Letters to the Editor

Letter: Misguided hopes

I wholeheartedly agree with commentary writer Christine Pearsall Villano that our two senators should have voted against confirmation of Steven Menashi to a judgeship on a federal appeals court. But I’m afraid she has overstated Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s “heroic” opposition to the nomination of Betsy DeVos to Secretary of Education.

Sen. Murkowski's was the deciding vote in the Education Committee that sent the DeVos nomination to the full senate. She could have prevented the DeVos disaster by taking a "heroic" stand for Alaska and the nation's children at that point. But she did the arithmetic and knew that De Vos would be confirmed with or without her vote in the Senate, so she cynically supported the Republican Party when it really counted and then played the hero to everyone else when it didn't matter.

Sen. Murkowski does, on occasion, show a flicker of independent thinking, which certainly should be encouraged, but don’t get your hopes up. Recent history has shown repeatedly that Republican loyalty to party almost always trumps (no pun intended) commitment to Alaska, to our kids, or to the integrity and success of the nation.

Terry Johnson

Anchorage

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