“Only Out For Herself”
So, writes our regular reader V the K, as Lisa Murkowski gives Democrats a bit of good news, “urging people to come out tonight for what’s being called a ‘campaign kick off,’” as she launches a write-in bid in vain attempt to keep her Senate seat despite losing the Republican primary last month to Joe Miller.
Even with her entering the race, Miller still leads:
Murkowski’s decision will set up a 3-way battle between the incumbent, Miller and Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams (D), potentially turning the race on its head. Private 3-way polling has shown Miller leading, but by a narrow margin.
Why is it that certain politicians just can’t admit defeat, as if their seat is their sinecure. She claims she’s doing this because of the concerns of her constituents:
“Believe you me, the easier path would be to pack it all up and go do something different,” she said. “If I had not heard this call from Alaskans, I would not be deliberating as I am.”
Um, Lisa didn’t you hear that call of Alaskans in last month’s primary? They preferred Miller.
This seat doesn’t belong to you. It’s not yours by right, as perhaps you assumed when your father appointed you to serve.
What is it, I wonder, asking again and again and yet again, that gives a politician such a sense of entitlement?
UPDATE: R.S. McCain finds Murkowski’s counterpart on the silver screen and offers:
“Professional Republicans” whose partisanship is a function of career interest. Perhaps they’ve been in the game so long they can no longer distinguish between political principle and personal ambition, but they certainly never let the former get in the way of the latter.
Exactly.
UP-UPDATE: The downside for Republicans:
The primary effect of Murkowski’s temper tantrum will be to force Republicans to spend more resources in Alaska than would otherwise be necessary, and effectively end any chance she may have had for a political future.
Upside is that it’ll give establishment Republicans a test to see where their loyalties lie, with their colleague or with the voters of the Last Frontier. Methinks that most, having seen what’s going on across the country will make a show of their support of Miller. Guess, Lisa so loved her little Senate sinecure that she has blinded herself to the trends shaping the nation’s political landscape this year.
She is, as one pundit put it, “wrong side of history.”
UP-UP-UPDATE: She looks, Allahpundit writes, “astoundingly tone-deaf“:
The big narrative this week has been tea-party upstarts slaying the entrenched establishment dragons. And now Lisa Murkowski’s going to cap that off with a big rally dedicated to … keeping the dragons entrenched? How tin-eared do you have to be to make Mike Castle look good to grassroots conservatives by comparison?
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Lisa Murkowski is proving herself to be Charlie Crist with a wig.
Senate Minority Leader McConnell better be true to his word to strip her of caucus assignments.
Comment by Sebastian Shaw — September 17, 2010 @ 6:33 pm - September 17, 2010
Notice also that all these self-entitled sore losers….Murkowsky, Castle, Crist….are all the very kind of Republicans who are moderate on social issues
Comment by American Elephant — September 17, 2010 @ 6:39 pm - September 17, 2010
AE, has Clint Didier endorsed Dino Rossi in your state’s Senate race?
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — September 17, 2010 @ 6:42 pm - September 17, 2010
No, but hes not running as an independent or running a write in campaign either.
HUGE difference.
Comment by American Elephant — September 17, 2010 @ 6:46 pm - September 17, 2010
So, he’s the same as Csstle, the exact same.
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — September 17, 2010 @ 6:48 pm - September 17, 2010
Fair point. But not the same as Murkowsky and Crist.
So I guess not all moderates are unprincipled, self-serving, back stabbers…but it sure does seem that all the people who stab the party in the back are the same social moderates who ALSO tend to be the fiscal moderates as well.
Just funny how it always seems to work out that way. And worth noting.
Comment by American Elephant — September 17, 2010 @ 6:55 pm - September 17, 2010
So, you need to get Clint Didier to show some class and endorse Rossi. Else, he’s little more than a sulky crybaby who should have no future in Washington State politics, particularly is Ms. Murray wins by a hair.
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — September 17, 2010 @ 6:59 pm - September 17, 2010
Surely Alaska will elect Miller… no one can claim that he’s not qualified (whatever that means given what you see in DC now). Judge, Yale, West Point, Bronze Star, Kansas(!) native.
A dream candidate if there ever was one.
Murkowski is just another example of the attitude that gave birth to the Tea Party movement.
[Exactly, exactly. ---Dan.
]
Comment by SoCalRobert — September 17, 2010 @ 7:10 pm - September 17, 2010
You guys have nailed this. Specter, Crist, Castle, Murkowski, losers the fair way. Can’t accept it, now have to play the spoilers. “naaa I won’t recognize the person who beat me fair and square.” Like Democrats they assume the only way they could have lost was if something was amiss. Remember conservatives how the establishment pols treat you.
