Olympia Snow: I'm Not Happy Either
The Arlen Specter news is an extremely bitter pill for the GOP senate caucus, but this quote from Maine senator Olympia Snowe in the Politico is likely to inspire stark terror:
But Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), a fellow moderate, didn't seem surprised. On the national level, she says, "you haven't certainly heard warm encouraging words of how [the GOP] views moderates. Either you are with us or against us."
"Ultimately we're heading to having the smallest political tent in history they way things are unfolding," Snowe said. "We should have learned from the 2006 election, which I was a party of. I happened to win with 74 percent of the vote in a blue-collar state, but no one asked me, 'How did you do it?' Seems to me that would have been the first question that would have come from the Republican Party to find out so we could avoid further losses."
Does this sound like a happy member of the GOP senate? No it does not. You really have to wonder what Mitch McConnell is up to. It's all fun and games to be the Rush Limbaugh party of torture and greed, but it's obviously a disastrous electoral/governing strategy - one that's now driving away critical members of the party. Snowe is openly saying that she's being ignored by party leaders, and implying she's on the "them" end of the Republicans us vs. them mindset. Ideological purity might be comfortable for McConnell and John Kyl, but it's likely to shrink their minority even further. It'll be interesting to see if Snowe stays onboard for the GOP march to irrelevance.
But Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), a fellow moderate, didn't seem surprised. On the national level, she says, "you haven't certainly heard warm encouraging words of how [the GOP] views moderates. Either you are with us or against us."
"Ultimately we're heading to having the smallest political tent in history they way things are unfolding," Snowe said. "We should have learned from the 2006 election, which I was a party of. I happened to win with 74 percent of the vote in a blue-collar state, but no one asked me, 'How did you do it?' Seems to me that would have been the first question that would have come from the Republican Party to find out so we could avoid further losses."
Does this sound like a happy member of the GOP senate? No it does not. You really have to wonder what Mitch McConnell is up to. It's all fun and games to be the Rush Limbaugh party of torture and greed, but it's obviously a disastrous electoral/governing strategy - one that's now driving away critical members of the party. Snowe is openly saying that she's being ignored by party leaders, and implying she's on the "them" end of the Republicans us vs. them mindset. Ideological purity might be comfortable for McConnell and John Kyl, but it's likely to shrink their minority even further. It'll be interesting to see if Snowe stays onboard for the GOP march to irrelevance.
