from Maine and probably McCain)
Just sent him $25 because I despise elitists like Murkowski.
Keep in mind that I was attacked just last week by the Washington establishment for supporting Christine O'Donnell -- a conservative -- because they believe her nomination will hand the seat to a Democrat in Delaware. This week, however, that same establishment voted to help Lisa Murkowski -- a moderate -- defeat the Republican nominee, which could hand the seat to a Democrat in Alaska
Preach it, brother!
RiNo’s like Castle, Crist & MurCOWski are showing their true colors.
http://kstk.org/modules/local_news/index.php?op=sideBlock&syndicated=true&ID=1407
Murkowski keeps energy committee post
Libby Casey, APRN
WASHINGTON, D.C (2010-09-22) Senator Lisa Murkowski prevailed in Washington today (Wednesday), hanging on to her job as the top Republican on the Energy Committee.
The Republican members of the Senate met behind closed doors to discuss Murkowski’s future.
Conservative Senator Jim DeMint was calling for her to lose her ranking slot on the energy committee. That job is a plum assignment for Murkowski, who gets to deal with oil and gas regulation, renewable resources, and a host of other energy issues.
She advanced the Sealaska lands-selection bill through the committee. The measure would complete the native corporation’s land claims. But it is controversial, attracting opposition from national environmental groups and some in Southeast Alaska.
Republican leaders have come down hard on her for launching a write-in campaign to keep her Senate seat. Joe Miller beat Murkowski in last month’s primary, and Washington Republicans have closed ranks around him.
Going into the meeting, some Republicans were speculating that Murkowski would be punished by losing the energy assignment. But when the conference emerged from today’s meeting, she still had her ranking status. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas:
“No action was taken on the energy committee issue. No action. And I think, you know, Lisa resigned from leadership.”
Murkowski stepped down last week from her post as Vice Chair of the Republican conference after pressure from minority leader Mitch McConnell and others. Hers was the most junior of the five leadership jobs in the Senate, and she was the only woman. She was replaced in that job today by Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming.
Hutchison says that’s punishment enough.
“That’s exactly what happened, and I think that’s the right result, and I think everyone agrees with that, and I think she on her own chose to step down from leadership, and that was the right thing for her to do, and we all accept that.”
If Murkowski had lost her job as ranking Republican on energy, at least some of her staff would’ve been immediately out of a job. As it is they’ll stay at work for now. Murkowski did not attend today’s meeting in the Capitol Building to plead her case – instead she’s in Alaska campaigning.
‘She’s our friend’: GOP reverses course, doesn’t demote Lisa Murkowski
You’re onto something. Keep in mind that retired and defeated DC politicians usually turn to influence peddling.
Remember in December.
I'd love to have the names of every one of the RINOs who voted in her favor. They all deserve primary challenges next time.
we still dont have the names of those who was in the closed meeting
Hatch
“She’s still a senator until the end of this year and, regardless, she’s our friend,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah after a Republican caucus met to vote on the issue.
I’m too angry to make an intelligent comment about this.
Kay Bailey Hutchison
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