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Well, this idea didn’t age well - about Murkowski and reaching out to her... [1]
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Date: 2025-07-03
Back on June 24, 2025, a Daily Kos article asked the question:
What would it take for this GOP senator to caucus with Democrats?
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is somewhat open to caucusing with Democrats—under the right conditions. In a newly released clip of a forthcoming interview with the podcast GD Politics, Murkowski said there’s a “possibility” she could become an independent and align with Democrats if they flip the Senate in 2026. “There may be that possibility,” she said. “There is some openness to exploring something different than the status quo.” Still, she made clear it wouldn’t be a wholesale shift. Murkowski said she’d make the move only if it served Alaskans and didn’t require her to fully embrace the Democratic platform. “As challenged as I think we may be on the Republican side, I don’t see the Democrats being much better,” she added. “I have to figure out how I can be most effective for the people that I serve.”
emphasis added
What turns out to be “most effective for the people that I serve” turns out to be using GOP desperation for votes in the Senate to extort as many carve outs for Alaskans as she could.
..Shortly before the final vote, Senate leaders were still trying to secure more funding for Alaska’s rural hospitals – after already doubling a fund they’d added for rural hospitals, from $25 billion to $50 billion, to be disbursed over five years. Staffers were still writing in the margins of the bill, trying to find a way to make the rural hospital fund more appealing to Murkowski, two sources familiar with the matter said. Collins also lobbied to beef up the rural hospital fund, but it was not enough to win her vote. ...In addition to the fight on Medicaid, Murkowski won a huge victory on a provision that delays the requirement that states with high payment error rates start contributing to the cost of food stamp benefits. The original measure would make states with error rates of 6% or higher pick up between 5% and 15% of the tab. But the states with the largest error rates would get another year or two to implement the provision, said Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Currently, 10 states, including Alaska, have error rates that would qualify for the delay. Murkowski also won a change in the expansion of the work requirement for food stamps. Alaska, as well as Hawaii, got two other carveouts: One would allow these states to waive all work requirements based on high unemployment rates. For other states, the package limits such waivers. The other carveout would allow either state to request a temporary waiver for residents from the work requirement if the US Agriculture secretary determines the state is making a “good faith” effort to implement the mandate. She also secured an increase in a special tax deduction for whaling boat captains.
Cue the crocodile tears:
..But Murkowski touted changes she secured to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that would allow for “greater flexibility” for Alaska and extra support for rural hospitals “that is going to be very key.” Senate Republicans also removed a controversial tax on solar and wind energy projects — a change Murkowski had pushed for. She also said she wanted to see President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts extended. “I had to look on balance, because the people in my state are the ones that I put first,” Murkowski said. “We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” Murkowski said she’s urged both the White House and top Hill Republicans to send the bill to conference rather than ramming it back through the House this week, and slammed the “artificial” timeline Trump and GOP leaders had set of speeding the bill to his desk by July 4. “I’ve urged the White House that I think that more process is needed to this bill, because I would like to see a better outcome for people in this country,” she said.
If she truly wanted to see a better outcome for the people in this country, all she had to do was vote no. She covered her own ass, and she knows it. When NBC News' Ryan Nobles asked her why she voted yes, she gave him what’s being called “the death stare”.
The network’s chief Capitol Hill correspondent was on the receiving end of what’s been described as a prolonged death stare from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). He recounted the confrontation in a viral social media post with the clip. “Sen. Lisa Murkowski stares me down for more than 10 secs after I ask her to respond to Sen. Rand Paul’s critique of the deal she struck to get her to a YES and pass the OBBB,” Nobles wrote.
The video can be seen here on X.
The Daily Kos story on whether or not it would be possible to get Murkowski to caucus with the Democrats in the Senate concluded with this:
If Democrats want to bring Murkowski into the fold, they’ll need more than wishful thinking. It’ll take Senate gains—and a party flexible enough to accommodate a center-right maverick.
Like Susan Collins, you can always count on her to NOT be there when you really need her. She would be constantly undermining the Democratic Party, and sell us out every time it looked to be to her advantage. She’s shown us who she is.
Instead of seeking Senate gains that would still depend on opportunists like Murkowski to “do the right thing”, it would be far better for Democrats to stop wasting resources and concessions on people who will sell them out at the first opportunity. There is no one left in the Republican Party with any integrity, or they would not be Republicans. Trying to reach out to them and their base is futile — they’re living in a different reality. It would make far more sense to engage with people who are looking for something that will give them a real reason to show up and vote — which is what Zohran Mamdani appears to have done.
And as for those like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who would endorse disgraced sexual predator Andrew Cuomo over Zohran Mamdani while repeating GOP talking points, words fail me. WTF?
More Democrats, better Democrats.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/3/2331294/-Well-this-idea-didn-t-age-well-about-Murkowski-and-reaching-out-to-her?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
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