Alaska Republicans had their primary and Sen. Lisa Murkowski was run over by Joe Miller, who is riding in the Tea Party Express bus, and the Republican establishment in Washington, regretting Ms. Murkowski loss, but fearful that if they didn't pronounce her politically dead and welcome the Tea Party favorite boy Joe, the Tea Party Express bus might ride over them too, so they pronounced her dead and welcomed him.

But Ms Murkowski is saying that she was blindsided by that bus, sent stumbling, but, she wasn't knocked out.

TPM reports -- Polls show Ms Murkowski might be able to defeat Joe Miller and the Democratic candidate Scott McAdams should she get on the ballot run as a libertarian. Something that isn't assured. She could run as a write-in candidate. The write-in route would be an extreme long shot. She has $1.4 million in the bank. which is big money in Alaska campaigns.

Ms. Murkowski told the Associated Press, "I'm looking at my state and the future of my state for my kids. So, I have not made that determination that I'm going to give up. I'm not a quitter, never have been. And I'm still in this game."

Ms. Murkowski and others in her state just don't like the smell of the tea the Tea Party is brewing, and sense that Mr. Miller and the Tea Party Express are heading to crash the state and the GOP into a ditch.

In Alaska, Ms. Murkowski is / was a victim of a civil war between right-wingers and conservatives on one side and far right-wingers and reactionaries on the other. It seems that Ms. Murkowski is not willing to give up the fight and let the radical Tea Partiers win.

Yesterday on CBS NEWS, DGA Executive Director Nathan Daschle spoke with CBS John Dickerson about Democratic strategy in the gubernatorial races, and mentioned that the so-called Republican voter enthusiasm is fueled by the internal Republican Party war. See the video.