In recent speeches both to the Alaska Legislature (2-18-20) and the following day to the Sitka Chamber of Commerce, Sen. Lisa Murkowski repeated a joke attributed to Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The reference brought some of the late senator’s droll humor to what may have been Murkowski’s darkest period in Congress.
In a conversation with Sitka media following her chamber remarks, Sen. Murkowski talked with KCAW’s Robert Woolsey about her relationship with Sen. McCain, and how the senate has changed without him.
The joke is a pretty good icebreaker, for audiences that appreciate Murkowski’s position during the Trump presidency.
Here she is delivering it to the Alaska Legislature.
“Sen. John McCain, a good friend of mine, used to say, ‘It’s always darkest just before it goes pitch black.’” (Laughter) “Think about it. He usually intended it as a joke, but in fairness I can’t think of a more apt description for the past few months that we have been engaged in.”
Murkowski and McCain had been senate colleagues for a long time, but their relationship didn’t crystallize until they — and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — broke ranks with other senate Republicans in 2017 and blocked the so-called “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act — or Obamacare — handing Donald Trump the first major defeat of his presidency.
John McCain died in August, 2018. I asked Murkowski how the senate impeachment trial might have gone if McCain was still in the senate.
Murkowski – He’d be really grumpy if he were here right now.
KCAW – That’s what I wanted to ask: Do you think things would have unfolded differently if Sen. McCain were still around?
Murkowski – I don’t know if they would have unfolded differently, but John McCain was a man who could be pretty partisan, he was pretty firm in many of his Republican principles. But he was also a man who wanted to get things done.
The abandonment of principles was something that seemed to infuriate Murkowski during the impeachment process. In a scathing address to the senate prior to the impeachment vote in early February (2-3-20), Murkowski attacked the conduct of colleagues who had lowered their standards in the name of partisan politics.
“Over the course of the past few weeks we’ve all seen the videos from 20 years ago, where members who were present during the Clinton trial took the exact opposite stance than they take today. That level of hypocrisy is astounding, even for a place like Washington DC.”
Murkowski argues that she saw no point in prolonging a process established on a “rotten foundation,” as she put it, and voted to acquit the president. But that doesn’t mean she is giving Trump a free pass. Instead, as she told the three reporters in her Sitka press conference, she wants Congress to reassert its authority, and put checks on the executive. She wants the senate to act more like John McCain, starting now.
This has been, as I mentioned, a very dark time for Congress. And some have suggested, “Well you didn’t vote for impeachment, the president’s still there, you’re still dealing with the fact that we’re in a presidential election year and it’s going to get more partisan — what do you do?” I think one of the areas where Congress has failed is that we have ceded authority to the executive. We have done that when it comes to the power of the purse. Under the constitution, it lies with the Congress. We appropriate money for military construction, and the president effectively reaches over and takes out of the accounts what we have directed for his priority on the southern border. He did that last year; he’s made clear that he’s going to be doing it again to the tune of $3.8 billion, taking it from procurement accounts and accounts related to our Guard units. Even if I supported where he wanted to redirect it, that’s not his authority. That’s not his domain. And when Congress doesn’t challenge that, he’s just going to keep doing it because we let him do it. With War Powers: Last week we had a War Powers resolution in front of us with regard to Iran and Iranian hostilities. A significant reason that I voted to support that resolution is because I believe it needs to be made clear to the executive that this is Congress’ authority here. And so making sure that as one of the separate-but-equal branches of government, we’re not being rolled by the executive, is important for us. And it goes back to John McCain — we’ll take the thread back — because John would not have tolerated the overreach into other areas of jurisdiction.
That’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski discussing her views with Sitka media on the conduct of Congress during impeachment proceeding against the president over the last several months, and how she remains inspired by the memory of her former colleague Sen. John McCain.
