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Senators Murkowski, McCain and Kirk Signal Willingness to Work with Dems to Raise the Debt Ceiling Without Conditions

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The United States government is expected to hit the debt ceiling in less than two weeks, and Senate Democrats have said they’re ready to raise it with a “clean” bill to avoid default on the national debt. Reports that Senate Republicans would consider supporting such a bill began to roll in on Monday.

Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have all floated the idea of voting for a clean debt limit increase, according to reports by Politico, ABC News and Public Radio International.

Though these Republicans seem willing to meet Democrats in the middle, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has made clear that the House won’t budge.

Earlier this year, Senator Murkowski stated that she did not believe the debt ceiling should be used as political leverage in seeking to obtain spending cuts from the Obama Administration and Senate Democrats.

Read more from this HERE.

Another Alaska U.S. Senate Race, Another Attack on Free Speech

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Photo Credit: aflcio

Photo Credit: aflcio

For the second U.S. Senate election in a row, the incumbent campaign is threatening Alaska television stations over political ads it doesn’t like.

In 2010 while fighting for her political life after losing the Republican primary to Joe Miller, Sen. Lisa Murkowski had her legal counsel send letters to Alaska television stations warning them that they were putting their Federal Communications Commission licenses at risk by running ads against her that were paid for by the Tea Party Express.

Murkowski’s counsel claimed the ads constituted “false advertising” and the stations could lose their FCC license by continuing to run them. Of course, Murkowski’s lawyers knew (or should know) full well that as a public figure, her chance of proving slander or libel were virtually nil and the stations were in no danger of losing their broadcast licenses.

But that didn’t stop them from trying to put the arm on Alaska media stations — “nice FCC license you have there, be a shame if something happened to it” — and thankfully no one pulled the ads based on the Murkowski campaign threats…

So here we are again almost three years to the day later, and Sen. Mark Begich had his lawyers at Perkins Coie in Washington, D.C., fire off a letter to Alaska TV stations Sept. 5 demanding they “immediately” stop running ads sponsored by the American Energy Alliance accusing Begich of wanting you to believe “a carbon tax is a good idea.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Senators Murkowski, Begich Vote to Confirm Obama’s Radical UN Ambassador Samantha Powers

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Photo Credit: US Mission GenevaThe Senate confirmed President Obama’s nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

On an 87-10 vote Wednesday, the Senate approved the nomination of Samantha Power. Nearly 30 GOP senators voted with Democrats to approve her nomination.

“Having a strong voice in the United Nations is imperative,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said ahead of the vote. “Power possesses the type of character, type of strong background, is a person of intellect and has the right kind of way to communicate to represent us at the United Nations.”

GOP Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Rand Paul (Ky.), David Vitter (La.), Mike Lee (Utah), Ted Cruz (Texas), Tim Scott (S.C.), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Dean Heller (Nev.), Richard Shelby (Ala.) and John Barrasso (Wyo.) voted against Power’s nomination.

Power, who serves on Obama’s National Security Council, came under criticism for remarks she made during her academic career about Israel and “crimes” the United States has committed. She has since recanted those remarks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrats Successfully Lobby Murkowski to Change Vote on “Explosive” ATF Nominee

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By Meredith Shiner. Democrats and their allies lobbied Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for more than an hour Wednesday to change her vote on the nominee to head up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the pressure worked.

Murkowski flipped and voted to advance the nomination of B. Todd Jones to be the ATF’s new director. With her vote change, Murkowski both averted a filibuster, and perhaps more importantly, staved off Democratic threats to end the minority’s ability to filibuster executive branch nominees. Just weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., backed away from using the “nuclear option” after a number of Republicans, including Murkowski, began voting to beat back filibuster attempts led by their own party.

That tentative agreement was imperiled Wednesday by the struggle to get 60 votes for Jones. Murkowski originally voted “no,” but after conferring with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, John McCain, R-Ariz., Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Reid, among others, the Alaska Republican switched to “yes.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Minnesota’s B. Todd Jones is an explosive choice to lead ATF

By Kevin Diaz. The choice of Minnesota U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) made him the face of a national anti-violence agenda growing from the shock of the schoolhouse shooting massacre in Connecticut…

To Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the panel, Jones has a lot to answer for. Grassley has tried unsuccessfully to force Jones to testify about Fast and Furious, a troubled ATF gun-tracking operation on the Mexican border that Jones was brought in to clean up. Grassley also sought to tie Jones to a controversial Justice Department deal to drop two whistleblower cases against St. Paul as a means of averting a civil rights showdown before the Supreme Court over the city’s rental code enforcement…

The criticisms have become personal as well. Republicans have delved into anonymous complaints from lawyers in the Minneapolis U.S. attorney’s office who accuse Jones of an overbearing “militaristic” management style that has fostered a “climate of fear.” An internal ATF video warning of “consequences” for those who go outside of the chain of command was interpreted by some critics as a threat against potential whistleblowers.

