Snowed Under By Praise ( Media praises Sen Snowe )

Washington Post ^ | Thursday, October 15, 2009; 9:31 AM | Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Saint Olympia is getting the full media treatment.

By providing the only Republican vote for Obamacare, she is being hailed as a courageous statesman (stateswoman?). Charlie Gibson interviewed her live on "World News." She made the morning TV rounds, mapped strategy in the Situation Room, played Hardball. Dana Milbank's tribute to her political skill (and gibes at her studied indecision) landed atop The Washington Post's front page.

Check out this AP piece: "Forget Sarah Palin. The female maverick of the Republican Party is Sen. Olympia Snowe. . . . 'When history calls, history calls,' Snowe told her colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee, several hours into the debate."

I don't want to be too snarky here. Snowe is a diligent senator, she's not a grandstander, and she was clearly struggling to do what she sees as the right thing. But Republican defectors tend to get good press, especially, as in this case, if they're helping salvage a Democratic president's top domestic priority.

Imagine the coverage a Democratic senator would have gotten by breaking with his party to help George Bush pass his Social Security plan. No one hailed Joe Lieberman (yes, he's an independent, but he caucuses with the Dems) for turning against Obama on the Baucus bill.

Maybe it comes down to this: It seems like this health care debate has lasted longer than the Afghan war. Snowe may have brought the legislation one step closer to passing. I suspect most journalists want something to pass so it feels like we spent all that time on something momentous. If health reform goes down in flames, then we've expended all this energy on a mere footnote.

[BenLurkin]

She has been a reliable lefty for a long time.

[pallis]

Of course. The DNC media machine is pumping up a fool, because they know they can use her anytime they want.

[Brilliant]

Isn’t it intersesting that the “moderate” Republicans are more liberal than the “moderate” Democrats?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

H/T to Hot Air for pointing to this article.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Hot Air's Allahpundit takes issue with the AP report:

AP to Palin: Olympia Snowe’s the real maverick in this party

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posted at 8:16 pm on October 13, 2009 by Allahpundit

Really? They acknowledge that her Senate seat is entirely safe, in which case what’s so “mavericky” about casting a vote that (a) ensures a degree of input into the final bill that other Republicans can only envy and (b) earns her the sort of fawning media coverage of which this very piece is a sterling example?

The Palin comparison is useful, though. If Sarahcuda had said something as comically insipid as “When history calls, history calls,” Tina Fey would have an entire skit built around it on SNL this week. As it is, our moronic media’s treating it as some sort of faux-profound rendezvous with destiny.

Forget Sarah Palin. The female maverick of the Republican Party is Sen. Olympia Snowe…

“When history calls, history calls,” Snowe told her colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee, several hours into the debate.

Snowe had kept virtually all of Washington guessing how she would vote, not even letting Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., or Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana in on her secret. She did call her Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Tuesday morning to break the news about her plans…

Snowe may face a rough time with her Republican colleagues in the Senate but not necessarily in fiercely independent Maine.

“I don’t think there’s any possible negative political implication,” said Sandy Maisel, director of Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. “She is untouchable electorally in the state of Maine.”

Some maverick. Here she is in all her mavericky glory, giving an exclusive!!! and otherwise substance-less interview to ABC about the process going forward. Exit question: Was there any reason not to tell Obama, Reid, and Baucus in advance how she was voting aside from wanting to bait the media by building a feeling of suspense? Click the image to watch.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Where’s the BARF ALERT?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And :

EXCLUSIVE: Charlie Gibson's Interview With Sen. Olympia Snowe

*********************************EXCERPT******************************

October 13, 2009 7:02 PM

Senator Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, was the only Republican to vote for Chairman Max Baucus' $829 billion health care bill -- she spoke to Charlie Gibson in an exclusive interview on tonight's World News.  We've posted the full transcript and video of the interview below.

Gibson:  And Senator Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine joins us tonight.  Senator you are now the only Republican House or Senate to vote for any of the health care reform bills that are out there.  What do you know that your fellow Republicans don’t?

Snowe:  Well I think that the honest difference is of opinion, but I do happen to believe that we have to move the process forward on this very difficult and challenging issue.  Understandably people do have honest philosophical differences, but I think there’s a lot to build on with this legislation that after all was part of the group of six, three Democrats and three Republicans, for almost four months of very intensive discussions on a daily basis and on a weekly basis.  So it clearly, I think, had built some momentum that makes it possible to construct a bipartisan package hopefully.

Gibson:  The President went out of his way to praise your one vote.  Does one Republican vote really signify any kind of true bipartisanship?

Snowe:  Well, obviously not sufficient.  We need to have more.  We need to have support of the Democratic senators for example, who also can play a very pivotal role in this regard.  I think in building upon some of the issues and where we have to make significant improvements in this legislation, so I think that if we can work continuously together looking at the issues having an honest discussion about the issues and what works what doesn’t work, that’s what it’s going to take.  I think for so long the art of legislating has been lost here in Congress and it’s all about just moving it along on the fast track, and I think that unfortunately the big issues have been set aside.

Gibson:  You said today your vote today was only your vote today and it might not signify your vote tomorrow.  What would cause you to pull back?  What does that mean?

[LADY J]

I can't understand why such a big deal is being made out of the fact that ONE Republican voted with the RATS.

It's insane to call it legitimately bi-partisan when they didn't even need her vote to pass it.

Sounds like someone in kindergarten made that rule up.

[SampleMan]

Snowe’s treatment is no different than the praise the PLM media heaps on moderate Democrats by calling them “Mavericks” for bucking their party.... Oh wait, never mind.

[Venturer]

The British probably praised Benedict Arnold too.

This woman is a Democrat wearing the guise of a Republican ans should be forced to change her party.

[GVnana]

I like RedState’s activism on this one: Pour Rock Salt on Snowe http://www.redstate.com/index.php?tag=health-care

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Good idea...