Bombshell: Olympia Snowe to retire; Update: The plot thickens

Hotair ^ | 02/28/2012 | Allahpundit

[SeekAndFind]

Just across at CNN. No details yet, but Fox reporter Trish Turner is tweeting bits of what she claims is Snowe’s statement. Quote:

“I have no doubt I would have won re-election”

“I do find it frustrating, however, that an atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions.”

“…what I have had to consider is how productive an additional term would be. Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term. So at this stage of my tenure in public service, I have concluded that I am not prepared to commit myself to an additional six years in the Senate, which is what a fourth term would entail.”

“I see a vital need for the political center in order for our democracy to flourish and to find solutions that unite rather than divide us. It is time for change in the way we govern”

Don’t get too excited to see a RINO go. Nate Silver tweets, “We had estimated GOP’s chances of holding Maine senate at 85% before. Maybe 20-30% now after Snowe retirement.” Taking back the Senate just got a lot harder. Stand by for updates.

Update: In case you’re tempted to think she quit to deny tea partiers the pleasure of tossing her out, Roll Call had the seat rated “safe Republican” and a PPP poll taken in November had her favorable rating among GOP primary voters at 51/37, up from 47/44 last March. Losing her is like losing Scott Brown, but like Brown, Snowe was a no vote on ObamaCare. If this seat turns blue, repeal just became less likely.

Update: For an early inkling of Snowe’s disgruntlement, go back and read this post from September 2010 about her lamenting “ideological purity” after the defeat of Mike Castle in Delaware. I wondered at the time whether she might bypass the primary altogether by going independent and forming some sort of new Senate indie caucus with Lieberman, Scott Brown, Collins, Murkowski, Ben Nelson, etc. That could have been the nucleus for greater centrist influence in Congress, and maybe even the germ of a third-party movement. Instead, she’ll likely end up being replaced by an orthodox Democrat. Oh well.

Update: So perfectly does her statement coincide with David Brooks’s column this morning, I have to wonder if they weren’t coordinated. Says Brooksy, first they came for the RINOs…

But where have these party leaders been over the past five years, when all the forces that distort the G.O.P. were metastasizing? Where were they during the rise of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck? Where were they when Arizona passed its beyond-the-fringe immigration law? Where were they in the summer of 2011 when the House Republicans rejected even the possibility of budget compromise? They were lying low, hoping the unpleasantness would pass.

The wingers call their Republican opponents RINOs, or Republican In Name Only. But that’s an insult to the rhino, which is a tough, noble beast. If RINOs were like rhinos, they’d stand up to those who seek to destroy them. Actually, what the country needs is some real Rhino Republicans. But the professional Republicans never do that. They’re not rhinos. They’re Opossum Republicans. They tremble for a few seconds then slip into an involuntary coma every time they’re challenged aggressively from the right…

Leaders of a party are supposed to educate the party, to police against its worst indulgences, to guard against insular information loops. They’re supposed to define a creed and establish boundaries. Republican leaders haven’t done that. Now the old pious cliché applies:

First they went after the Rockefeller Republicans, but I was not a Rockefeller Republican. Then they went after the compassionate conservatives, but I was not a compassionate conservative. Then they went after the mainstream conservatives, and there was no one left to speak for me.

Rhinos, possums: Is there an animal that gets indignant before committing suicide to prove a point so that we have an analogy for Snowe?

Update: Via Slublog, this blogger at the Bangor Daily News says something’s suspicious here: “There is very obviously something going on here behind the scenes, since Senator Snowe was so aggressively campaigning for re-election, and in full campaign mode for the last year. Decisions like this – being so very much running (and winning) to very much not – do not happen this abruptly in politics. Ever.”

More, from a separate post: “I am told her own staff was unaware of this decision until just hours before the statement went out – just long enough to actually work on the release and send it out.”

[WellyP]

My bet is a big YES! She’s sold her sorry a$$ all of her life. Why would she change now?

[kcvl]

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/02/will-olympia-snowe-join-americans-elect.html

[kcvl]

Possible Snowe replacement has media ties

Senator Olympia Snowe’s decision to not seek reelection has given Democrats an opportunity to regain her seat, and thus set off a round of speculation over who might run to replace her (the filing deadline is in just over two weeks, on March 15.)

One of the names already being thrown around is Chellie Pingree, a two-term Democratic House member from Maine’s 1st district. Pingree is married to Donald Sussman, a wealthy philanthropist and political donor, who gave over $1 million to Democratic causes during the 2010 elections. More recently, Sussman paid $3 to 4 million for a minority stake in MaineToday Media, according to a recent report by the Portland Press Herald (a MaineToday Media property). 

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/02/possible-snowe-replacement-has-media-ties-115868.html

[WellyP]

American Elect is Soros backed. Wouldn't surprise me.

[Postman]

A true leftwing nutcase when she lost the run for Collin’s seat...then she want off to Common Cause, got cleaned up a bit and secured the House seat. I can hear her salivating.