Also “disturbing,” Grassley said, was a letter from Donald Oswald, a former head of the Minneapolis FBI office, accusing Jones of “poor leadership” and an “atrocious professional reputation”…

Since 2006, when the agency split off from the U.S. Treasury Department, the gun lobby has objected to every ATF nominee, including the choice of former President George W. Bush. In that sense, some analysts say Jones is as much a symbol as the active head of the ATF. Read more from this story HERE.

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Senate preserves fragile filibuster deal after Murkowski switches her vote to OK ATF nominee

By Susan Ferrechio. The Senate appears to have narrowly avoided blowing up a recent agreement on filibustering executive branch nominees by securing the 60 votes needed to advance the nomination of B. Todd Jones to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“It was close,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said after convincing Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to switch her vote to support Jones. ”The fact that we have this good spirit of bipartisanship to move these nominations forward is what guided us here.”

The Senate advanced Jones’ nomination later Wednesday by a 60-40 vote after Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., flew back to Washington to add her “yes” to the tally. The Senate later formally confirmed him, 53-42 making Jones the first person in seven years to be confirmed by the Senate to fill the ATF position.

The deal to approve Jones nearly fell through earlier in the day, which would have not only left the job vacant but torpedoed a deal struck earlier this month between Democrats and Republicans to move forward on executive branch nominees. Jones was not specifically included in the deal but if the GOP had blocked him Wednesday, it would have re-ignited a years-long fight over the minority’s increasing use of the filibuster and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s threat to change the 60 vote threshold to block a filibuster on executive branch nominees to 51 votes.

The vote on Jones was so close, Democrats held it open for hours to accommodate Heitkamp. She cast the 60th vote. Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska’s Senators Murkowski and Begich Both Complain that there is “Stubborn Opposition” in US Senate to Law of the Sea Treaty

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Photo Credit: L.C. Smith and S.R. Stephenson, PNASAt a meeting in Washington last week, top U.S. Arctic officials at the Coast Guard, Navy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other agencies acknowledged that the U.S. lags behind other nations in dealing with the rapidly changing Arctic environment. The agencies are facing serious deficiencies in the ability to map the sea floor and develop enforceable environmental policies, as well as construct onshore infrastructure that would be used for search and rescue and oil recovery operations…There is also a big void in diplomacy, and how the U.S. will deal with other countries on issues involving the Arctic.

The U.S. has not ratified the United Nations agreement that irons out how countries make claims to offshore Arctic resources. That’s despite the agreement having the overwhelming support of the military and both political parties.

Ratification of the treaty, which is known as the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS, has been a top priority for national security officials for several years, but it remains stalled in the Senate due to a handful of senators’ concerns that it would compromise U.S. sovereignty…

[US Navy Oceanographer Rear Admiral Jonathan] White and others said the U.S. needs to ratify UNCLOS by 2015, when the U.S. takes over the rotating two-year chairmanship of the Arctic Council. Otherwise, he said, the country will speak with a weaker voice as Council president, since the U.S. is the only Arctic Council member nation that has not ratified the treaty. Such a scenario would be “sort of like driving a bus without a driver’s license,” he said.

Senator Murkowski, and fellow Alaskan, Sen. Mark Begich (D), who also addressed the conference, said they hope to try again to get the treaty through the Senate in the coming year, but that there is still some stubborn Senate opposition to it.

Read more from this story HERE.

Murkowski Votes With Democrats to Advance Bill Forcing Private Employers in 33 States to Hire Homosexual Applicants (ENDA)

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By Daniel Strauss. A Senate panel approved legislation Wednesday in a bipartisan 15-7 vote that would outlaw discrimination in the workplace based on an employee’s gender identity or sexual orientation.

Three Republicans joined 12 Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in approving the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

The GOP votes came from Sens. Orrin Hatch (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Mark Kirk (Ill.). Hatch voted aye by proxy.

The legislation would outlaw any kind of discrimination based on sexual orientation including both hiring and firing and other employment related matters like salaries and terms of employment.

Federal law currently outlaws employment discrimination centered on age, disability, national origin, race, religion or sex but not gender identity or sexual orientation. ENDA aims to fill the hole in states in the 33 states where there is no separate law against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. Read more from this story HERE.

