DeMint chides GOP senators for protecting Murkowski

Jim DeMint chides GOP senators for protecting Lisa Murkowski; POLITICO

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is publicly criticizing his Senate GOP colleagues for allowing Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski to keep her ranking membership on a key committee less than a week after she announced a write-in campaign to try to retain her seat.


In a revealing e-mail to his supporters, DeMint gives his account of Wednesday’s private Senate GOP caucus meeting, when he believed his colleagues would vote to strip Murkowski of her post on the Energy and National Resources Committee — but the caucus instead allowed her to keep her remain in the coveted role.





“It was bad enough to watch my colleagues work to support her in the primary after she had built a record of betraying conservatives principles,” writes DeMint. “But watching them back her after she left the party and launched a campaign against the Republican nominee was more than I could bear.”


Murkowski, who unexpectedly lost the GOP primary last month to attorney Joe Miller, announced last week that she was staying in the race as a write-in candidate — a move that angered Senate Republicans, who support Miller as the new GOP nominee. Murkowski resigned her position as Senate Republican Conference vice-chair, but several of her colleagues, including DeMint, insisted she should also lose her ranking committee membership.


DeMint revealed some details from the closed-door Senate Republican caucus meeting Wednesday.


“One senator after another stood up to argue in favor of protecting her place on the committee — a position she will no doubt use in her campaign against Joe Miller, the conservative Republican nominee,” writes DeMint.


DeMint is an ardent Miller supporter and is raising money for his campaign. DeMint initially refused to comment about the meeting – only saying that the party was “united” behind Miller.


Read the rest of the POLITICO article here.