I realize that Limbaugh's faux-pology is what's driving the headlines and rightfully so. I won't pretend I'm not enjoying seeing him live the consequences of his actions. But I came across another "too little, too late" apology this morning. That of Senator Lisa Murkowski (R, Alaska) who regrets having voted for last week's Blunt Instrument Amendment.
Lisa Murkowski Regrets Voting For Blunt Amendment
"I have never had a vote I've taken where I have felt that I let down more people that believed in me,"
Well boo friggidy hoo.
I have a very hard time believing she was this clueless going into the vote about what the fallout would be. A bit more of this introspection ( and just flat out common sense) would have been helpful before the vote. Despite the fact that we prevailed, the margin was too slim for comfort. The principle was even more important. Her claims of being a moderate were forfeited with this vote and it's a little shallow and convenient to come out now, after the fact, amidst a shitstorm of fallout and commitment by women and allies that we will not be taken back to the 1950's.
Julia O'Malley who writes for The Anchorage Daily News requested (and didn't expect to get but did ) an interview with Senator Murkowski during her return to Alaska for the Iditarod.
From The Anchorage Daily News
She said she voted for the Blunt Amendment (proposed by Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt), to send a message that the health care law needed a stronger clause for religious conscience. It was supposed to be a vote for religious freedom, she said, but to female voters back home it looked like a vote against contraception. The language of the amendment was "overbroad," she said.
"If you had it to do over again, having had the weekend that you had with women being upset about the vote, do you think you would have voted the same?" I asked.
"No," she said.
Perhaps if the political climate in Washington was different, I'd be more forgiving. Perhaps if the GOP wasn't hell bent on regulating every uterus in the nation, I'd be more forgiving. Perhaps if the GOP didn't reflexively oppose every single thing that the Administration proposes, I'd be more forgiving.
But I'm not. Murkowski knows the lay of the land and if she doesn't she shouldn't be there. This is the same claptrap we get from Collins and Snowe. You cannot have the right wing love you and then be regretful about betraying women. For now, those two things remain in opposition.
She called the Blunt Amendment a "messaging amendment" that "both sides know is not going to pass."
It almost did Senator. It almost did, and you helped that. Your apology is cold comfort.