[Editor’s note: Murkowski reported to the pro-homosexual publication Metro Weekly that “When I was home over the break, I think it was 1,174 postcards were delivered to my office from Alaskans from around the state in support of ENDA. If you listen to your folks back home this is important to them.”]
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The Alaska Family Council Recommends You Watch this Documentary on the Left’s International LGBT Agenda

A new documentary entitled Cultural Imperialism examines the Obama Administration’s efforts to impose its LGBT values on many third world countries, particularly African nations. And they are pushing back:

Alaska’s Delegation Selling Out Alaskan Workers … Again (+video)

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Photo Credit: Wonderlane

Photo Credit: Wonderlane

This past weekend, Byron York of the Washington Examiner reported that some questionable provisions were inserted into the amnesty bill “for Alaska.”

As we’ll discuss below, Mr. York might not have gotten the “for Alaska” right, but he certainly tagged the responsible parties: Alaska’s US Senators, Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich.

Mr. York notes that the amnesty bill was “rewritten … to pay a big favor to the state of Alaska and its two senators…” How? By allowing for “more low-wage guest [read “foreign”] workers” to come to Alaska and work in “Alaska seafood processing…”

Rather than going through the standard process where the Commission of the Bureau of Immigration and Labor Market Research relies upon a methodology to determine which occupations have shortages, the amnesty bill specifically designates “Alaska seafood processing” as a “shortage occupation” justifying the immediate importation of foreign workers. Apparently, no other state-based industry receives this type of special treatment under the bill.

So what are average Alaskans getting for their delegation’s hard work in creating this special provision for the state? Screwed, that’s what.

There’s no question that importing foreign workers into a state with significant unemployment is a travesty. What makes matters worse is that much of this seafood processing occurs in rural regions with high native populations. And Alaska’s native unemployment rate is reprehensible, pushing 20%.

So who are the sea food processors that asked for this subsidy? Many – but not all – are foreign to the state, ultimately competing for the same resource that average Alaskans depend on for their personal consumption.

So Mr. York might not understand who our delegation is working for when he suggests their specialized legislation is “for Alaska.” It’s certainly for somebody, but not for ordinary Alaskans.

[see Billy Kristol’s slam on the amnesty bill yesterday:]

Lisa Murkowksi, Quoting Reagan, Embraces Homosexual Marriage

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Photo Credit: John Shinkle

Photo Credit: John Shinkle

Lisa Murkowski endorsed the right of gay couples to marry on Tuesday, joining Rob Portman and Mark Kirk as the third Republican senator to do so…

Murkowski told POLITICO that it was no overnight epiphany.

“I didn’t just wake up and say: ‘Oh my gosh I’m going to do this. No, it’s something that I’ve been giving a lot of thought to over a long period of time,” Murkowski said…

[See Murkowski’s Gay Marriage Views ‘Evolving’ HERE from March 28, 2013]

Murkowski portrayed support for gay marriage as support for smaller government and less federal intrusion and said it was in line with long-held Republican values.

“Like Reagan, Alaskans believe that government works best when it gets out of the way. Countless Alaskans and Americans want to give themselves to one another and create a home together. I support marriage equality and support the government getting out of the way to let that happen,” Murkowski wrote.

Read more from this story HERE.

Murkowski, Rubio Join With Democrats to Kill Border Fence Amendment to Immigration Bill

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said late Tuesday that he supports securing the United States border with Mexico with a double-tiered fence but voted against an amendment to the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill that would have required exactly that.

Rubio and his fellow Gang of Eight Republicans helped the Democrats kill an amendment from Sen. John Thune (R-SD) that would have required the double-tiered fence be built, as current law requires, before amnesty was granted to America’s at least 11 million illegal immigrants. The only other Republican to vote against the amendment was Sen. Lisa Murkowski…

The amendment would have undercut Rubio’s promise to Univision’s Spanish-speaking audience this past weekend that amnesty would come before border security in the end. “First comes the legalization. Then come the measures to secure the border.” He added, “It is not conditional. The legalization is not conditional.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Joe Miller Moves Forward With Senate Bid, Appears on Cavuto (+video)

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Tea party favorite Joe Miller has filed Federal Election Commission papers to challenge incumbent Sen. Mark Begich, one of several sitting Democrats seen as vulnerable by the GOP.

“Support from the grass roots has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are moving forward within those guidelines organizing, fundraising, and coordinating with our volunteer base,” Mr. Miller said in a statement when Politico.com broke the news Tuesday.

Miller is best known for challenging incumbent Republican US Sen. Lisa Murkowski in 2010. With the backing of national tea party groups and Sarah Palin, he beat Senator Murkowski in the GOP primary by 2,006 votes out of 109,750 cast.

But Murkowski, a moderate Republican, came back to wage a write-in campaign backed by native corporations, political action committees, and some unions, dashing Miller’s hopes and holding onto her seat – the first time in more than 50 years that a US Senate candidate had won a write-in campaign.

Miller did not go down without a fight, however, challenging the election results up the Alaska state court system until a federal judge finally dismissed Miller’s suit and Murkowski was certified as the winner two months later.

Read more from this story HERE.