Two Generations of Alaska Senators Talk About the Crisis in Congress
Retired Sen. Frank Murkowski and Sen. Lisa Murkowski speak out about partisanship in Washington
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Frank Murkowski is, like so many Americans, concerned about the health of our Congress. “The process has become so politicized. I was there for 22 years and we didn’t have the [partisan] intensity,” the Republican former Alaska senator and governor told GEN, speaking from his winter getaway in Palm Desert, California. “The question is, can we revert back to a relationship that has mutual respect regardless of what your party affiliation is?”
Murkowski is far from alone in the sentiment. He was among a group of 70 senators who published an “open letter to the U.S. Senate” last week in the Washington Post bemoaning partisanship in today’s Congress. The letter encouraged the “creation of a bipartisan caucus of incumbent senators who would be committed to making the Senate function as the Framers of the Constitution intended.” While such a scenario is of course extremely unlikely to happen, the letter was sure to rankle current Republican members of Congress—including perhaps Murkowski’s own daughter, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
The younger Murkowski, a four-term senator whose tenure began when she took over her father’s seat, is known as one of the tougher and more independent-minded Republicans in the Senate. She withdrew her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. She voted against repealing Obamacare. In total, she’s voted in line with Trump about 75% of the time, making her one of the more heterodox Senate Republicans.
Yet she has also fallen into lockstep with her party on key issues, most notably the president’s impeachment, which she opposed. Though she labeled Trump’s behavior “shameful and wrong,” she ultimately voted for his acquittal, calling the process overly partisan and rushed. (Her father seemed to agree: “I’ve been through impeachments in the Senate and they’re intensified I think as a consequence of the Trump ordeal more so than under Clinton,” he said. “There is a process for change under the Constitution. In our election procedures, you have a period of a couple of years to propose your thoughts and recommendations and generate hopefully somewhat…
