Lisa Murkowski attacks Palin and Tea Party; calls Alaska her state

"Landep News"

Lisa Murkowski attacks Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, calling Alaska her state and bragging of the fact that she and her supporters were able to make their own decisions regarding who to send to the Senate. In a brief interview with Fox News’ Dan Springer at quarter to midnight Alaska time, Murkowski was clearly enthusiastic and in a celebrating mood. Looking energized, Murkowski saw fit to take some potshots at Palin and the organic movement of the Tea Party as a whole, casting them both as outsiders who really didn’t have any business in trespassing in her state and backing Joe Miller. While her comments smack a bit of Republican establishment elitism, from her standpoint, she does have reason to brag, or, at least, be very optimistic. She’s actually on the verge of being only the second individual to win a write-in campaign for the Senate.

At the time of this writing, Murkowski is leading Joe Miller 40% to 35% with approximately 73% of Alaska precincts reporting election data, so it would seem that she indeed has it in the bag. However, her haughty attitude of seeming entitlement to the US Senate seat is likely to turn off some conservatives and Republicans alike. Speaking to Dan Springer, Murkowski derogated the Tea Party as interlopers who essentially had no business coming into her state to campaign against her. She also took swipes at Palin for her support of Miller in the primary, dismissing her ability to lead the Tea Party across the country and emphasizing her importance over Palin in light of her imminent victory. In fact, Murkowski proudly declared herself to be the epitome of a strong, Alaskan woman by the end of the interview, another jab at Palin.

Though Murkowski cast herself as a patriot who merely wanted to continue serving the people of Alaska as their senator, this altruistic claim can be seen for the scam it is. Murkowski is simply disguising her real ulterior motive of running as a write-in candidate and against the GOP nominee in Miller: She likes the power and prestige of being a US senator. End of story.

The fact that she has done surprisingly well as a write-in candidate can also probably not be attributed directly to her or any of her own merits, but rather the trickle-down effect of loyalty that Alaska voters feel towards her father, Frank Murkowski. Frank Murkowski was a long-serving Alaska senator for 21 years and then its governor for four years thereafter. In fact, the only reason that Murkowski even landed in the US Senate to begin with was due to a nepotistic appointment from her then-governor father, one of the first things he did after becoming governor.

Besides Palin’s backing of Miller in the primary, Murkowski’s jabs against her date back to a much deeper animosity between the two gals. Back in 2006, Frank Murkowski lost to Palin in the GOP primary election, and since Palin’s endorsement of Miller in this year’s primary, the feud between these gals has just gotten a little bit stronger (as strong as it can get between women, natch). Before Murkowski’s remarks against Palin late yesterday, Palin condemned Murkowski for being an "out of touch liberal" at the end of October.

Appearing on Fox and Friends early this morning, Murkowski phoned in to talk to Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson, still seeming very uppity and quite excited. Putting to rest doubts once and for all about her loyalty, however, when she was asked if she would caucus with the Republicans if she truly did win, Murkowski replied with a resounding affirmative answer.

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