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
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…
