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It wasn't much in doubt, but Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) confirmed to reporters tonight that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid assured her all of the contentious aspects of the public option compromise--particularly the Medicare buy-in provision--have been dropped. The two met this afternoon so that Reid could gauge the likelihood that she'll ultimately vote with the Democrats, at least to push the bill past a filibuster. He assured you that the Medicare buy-in and the public option are out, I asked? "Correct," she said. Still, Snowe insists, as she did earlier today, that there may not be enough time between...

Olympia Snowe delivered a very good speech on health care shortly before Thanksgiving, not that the press corps noticed. With Majority Leader Harry Reid's announcement this week of a double-secret bargain that Democrats hope will squeeze ObamaCare through the Senate—after nine whole days of debate so far in the world's greatest deliberative body—the Maine Republican's words seem more pertinent than ever. Mrs. Snowe began by noting that this year's health debate is "one of the most complex and intricate undertakings the Congress has ever confronted," and that she, too, has devoted much of her three-decade political career to promoting cheaper,...

Over the weekend, the Senate continued debate on its version of the government takeover of health care with Republican “unanimous consent� cooperation on floor procedure.   Democrats fell into a rhythm of voting down Republican amendments to jettison the half-trillion dollars worth of Medicare cuts while passing their own -- garnering Republican votes (at times 100-0) on their amendments for political cover. As early as today, they will begin consideration of an amendment to bar abortion funding by or through any government-run “public option� insurance plan. This issue still may be the one that kills the bill for the year. ...

Sen. Lindsey Graham may be under fire from conservatives back home in South Carolina. But the Republican got a personal assurance from President Obama yesterday that the White House is supporting his efforts to craft a sweeping Senate energy and global warming bill. “The president told me personally he was very open, that nuclear power would be part of the mix, that clean coal would be part of the mix, that he’s for offshore drilling in a responsible way,” Graham said today in describing his Oval Office meeting with Obama. “But we have to have a price on carbon,...

Can't be posted due to copyright issues. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aN6TzIhTOIgk

At Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Oct. 29th press conference, a CNS News reporter asked, “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?” Speaker Pelosi responded, “Are you serious? Are you serious?” The reporter said, “Yes, yes, I am.” Not responding further, Ms. Pelosi shook her head and took a question from another reporter. Later on, Ms. Pelosi’s press spokesman Nadeam Elshami told CNSNews.com about its question regarding constitutional authority mandating that individual Americans buy health insurance. “You can put this on the record. That is not a serious question. That is...

... Maine is the Charlie Brown of health care. The state’s legislators have tried for decades to fix its system, but their efforts have always fallen short: health insurance premiums are still among the least affordable in the nation, health care spending per person is among the highest and hospital emergency rooms are among the most crowded. Indeed, many overhauls to the system have done little more than squeeze a balloon — solving one problem while worsening another. ... Maine’s history is a cautionary tale for national health reform. The state could never figure out how to slow the spiraling...

Of all of the ridiculously asinine statements of political ineptitude ever to be uttered by anyone holding political office Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine thoughtlessly confessed why she and other RINO’s keep the Republican Party in the minority. (see story) In a quip that was supposed to be in response to Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s statement, that [M]any Republicans were "mad" at Snowe for working with the Democratic majority on health care -- and suggested there might be a backlash against her is she had more "deviations" from conservative GOP orthodoxy Snowe lashed back that she is a life-long Republican...

The lone Republican senator to back any Democratic healthcare proposal says she could support a filibuster When it comes time to pass a final healthcare reform bill, Senate Democrats may need help from Maine's Olympia Snowe, the only Republican senator thus far to vote for a Democratic proposal. And if they do, that could spell doom for the public option. Snowe was asked Thursday whether she'd vote for cloture -- that is, to end a filibuster -- on a bill that includes a provision for a government-run insurer. "I'd say I'm against a public option, so yes," she replied. Pressed...

Politics: Move over, John McCain and Olympia Snowe. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is fast becoming the Democrats' favorite Republican as he partners with John Kerry to push cap-and-trade through the Senate. Earlier this year, eight Republican congressmen made it possible for Waxman-Markey, the 1,400-page job- and economy-killing cap-and-trade legislation, to barely pass the House of Representatives. At the time it seemed dead on arrival in the Senate if it was brought up there this year. Once again, as with their medical plan, the Democrats seek to better the odds by putting a GOP hood ornament on a Democratic clunker....

