Murkowski = fiercely independent

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Murkowski goes rogue


Lisa Murkowski isn’t gunning down caribou on national TV like that other famous Alaskan, but the Republican lawmaker is going rogue in the Senate just weeks after staging the most stunning back-from-the-dead political win of the 2010 cycle.

Murkowski is already showing a fierce independent streak, becoming the only Republican to cast votes on all four items on President Barack Obama’s wish list: a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a tax-cut compromise, the START deal and cloture for the DREAM Act.

[snipped]

Murkowski’s willingness to defy Republican top brass after a bitter fight to keep her seat may mark a pivotal point in her career as she emerges as a real maverick foil to Sarah Palin, the conservative idol who put Alaska politics on the national map. And while conservatives who helped oust Murkowski from the GOP ticket in Alaska may howl about her being a “Republican In Name Only,” Murkowski could enjoy a powerful perch as a much-sought-after moderate in an almost evenly divided Senate.

[snipped]

“There’s a new paradigm now, and with it comes a watershed political moment for her personally,” Moore wrote, noting that 60 percent of Murkowski voters in the last election supported repeal. “She has made her position quite clear — she supports repeal of DADT. ... Good for her, I reckon. I think she has conclusively detached herself from her former allegiance to the right and is charting a new course. DADT was her first real test, and I think she passed.”
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::