In a 51-49 vote Friday to advance Brett Kavanaugh to a confirmation vote for the Supreme Court this weekend, Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to break ranks with her party and vote, “No.”
“He’s not the right man for the court at this time,” Murkowski told reporters, declaring that she will also vote against Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation Saturday as well.
Later in the day, Sarah Palin tweeted at Murkowsi: “@LisaMurkowski – I can see 2022 from my house…” a reference to a Saturday Night Live sketch from the 2008 presidential election in which Tina Fey played Sarah Palin and said she could see Russia from her house:
Hey @LisaMurkowski – I can see 2022 from my house…
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) October 5, 2018
The pointed tweet was a warning that voters will remember Murkowski’s decision when she’s up for reelection in four years, and that she may face a primary challenge from the right– but it leaves one to wonder whether that challenge may come from Palin herself, who has basked in the national political spotlight, and has a long running intrastate, instra-party feud with the Murkowski family.
Palin ousted Lisa Murkowski’s father, Frank Murkowski to become governor in 2006, handing the incumbent Republican governor a stunning defeat by a 30 point lead in the 2006 Republican primary, and gloating on Twitter, “Do you believe in miracles?” when Lisa Murkowski lost her own primary in 2010.
(The senator kept her seat that year by running a successful write in campaign, an extreme rarity in U.S. Senate history.)
Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Susan Collins (R-ME) who have been closely watched, and aggressively lobbied by activists and politicians on both sides as swing votes in the Kavanaugh nomination proceedings, were both yes votes today.