Rockefeller Says Democrats Can’t Tailor Health Care to Snowe (Bloomberg can only be linked to)

July came too late. In all the euphoria over the news that the Senate Finance Committee has approved its version of health care legislation, some context was missing. With a 60-vote majority in the Senate and a 79-vote advantage in the House of Representatives, it was all but assured that some sort of health care bill would clear the Democrat-dominated committees. It just wasn't supposed to take this long. Back in June, the Washington Post published an internal memo that was written by Senate Democrats plotting out the Finance Committee's timeline for passing health care legislation. Originally, the vote to...

A healthcare reform expert says Democratic leaders in Congress who are seeking to pass healthcare legislation before Thanksgiving are "deceiving themselves into thinking they know what's best for the American people." The Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote today on a healthcare reform bill authored by Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) that would create new taxes and regulations to pay for a massive expansion of the Medicaid entitlement program. Although the Baucus proposal has been billed as the most "moderate and reasonable" of five committee healthcare bills, a new study prepared by Price Waterhouse Coopers estimates that by 2019 the...

We're on a mission to defeat every RINO who ever runs in another GOP primary. Our main vehicle is a website, removerinos.com, aimed at compiling an e-mail list of 25,000 potential donors to any candidate who'll oppose Snowe and/or 22 other RINOs. With over 500 citations (2/3 from the ACU), it’s also one of the most informative sites on the subject of RINO voting records. After Snowe’s vote today, THIS truly is the time to start putting together donor lists to try to beat these RINOs. Please go to removerinos.com and see what you can do. We can still change...

It was Edmund Burke who said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” If anyone has taken a look at America lately, they would find a nation of “do nothings”. Today, “Health Care Reform” as some call it, “Socialized Medicine” as others call it, got over its first major legislative hurdle when it was passed by the Senate Finance Committee. The road has been paved for the legislation to go the full Senate as early as the week of October 26.

Olympia Snowe has sold out the country. Having been banished to our world after Asland chased her out of Narnia, Snowe is intent on corrupting this place too. So we should melt her. What melts snow? Rock salt. I’m going to ship this 5 pound bag of rock salt to her office in Maine. It’s only $3.00. You should join me. It is a visible demonstration of our contempt for her. First she votes for the stimulus. Now this. It’s time to melt Snowe. ORDER YOUR BAG HERE. The mailing address is: 3 Canal Plaza Suite 601 Portland, ME 04101...

Here is video of GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe giving her reasoning on why she decided to vote in favor of the "Baucus Health Care Bill" to move it out of the Senate Finance Committee. The bill passed 14-9, with Snowe being the only Republican to support it. Snowe said the bill was not "all she would wish," but she said "when history calls, history calls." The Obama Administration will seize on Snowe's support to claim "bi-partisan" support for their plan going forward. Snowe may indeed go down in history for her support of this bill, but it won't be positive....

Senate Finance Panel Approves Health Bill, 14-9 By GREG HITT and JANET ADAMY [Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe smiles at Democratic Sen. Max Baucus (left) moments before she announced her support for the Finance Committee's health-care bill.] Getty Images Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe smiles at Democratic Sen. Max Baucus (left) moments before she announced her support for the Finance Committee's health-care bill. WASHINGTON – The Senate Finance Committee Tuesday approved its health-overhaul measure, pushing a revamp of the U.S.'s health-care system closer to reality than it has been in decades. The vote was 14-9, with Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine the...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine said Tuesday that she'd support a sweeping Senate Finance Committee bill overhauling the U.S. health-care industry, giving Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., a sought-after Republican vote on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. In highly anticipated comments on the $829 billion, 10-year bill, Snowe said the bill wasn't all she wanted. "Far from it," she told fellow senators during what is likely to be the committee's last work session on Baucus's bill. "But when history calls, history calls, and I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe says she will vote for a Democratic health care bill, breaking with her party on President Barack Obama's top legislative priority. The Maine senator kept virtually all of Washington guessing how she would vote until she announced it late in the Senate Finance Committee debate Tuesday. Until then, she told reporters, she had not even let Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in on her secret. She told her colleagues: "When history calls, history calls," even though she had some criticism of the bill.

