KING: One of the more surprising players in this year-end lame duck sessions is of Congress, well, was to be one of the lame ducks, meaning one of the lawmakers who lost and would not to be back next year. But after losing the Republican primary to the Tea Party favorite Joe Miller, Senator Lisa Murkowski ran as write-in candidate and she won. The first time that has happened in a Senate race in more than 50 years. Once a member of the Senate Republican leadership team, Senator Murkowski's votes in recent day suggest, perhaps, the Senate has a new maverick.

Senator Murkowski is with us now from Capitol Hill.

And Senator I say that because when you were a member of the leadership team I suspect it would have been a lot harder to cast some of the votes that you have case in this lame-duck session. One of only three Republicans to vote yes on the Dream Act that would have allowed younger illegal immigrants who came into this country to become citizens as long as they went to college or joined the military service. One of eight Republicans who voted to repeal "don't ask, don't tell", and now among the Republicans who broke leader McConnell and his deputy, Jon Kyl, in announcing you will vote for the START nuclear arms treaty.

Are you liberated?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI, (R) ALASKA: I don't know that liberated is exactly the word, but I certainly took a strong message from my write- in campaign in Alaska. Alaskans want to be heard on the issues. They don't necessarily want to be tied to a political label or party position. And if you look to some of the issues that presented themselves here in the lame duck, probably most notably was the tax package that President Obama worked with our leader on the Republican side, Mitch McConnell to broker a bipartisan agreement that was very widely accepted.

So, I think that was an indicator of hopefully things to come where we truly do come together on a bipartisan basis to figure out how to proceed and enact those policies that are good for the country.

KING: You cast it as a sign of hopefully of things to come. But, yet, and I am sure you are well aware of this, the election is over, but the people who opposed you and opposed you fiercely like the voices in the Tea Party, they didn't like the tax package. They thought it was not paid for; that the tax cuts should have been extended permanently, not temporarily, and the leadership on the Republican side should have held out 'til next year when you would have more power.

They don't like a lot of the other things that you have cast votes for in this session. And they see this essentially as a split in the Republican Party. More establishment types, if I can sue that term, like you saying, we will vote our conscious. We don't think bipartisanship or compromise is a bad thing, against the more grassroots people who say hell no. Is there such a split?

MURKOWSKI: Let's not get ourselves locked into these definitional principles that say, as a Republican you must vote this way. Let's-let's sit down. Let's figure out how we deal with some of these very, very difficult issues, whether it is tax policy or whether it is what we are going to be doing on the spending. We have enough that we need to do that we don't need to get weighted down in the partisan politics. Coming out of the Alaska election, that is what I heard loud and clear. You know, Republicans clearly want to have their representative, but the people who have no party affiliation, and in Alaska 54 percent of the voters choose not to align themselves with any structured party.

So, they are saying, well, who is speaking to this sector of the electorate? Why is it that we have to get so, so lined up on either side that never the twain shall meet? That we can't get to where we need to get on policy? This is where I hope to take things.

KING: I hear where you hope to take things. I am wondering what you think it will be like when the new Senator Lee, from Utah, who beat your friend Bob Bennett, comes to Washington, when Rand Paul, from the Tea Party from Kentucky, comes to Washington. Do you think it will be harder to get your view across next year, when you have more Republicans in the conference who disagree with you?

MURKOWSKI: I am not fearful that we are going to have people here who might not be in alignment with what I am trying to advance for Alaska. Our job is to figure out, again, how we get along.

KING: I want you to listen to the colleague, your Republican colleague from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham; he was on a radio program giving his assessment of what happened in the lame-duck session of Congress. And from his perspective, it is not a good thing. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: When it is all going to be said and done, Harry Reid has eaten our lunch. This has been a capitulation in two weeks of dramatic proportions of policies that wouldn't have passed in the new Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Lindsey Graham right? Harry Reid eat your lunch?

MURKOWSKI: I don't think this is a situation of Harry Reid eating our lunch. I think that there were some very, very strong wins for the Republican side. And, again, I don't want it to be that the Republicans gained, two, and now the Democrats have to gain three. It shouldn't be that way. If the ratification of the new START Treaty is a way that makes our nation safer, then, let's work to advance that.

KING: That-

MURKOWSKI: If -- go ahead.

KING: That is among the issues on which you have had profound disagreements and I know you think that we overplay this sometimes, but with the former governor of your state, Sarah Palin, she wrote in "The National Review Online" that she didn't think the treaty was in America's interest, and that it was being rammed through in the lame- duck session using behind the scenes deal-making reminiscent of the tactics used in the health care debate. Is she wrong?

MURKOWSKI: Well, I think she is absolutely wrong about the process and if she had been here, certainly, if she had been a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, where that committee has been working on this treaty for well over seven months now. Now the time that it has been on the floor, and the nine days, which is actually more than we typically have treaties on the floor, may seem like it is expedited. But, in fact, this process that the Senate has gone through to scrutinize this treaty has been one that is as good and sound as has gone through countless, countless hearings and debate and discussion.

KING: You have had an interesting year to say the least.

MURKOWSKI: Yes.

KING: And when we talked about five weeks ago, right after it became clear that, wow, Lisa Murkowski's write-in campaign was going to win. And you would be coming back to Washington, I asked you about the intervention in your state by one of your Republican colleagues, Jim DeMint. Who is a Tea Party favorite, and he spent some money, and raised some money to help Joe Miller; hoping Joe Miller would win that race. And I had talked to him and he said he had some making up to do with you, and this was your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURKOWSKI: He has suggested that he has some making up to do. I will let him make that first move.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You been back a couple of weeks, has he made that first move?

MURKOWSKI: We have. We have had an opportunity to wish one another well after the New Year-excuse me, after the Thanksgiving break. And we have shaken hands. We have not had a lot of talk about what is coming up in this next Congress, but we have a lot of time to do that.

KING: Do you view him as a force for good of the conference, or do you view him as a rabble rouser, troublemaker?

MURKOWSKI: You know, again, when we try-and the media helps it, try to create these personal divisions, this in-fighting amongst members, whether it is amongst Republicans, or Republican versus Democrat, that does not help us within the process.

As I mentioned, there is going to be a whole new crop of incoming senators. I welcome each and every one of them. I look forward to finding those areas where we can find agreement. I know that we are going to have our disagreements. This is human nature. It is because of where we are from and who we represent. But to get down and to saying he is not being very constructive, or she is not very helpful, does not help the process.

KING: Do you have any question at all, that your home is in the Republican Party?

MURKOWSKI: No, no. Not at all.

KING: Senator Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, who has had one of the more remarkable 2010. We wish you a great holiday season, we'll see you in 2011.

MURKOWSKI: Thank you, John.