Olympia Snowe: We Didn’t Have to Lose Arlen Specter

NY Times ^

[kralcmot]

bravo

the erosion of the mandate began when the party forgot how it won.

i remember the press talking about the end of the Democratic Party....it seems so long ago, but it was just 2002

what happened?

big government...pandering to special interests...money...yes money.

the “soft landing” after the internet stock bubble burst...that was the beginning of the end.

counting votes, not principles

made the GOP a new party...Democrat Lite...

no wonder the voters are confused

lets get back to basics...

[healy61]

Hold yer shorts, Olympia. Some are fixin’ to send you as a tag team for Ol’ Arlen.

[DesScorp]

If she and Collins will leave, at least that’ll be the end of worrying about being stabbed in the back.

[Steelfish]

Absolutely! Snowe personifies all what’s wrong with the Republican Party

[Enchante]

I just want to know if Meghan McCain has chimed in yet.....

Until she has appeared on “The Spew” to denounce evil conservatives for “driving dear Arlen into the arms of the Democrats” my week will not be complete..... /s

Just watch, she will probably be on “The Spew” again in the morning, or Thurs. at the latest......

[leprechaun9]

I had a dream - SPECTRE LOSES IN PA PRIMARY!

[holyscroller]

"If she and Collins will leave, at least that’ll be the end of worrying about being stabbed in the back."

Huh? Have you forgotten Lindsay Graham, and McCain, plus Snowe and Collins? If we're going to be outvoted on everything, we might as well flush the rest of them down and get it overwith.

[Darren McCarty]

It is for this reason that we should heed the words of President Ronald Reagan, who urged, “We should emphasize the things that unite us and make these the only ‘litmus test’ of what constitutes a Republican: our belief in restraining government spending, pro-growth policies, tax reduction, sound national defense, and maximum individual liberty.” He continued, “As to the other issues that draw on the deep springs of morality and emotion, let us decide that we can disagree among ourselves as Republicans and tolerate the disagreement.”

I'm gonna say this loud enough for all the people in the cheap seats can hear me. SPECTER GOT PRIMARIED BECAUSE OF HIS SPENDING VOTES!!!! Alright. Bailouts. Stimulus. Budgets. Those votes were the straw that broke the camel's back. Why should I, a fiscal conservative and social moderate (pro-life, lenient on other social issues) vote for someone I can't count on for anything? And speaking of individual liberty, why did you vote for gun bans, Snowe? Not even Specter voted for that.

George W Bush was a moderate. Specter is a RINO. Snowe, I won't call you a RINO, but you certainly are a liberal.

[armymarinemom]

She has already stated that she doesn’t intend to run again. It looks like she is going to make us very miserable until she leaves.

[Frantzie]

These people think these Senate seats are lifelong entitlements. The truth is Pat Toomey is more in-sync with most (real) Republicans and conservatives loathe Specter.

Win, lose (thanks to ACORN probably) or draw - we are better off with Specter. Let him run as a Democrat.

[nathanbedford]

It is for this reason that we should heed the words of President Ronald Reagan, who urged, “We should emphasize the things that unite us and make these the only ‘litmus test’ of what constitutes a Republican: our belief in restraining government spending, pro-growth policies, tax reduction, sound national defense, and maximum individual liberty.” He continued, “As to the other issues that draw on the deep springs of morality and emotion, let us decide that we can disagree among ourselves as Republicans and tolerate the disagreement.”

With these words, Senator Olympia Snowe seeks to marginalize all social conservatives. In other words you must agree with me because I am a fiscal conservative but I need not agree with you if you are a social conservative.

Beyond that hypocrisy, Snow fails to acknowledge that, questions of fidelity to social conservative principles aside, there was no fidelity to fiscal conservative principles either-not the least by Senator Olympia Snowe herself. Snow has betrayed herself to be a hypocrite. More, she has betrayed itself to be an inept political scientist:

To the contrary, we overreached in interpreting the results of the presidential election of 2004 as a mandate for the party.

How in the world did the Republican Party "overreach" in interpreting the results of the election? By behaving as Ms. Snow suggests fiscal conservatives should? That is by cutting spending and committing to smaller government? Hardly! By fidelity to social conservative principles? Perhaps, but not flamboyantly so.

The actual fact is that the Republicans misinterpreted the results of the 2004 election by under reacting to the mandate of the party: fiscal conservatism and social conservatism.

Olympia Snowe has just watched her entire claim to fidelity by conservatives walk out the door with the last significant vote against cloture. There is utterly no reason to swap conservative principles to maintain an impotent Senate minority which is only one or two unreliable senators short instead of three or four. In short, Senator Snowe, you are of no use to us anymore.

The debate is over. We are now free to pursue doctrinal purity because it is only with a clear message of the kind that Senator Snowe is demonstrably incapable of articulating which can show us the way out of the wilderness. The debate is over because Senator Specter's betrayal proves that he realizes that, at least within the Republican Party, the debate is over, conservatives will have their way. The moderates are out! The party is beginning to understand that it rises or falls as conservatives and it can proceed with "moderates" only so long as moderates conform to conservative principles, which include social conservative principles, and do not compromise them.

Neither Specter nor Snowe understand that a significant majority of Americans, the sons and daughters of a generation known as the "silent majority," are fed up with the Republican party as managed and with the Democrat party as well. They are fed up with the entire power structure and they do not give a damn whether politicians in that structure call themselves Republicans or call themselves Democrats. They believe that that structure conspires against them and they are right. The Democrats doctrinally are incapable of representing the people against the government. They are the party of government. Ultimately they are the party of power against the people. Republicans must articulate that they are the peoples' best chance against a ceaselessly growing organic threat to their birthright.

[Mr Rogers]

Just curious - why does everyone assume Arlan will GET the Democrat nomination?

[Terpfen]

2 out of 5. We would still have the problem of McCain, Graham, and Collins.

[Randy Larsen]

Spincter is hoping for another magic bullet! He may have been right that time, but it is the only time he has ever been RIGHT in his whole life!

[SmokingJoe]

“Olympia Snowe: We Didn’t Have to Lose Arlen Specter”

Yes we did.
We shoulda lost Specter 4 years ago.
That is one of mistakes Bush made..getting Specter elected.

“When Senator Jeffords became an independent in 2001, I said it was a sad day for the Republicans”

Jefford’s treachery was great day for the Republican Party. In the very next elections after that, the Republican Party regained control of the congress, and Jeffords found himself back in hell, where he belonged. Same thing will happen with Specter.

[G Larry]

I’m happy to “lose” all of the RINOs like these two.

The Republican Party might be curious to see the level of support they receive once they decide to stand for something.

[StarCMC]

Olympia Snowe: We Didn’t Have to Lose Arlen Specter

Why don't you go where he went? You already vote like him.

[Candor7]

Had to lose Sphinctor, Olympia dahling. You and Collins are next!

[LachlanMinnesota]

I’ll bet there are dems that vote with conservatives more often than Sphincter ever did. The name is meaningless...it is actions that count.

[fabian]

o please, how retarded do you have to be to join the left in destroying , unwittingly, our great nation!