'... the insurance industry is making huge profits off peoples' need for healthcare... I don't want to say whether I will vote for the Baucus Bill or not but we have to reform healthcare...' Folks, she's gonna vote for the Baucus Bill. She's also a coward.

Quiz time: Which of the following provisions has been tucked into the most closely watched health-care bill on Capitol Hill thanks to Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine? Is it a) an annual checkup for every Medicare beneficiary, b) a special health-insurance marketplace in every state that would cater to the needs of small businesses or c) new tax credits to help modest-size firms buy coverage for their workers? The answer is all of the above. As the only Republican on the Finance Committee still in talks with Democrats on a final bill, Snowe now finds herself with extraordinary leverage as...

Time for September’s Terrible Liberal of the Month: Olympia Snowe! Though, a more appropriate title for this week’s column may be Biggest Liberal of the Month. Despite the “R” that appears next to her name, there is little proof that the Maine senator is actually a Republican. Snowe may as well have admitted she was a Democrat ten years ago when, in 1999, she and her colleague Susan Collins (also “R”-ME) both voted to acquit Bill Clinton, saying that perjury wasn’t a grave enough charge to warrant impeachment. No, breaking the law and lying outright before a grand jury isn’t...

President Obama intends to keep wooing the public to support for his health care goals in a scheduled Monday night appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman.” Polls suggest he has had mixed results so far. Most critical, however, is his private effort to persuade one person: Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine. And that effort appears to be going very well. Ms. Snowe has not endorsed either Democratic health care bill in the Senate. No Republican has. But in an interview, she offered a surprisingly robust endorsement of Mr. Obama’s skepticism about expanding government too much, his...

Sen. Olympia Snow (R-Maine): "I've always been a Republican for the traditional principles associated with the Republican Party."

Following up on his This Week appearance where he promised to fight on for the public option, Sen. Jay Rockefeller blasted the draft bill produced by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus: “there is no way in its present form that I vote for it unless it changes in the amendment process by vast amounts.” He’s not alone. Fellow Finance Committee member Ron Wyden is livid too. Expect a rocky mark-up next week. As one top Democrat told me, the fundamental problem is that Democrats “are being asked to support a bipartisan bill that doesn’t have bipartisan support.” The compromise without...

Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, one of the few Republicans you can count on to stab her own party in the back more than John McCain, has issued a dire warning to the White House. Snowe insists that there is "no way" a government run healthcare system will ever pass the Senate. Sayeth the thorn, “I’ve urged the president to take the public option off the table,” adding "it is universally opposed by Republicans," leaving many wondering if she was risking her "maverick" status at the New York Times by oddly including herself in the word "Republicans". Remember, this is the...

The president’s health care speech last night consisted of discredited canards bookended by emotional manipulation. Between his distortions, token gestures for opponents, and lengthy bouts of tongue-lashing, Barack Obama signaled he will continue pushing forward toward socialized medicine. However, it seems likely he will move incrementally through a final bill that will nationalize health care a year after the next presidential election. “You Lie!� Let Me Count the Ways The bulk of his speech consisted of recycled falsehoods long since dismissed. To note the highlights, one can begin with the moment that caught everyone’s attention: Obama’s denial that “our reform...

The email dings started around 10:00 pm, and continued throughout the night as folks throughout Maine sent me the latest report on CNN.com that quotes "sources" who claim, "President Obama and top aides have quietly stepped up talks with moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine on a scaled-back health care bill, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations." I know that Washington, D.C. folks spend a great deal of time in an alternative world, but seriously - Senator Snowe engaged in behind the scenes talks with the President?  Forget for a moment that Senator Snowe has been working on...

President Obama and top aides have quietly stepped up talks with moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine on a scaled-back health care bill, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations. The compromise plan would lack a government-run public health insurance option favored by Obama, but would leave the door open to adding that provision down the road under an idea proposed by Snowe, the sources said. One of the sources said White House officials are "deep in conversations" with Snowe on a much smaller health care bill than Obama originally envisioned. The modified proposal would include insurance reforms,...

