Murkowski sees Biden, Klobuchar as working well with Republicans

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BUT NOT BERNIE SANDERS OR ELIZABETH WARREN

In an article that focuses on the views of moderate Republicans in Congress, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she sees presidential candidate Joe Biden as someone who could work across the aisle with Republicans.

“Think about some of the initiatives Biden has worked with, whether it’s Leader McConnell or just worked on a bipartisan basis. The fact that he has legislative, congressional experience and had to work in a legislative body and then worked with President Obama as one within the administration working with a legislative body does give him a level of experience that’s useful,” Murkowski told the newspaper.

Murkowski, who has a knack for bipartisan legislation, was able to rattle off three of Biden’s biggest accomplishments as vice president:

  • Working with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to extend expiring tax cuts after the 2010 elections,
  • Raising the debt limit in the summer of 2011, and
  • Avoiding the the “fiscal cliff” at the end of 2012.

Biden played a key role in recruiting three moderate Republicans –Sen. Susan Collins and then-Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania — to support the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which increased government spending to offset a downturn in the private sector.

Murkowski also said Klobuchar is a Democratic candidate who would likely work effectively with Republicans. 

But Murkowski doesn’t hold much hope for working on a bipartisan basis with Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders.

“All you need to do is look at their approach to legislating,” she said the two.

“I have worked on a few initiatives with Sen. Warren — I think some of the health care things we’ve done jointly focus on rural health outcomes. But in terms of one who is known for building those bridges with the other side legislatively, neither one of the two of them have in their Senate careers really focused on that,” she said.

[Read: Key Republicans say Biden can break Washington gridlock]

Biden is known for his bipartisan relationships. He flew to Alaska in 2010 to speak at the funeral of Sen. Ted Stevens, and during the first Democrat debates this year was the only candidate to actually say the word “bipartisan.”

Sanders and Warren, on the other hand, have taken a hard line against working with the GOP.

Sen. Sanders said there’s “no middle ground” for him on progressive issues.

National Review has a different view of “Uncle Joe,” and his hyper-partisan nature:

“Biden’s career serves as a neat summary for much of the ruthlessness that Americans hate about our government, and he has managed to use his gaffe-prone nature to disguise his record of intense, bitterly partisan politicking. This trick was perhaps never more evident than in his egregious treatment of Reagan Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork — whom he successfully prevented from reaching the Court — and his similar but failed effort to prevent Clarence Thomas’s confirmation. Biden treated these two men disgracefully and in doing so played a crucial role in distorting our judicial-confirmation process so severely that it will likely never recover.

“Serving as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1986, Biden initially promised to vote for Bork’s confirmation but quickly fell in line with Massachusetts senator Edward Kennedy, who lied about Bork’s character and described ‘Bork’s America’ as ‘a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions.’ Moreover, Biden leveled a number of deeply unfair accusations at Bork. Among them: ‘It appears to me that you are saying that the government has as much right to control a married couple’s decision about choosing to have a child or not as that government has a right to control the public utility’s right to pollute the air.”’

[Read: Joe Biden Is No Bipartisan Role Model at this link]

The next debate for Democrat contenders is Nov. 20 in Atlanta. More details at this link.

22 COMMENTS

  1. AK Republicans need to teach Daddy’s Little Princess a lesson in honor and loyalty!
    She’s a complete disgrace and disappointment with ‘no’ possibility of reform.

  2. I am sure more in line with the view from the National Review on Biden….He has always been an empty shirt living off the public trough his entire life….our Senior Senator would have been better off just keeping still on these matters. She seems to continue to find ways of making Alaskans question why they would support her in the future…about the only things she seems all in on is protection of those merchants of death at Planned Parent hood and always the look out for some way to poke her finger in the eye of the President…

  3. I keep saying it. If Republicans put her forward again I will be working with the Democrats to make sure she is gone. She will not be rewarded again for her actions.

  4. Now, if we could get “Nepotism Murkowski” to WORK WELL WITH REPUBLICANS, Alaska might have a chance at some economic freedom!!!!

  5. Remove her from the Republican party. She is obviously a Democrat and not a Republican. She supports abortion, Obamacare and climate change initiatives. Wish there was a way to recall her but it would be an impossibility because she sides with the left. Just not enough votes to remove her from office.

  6. Murkowski might as well give up the pretense of being a republican. Actions speak louder than words, especially in her case. With her latest ‘gush’ for Biden as her true mindset, she will most likely endorse one of the socialist America destroyers for the top slot. She praises Biden, the confessed crook, regarding ‘quid pro quo”, for some unknown reason, and votes against the President, time after time. She’s not working for Alaska. She’s working against us and America, with her dismally disguised front as a republican. She has been selected as the most ‘liberal/leftist’ republican in the senate. Another instance of lackadaisical voters. The Mat-Su borough voters sure showed us the result of citizens not voting. They handed the assembly seats to dims/libs/socialists on a silver platter. 10% of registered voters (conservative and dim together) turning out to vote is an absolute disgrace. Mat-Su citizens. You’ve just handed over a level of control of your freedom, tax relief, citizens’ rights, (on the borough level), borough finances, and everything that I’ve seen/heard complained about, to those who have a radical, unconstitutional goal for your community, Alaska and America. I thought 17% of the voters voting in the Kenai borough was dismal. 10% of registered voters voting in Mat-Su is unbelievable. For assembly seats. Assembly seats decide everything regarding your rights as Americans and Alaskans at the borough level. You will probably have to sue to keep them on par with both the Alaska and U.S. constitutions. Oh well. You’ll get what you vote for. I wish more voting enthusiasm had been displayed. You know that old saying, “if wishes were horses, beggars would ride”. Coming soon to a borough assembly near you.

  7. Lisa must think we’re a bunch of freaking idiots. Poor Joe isn’t going to be elected. Donald Trump is. I kind of like Amy, not as a politician but as a person. She would make a very good Republican if she could fix that left-leaning stance of hers. Lisa is the biggest man hater next to Hillary Clinton. I don’t know what men ever did to her. I don’t think her dad abused her or her husband. Regardless Lisa is gone, Joe is just a clown, Amy is on the wrong side.

  8. Raising the Debt limit is a big accomplishment is all you need to know. I used to get think it was funny when she frequently referred to herself in the plural (“we”). I wasn’t sure if it was projection or she thought she was queen.

  9. Whatever. My examination of Mr. Biden’s work history suggests that he has spent his entire career benefiting from government. He has never known want or had to work hard.

  10. One can only speculate on what would prompt Sen. Murkowski to even pen this piece. As Alaskans we should all know that any Democrat working in Washington would lock up our resources and make the state a national park if allowed to do so.

  11. The challenge for Peoples Federal Senator Murkowski seems to be all about working with Republicans… even being a Republican.
    .
    Maybe “working well” happens when Sealaska hires Hunter Biden to sit on its board of directors.
    .
    Maybe “working well” with Klobuchar happens if your name is -not- Brett Kavanaugh.
    .
    Maybe “working well” should be the title of a picture that says it all, that can be seen here: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/408606-viral-pic-of-feinstein-and-murkowski-receiving-lbj-comparisons

  12. Read the comments; so critical of Lisa Murkowski. All these commentators had the opportunity to vote for Joe Miller, a true Republican with libertarian principals. I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts most of them voted for Murkowski.

  13. She may want to do a little more research into Sloppy Joe’s ethics before hitching her cahttps://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/hunter-biden-linked-company-received-130m-in-special-federal-loans-while-joe-biden-was-vprt to him…..

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