Last Call For Paying The Piper

Alaska Republicans are furious with Lisa Murkowski's failure to vote yes on confirming Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and now she will be made to pay the price.

Alaska Republican party leaders plan to consider whether to reprimand U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for opposing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

The party has asked Murkowski to provide any information she might want its state central committee to consider.

Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock says the committee could decide to issue a statement. Or he says it could withdraw support of Murkowski, encourage party officials to look for a replacement and ask that she not seek re-election as a Republican.

He says the party took that more extreme step previously with state legislators who caucused with Democrats.

He says all this follows outrage from Alaska Republicans.

Murkowski told reporters that if she worried about political repercussions she wouldn’t be able to do the job Alaskans expect her to do.

Meanwhile, on the Dem side, West Virginia's Joe Manchin is in his own mess of his own making as both parties are taking their shots.

Danielle Walker cried on Joe Manchin's shoulder after she shared her story of sexual assault in the senator's office. She thought he listened. The 42-year-old Morgantown woman said she was both devastated and furious when Manchin became the only Democrat in the U.S. Senate to support President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

"I feel raped all over again," Walker told The Associated Press.

A day after Manchin broke with his party on what may be the most consequential vote of the Trump era, the vulnerable Democrat is facing a political firestorm back home. While Republicans — including one of the president's sons — are on the attack, the most passionate criticism is coming from Manchin's very own Democratic base, a small but significant portion of the electorate he needs to turn out in force to win re-election next month. A Manchin loss would put his party's hopes of regaining control of the Senate virtually out of reach.

Walker, a first-time Democratic candidate for the state legislature, said she may not vote at all in the state's high-stakes Senate election. Julia Hamilton, a 30-year-old educator who serves on the executive committee of the Monongalia County Democratic Party, vowed to sit out the Senate race as well.

"At some point you have to draw a line," Hamilton said. "I have heard from many, many people — especially women. They won't be voting for Manchin either."

Here's the difference: at the end of all this, Lisa Murkowski will still be in the Senate.  It's increasingly clear that Joe Manchin and North Dakota's Heidi Heitkamp, who bravely voted no on Kavanaugh, will most likely not be.

Now tell me, who comes out ahead in January if the lesson is Red State Dems are screwed no matter what they vote for in the Senate?

Hint: it won't be the Dems.