Alaska’s senior US Senator looked upon President Trump’s National Emergency designation on the invasion from Mexico and Central America reaching the southern border and has found it upsetting. Not the invasion, as she is apparently fine with that, especially as she has made little effort to stop it. Rather, when President Trump tries to address the invasion, Lisa goes VFR-direct into her Orange Man Bad mode that she adopted so quickly, easily and self-righteously during the 2016 campaign.
So, what are we talking about?
The democrat congress that chased both Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon out of office in the early 1970s passed the National Emergencies Act in 1976, apparently with the idea that there would be an unending stream of democrat presidents starting in 1976. President Ford happily signed the legislation accepting the new transfer of power from congress to the Executive.
Since its signing, presidents have declared 59 national emergencies, 31 of which are still in effect. Since Lisa’s arrival in congress Dec. 2002, she has stood idly by while President Bush declared 8 national emergencies, Obama 10, and Trump 3. The southern border invasion is President Trump’s fourth declaration. And it is this declaration she now has a problem with on constitutional / separation of powers basis. https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/07/politics/trump-wall-active-national-emergency/
Lisa worries about “erosion of government checks and balances”, yet she proposed no legislation to wrest that power back from the Executive. Not a single piece.
She then goes on to say “I’ll be very direct. I don’t like this. I don’t like this. I think it takes us down a road and with a precedent that if it’s allowed, that we may come to regret.” https://www.adn.com/politics/2019/02/23/sen-lisa-murkowski-says-shes-likely-to-back-trump-disapproval/
Nice to see that she is finally waking up to the realities of separation of power a mere 15 years after taking office. Imagine what else she can wake up to in the next 15 years. (/sarc)
Unfair criticism? Probably, though I have had a belly full of Orange Man Bad silliness out of our senior US Senator.
We do have a significant problem with immigration, one that Lisa has done little to address other than participate in a dalliance with the amnesty caucus in congress. And amnesty doesn’t play all that well in Alaska. It is so much easier to carp and cast symbolic, Orange Man Bad votes to the cheers and accolades of democrats and their media cheerleaders, something Lisa finds remarkably easy to do.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He is a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
