Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) may have just reaped the tea bag whirl wind. Speaking to a crowd of over 100 at an event in Alaska, Murkowski took aim at her former governor, Sarah Palin, by talking some sense about “death panels.” “It does us no good to incite fear in people by saying that there’s these end-of-life provisions, these death panels,” Murkowski said.
Quite honestly, I’m so offended at that terminology because it absolutely isn’t [in the bill]. There is no reason to gin up fear in the American public by saying things that are not included in the bill.
With this statement, Murkowski could become the White House’s new, and less grudging, ally of convenience in the Republican party. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA)–who once sponsored an end-of-life counseling bill–was thrust into this debate when he called Palin’s now infamous “death panels” smear “crazy.” Isakson hasn’t disavowed that characterization, but when the White House began citing his remarks as evidence that the GOP base was being lied to about health care reform, Isakson took umbrage, wanting to play no supportive part in the politics of a reform effort he opposes.