Snowe’s handling of her decision was despicable and I suspect she purposely got even with her critics by handing her seat to the Democrats at the last minute. She owed some allegiance to the Party, her Republican constituents and to Republicans throughout the country. She would have kept the seat in Republican hands and could have quit in a few months. Governor LePage could have appointed a less centrist Republican who might have had the edge of incumbency. What a vicious and despicable thing to do!!!!
May she never have one happy or healthy day henceforth.

[Talisker]

What a vicious and despicable thing to do!!!!

Yep. She was vile traitor and liar all these years, and now she's vile traitor and liar right out the door. The woman is hatred incarnate.

[HHFi]

To all the people harumphing, “Who cares? So a RINO gets traded for a Democrat! What difference does it make?”... I feel like Clark Gable in “Gone With The Wind,” ruining everyone’s “cigars and brandy and dreams of victory” by pointing out that it’s going to make a great deal of difference.

Just a few seats flipped would mean getting rid of Harry Reid, who is the living dam preventing anything the House passes from proceeding. Not every state is conservative enough to elect your perfect candidate. Maine is very liberal, but they kept reelecting someone who at least called herself a Republican. Like her or hate her, as long as her seat had an (R) next to it, she kept us one vote closer to a majority. Maybe you’re frustrated that that’s all you ever got out of her, but it was a damn site better than losing an (R), adding a (D), and giving Harry Reid a little more job security. And that’s almost a certainty now.

[George Varnum]

Here in Maine we have had a conservative Republican trying to run against Snowe in the primary for years, although the ME GOP establishment and state wide media have fallen all over each other ignoring him and pretending that he never even existed.

To say that Scott D’Amboise is an “underdog” might be an under-statement, although he is starting to pick up national support from many Republicans who have been fed up with our “moderate” establishment elite Duchess of Prenatal Infanticide for many years now.

I’ve met Scott, and he is a regular family guy / working man, devoted to God, Country and Family. Pro Life... wouldn’t that be a novelty in Maine politics?

NOT a Lawyer... Not a career politician by any means.
You know; kind of like what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they set the US Senate up in the first place.

http://www.damboiseforsenate.com

[rhinohunter]

There is very obviously something going on here behind the scenes

Hmmm...taking Biden's place???

[funfan]

Well I don’t know about that but interesting the White House already made a formal announcement of her resignation
or retirement if you will:

Statement by the President on the Retirement of Senator Olympia Snowe

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/02/28/statement-president-retirement-senator-olympia-snowe

[maine-iac7]

Who is challenging her seat?

So far, on our side, no one that could win.

At this late date, with no one in the chute that voters know - the only one I can think of that could hold onto that seat for us - the PRIMARY goal is to get control of the senate - might be Jock...

After a term in Congress, he served two terms as Maine's governor - held his own against Rat-controlled house and senate.

He was popular, he has name recognition and charisma. Time is short for a new person to jump in. We'll need someone the voters know.

John (Jock) McKernan on right

[George Varnum]

Jaques McKernan??

Oh; PUH-LEEEaze!!!

Just when we thought that no Maine Governor could possibly be any worse than Brennan (D), along came McKernan...

....and....

SUR-PRIIIiiiZe!!!; {8^Q

We were wrong. {B^P~

[metesky]

I was aiming for 45...

68 and still working.

[maine-iac7]

Why would anybody give up an easy seat, with a Senator’s income and perks unless there was a better deal somewhere?

She says because it's nearly impossible to get anything done with the present situation in DC - and that is true.

She said she feels she may be able to make more of a difference - not quoting exact words here - as a private citizen.

Sometimes people can achieve more when unfettered by the restriction of elected office where you have to watch every word, every action.

I think "Sarah" has proved that - and before you all jump on me - I am NOT comparing Olympia to Sarah - just making a general observation...so take a deep breath and chill

[maine-iac7]

You ssay: “I find it strange that everyone is getting out, like rats leaving the sinking ship. I have a bad feeling about this........like a trap is about to spring on the American people.”

That’s the feeling I got this morning when I read this about Wyoming. Considering we in FR are pretty aware of how dangerously close to collapse our beloved country is - those in government have access to information we will never have -

When you see a STATE getting prepared to be able to provide for and defend itself like a country unto itself - it hits home - and you think: “time to put in some more supplies?”

http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/Wyoming-Lawmakers-Introduce-Doomsday-Bill-140772183.html

[49erDweet]

Oh, no. Now we have to worry over the next ‘supremes’ vacancy.

[9YearLurker]

If she keeps the Senate in Democrat hands, she will certainly have made a difference.

[maddog55]

Per Michelle Malkin website: A primary challenger to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe and a self-proclaimed tea partier has unenrolled from the Republican party in the wake of the state GOP’s recent caucuses.

Andrew Ian Dodge of Harpswell announced on Tuesday that he was severing ties with his party but said he plans to remain in the Senate race as an independent. With Dodge out of the Republican race, Scott D’Amboise of Lisbon Falls is the sole GOP challenger to Snowe.

[ScottinVA]

The big deal is the likelihood of Harry Reid`s remaining Majority leader and thus controlling the agenda is much greater now. It`s huge.