Posted on 04/28/2009 7:08:49 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
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 from the devaluation of diversity within the party that contributed to his defection. I also noted that we were far from the heady days of 1998, when Republicans were envisioning the possibility of a filibuster-proof 60-vote margin. (Recall that in the 2000 election, most pundits were shocked when Republicans lost five seats, resulting in a 50-50 Senate.)
I could have hardly imagined then that, in 2009, we would fondly reminisce about the time when we were disappointed to fall short of 60 votes in the Senate. Regrettably, we failed to learn the lessons of Jim Jeffords’s defection in 2001. To the contrary, we overreached in interpreting the results of the presidential election of 2004 as a mandate for the party. This resulted in the disastrous elections of 2006 and 2008, which combined for a total loss of 51 Republicans in the House and 13 in the Senate — with a corresponding shift of the Congressional majority and the White House to the Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Then why did you vote for the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Porkulus Maximus, Senator Snowe?
You can take a hike too, Olympia.
Snowe can go as well.
You can leave too Snowe.
“And the announcement of his switch was all the more painful because I believe it didn’t have to be this way.”
No Problem you are next RINOette!
Now that the “60” magic number is meaningless, why doesn’t Collins & Snowe just join the Democrat party? They’re clearly more happy on that side.
As I recall, a whole bunch of rinos retired when small government conservatives took over the party and made it a majority. The stragglers (McCain, Spector, Collins and Snowe) should retire, too.
You can talk to her office until you are blue in the face and she still doesn’t get it.
How soon everyone of the idiot democRats forget how their brethren jumped ship in 1994 to the Republican party. A democRAT could not be elected throughout the south, and elsewhere during the 90’s. Times change and the true conservatives show their colors. The liars and cheats (read democRATS)look after only their self interest. Traitors, cheats, and thieving bastards are too nice a name to call them. But it is a start.....
So, Senator Snowe, of these aspects, would you mind telling us how you’ve held firm against a near two trillion dollar spending spree, how you held firm against raising taxes? Or do you parrot some supposed definition of what a Republican is, and like any Democrat, completely ignore what you say?
My interpretation:
“Conservatives should shut up, keep writing the checks and just vote for who we think you should. Oh, and did I mention they should just shut up?” Sen. Snowe
Have you ever been to Maine?
what number here (of Senators who caucus as Republicans)
is low enuf to make the
people complaining about RINOs to be happy?
10
5
0
something else?
I’ll take a crack at your nearly incomprehensibly presented question. ALL OF THEM!
Maine is like Taxachusetts with a lower average IQ.
Hard to argue with these oligarghs in their 70’s, who believe they have a divine right to remain in office forever.
Snowe says the GOP should “win over...women in general, married women with children, Hispanics, the middle class in general, and independents. “
But, her way of “winning them over” is to buy them with more government.
Thus, she can’t credibly embrace Reagonism as the GOP’s common denominator: “our belief in restraining government spending, pro-growth policies, tax reduction, sound national defense, and maximum individual liberty.”
What RR postulated as a conservative platform, and what she’s prostituted, are worlds apart.
Maybe we didn’t have to lose Arlen Specter, Sen Snowe. But his constituency has rejected him. Do we deny that?
It was his own decision. He is protecting his own political future, though to me it doesn’t look like he has much of a future, just by looking at him. He looks like he is going kick the bucket any time soon.
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