What the media does not want you to know about Lisa Murkowski

Last week the Lisa Murkowski for US Senate ran smartly into the “If you live in glass houses, don’t throw stones” limit.  The breakdown came when the Miller campaign did a press release about Murkowski’s conflict of interest in voting for TARP in 2008. The conflict is that she has significant holdings in Wall Street banking and investment houses that TARP protected.  Imagine what the media would have done to Miller if he had such a conflict.

For the last month, the Murkowski campaign, friendly straphangers, the local fishwrapper, Channel 2 News, the Alaska Dispatch, unions and native corporations have breathlessly participated in a campaign of personal destruction of Joe Miller.  The basic message is that he was poor starting out (which most of us were), took some help, now opposes that help, and is therefore a hypocrite.  Total dollar amount of all the transgressions real and imagined is in the vicinity of $10,000.

Contrast this with what we know about Lisa Murkowski.

In 2007, Bob Penny sold her a piece of land on the Kenai for a mere $300,000 below the assessed value. Lisa had no problem with that.  She only backed out of the deal after the ensuing media outcry.  What is less well known is that the State of Alaska (and Frank was governor at the time) extended a road a few miles to the vicinity of the property using state capital and grant money.  No favoritism there.  No siree, Bob.  Move along; move along; nothing to see here.

Of course, if you or I or Joe Miller were to get such a Good Deal from our political patrons, all Hell would most certainly break loose.

More troubling is the notion that Lisa has a very real, very serious conflict of interest regarding her vote for TARP in 2008.TARP was the initial Wall Street bailout legislation.  It was demanded by congressional democrats, Hank Paulson (Goldman alumnus), Barack Obama, and the entire entrenched handout operation on Capitol Hill.  Over $700 billion of your dollars and mine were turned into a slush fund that the Obama administration used to take over entire industries (Wall Street, investment, banking, GM, Chrysler).  Lisa voted for it, and said not a word when it was turned into a slush fund for nationalization of industries.

Opensecrets.org reports that the Lisa campaign has taken over $271,000 in campaign donations from Wall Street firms.  These include, but are not limited to Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, CitiGroup and JP Morgan.

Her campaign disclosure has her invested in Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley, with up to $330,000 at risk.