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — September 17, 2010 @ 7:17 pm - September 17, 2010
yeah, not even REMOTELY the same thing as running against the party nominee Dan, but if you insist on beating a dead horse, its your dead horse to beat!
And now that you remind me, I believe Diddier has actually said he WOULD endorse Rossi, but would like to meet with Rossi first, but Rossi doesn’t see fit to meet with him.
Not how I would prefer he behave, but to compare that to running against the party is risible.
And actually, he will have a great case for a future in WA politics, because polls also showed him — with far less name recognition — beating Patty Murray as well. There will be a VERY strong case that we should not have chosen the person that has come close, but lost twice (and yes the first election was stolen from him, but he lost the second by an even bigger margin) and instead chosen someone new who was beating Murray in polls even when very few people knew who he was.
Comment by American Elephant — September 17, 2010 @ 7:18 pm - September 17, 2010
Yes, I forgot about Specter, didn’t I. Another moderate. And Jumpin’ Jim Jeffords! Another social moderate.
Always the moderates. The same ones who stab the party in the back fiscally as well!
Comment by American Elephant — September 17, 2010 @ 7:20 pm - September 17, 2010
I will correct myself before someone else does– Tom Tancrazy is apparently running as a potential spoiler in the Colorado Gubernatorial election, Pat Buchanan has run as a whacko third party, and whatshisface, the crazy black guy who sounds like Kermit the Frog has run on like 37 different party tickets
But none of those were serious challenges, and none of them were by people who had just been defeated in the party primary.
Comment by American Elephant — September 17, 2010 @ 7:34 pm - September 17, 2010
Fred Barnes turned up on the 6 pm Fox News and made an offhand plea for Castle to run as an independent in Delaware.
Meanwhile, Rove was slightly more contrite on Cavuto this afternoon. Now he is on O’Reilly backpedalling like a reformed pick pocket.
The Republican “establishment” has it’s trunk in a knot. Pity that.
Meanwhile, Murkowski is over-thinking her prominence as a spoiler.
Comment by Heliotrope — September 17, 2010 @ 8:10 pm - September 17, 2010
it sure does seem that all the people who stab the party in the back are the same social moderates who ALSO tend to be the fiscal moderates as well.
You noticed that, too, did you?
Translation: “I have no real skills, much less any skills that would afford me the massive privileges and perks of this senator gig.”
Comment by V the K — September 17, 2010 @ 8:30 pm - September 17, 2010
Isn’t it for the public to determine whether or not she is their servant?
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — September 17, 2010 @ 8:34 pm - September 17, 2010
AE, if it’s true that Rossi wouldn’t meet with him, that’s definitely a mark against Rossi, but Didier shouldn’t make his endorsement dependent on a meeting.
I’m just saying there are some Tea Party sore losers out there, just like there are some establishment sore losers.
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — September 17, 2010 @ 8:37 pm - September 17, 2010
Yes, and it bears FREQUENT repetition!
Comment by American Elephant — September 17, 2010 @ 9:00 pm - September 17, 2010
The thing with moderates like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, John McCain, Mark Kirk, Lindsey Graham, and Mike Castle… guess what… they’re still going to sell us out to Democrats every chance they get. And the really infuriating part is that Republicans will never, ever get anything in return.
The compromise of moderate Republicans always favors more spending and bigger government. It’s always “Well, yeah, the Democrats spent &800 Billion, but without us, it would have been a Trillion.” Just once, I’d like to see the liberals beaten and going back to their constituency saying, “Well, yeah, the Republicans cut $800 Billion, but without us, they would have cut a Trillion.”
Comment by V the K — September 17, 2010 @ 9:53 pm - September 17, 2010
9/17/2010
HT: The Shark Tank http://shark-tank.net/2010/09/17/rubio-summarily-smacks-down-opportunist-crist-in-debate/
Comment by ThatGayConservative — September 17, 2010 @ 10:32 pm - September 17, 2010
hmmm….last I checked, America isn’t a 2 party country; candidates are allowed to run under any party banner they please. Murkowski has every right to run as an independent. (maybe Perot is still sticking in your claw)
Comment by Kevin — September 17, 2010 @ 11:27 pm - September 17, 2010
Oh, Murky has every right to run.
And we have every right to mock her mercilessly for doing it.
Because she’s not really “independent”. Obama promised her money to make a fool out of herself, and she’s dumb enough to do it.
The Mocha Machiavelli thinks he’s fooling people. Unfortunately, what he’s never figured out is that the vast majority of the world are not racist liberals who will tell him that his every move is brilliant.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — September 17, 2010 @ 11:48 pm - September 17, 2010
Translation: I am too frakkin important to be rejected by the people. And if I can’t have my family’s Senate seat, no Republican can.
