Posted on 11/16/2010 3:32:14 PM PST by Qbert
After ripping Sarah Palin, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski isn’t mincing words about another one of her high-profile GOP critics: South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint.
“I think some of the Republicans in the Congress feel pretty strongly that he and his actions potentially cost us the majority by encouraging candidates that ended up not being electable,” Murkowski told POLITICO outside her Senate office. “And I think Delaware is a pretty good example of that, and I think there’re some folks that feel that DeMint’s actions didn’t necessarily help the Republican majority.”
Murkowski suggested the South Carolina conservative and favorite of the tea party seemed more interested in bolstering his own political standing rather than that of the Republican Party.
“So the real question is, what’s his desire?” she said. “Does he want to help the Republican majority, or is he on his own agenda, his own initiative?”
Asked what she believed the answer was, Murkowksi said: “I think he’s out for his own initiative.”
With ballots still being counted in Alaska, Murkowksi’s assessment comes on the cusp of an improbable victory following her write-in campaign, which appears to have knocked off Republican Joe Miller, the tea party darling who defeated her in the party’s primary. After Miller won his primary, DeMint backed his candidacy – and sharply attacked Murkowski.
DeMint’s political action committee paid for a TV and radio campaign in Alaska that attacked Murkowski for maintaining an “extreme … pro-abortion” position, saying she backed using federal tax dollars to pay for abortion. DeMint stepped up his attacks against Murkowski, calling her “a party switcher” and saying that the Republican establishment had effectively protected her by not stripping her from her leadership spot on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Asked about his attacks on Murkowski, DeMint said it was all part of the campaign season and that he was ready to move on.
“That’s behind us,” DeMint told POLITICO. “If she wins, which it appears she will, I’m going to congratulate her and welcome her back. But I didn’t like the idea of a member losing the primary and then running against our nominee. But that’s all done now.”
On CNN last week, Murkowski said that DeMint had “some making up to do,” saying that she would “let him make that first move.”
Asked if he’d apologize for his attacks, DeMint said: “I think that’s what we do against opponents of nominees,” referring to the attack ads. “But that’s part of the battle, and she’ll come back and hopefully caucus with Republicans. And I look forward to working with her.”
A DeMint spokesman declined to weigh in further on Murkowski’s comments. The back-and-forth speaks to the lingering tension between the purist conservative wing of the Republican Party and the Washington establishment over whether the party’s vicious primary season ended any chance of the party to win Senate seats in Delaware, Nevada and Colorado.
Moreover, critics say by nominating tea party favorites in states like Kentucky, the party was forced to spend precious resources that they could have spent in other closely contested races – and now Democrats will maintain a 53-47 majority in the Senate.
DeMint, who saw his national profile grow by taking on GOP leaders’ preferred candidates, had mixed results this election season, seeing his primary endorsements win in states like Florida, but fall short in Delaware and Colorado.
As she’s returned to the Capitol this week, Murkowski began the process of soothing tensions with her party’s leadership.
Before lunching with her colleagues, she met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has assured her she would keep her ranking position on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, she told reporters. And she withheld her fire against the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which pumped big bucks into TV ads to help Miller and sent out fundraising solicitations to help Miller’s legal efforts in Alaska.
But she didn’t pull her punches about her long-time rival Palin, the former Alaska governor, who attacked Murkowski during the campaign.
Asked about Palin’s presidential prospects, Murkowski told CBS’ Katie Couric on Monday: “I just do not think that she has those leadership qualities, that intellectual curiosity that allows for building good and great policies.”
“DeMint told POLITICO. “If she wins, which it appears she will, I’m going to congratulate her and welcome her back.
-That would be a grievous error in judgment, Mr. Demint. You may want to rethink this one. She is not your friend. She is not a friend of conservatism. She will betray you, and conservatism.”
—I’m guessing he’s just trying to be polite under the circumstances (which of course is never requested of non-Conservatives). It’s one thing to say “welcome back”, and another thing to actually mean it.
I think in the end, DeMint should play his trump card: Murkowski and Castle were primaried because they didn’t want to repeal the massive 1/6 of-the-economy monstrosity, Obamacare. DeMint was merely standing up for what the public overlwhelmingly was demanding. He thus represented the people, and the Establishment represented the narrow interests of its own clique...
So, it’s the Establishment’s duty now to get on board and support DeMint...
The fact that they self-inflicted wounds proves her point.
Why are you addressing me? I didn’t write those comments.
I only wish there were some way for me to present Ms. Murky with a single digit salute.
Being polite to libtards is self defacating (urban slang.)One never craps in his own mess kit. Lisa is a libtard full of herself. She should switch parties immediately. Rather than welcoming her back, DeMint, and other like minded conservatives, should be encouraging her to do so.
This is no time to be polite. Our survival is at risk. Politeness, under the threats we now face, is self defacating. (Again, urban slang for crapping in your own mess kit.)
That's a given. And with the aiding and abetting of the Alaskan Division of Elections, in violation of Alaskan law, she still has a chance. So, I include her in my nightly prayers. I pray, in the final count, she loses.
God Bless America!
Liberal projection alert.
>>> Why are you addressing me? I didn’t write those comments.
When I comment on somebody’s thread I generally ping that original poster. I see it as a courtesy but if you’d rather I didn’t, I’ll try to recall that in the future.
I agree that a solid conservative could have won in Colorado and Nevada. Whether the runners up in those primaries qualified as such I don’t know, but certainly those states aren’t California, the Pacific Northwest, or the Northeast where conservatives probably can’t win.
O’Donnell was just too easy for the Left to demonize.
Maybe. My point is that I think a solid conservative can still win in Nevada and Colorado; it wasn’t the lack of a so-called moderate in those races that led to defeat.
I knew Angle was hopeless when she said she didn’t know if her illegal immigration ad featured latinos. Instead of owning up to it and defending the truth about illegal immigration, she wobbled and sounded like an idiot.
I absolutely loathe that ugly, chicken-necked woman.
It does no good to have a Republican majority if its populated with Quislings.
Love the new word.
Good to see you.
Excision: 1. Surgical removal, as in the excision of a tumor. 2. The removal as if by surgery,...
I would just like to say: Thanks a lot, Alaska. You had a perfectly good candidate and you gave us this sorry excuse for a human being instead.
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