Posted on 12/23/2010 5:46:08 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Lisa Murkowski isn’t gunning down caribou on national TV like that other famous Alaskan, but the Republican lawmaker is going rogue in the Senate just weeks after staging the most stunning back-from-the-dead political win of the 2010 cycle.
Murkowski is already showing a fierce independent streak, becoming the only Republican to cast votes for all four items on President Barack Obama’s wish list: a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a tax cut compromise, the START treaty and cloture for the DREAM Act.
The lame duck votes capped a strange political odyssey for the Alaska Republican — one that started Aug. 31 when she conceded the GOP primary to tea party-backed Joe Miller, continued when she resigned her leadership job in September and ended when she waged Alaska’s first successful statewide write-in bid to retain her seat.
Now, she heads back to the Senate with a fresh six-year term without owing much to either her home state party establishment or her Washington leadership.
Murkowski’s willingness to defy Republican top brass after a bitter fight to keep her seat may mark a pivot point in her career as she emerges as a real maverick foil to Sarah Palin, the conservative idol who put Alaska politics on the national map. And while conservatives who helped oust Murkowski from the GOP ticket in Alaska may howl about her being a “Republican In Name Only,” Murkowski could enjoy a powerful perch as a much-sought-after moderate in an almost evenly divided Senate.
“She's a person who makes up her own mind, does what she thinks is right and always keeps the concerns of her state at the forefront,” moderate Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told POLITICO of Murkowski, adding that the Alaskan was an important ally in helping to overturn DADT.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
I remember that. She should have been stripped of her leadership. Will that happen in January?
| Senate Republican Voting Yea in Lame Duck Session | ||||
| Bill | S.510 FDA Food | DADT Repeal | START Treaty | HR3082 Budget |
| Alexander (R-TN) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
| Barrasso (R-WY) | Yea | |||
| Bennett (R-UT) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Brown (R-MA) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
| Bunning (R-KY) | Yea | |||
| Burr (R-NC) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Cochran (R-MS) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Collins (R-ME) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
| Corker (R-TN) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Ensign (R-NV) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Enzi (R-WY) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Grassley (R-IA) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Gregg (R-NH) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Hutchison (R-TX) | Yea | |||
| Isakson (R-GA) | Yea | |||
| Johanns (R-NE) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
| Kirk (R-IL) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
| Kyl (R-AZ) | Yea | |||
| LeMieux (R-FL) | Yea | |||
| Lugar (R-IN) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
| McConnell (R-KY) | Yea | |||
| Murkowski (R-AK) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
| Roberts (R-KS) | Yea | |||
| Sessions (R-AL) | Yea | |||
| Shelby (R-AL) | Yea | |||
| Snowe (R-ME) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
| Thune (R-SD) | Yea | |||
| Vitter (R-LA) | Yea | |||
| Voinovich (R-OH) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
| Not Voting | ||||
| Bond (R-MO) | Not voting | Not voting | Not voting | |
| Brownback (R-KS) | Not voting | Not voting | Not voting | |
| Bunning (R-KY) | Not voting | Not voting | ||
| Gregg (R-NH) | Not voting | Not voting | ||
| Hatch (R-UT) | Not voting | |||
Yep, Cornyn sent the top legal council for NRSC to AK to work with her "write-in" campaign. Cornyn is the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. But he is a RINO too.
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