Posted on 07/23/2013 5:52:08 AM PDT by cotton1706
Liz Cheney has not made a case for her challenge to Mike Enzi in a Wyoming Republican primary next year, former Sen. Olympia Snowe told POLITICO.
The Maine Republican senator said the decision by Cheney to take on the genial third-term senator is “unfortunate,” given that Enzi travels home often and reflects his constituents’ conservative beliefs while also working “to do the right thing for the right reasons” legislatively.
“There is no reason to challenge him. What is the basis? That he’s not working hard enough? He’s working very hard,” Snowe said. “That he’s not conservative enough? I think it’s regrettable.”
Snowe served with Enzi in the upper chamber for 16 years and since her retirement in January has increasingly sought to defend her colleagues from conservative challengers. She and former moderate Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) are banding together to protect the party’s centrist members.
LaTourette said in an interview Monday that their group will be taking a close look at the Wyoming race. Other Senate GOP candidates he said they are looking to protect are Sen. Susan Collins in Maine and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito in West Virginia.
Cheney has sought to position herself as a fresh-faced alternative to the longtime legislator — but initial polls show Enzi with a wide lead. Snowe said Senate Republicans need more people like Enzi focused on problem solving rather than those critical of compromise.
“She’s a talented, very capable woman,” Snowe said of Cheney. But “where the party stands at this point, it’s important to have Mike Enzi in the process.”
LaTourette said in an interview Monday that their group will be taking a close look at the Wyoming race. Other Senate GOP candidates he said they are looking to protect are Sen. Susan Collins in Maine and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito in West Virginia."
Whatever you may think of Cheney, just take a look at the people coming out to protect Mike Enzi. God forbid an established senator gets challenged for reelection. That just shouldn't happen, is Olympia Snowe's view. Senators, apparently, are supposed to remain unchallenged until they decide to retire or are removed by a democrat.
Olympia is next.
The Senate: America’s House of Lords.
Olympia Snowe is Nancy Pelosi without the charisma.
THIS! (I was going to make this very point, but you had already done so very well....which to me is even more important than the moderate-conservative angle....)
Which is another way of saying the challenge is fortunate.
Personally, I don’t think Enzi is that bad. But seeing who is protecting him just makes me more and more leery. Whenever I hear the word “centrist”, I want to barf.
“Olympia is next.”
She’s already gone. All it took was a primary challenge last year and she announced her retirement. That’s why she’s so bitter.
RINOs should be challenged and REMOVED.(That means YOU Juan McLame, Lindsey, Isaksonofabitch, Rubio, Ryan ...)
The only thing worse than having the support of Snowe, would be having the support of obama.
It is really quite rare that I agree with Olympia.
“Personally, I don’t think Enzi is that bad. But seeing who is protecting him just makes me more and more leery. Whenever I hear the word “centrist”, I want to barf.”
In all honesty, he isn’t. But his conservatism is trending downward and he’ll soon be an Orrin Hatch, a Richard Lugar, one of the old guard that the democrats can count on for a vote.
Seems kind of odd that the moderates are protecting Enzi over open borders pro gay marriage Cheney.
Its almost as if they’re trying some kind of reverse psychology.
“Seems kind of odd that the moderates are protecting Enzi over open borders pro gay marriage Cheney.”
Their instinct is to protect their own, protect the members of the club. They spend years wearing down senators’ conservatism, co-opting them, as Trent Lott would say.
With a new person they have to start all over again. That’s why they come to the defense of Enzi, Lugar, Specter, Bennett, Murkowski, Stevens, Hatch, etc.
But guaranteed, these same people would have supported a challenge to Jim DeMint for example, or Rand Paul, or Mike Lee. They’d have no problem getting rid of the “divisive ones.”
Whoever has the support of Olympia Snowe should be replaced ASAP.
“THIS! (I was going to make this very point, but you had already done so very well....which to me is even more important than the moderate-conservative angle....) “
Rotation in office is the key to liberty.
Or the good looks /s
But Rand Paul is protecting him too.
In the modern GOP it is quite possible that the enemy of our enemy is just another enemy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.