Forum Post: Snowe tips the Rs further over the cliff - good news!
Posted 12 years ago on Feb. 29, 2012, 9:19 a.m. EST by bensdad
(8977)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Maine GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe announced Tuesday she would not seek re-election to a fourth term because she is frustrated with polarization in Washington.
"Maine people appreciate my independent voice and my willingness to stand up to the president and the party, to be a voice of reason and a consensus builder. There are fewer and fewer such voices as politics becomes increasingly polarized, and that's not good for Maine or for America."
"It's not healthy for the country to have parties with polar opposite views without that bridge that you need to build consensus."
"Ultimately, we're heading to having the smallest political tent in history, the way events have been unfolding. If the Republican Party fully intends to become a majority party in the future, it must move from the far right back toward the middle."
Senator Olympia Snowe, one of the few remaining Republican moderates in Congress, stunned both parties on Tuesday by announcing she will not seek re-election for a fourth six-year term in November, complaining of partisan gridlock. Snowe said both parties are to blame for the gridlock that has plagued Congress and she expected no short-term improvement despite public disapproval ratings near 90 percent.
"I think people are shocked by the Senate not being able to come together and to come up with solutions to the big problems,"
"We're wasting precious time. We could have done some big things. We could have had an energy policy. We could have had tax reform. We could have had regulatory reform."
She urged Americans to "expect and demand" an end to gridlock from their elected officials.
With Snowe out of the running other Democrats are expected to jump in before the March 15 filing deadline.
What I have been advocating: http://occupywallst.org/forum/get-active-be-proactive-unite-in-common-cause/
"She urged Americans to "expect and demand" an end to gridlock from their elected officials. "
From a Republican no less.
Well we will see in time whether this was a clever tactic to be asked to run again in the face of the republican party members in office sabotaging the governmental process and supporting the ruin of our economy.
Or if it was truthfully meant.
The main thing is it is good advice.
Demand - Responsibility
Demand - Accountability
Demand - That members of Government honor their oath of office to support the people and this country. ( ALL MEMBERS )
Demand - Money be removed from politics
Demand - Removal of conflict of interest by members of Government. Prior to taking office.
Demand - clear one subject at a time legislation, no more riders no more attachments.
Demand - The end of ear-marks
Demand - The removal of corporate personhood.
Demand - From the Justice Department, SEC, Supreme court, that the law of the land be enforced ( no one is above the law especially those who are in the business of law and members of government State or Federal )
Demand - The return of Government to The People for Whom it was created.
pardon my nit picking
"demand" gives the power to THEM
lets DEMAND that WE the people - OWS -
GET IT DONE
You are pardoned.
Everyone who is so inclined, please exchange ORDER for Demand.
They are "our" employees After-all!
thank you, kind sir, for the pardon
but if they were "our" employees OWS would not exist here's my next nit
they are our "employees"
This is just sad. I may disagree with Senator Snowe on certain issues, but she's one of the few Republican senators out there who actually believed in keeping Congress (and the country) functioning over and above the crap expected of her by the fringe elements of the Republican Party. She wasn't a Citizens United Republican, she didn't play chicken with our creditors or try to run the healthcare plan into the ground (sure, she voted against the final bill, but she made an honest effort to work with the Democrats and only walked out after something happen that made her decide that she got pushed aside), and her voting record basically shows a willingness to vote based on principles and on the will of her constituents rather than adhering to an increasingly distant and irrational party line. She even fought for a variation on the public option that would automatically kick in if the option-free Obamacare failed to control costs appropriately.
Come 2012 Maine is going to be just like Alaska was in 2010. The GOP is going to run some fire-breathing loony in the mold of Santorum or some slick CEO a la Romney, and just like in Alaska the fringe candidate is going to get trounced. This time, though, it won't be by Sen. Snowe, whether in the primaries or as an independent in the general election; it'll be by a progressive Democrat. The Democrat will have a fairly easy win; the citizens of Maine aren't easily swayed by inchoate rhetoric or corporate-funded ad campaigns and that's pretty much all the new candidate is going to have to offer. Early polls are showing that there is no real primary GOP front-runner and neither prospective candidate has been able to get much support.
All in all, it's a seat the Democrats are pretty much guaranteed to pick up in 2012 with little to no contest, but it's one of the few seats I would have been happy to let the Republicans keep for at least another term.
This is not a good thing. Snowe is the most moderate Republican senator. He replacement, whether a Democrat or a Replublican, is likely to be more partisan. Not good for the country no matter what happens. We need more centrists who can transcend the artificial red/blue dichotomy.
As a Democrat, I still liked Snow. I thought she was wrong about most things, but she seemed to have integrity.
That said, I am not altogether concerned. The Democrats now have a better chance of retaining the Senate, and Maine is likely to elect a moderate from either party. Mainers tend to be far more pragmatic and less ideological than people from, say, the Bible Belt or other regions.
bensdad did great posts till the Green Party ego whores ran him off.....
Speaking for the DNC/Likud faction was bensdad's forte' but because he spoke up for ''liberal'' politics in
U$A yet defended the far-RW Likud in Israel, do the politically sub-literate like U think he was ally of The
US 99%! This old forum-post that U've revived is about the fkn idiot Repugnants - so U, frf & bensdad (if
he had the cojones to still be here) ... are all happy as a pig in shit, because your binary brained political
illiteracy is satisfied!! Meanwhile .. did U notice that Olympia Snowe - was replaced NOT by a Democrap
but by another Repugnant in Maine? Namely dingbat Susan Collins - who helped shoe-horn Kavanaugh
into the SCOTUS?!!! Have U any idea WTF is going on in U$A or why? OR is everything going to be fkn
magically rectified by everyone voting Democrap?! U dingbat! Now go get your empty-head around this:
Finally, U really do need to get over calling everyone who doesn't kiss Democrap A$$ .. Greens or GOP
and realize that eg. Alexandria O-C, is far closer to DSA & Kshama Sawant than RW Corp.Democraps!
Do U recall me saying that both D&R were birthed as 3rd Party options? + see https://www.dsausa.org/
for insight into the beginnings of a new coalition of Left, Liberals and Progressives, that the USA needs.
ad iudicium ...
Senator Snowe voted for Obamacare; so good riddance. but the democrats and liberals will use this against the Republicans. Unfortunately for the democrats they may lose the Senate this year anyway.