Just how badly have conservatives burned their bridges with moderate Republican Lisa Murkowski?
Senator Lisa Murkowski is reportedly going to vote for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, as will Senator John Ensign. In Murkowski’s case, the change may be come because of the fact that the RNC and many anti-LGBT groups campaigned against her during her reelection campaign which she won as a write in candidate.
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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) had told a local news station -- in the reporters' words -- that Murkowski "would not vote against a bill that had that repeal in it." Although her spokesman later added some nuance and conditions to that characterization, the conditions -- reported (with some questions) by Igor Volsky at the Wonk Room -- sound like a description of the repeal amendment's conditions and the leaks from the Pentagon working group's report.
With the addition of Ensign to Snowe and Lugar, we appear to have the votes of four Senate Republicans.
Meanwhile, Democrats are now confident of repeal:
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said this week that he plans to bring the bill up for a vote again after the Thanksgiving recess despite the objections of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who opposes an end to the policy.
Other Republicans, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), have said they will vote to move ahead with the bill if Reid allows for a fair debate and others could also support it, senators said Thursday.
Efforts to end the ban are backed by 58 percent of Americans, according to a Quinnipiac University poll published Thursday.
There are still a lot of balls in the air in the Senate, but this is more good news. Initial results indicate that 70 percent of active-duty military personnell and spouses have no problem with repealing DADT. If the Democrats fumble this one, it's inexcusable.
But Murkowski's switch is so sweet because it was the scene of a very high profile fight involing Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. Aside from Delaware, Alaska was touted as one of the Tea Party's greatest triumphs in the autumn leading up to the election.
After the primary, Murkowski was left for dead, while Joe Miller (who is so reactionary that he supported the repeal of the 17th amendment) was already showing Eliot Spitzer levels of hubris.
Murkowski took a big risk and it paid off big. The coalition that brought Murkowski into power was a very bipartisan one. Many rural areas that voted for Democrats in the past voted for Murkowski as a protest against Joe Miller. Already the least conservative Republican Senator outside of New England, hopefully she will move further to the left as a result of her "date with the tea party."