Security: A Senate bill lets the president "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "nongovernmental" computer networks and do what's needed to respond to the threat. Didn't they just collect our e-mail addresses?We wish this was just a piece of the fictional "Dr. Strangelove" that fell to the cutting-room floor, but it's not. It is a real piece of disturbingly vague legislation sponsored by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. Senate Bill 773 would grant the administration emergency powers (where have we heard that before?) in the event of a cyberemergency that the president would have...

A revision to the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, the proposed Rockefeller-Snowe legislation in Congress, has drawn criticism because of concerns that it would give the president power to shut down the internet. The proposed law, introduced in April by Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, originally contained a controversial clause that said: “The president may declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of internet traffic to and from any compromised federal government or critical infrastructure information system or network.” The bill recently was revised, and the new language now reads: “The president...

As Congress prepares to hit the restart button on the health care debate, Senator Olympia J. Snowe does not relish the prospect of becoming a Group of One. “I certainly hope not,” exclaimed Ms. Snowe, about the possibility that she could end up as the sole Republican willing to join Senate Democrats in moving ahead on a broad change in health care. Ms. Snowe and two Republican colleagues, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, have been privately negotiating a health care plan with three Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee in what has...

A new drive for special "rights" for those who commit homosexual acts. Email from the well-financed and powerful radical homosexual lobby today: Employment Non-Discrimination Act introduced in U.S. Senate Task Force: ENDA ‘reflects core U.S. value of fairness’ “People recognize that our nation as a whole benefits when everyone is allowed to contribute their talents and skills, free from discrimination, which is all ENDA seeks to do.” — Rea Carey, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 — The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund applauds today’s Senate introduction of the Employment...

Here is video of GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) on Morning Joe today where she characterized the Obama Administration's attempting to push through a radical Health Care reform plan as trying to "railroad a process in an unrealistic time frame." Snowe did not indicate how she stands on the legislation, but she has often voted with Democrats on issues. But at the least, she clearly sees the process Obama is trying to use as an attempt to "railroad" the legislation through Congress. Snowe did say they are moving away from a plan that interferes in the doctor - patient relationship....

The Hill: Democrats tried to "railroad" healthcare through Congress, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said today. Snowe, a key centrist Republican on the Finance Committee, said the committee was hard at work poring over every detail of the possible legislation, and compared that process to what Democrats tried to do earlier this session. "[We're] doing what should have been done at the outset of this year, rather than trying to railroad a procses in an unrealistic timeframe," Snowe told MSNBC's Morning Joe.

McCain, Graham, Collins, and Snowe. No, it's not a singing group like Crosby, Seals, and Nash. If they were, they would be immediately branded as 'anti-music.' These Republicans are most likely to vote in favor of Cap and Trade. But the good news is that a dozen Democrats have expressed doubts about voting for the bill due to the enormous costs to citizens and our economy.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Sen. Olympia Snowe, a key figure in shaping federal health care legislation, said Monday that a government-run plan that would take effect if the private insurance market fails to deliver affordable coverage could bridge the partisan divide that threatens to derail President Barack Obama's efforts to reform the system. Snowe, R-Maine, said she's working with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to establish that kind of a framework in the bill expected to emerge next month from the Senate Finance Committee. In an Associated Press interview in Portland, Snowe said it would be unfair to include a government-run...

After losing Arlen Specter to the Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell moved quickly to gauge the level of discontent of one of his caucus’ few remaining moderates. McConnell sat down privately with Sen. Olympia J. Snowe of Maine on Wednesday and let her vent about what she thinks is going wrong with the Grand Old Party. It was a one-on-one follow-up to a New York Times essay in which Snowe contended the party didn’t need to lose Specter. After the meeting, Snowe had nothing but good things to say about McConnell, R-Ky., and focused her criticism on other wings...

