"Snowe shocks GOP with decision not to run again" February 29, 2012|By Tracy Jan and Bryan Bender
WASHINGTON - Olympia Snowe, a moderate Republican senator from Maine known for her ability to work across party lines on key issues affecting New England and the nation, stunned her colleagues yesterday by announcing she will not seek reelection this fall.
Despite laying a strong foundation for a campaign, the three-term senator decided she will leave after 33 years in Congress, partially blaming the bitter partisanship that has permeated Washington.
“I do find it frustrating . . . that an atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions,’’ Snowe said.
And yet somehow the wars are always funded, Wall Street never has to worry, Israel is always taken care of, and tyranny is always a bipartisan endeavor. The only time the partisanship excuse rears its ugly head is when the AMERICAN PEOPLE NEED SOMETHING!
Her decision is the latest signal the brand of Yankee Republicans - whose fiscally conservative and socially moderate views once held sway in the Senate - is fast fading in New England. And it jeopardizes GOP chances to wrest control of the Senate from Democrats this fall. Now, Democrats have a stronger chance of capturing an open seat in Maine.
Snowe said that she felt confident of reelection but that it would almost be pointless given the deadlocked state of Congress.
Maybe it is a good thing they are deadlocked since every time they seem to do something we all get f***ed.
“With my spartan ancestry I am a fighter at heart; and I am well prepared for the electoral battle, so that is not the issue,’’ said Snowe, 65. “Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term.’’
Such prominent Democrats as US Representative Chellie Pingree may now consider joining a handful of hopefuls running for her seat, which political analysts had called a safe win for Republicans until yesterday. The primary is June 12. The GOP needs a gain of four seats to take control of the Senate.
What difference does it make anymore? We went from Republican control to Democrat control and nothing really changed.
Snowe had a reputation as a staunch advocate on fishing and other marine issues and an ardent backer of veterans and the defense industry in her state. Mieke Eoyang, a former top aide to the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, said Snowe has a long history of working with Democrats.
But she said that in the last few years, the atmosphere has grown so partisan there are exceedingly few opportunities for moderate Republicans to cross the aisle without being lambasted by the GOP leadership.
“I think she is a real casualty of that,’’ said Eoyang, now the director of the national security program at Third Way, a centrist Washington think tank.
During the lengthy debate over President Obama’s bid to overhaul the nation’s health care system, Snowe was the only Republican senator to vote for the legislation at any point; she supported the Finance Committee’s version of the bill in 2009, though she did not vote for the final version.
She was also one of just five Republicans to back the nomination of Elena Kagan, the former Harvard Law School dean, for Supreme Court justice. And she supported Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus package as well as the 2010 Dodd-Frank bill stiffening financial regulations....
Snowe’s colleagues in the Senate said the news caught them by surprise. Senator Susan Collins, also a Maine Republican, said she was devastated to learn of Snowe’s decision....
Snowe is the daughter of Greek immigrants who died when she was a girl, leaving her to be raised by her aunt and uncle. She entered politics in 1973 when she was elected to the Maine House of Representatives to succeed her first husband, Peter Snowe, who was killed in a car accident.
She was elected to the US House in 1978. She ran for the Senate and won in 1994.
In her announcement, Snowe urged colleagues to find common ground. “I see a vital need for the political center in order for our democracy to flourish and to find solutions that unite rather than divide us,’’ she said. “It’s time for change in the way we govern.’’
Those words sound so hollow to a country where 80% of us want an end to the wars and a good, decent, single-payer health system like the rest of the civilized world.
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Yeah, I'm a little snowed under these days so I hope you don't mind my lack of enthusiasm.
"Snowe triggers a shakeup in Maine politics" by Tracy Jan | Globe Staff, March 01, 2012
WASHINGTON — Republican Senator Olympia Snowe’s shocking decision not to seek reelection sparked a scramble yesterday among top Maine Democrats considering a run for the seat and complicated GOP chances of gaining control of the Senate.
Within hours of Snowe’s decision, US Representative Chellie Pingree was collecting signatures to be placed on the ballot in a dash to beat a March 15 filing deadline while other politicians from both parties - including Pingree’s Democratic colleague in the House, Michael Michaud - were also considering a run. A Pingree-Michaud face-off would mean three of the four seats in Maine’s congressional delegation would be up for grabs....
“It took a totally safe Republican seat that Republicans were not going to have to spend any effort or money defending to making that seat in Maine the most vulnerable Republican seat in the nation,’’ said L. Sandy Maisel, a government professor at Colby College.
Republicans, who won the US House in 2010, need to pick up four seats to gain the majority in the Senate. Maine now joins Massachusetts and Nevada as states where Republicans must engage in a heated battle with Democrats to hang onto seats.
“They really didn’t see this coming, so it’s tough,’’ said Jennifer Duffy, senior editor at The Cook Political Report.
Republicans also learned yesterday that former Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kerrey will seek his former seat in Nebraska. GOP officials had thought they had the upper hand in replacing Senator Ben Nelson, a moderate Democrat who is retiring....
Snowe’s surprise announcement Tuesday served as the latest indicator of that toxic atmosphere. Other moderates such as Nelson and Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, have announced their intentions to step down.
And Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee resigned his leadership post as the number three Republican in January because he thought he could be more effective brokering bipartisan resolutions behind the scenes without having to toe the party line, which has shifted to the right with Tea Party influence.
The partisan rancor had prompted William S. Cohen, the former Republican senator from Maine who served as secretary of defense for Democratic President Clinton, to raise money for Snowe’s campaign because he saw moderate Republicans under siege.
Cohen, who had a fund-raiser scheduled for Snowe next Wednesday, said he understands her decision, given the problems on the Hill.
“Here we are debating contraception or whether Darwin is a theory,’’ said Cohen, who said the atmosphere is immeasurably worse since he left the Senate in 1996. “Other countries are looking at us with less and less awe and admiration and asking what are we doing?’’
In an interview with MSNBC yesterday, Snowe, 65, voiced her frustrations, saying the dysfunction has led to paralysis, blaming both parties.
“We’re not working out issues anymore,’’ Snowe said. “We’re competing on a parallel universe.’’
Snowe, her Maine colleague Susan Collins, and Scott Brown of Massachusetts are among the few Senate Republicans to have voted with the Democrats, Maisel said.
“There’s not going to be anything major done in the Senate for the rest of the year,’’ Maisel said. “And you see Senator Brown walking on this tightrope wondering, ‘Do I vote with my party or appeal to the citizens of the Commonwealth when I’m running for reelection?’ ’’
Alan Simpson, a former senator from Wyoming and a Republican whom Obama appointed to cochair his bipartisan deficit reduction commission, called Snowe’s decision to step down a tragedy.
“This is typical of Republicans,’’ Simpson said. “They give each other this saliva test of purity and then they lose and sit around and [complain]. Olympia’s not just there to toe the official line. She’s there to use her brain and I’m sure the people of Maine would have reelected her again. But she just said ‘To hell with it.’ ’’
I'm getting to that point with the Globe.
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Also see: Lion of the center
Winter weather makes a return
Yeah, I've been kind of busy with that the last couple days.