Someone needs to remember to take her meds.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — September 18, 2010 @ 4:31 am - September 18, 2010
did ppl forget that the alaskan pollsters are notorious for being wrong, not 1-2 point wrong, but 20-30 point wrong
Comment by 4rc — September 18, 2010 @ 7:15 am - September 18, 2010
I’m not sure why Castle is being bashed, when he isn’t running and O’Donnell was practically nasty to him. She did push the idea of him being gay and having affairs with men on the side when it was a total lie. Do you think you could then turn around endorse that person? It takes some time to heal the wounds.
If she has a shot to win, she is going to take it. It has nothing to do with her being a moderate or any of the other candidates being moderates, they all believe they could win. The only reason its a pattern is because moderates believe they can appeal to the wide middle of the electorate outside of the primary. They believe in their appeal to those swing voters….problem is, it takes more than swing voters to win an election.
Comment by darkeyedresolve — September 18, 2010 @ 9:05 am - September 18, 2010
Disagree… It’s obviously a trap: an effort to get Rossi to sign on to some pet issue that has 0% chance of flying in Washington, then make a huge media stink when he doesn’t play ball.
Comment by DoDoGuRu — September 18, 2010 @ 9:47 am - September 18, 2010
DER, that’s why people are fed up with moderates; because moderates regard the base as people to be merely pandered to. The base is sick and tired of being pandered to.
That said, I’m not thrilled with O’Donnell. You would think in all of Delaware, they could have found a viable conservative who wasn’t carrying more baggage than Aretha Franklin’s tour bus.
Comment by V the K — September 18, 2010 @ 11:08 am - September 18, 2010
I wonder if this entitlement attitude to a particular Congressional seat didn’t have its grassroots in Al Gore’s lawsuit to win the presidency. The media breathlessly cheered him on, and these are Washington elites who saw the praise. They don’t want to fade away into obscurity due to their primary losses. They still want the spotlight–and Al Gore showed them how to get it.
Comment by Louise B — September 18, 2010 @ 12:17 pm - September 18, 2010
I have generally believed the Party should be a Big Tent. Isn´t that what the moderates and liberals always toot? But they only sing that song when one of their own is the candidate and they want conservatives to unite behing the candidate. However, when the shoe is on the other foot they forget the lyrics. Lisa Murkowski and Mike Castle are going to do their damndest to elect the Democrat. As AE said #6 that it seems to be the moderates who stab the Party in the back. Let´s not forget Christie Todd Whitman who submarined Brent Schundler´s campaign with ¨He´s too conservative for New Jersey.¨ Further back, Senator Scranton from PA and Nelson Rockefeller, walked out of the the convention that nominated Barry Goldwater. That sent one helluva message of support for the nominee. From now on, I will insist on a litmus test and support a purge of the liberals from the Party. The Republican Party is my party too isn´t gonna get with me anymore.
Comment by Roberto — September 18, 2010 @ 12:35 pm - September 18, 2010
The Republican party is as big a tent as it ever was. In fact, the very claim that the GOP is no longer a big tent proves my point.
No one is saying moderates arent welcome to stay in the party, no one is asking moderates to leave the party, the only thing anyone has done is say that its time to put Conservatives IN CHARGE of the party since moderates screwed up so badly.
The problem is, as Murkycowteats and others are showing, these moderates only want to be in the GOP if they get to RUN it. If they cant be in charge, then they’re gonna take all their marbles and go home.
Compromise is great as long as its someone else compromising with them.
Show us you really value a big tent and compromise, moderates, stay in the party and compromise YOUR position for once.
Comment by American Elephant — September 18, 2010 @ 2:04 pm - September 18, 2010
When will she marry Charlie Crist? He may need the wig since the beard isn’t working so well. They’re soul mates. They both love their own reflection.
Comment by Sebastian Shaw — September 18, 2010 @ 6:19 pm - September 18, 2010
[...] “Only Out For Herself” – Gay Patriot [...]
Pingback by Saturday Afternoon – Badger Football Watching – Laundry Time , An Ol' Broad's Ramblings — September 18, 2010 @ 6:20 pm - September 18, 2010
Murky Reaches out to her base:
Comment by V the K — September 18, 2010 @ 8:15 pm - September 18, 2010
and don’t bash running under another party….worked for Joe Lieberman.
Comment by Kevin — September 20, 2010 @ 12:00 am - September 20, 2010
poor Kevin…
Sen. Lieberman ran as ‘no’ party. Always funny when you and reality don’t get along.
Comment by The_Livewire — September 20, 2010 @ 7:03 am - September 20, 2010