Posted on 09/24/2010 5:53:19 AM PDT by broken_arrow1
JUNEAU, Alaska – South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is scolding Republican colleagues for refusing to strip Sen. Lisa Murkowski's leadership position on the energy committee.
DeMint says in a fundraising appeal that seeing this result was more than he could bear. He views colleagues' decision as hurting Murkowski opponent Joe Miller and asks for help raising $150,000 through a political action committee he chairs.
DeMint says the money will allow for ads to be run in Alaska to help stop Murkowski's campaign "dead in its tracks." Murkowski announced last week that she'd mount a write-in campaign to try to keep her job.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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
Support the Joe Miller for U.S. Senate
I read that yesterday and for a sitting senator to come out swinging like that against his own collegues takes a lot of guts. Perhaps instead of making an action figure of his opponent (Alvin Greene) a toy company can make an action figure of Jim Demint. A real action hero!
Why not list the ones that supported her. Even if the ballot was secret, it should give some idea of targets.
Demint has integrity and McCowski is a greedy POS who needs to be shunned and fired from her duties.
Whomever allowed the cow to keep the position should be tarred and whipped.
Jim DeMint is fast becoming one of my favorite people....his honesty is refreshing!!
All right, it will be more strategic to do it November 3. I'll be patient.
Sounds like plan!
We need to know who the people are that let Murkowski continue to sit on her committee’s...I suspect RINO’s but it has to be more than that.
GO DEMINT! HOPE you are thinking of 2012...I am pretty sure you are...you seem to be one of the few GOP that GETS IT!
Once the Tea Party candidates win, how do we sweep out those establishment GOP Party wonks????????????
not the elected ones, the ones who hold cushy GOP Party jobs
seriously, who cares if she is chair of a committee for a few more months.
What REALLY matters is that she continues to vote on these fillibusters!!!!
LEAVE HER ALONE!
I think the time is ripe for a small government, fiscally conservative fiscally resposible party dedicated to personal liberty and following the original intent of our founding documents to arise. Americans are ready and eager for it and the GOP can go the way of the Whigs.
I read somewhere that it is rumored that she said she would vote with the Dems in a lameduck session if they stripped her of the chairmanship. FWIW
Demint’s the man. I’d say Palin/Demint, even though the loss of Demint in the Senate would hurt so much since he’s made for it.
This is another reason why I no longer donate to the Republican Party. The greed and corruption of Republicans is second only to the Democrats, IMO. They continue to demonstrate their unwillingness to respect the will of the people who elected them.
Jim DeMint must immediately name names so We The People know which Republicans (behind closed doors) lack spine, guts, and gonads. No spine, no guts, no gonads, no get elected and no get $$ and support!!!
Republicans with no spine, no guts, and no gonads Need Not Apply!
I don’t think they understand how pissed off we are. No wonder they are so dumbfounded when their hand picked candidate looses.
We need term limits.
Whomever let the whining Elitist Loser Murkowski stay in her Committee position must be exposed and voted out. RAT/RINO same ole same ole traitor.
Why not list the ones that supported her. Even if the ballot was secret, it should give some idea of targets.
That’s the problem in that they didn’t take a vote thus defaulted to the status quo thus all share the results imo.
I suspected that she may have threatened to caucus with the Democrats, even with yesterday's DISCLOSE Act that was avoided by a 59 vote Democrat majority with a couple of republican abstentions. RINO's are showing their true colors and how they are a piece of work. Buckley Rule in action!
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