Hey now, ingrates. She’s doing this for you.
“Believe you me, the easier path would be to pack it all up and go do something different,” she said. “If I had not heard this call from Alaskans, I would not be deliberating as I am.”…
“It is people from all walks of life, every corner of the state, who are concerned about Alaska’s future and concerned enough to take action on it,” she said. “I’m a public servant. My job by definition is to listen to my constituents. And there was a process in place — a primary election — that’s certainly one way that you listen to your constituents.”
She added: “When you think about the outcome of that, in a closed Republican primary, how many Alaskans were actually able to weigh in? So what is the will of the constituency? When you hear this outpouring of support and concern — concern about the future of the state of Alaska and our representation here in the Senate — you do feel a responsibility.”
A “well-placed source” told NRO earlier that the official word will come tonight. Sure sounds like it: Apparently, her supporters are promising a “campaign kickoff” at 5 p.m. Alaska time, which means 9 p.m. ET, which means Murkowski’s team is really stupid. Who’s going to care at 9 p.m. on a Friday evening? This should have been done within a day or two of conceding to Miller. As it is, not only have they given him some time alone in the spotlight and risked annoying voters with the will-she-or-won’t-she drama, but by pulling this hot on the heels of O’Donnell’s win in Delaware, they look astoundingly tone-deaf. The big narrative this week has been tea-party upstarts slaying the entrenched establishment dragons. And now Lisa Murkowski’s going to cap that off with a big rally dedicated to … keeping the dragons entrenched? How tin-eared do you have to be to make Mike Castle look good to grassroots conservatives by comparison?
That’s not to say she can’t win — the Murkowski brand is well known in Alaska, and she can promise with some justification that she’ll bring home more pork than her rivals — but even so, looong odds. Presumably there’s not a single prominent Republican incumbent in America who’ll campaign for her, but if you see even a timid endorsement from Snowe or Collins or Scott Brown, well, then we’ll know that the fateful hour is close at hand. Exit question: Can we all agree that sore-loser Republicans who try write-in campaigns after flaming out in a primary should no longer be welcome in the party? Oh wait — whoops!
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