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 is the only part of the article I disagree with. I'm really starting to dig on Jim DeMint, but the conservative base and those who are attracted to the Tea Party are going to keep trying and keep driving.
We're fully awake, we are mad as hell, and we aren't going to let any damn establishment Republicans tell us how to vote. We're through with that.
They don't like it, they can go pound sand. Or we can pound them into electoral irrelevance. The choice is theirs. We're taking either our party back or our country back -- but preferably both at the same time.
I sincerely hope that all the conservative talk show host are all over this story tomorrow!
Has anyone ever seen Lisa Murkowski smile? Even a painfully pretend smile?
She doesn’t stand a prayer of winning as a write-in, so you have to wonder how mentally ill she has become. Someone may be telling her that it’s possible, but that someone is also in denial about losing his/her job.
If she gets 3% of the vote, I’ll be surprised.
|
Palin/Demint for 2012!
An unbeatable combination!
She's no different than Obama's illegal-immigrant Aunt Onyango in Massachusetts who said, "If I come as an immigrant you have an obligation to make me a citizen." Murkowski seems to believe that voters have an obligation to keep her in power, just because. Let's kick them both out.
His aunt has learned to play the victim quickly so she can get free government money.
If the GOP (misnomer) doesn't learn its lessons this time, I think it needs to be destroyed in 2012. One way to save it is for a conservative to get the nomination.
And the RNC wonder why nobody will give them money.
She probably threatened to vote with the lame duck dems.
It is time for Hatch and Hutchison to depart. This should go into the memory bank for use against them should they choose to run again — almost a sure thing for their highnesses.
Hutchison
Lugar
All the traitor repubs need strong primary opponents.
Here's DeMint's hit (reformatted for clarity):
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.
The RINOs are behaving just like we always thought they would. They're power mad politicians through and through. It never was about principles, that's why they're RINOs. They represent the statist Left, not the liberty loving Right.
Hi all,
Isn’t there anything we can do? These people are voting on OUR behalf, and we are responsible for voting for them! How can they have a “secret” ballot?
Can we do a Freedom of Information Act request (good job for Brightbart)? Something? Anything!
How can we know who to vote for and who NOT to vote for if they are able to have “secret” votes on issues we select them to represent us in?
How about this? Are their statements when they were “standing up” and defending murchowsqi (sp?) :-) a matter of public record? Can we at least get these statements out on youtube or something?
It is our job to select the people who represent us, and WE TAKE OUR JOBS SERIOUSLY!
-s
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.