Olympia Snowe’s Strange Martyrdom

Daily Intel:

The retirement of Olympia Snowe, at the young (by senatorial standards) age of 65, has again dramatized the perilous condition of the Senate moderates. They have been scorned, marginalized, and hunted close to extinction. Yet the striking fact about Snowe’s career is that, far from being shunted to the sidelines, she has wielded, or been given the opportunity to wield, enormous power. She has used it, on the whole, quite badly.

Read the whole story: Daily Intel

Comments

[ncsteeler]

01:12 PM on 03/03/2012

Snowe along with Collins and Brown are MINOs (moderates in name only). Sure, she may cast the occasional vote for a democratically sponsered bill but only after weakening it to be less effective as she did with ERA and AHCA (which she ultimately voted against). When Mitch needed her vote she was there.

I hope in her last 10 months in the Senate she can actually be the principaled politican she played all these years.

[CaptRuby]

12:56 PM on 03/03/2012

I used to like her for her centrist views, but her vote on HC bill completely disappointed me, she was for it until the end, when she chickened out due to fear of TP forces.

That vote left her nobody's friend, people who want HC reformed, and those who don't.

[Yank in France]

12:36 PM on 03/03/2012

Olympia Snowe was neither strong nor wise. Let us hope that the Democrats come up with a candidate with real conviction and vision to replace her!

[motoGpifupleez]

12:33 PM on 03/03/2012

Bill Maher pointed out last night that a huge re-write of healthcare reform was done specifically to get her on board and in the end, she still voted "NO!".

She was a "false hope" vote that failed to live up to the promise far more than she lived up to it.

[Ariana Avitia]

01:23 AM on 03/04/2012

Yup. Sucks when people go out of their way to try to accommodate another and you still get turned down.

[ArchbishopBenevolent]

12:10 PM on 03/03/2012

Olympia Snowe should have run as an independent. She does not have the courage of her convictions.

[einzelgaenger]

11:32 AM on 03/03/2012

Go home, good riddance, if you had any guts there'd been no filibusters. Just as useless as the Blue Dogs working for the lobbyists.

[dontblowit]

11:18 AM on 03/03/2012

exactly right. Snowe and the other worthless "centerists" have gotten way to much slack for their "moderate" middle of the road nonsense. This is not to say that working across party lines is bad in fact that's the only way this system can work now that two parties have taken over to the exclusion of any other voices. Snowe should not be forgiven for her betrayal during the Health care debacle, she and Nelson the other pathetic figure pretty much eliminated the public option, the only thing that would have really made "obamacare" successful in the long run instead of the giveaway to the insurance industry it is sure to become. They eliminated choice unfortunately, which probably would have gone a long way to bolster support at least among democrats and more enlightened people. On top of that, after butchering the bill in committee went right along lock step with the republican obstructionists in voting against the final bill.
As for Lieiberman and his treachery, its fine that he supported his dear friend McCain against his own party but then to whine about their disapproval of it and hold them hostage for his vote is the height of hypocracy, which is exactly why the country is better off with them gone.

[mcartri]

11:06 AM on 03/03/2012

If Snowe had not announced her retirement before the vote on the Blunt Bill, would she have been the ONLY Republican to vote "No". I believe the answer lies in Snowe's fellow Maine Republican Senator, "Moderate" Susan Collins. Of course Collins voted "Yes", following McConnell's orders as usual. I have no doubt Snowe would have voted "Yes", too. Recall that Mitch's directive to his lemmings at the start of Obama's presidency was, "Our #1 goal is to keep Obama from being re-elected." Collins will be the only GOP Maine Senator next year. Since Obama would already be re-elected, what will become her #1 goal then? That's easy...The defeat of ______(Fill in the blank) in the 2016 election.

[einzelgaenger]

11:33 AM on 03/03/2012

Right.

[Jill Press]

11:03 AM on 03/03/2012

Olympia Snowe is a good example of how women can be equal to men in selfishness.

