GOP's Snowe Is Retiring From Senate

WSJ ^ | February 28, 2012 | Naftali Bendavid

[BOBWADE]

Mitt is popular back east. Perhaps he can move there and band up with his RINO buddies McCain and Graham in the senate.
All joking aside, now at least the Democrats will have to run a campaign in that state now that they lost a vote in the senate.

[TChad]

Are you that naive?

I'll spell it out for you.

Max americana clearly implied that Snowe had voted for Obamacare.

I responded that she "ended up" voting against Obamacare. The "ended up" was there because of her Finance Committee vote.

I did not approve of her vote in the Senate Finance Committee.

I did approve of her (less significant) vote against Obamacare, and think it should be acknowledged as a fact, however inconvenient that may be.

OK?

[warsaw44]

Look for a host of liberals ‘ from away ‘ to run for that seat.

Seems every liberal that moves to Maine gets their ass involved in politics at some level. But then again - they are only doing so because they know whats best for us.

LePage himself is a heavy duty Tea Party man as are most of the new Republicans that recently won. Would not be surprised if a real Republican won that seat. Seems Paul is becoming popular with many people who did not vote for the man to begin with. Maybe, just maybe, his endorsement of a candidate will help tip the balance in our favor.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

It wouldn’t be that hard to properly crop the photo.

[johnthebaptistmoore]

My Prediction: Only to be replaced by, either, another RINO, or a Democrat. When is “RINO Republicanism” going to, actually, end in the northeastern states and then, really, be replaced by conservative Republicanism, if ever?

[JohnG45]

I did approve of her (less significant) vote against Obamacare, and think it should be acknowledged as a fact, however inconvenient that may be.

OK?

NO!!

I'll spell it out for you.

Senate vote on Obamacare with Olympia Snowe voting against Obamacare: YEA - 60, NAY - 39 Obamacare passes.

Senate vote on Obamacare if Olympia Snowe had voted for Obamacare: YEA - 61, NAY - 38 Obamacare passes.

Her vote on the Senate floor was meaningless to the outcome of the Senate vote since the Democrats controlled the Senate.

I ask again. Are you that naive?

[AuH2ORepublican]

“She could have voted to kill the Senate bill in the Finance Committee, but instead voted to move it to the Senate floor.”

---

Given that the RATs had a substantial majority on the Finance Committee, and all Democrats on the committee supported moving it to the floor, the bill would have moved to the floor irrespective of how Snowe voted. Talk about a “tradition” that at least one minority vote was needed to move a bill to the floor was just that: talk.

She was a horrible RINO, a traitor to her party on numerous votes, but you can’t pin Obamacare on her.

[AuH2ORepublican]

The only Republican running is Scott D’Amboise, who does not have the profile one would expect of a Senate candidate (an ophthalmic technician/small business owner who used to serve as a Town Selectman) but appears to be solid on the issues without being offensive to Downeaster sensibilities. http://www.damboiseforsenate.com/ More impressively, he had raised over $470,000 for the race as of December 31, which is almost 5 times the amount raise by the five declared Democrat candidates combined. http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G12/ME#S1

D’Amboise claims that no one else will be able to meet the filing requirements by March 15, irrespective of how much money they spend; I am skeptical, since if D’Amboise and five Democrats (some of whom are nobodies) were able to gather enough signatures, someone with high name ID and some money should be able to do it quickly. I think you’ll see some more prominent Republicans making a run.

On the RAT side, I would not be surprised if both congressmen decided that they couldn’t pass up a once-in-a-generation open-seat Senate race in Maine. That will open up both House seats, and we should be competitive in both (and could be favored in the ME-02 if Raye stays in that race instead of switching to the Senate race).

With the current field of candidates, the ME Senate race is a toss-up; we’ll have to wait to find out who runs before we can handicap the race for real.

[JohnG45]

She was a horrible RINO, a traitor to her party on numerous votes, but you can’t pin Obamacare on her.

I will gladly stand corrected, but why was such a big issue made of her Finance Committee vote at that time?

[Kenny Bunk]

Could the old bag tell us which DEMOCRAT EVER VOTED against their Party's wishes on MAJOR Legislation, like SHE ALWAYS DID?

Whoa! Not a fair question for a female RINO. The accession of this bimbo leaves the entire question of female suffrage on the table. "Avoid controversy." "Make Nice." "Share." "No Fighting." "Let's all work together."

"Vote for Olympia. She's really nice and you will get everything the Democrats promise, but we're just nicer." That is what the Republican Party has become. Had women voted in 1860, we would still have slavery, but the slaves would be "nicely" dressed and belong to "nice" people, who treated them "nicely."

WTF is "nice" all about? Wait, I'll ask that nice Muslim gentleman over there. The one with the bomb.

[Kenny Bunk]

While I am on the subject, why does no one ever ask about MR. Snowe, or MR. Collins. Or MR. Boxer, or MR Feinstein, or MR. Pelosi?

