Gadzooks-- Hot damn... 
and General Jackson! About time!!!
Posted on 02/28/2012 8:11:10 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Just across at CNN. No details yet, but Fox reporter Trish Turner is tweeting bits of what she claims is Snowe’s statement. Quote:
“I have no doubt I would have won re-election”
“I do find it frustrating, however, that an atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions.”
“…what I have had to consider is how productive an additional term would be. Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term. So at this stage of my tenure in public service, I have concluded that I am not prepared to commit myself to an additional six years in the Senate, which is what a fourth term would entail.”
“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. It is time for change in the way we govern”
Don’t get too excited to see a RINO go. Nate Silver tweets, “We had estimated GOP’s chances of holding Maine senate at 85% before. Maybe 20-30% now after Snowe retirement.” Taking back the Senate just got a lot harder. Stand by for updates.
Update: In case you’re tempted to think she quit to deny tea partiers the pleasure of tossing her out, Roll Call had the seat rated “safe Republican” and a PPP poll taken in November had her favorable rating among GOP primary voters at 51/37, up from 47/44 last March. Losing her is like losing Scott Brown, but like Brown, Snowe was a no vote on ObamaCare. If this seat turns blue, repeal just became less likely.
Update: For an early inkling of Snowe’s disgruntlement, go back and read this post from September 2010 about her lamenting “ideological purity” after the defeat of Mike Castle in Delaware. I wondered at the time whether she might bypass the primary altogether by going independent and forming some sort of new Senate indie caucus with Lieberman, Scott Brown, Collins, Murkowski, Ben Nelson, etc. That could have been the nucleus for greater centrist influence in Congress, and maybe even the germ of a third-party movement. Instead, she’ll likely end up being replaced by an orthodox Democrat. Oh well.
Update: So perfectly does her statement coincide with David Brooks’s column this morning, I have to wonder if they weren’t coordinated. Says Brooksy, first they came for the RINOs…
But where have these party leaders been over the past five years, when all the forces that distort the G.O.P. were metastasizing? Where were they during the rise of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck? Where were they when Arizona passed its beyond-the-fringe immigration law? Where were they in the summer of 2011 when the House Republicans rejected even the possibility of budget compromise? They were lying low, hoping the unpleasantness would pass.
The wingers call their Republican opponents RINOs, or Republican In Name Only. But that’s an insult to the rhino, which is a tough, noble beast. If RINOs were like rhinos, they’d stand up to those who seek to destroy them. Actually, what the country needs is some real Rhino Republicans. But the professional Republicans never do that. They’re not rhinos. They’re Opossum Republicans. They tremble for a few seconds then slip into an involuntary coma every time they’re challenged aggressively from the right…
Leaders of a party are supposed to educate the party, to police against its worst indulgences, to guard against insular information loops. They’re supposed to define a creed and establish boundaries. Republican leaders haven’t done that. Now the old pious cliché applies:
First they went after the Rockefeller Republicans, but I was not a Rockefeller Republican. Then they went after the compassionate conservatives, but I was not a compassionate conservative. Then they went after the mainstream conservatives, and there was no one left to speak for me.
Rhinos, possums: Is there an animal that gets indignant before committing suicide to prove a point so that we have an analogy for Snowe?
Update: Via Slublog, this blogger at the Bangor Daily News says something’s suspicious here: “There is very obviously something going on here behind the scenes, since Senator Snowe was so aggressively campaigning for re-election, and in full campaign mode for the last year. Decisions like this – being so very much running (and winning) to very much not – do not happen this abruptly in politics. Ever.”
More, from a separate post: “I am told her own staff was unaware of this decision until just hours before the statement went out – just long enough to actually work on the release and send it out.”
Gadzooks-- Hot damn... and General Jackson! About time!!!
Oh spare me your drama.
I'm not even going to ask you to explain this comment.
"Better deal" is but one possibility. However, regarding the question itself:
That is the right question.
If this is true, those folks need to stop drinking their own cool aid.
And this guy thought his car is actually worth something too, until he tried to sell it:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200717083899+&viewitem=&afsrc=1
Yes, they set it up without the 17th.
You have to understand, that wasn’t the reason why she resigned. When a politician says why they are resigning, that is almost always not the reason.
Until there is further information, it is likely for the same reason every other democrat or faux-Republican has done so, because it’s going to be a tough year for liberals and she wanted to screw over the Republicans as best she could.
You post to me: “You have to understand, that wasn’t the reason why she resigned. When a politician says why they are resigning, that is almost always not the reason.”
ahahaha
It always amuses me when anyone starts out a message with ‘You have to understand...”
No, actually, I don’t have to.
You state your OPINION, which may be true and may not be. Might it be better to start with something like: “I believe..” or “In my opinion,” or “It seems to me” ?
But then, maybe you have an inside line to Olympia?
BTW, did you ever see this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5T9n8njInA
Of course, you probably have other reps giving a harder assessment against ObamaCare?
Here fighting against 1099
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6jysN8ERAk&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw4XuMhyaoQ&feature=related
Now, from the above, you will likely deduce that I am for Olympia.
No so. But I AM not for blanket uninformed condemnation.
It just may be that the last 2 years, with bill after bill being sent to the senate from the Republican Congress only to be ignored by Reid, combined with anything else the Administration can’t get the Congress to “obey’ is simply and with malice aforethought, bypassing the congress AND the rule of law and ruling as a king through E.O.’s.
This prevents ANYthing from our side getting done. In addition, she is in a position to know much more that we ever will about what is going on behind the scenes - things none of us may be able to stop.
It just may be that she is worn out trying to hold back the tide - at least in her public role. I will be looking to see what she is going to do in the future, working outside the system.
I’ll hold my fire until the feathers settle...as, unlike you, I simply don’t know if her reasons are as stated or something sinister and underhanded.
But thank your for your concern about what I “must understand.”
I will give you a point for being technically correct that one doesn’t have to do anything that another person says they must do. You are correct on that point.
On your assumption that I would assume that you would support Olympia, you would be incorrect there, so I get a point, leaving us tied.
Having the cynical eye that I do have, in regards to politics, I’ve learned that it is usually consistent that a politician’s actions speak louder than any words. If it had been her intent to not run for office, because she wanted out prior to spending the money printing signs, gathering volunteers, sending out newsletters, and whatever else it takes to run for office.
The fact that she spent the donated money and leaving the Republican party hard-pressed to offer an alternate candidate in such short notice suggests that her intent, regardless of everything else, was to hurt the Republican’s chances in the Senate over everything else.
Those are her actions. It is likely, based on her actions, that was her intent.
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