Putting the preservation of her cushy job ahead of whatever principles she may have, Olympia Snowe maintained a career as a "centrist" politician, without acknowledging that the key feature of centrism has become the refusal to criticize the intransigent far right, which is publically committed to bringing down Obama even if it means destroying the country.

Her colleague, Susan Collins, is still hanging in there, not yet aware that the center cannot hold.

[KathyinMichigan]

11:03 AM on 03/03/2012

She probably doesn't like the new insider trading rules. I'm sorry but there was nothing moderate about Ms. Snow. She has been portrayed as a moderate because she is pro-choice, other than that, there is nothing moderate about her. All about the money.

[Palafox]

10:22 AM on 03/03/2012

Another lousy politician (and fake moderate) goes into the lobby pool. Good riddance.

[Bruce Farmer]

10:20 AM on 03/03/2012

Regardless of Sen Snowe's performance as a Senator, Her retirement points out a real problem in Congress. The partisan politics with no cooperation between parties has resulted in a "do nothing", Congress. Both Senate and House long term members treat their "jobs" as a right, not a privilege granted to them by the voting public. They treat Capitol Hill as a private club with many "perks" that they use without discretion. "Fact finding" junkets are often no more than an excuse to "party" in exotic locales at the tax payers expense. The longer they are in office, the more they lose sight of their connection to the voters. Let's amend the Constitution to set term limits on both Congressmen and Senators. As the reality of that sets in, it will be like giving them all a collective "wedgie"!

[KathyinMichigan]

11:05 AM on 03/03/2012

We have term limits, it's called vote them out. We have term limits in Michigan. It has been terrible for our state. No one actually writes legislation anymore, it comes directly from the lobyists. The insurance company's own Michigan right now.

[mcartri]

11:18 AM on 03/03/2012

100% of the cause of our dysfunctional government lies with the GOP. It isn't called the "Party of No" for nothing. With the purchase by the corporate/uber-rich oligarchy of the entire GOP and much of the Democratic Party, we have severe polarization. This split in America is promoted by the 24/7 brainwashing of the dupe-able by Fox News and right-wing hate radio. A dysfunctional government rewards the 1% and punishes all the rest of us. Sad to say, but in this environment, little will be done for the 99% unless the entire government is in the control of the Moderate Republican Party, known today as the Democratic Party.

[Matt12]

10:15 AM on 03/03/2012

There's nothing ecumenical nor poetic about Snowe's retirement. We should be on the side of preventing the theocracy of career politicians i.e. Chuck Shumer in the Senate since 1998. Is the country better off with these individuals, who btw, grow rich in office (how?..) Strom Thurmond, 47 yrs in the Senate; Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) 47 yrs 2 mths.

http://www.senate.gov/senators/Biographical/longest_serving.htm


Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Richard Lugar (R-IN)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT
Max Baucus (D-MT)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Carl Levin (D-MI)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
John Kerry (D-MA)
Tom Harkin[6] (D-IA)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) 14
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Richard Shelby[7] (R-AL)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Harry Reid (D-NV) 18
Kent Conrad[8] (D-ND)
Joe Lieberman[9] (ID-CT)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)23
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)

[gumbo1049]

10:15 AM on 03/03/2012

A puppet of the right and a BOUGHT SENATOR. Respect? -- NO!

[isaacsVT]

10:09 AM on 03/03/2012

If Olympia Snowe was really worth anything she would have stood up to McConnell and stopped the filibusterer to nowhere. She and Collins just look good compared to Coburn and Kyl, Every once in a while, about 2% of the time, they say or do something that is actually good for the country. The rest of the time they are lockstep Republicans. The last good Republican senator from Maine was Bill Cohen. Good riddance to Snowe. Maine will elect Chellie Pingree or another good dem now.

[mcartri]

11:20 AM on 03/03/2012

Blue Dog Democrats enabled the GOP agenda much more often that Snowe & Collins tried to moderate it.