The American tradition of enrichment through public office is now very solid. These people ... and their relatives ... become MEGA-millionaires during their tenure in office. Voters need to be trained to look.

When Sharon Lengle (No campaigner that bimbo!) pointed out that Harry Reid came to public service dead broke and in debt, and that now he's worth over $20 Million that we know about, and his relatives more, no one batted an eye. Business as usual. The Clintons? Dead broke deadbeats ... now worth many hundreds of millions.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Mr. Snowe is Jock McKernan, the former liberal Republican Congressman and Governor. He is actually being floated as a potential replacement for his wife.

[Kenny Bunk]

Jock McKernan

Aw jeez, I was hoping that left-wing lunatic had already left the planet. Check his bank account.

[KansasGirl]

She voted it out of committee when he could have killed it there. Obama even thanked her for her “courage.”. She then voted “no” on final passage knowing it would pass anyway. She is a snake.

[BillyBoy]

I'm delighted to see Olympia Snowjob leaving, I can't imagine any "Republican" would be worse (she needs to take her twin with her though, otherwise we'll still be getting the same kinds of votes out of Maine)

However, I'm sure the "powers that be" in the Maine GOP will never accept Scott D’Amboise as their candidate. They're probably getting together right now to agree on a consensus RINO that's "electable" (if not and mulitple RINOs run, D’Amboise has an opening and could win the nomination by plurality)

I'm sure some useful idiot freepers will agree with the party bosses and tell us that only Democrat-lite can "win" in Maine. As fieldmarshaldj often points out, notice these standards never apply to Democrats running in heavily Republican states. If they did, RAT officials would have done everything possible to block Nick Begich, Kay Hagan, Tim Johnson, etc. from being nominated and endlessly lecture Dem voters "a liberal CANNOT win this state! You may not like it, but this state voted for George W. Bush twice! Unfortunately, a pro-life, pro-gun, anti-illegal immigration, smaller government DINO is the best we're gonna elect in a state like this. Vote for our DINO or the Republicans will win!!"

[AuH2ORepublican]

“I will gladly stand corrected, but why was such a big issue made of her Finance Committee vote at that time?”

---

It was a big deal because the GOP wanted to present a united front against Obamacare, and her voting for it in committee gave Obama a temporary (albeit false) claim that it was a “bipartisan” bill. The bill was sent to the floor by a 14-9 committee vote; had Snowe voted against it, it would have passed by a 13-10 committee vote. She should be chastised for having voted that way in committee, but it is risible to claim that but for her vote Obamacare would have not gotten to the floor, or that her committee vote was of more importance than later floor votes on defeating the filibuster (where Snowe and every other Republican voted “no” on cloture, and cloture was achieved only because all 60 Democrats voted for it).

So, I will reiterate: Olympia Snowe was a horrible RINO, and a traitor to her party on numerous votes, but you can’t pin Obamacare on her.

[VRWC For Truth]

Yellow Snowe knows the guillotines toll for thee. Good riddance to RINO dog doo.

[Clintonfatigued]

Here’s the latest, which is developeing quickly:”

Among DemocRATS, Congerssman Mike Michaud has announced and Chellie Pingree (whose husband is a multimillionair publisher) and former Governor John Baldacci are seriously thinking about it. Pingree is a radical leftist, Michaud less so.

The Republican nominee is anyone’s guess. One name mentioned is Peter Cianchette, a former state Rep. who ran for Governor in 2002 and came closer to winning than anyone expected, and later became U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica. Is he still remembered?

[AuH2ORepublican]

With Michaud announcing for the Senate, that should make Republican Kevin Raye the frontrunner for ME-02 (although I’m sure the Dems will come up with a candidate that will make the race very competitive). However, I think that Raye would be better suited for a statewide run, given that his pro-choice stance on abortion will help him in the Portland area but hurt him in rural areas. Raye would be a HUGE improvement over Snowe, and in a state like Maine, I’d take him; and we could elect a pro-life congressman in ME-02 that could start building his résumé for eventually replacing Susan Collins.

Michaud is (or at least was) nominally pro-life, and is not a moonbat. He would be tough to beat in the Senate race. The ME-02 representative has to appeal to a wide array of voters in both rural and urban (or urban by Maine standards)areas and must have pretty much statewide name ID, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the two prior ME-02 Representatives went on to become a three-term Senator (Snowe) and a two-term governor (Baldacci), respectively. Hopefully, the moonbat Pingree beats Michaud in the primary and we can beat her in the general.

[Clintonfatigued]

Kevin Raye is known as a champion for rural Maine. Also, he also has the campaign aparatus in place. It’s not clear that he would appeal to the Portland area.

Peter Cianchette ran strongly in the Portland area when he ran for Governor. How much name I.D. he still has is unclear to me. Input from Maine Freepers will be very helpful in this thread.