The House of Representatives just passed HR 1913 -- The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 -- on a vote of 234-190. The bill, which Obama has urged Congress to pass, would extend federal hate crimes laws to cover sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, as well as race, color, religion, national origin, and sexual orientation. Not a single Republican voted in favor. 15 Democrats voted against. In the floor debate before the vote, North Carolina Republican Virginia Foxx called it a "hoax" that Matthew Shepard's killing had anything to do with him being gay. Ted Kennedy...

IT is disheartening and disconcerting, at the very least, that here we are today — almost exactly eight years after Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party — witnessing the departure of my good friend and fellow moderate Republican, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, for the Democratic Party. And the announcement of his switch was all the more painful because I believe it didn’t have to be this way. When Senator Jeffords became an independent in 2001, I said it was a sad day for the Republicans, but it would be even sadder if we failed to confront and learn...

Both Republican senators from Maine said Tuesday that the GOP must change its ways following Sen. Arlen Specter’s (Pa.) decision to switch parties. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe told reporters that they were surprised at Specter’s decision and that they largely feel at home in the Republican Conference. Both senators often cross the aisle to support Democratic bills, including the $787 billion stimulus law. Collins called Specter’s decision “unfortunate for our party and our country,” and acknowledged that Democratic leaders have long been trying to persuade her to change parties. “When you’re a moderate Republican, every year there’s someone...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. Olympia Snowe — one of the three moderate Republicans including Arlen Specter who supported President Obama's stimulus package — told CNN Tuesday that she has also been approached many times about becoming a Democrat, but that it hasn't happened for a while. "I've been asked, but not recently," she said. Snowe said the Republican Party never learned its lesson from the "painful" party switch of Sen. Jim Jeffords in 2001.

Washington.IT is disheartening and disconcerting, at the very least, that here we are today — almost exactly eight years after Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party — witnessing the departure of my good friend and fellow moderate Republican, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, for the Democratic Party. And the announcement of his switch was all the more painful because I believe it didn’t have to be this way. When Senator Jeffords became an independent in 2001, I said it was a sad day for the Republicans, but it would be even sadder if we failed to confront and learn...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republican Main Street Partnership, the largest organization of elected centrists, recently spotlighted Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. "Snowe has long been a leader for centrist Republicans in Washington," said former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), President and CEO of Main Street. "Snowe's commitment to delivering results to her constituents, and her pragmatic approach to government, have made her one of the most effective members of the U.S. Senate, regardless of which party controls the Congress." "It is clear that Senator Snowe takes public service and the duty of governing seriously. Main Street is lucky to count Senator...

PORTLAND, Maine — Olympia Snowe may be among a shrinking number of moderate Republicans in the U.S. Senate, but she's making no apologies for being a centrist in a party that has shifted to the right over the past couple of decades. "It's not healthy for the country to have parties with polar opposite views without that bridge that you need to build consensus," Snowe told the Associated Press on Friday. With America facing an economic crisis, lawmakers cannot remain locked in their ideological corners, said Snowe, who has represented Maine in the Senate since 1995. Instead, she recalled how...

Democrat Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia has introduced two senate bills that may severely regulate traffic on the Internet. The Canadian Free Press explains it this way: The White House will have new powers to access private online data, regulate the cyber security industry and even shut down Internet traffic under the provisions of Senate bills No. 773 and 778, introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V. It’s called the Cybersecurity Act of 2009. You can see a draft of the legislation here. The Center for Democracy and Technology reviews some of the legislation’s possible effects: The Cybersecurity Act of...

Should President Obama have the power to shut down domestic Internet traffic during a state of emergency? Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) think so. On Wednesday they introduced a bill to establish the Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor—an arm of the executive branch that would have vast power to monitor and control Internet traffic to protect against threats to critical cyber infrastructure. That broad power is rattling some civil libertarians.

Rules for Private Networks Also Proposed. BY JOBY WARRICK & WALTER PINCUS Key lawmakers are pushing to dramatically escalate U.S. defenses against cyberattacks, crafting proposals that would empower the government to set and enforce security standards for private industry for the first time. The proposals, in Senate legislation that could be introduced as early as today, would broaden the focus of the government's cybersecurity efforts to include not only military networks but also private systems that control essentials such as electricity and water distribution. At the same time, the bill would add regulatory teeth to ensure industry compliance with the...