Richly, richly deserved. And the fact that they did it by secret ballot — without even announcing the tally — is a complete disgrace.

“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.”…

“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…

But DeMint was vocal about his frustration on Thursday, describing in the e-mail to the Senate Conservatives Fund membership how he “spoke out against the motion” during the private caucus meeting and voted against it. He wrote that “the motion was adopted by secret ballot and the final tally was not disclosed.”

Remember, Republicans at the caucus meeting refused to give reporters a reason afterward for keeping Murkowski in her position. I can understand why they wouldn’t want to reveal who said what during the debate lest the revelations discourage senators from being candid with each other at future meetings — and note that DeMint is respecting that confidentiality in his e-mail — but I don’t understand why they can’t publicize the roll of votes. If the answer is that the leadership wants to minimize the chance of tensions among senators by keeping the ballot secret, then why allow for debate at the meetings at all? Surely Murkowski and her allies have some sense of who’s for her and against her based on what was said. Beyond that, committee seats and seniority affect national policy, in which case why isn’t the public entitled to know how they’re decided? Federal impeachment votes are taken out in the open, by name, and this is basically a committee-level impeachment hearing. Let’s have the roll.

Here’s Joe Miller on Cavuto this afternoon trying to be diplomatic about all this given that he’ll probably be working with these losers next year. Cavuto, notably, is less generous to them. Skip ahead to 3:45 for the key bit.