Will Olympia Snowe Bolt the GOP?

Pajamas Media ^ | Sept. 20 | Donald Douglas

[AJKauf]

It would be understandable for those who closely follow politics to have missed Republican Senator Olympia Snowe’s comments on health care a couple of days ago.

The second week of September was an unusually big week for partisan politics (and that’s saying something in this day and age). Commentators on both sides of the divide sparred bitterly over the crowd estimates for the massive 9/12 Taxpayer March on the National Mall. In addition, the drip, drip, drip of scandalous revelations surrounding the ACORN “prostitution sting” further strained the lengths of recent political polarization. And as the weekend neared, allegations of racist opposition to President Barack Obama’s policies — aired by former President Jimmy Carter, no less — had further dashed the longstanding hopes for bipartisan cooperation that followed Barack Obama’s inauguration in January.

Given all that, Senator Snowe’s mid-week remarks on her place in a changing GOP might seem tame. Snowe, a moderate Republican and senior senator from Maine, stated that “I haven’t changed as a Republican, I think more that my party has changed.”...

[nathanbedford]

The problem for Olympia Snowe is not that the Republican party has changed, the problem is the music stopped.

She had been able to mask the inherent inconsistency in her positions so long as the party was going. She says she joined a Republican Party when it was for, "limited government, individual opportunities, fiscal responsibility, and a strong national defense. " She does not say that she is also for every social spending program which extends government, reduces individual opportunity, and is fiscally irresponsible. But so long as the nation was willing to borrow and spend and hour trading partners were willing to underwrite the binge, -and to be fair a lot of other Senators and Representatives- could ignore the inherent inconsistencies in what she believes and what she did.

Olympia Snowe cannot have fiscal responsibility and health care reform of the kind that the Democrats will countenance. Since this is a seminal issue, she must choose between two parties instead of just between two positions. But even Olympia Snowe cannot bridge the gap between the coming federal bankruptcy and the reality of adding another trillion dollars national debt to finance liberals' excursion into healthcare. She must abandon one side of the chasm or the other or fall into incoherence. That is why, as you have observed, her statement is incoherent.

I think we will see this occur with other elected officials as the money runs out, and not just on the Republican side either. Increasingly the fundamental practice of governing in Washington will no longer involve acting Santa Claus and doling out borrowed money to interest groups, rather it will require Representatives to be the public face of pain by selecting among constituents to determine who will get less and who will pay more.

Governing will just not be so much fun anymore.

I don't know whether this will cause many politicians to switch parties, but I believe it will cause many politicians to leave the game.

[Squantos]

Silfilty McNasty can go where she wants now but her state needs to vote this POS back to the curb.

[calex59]

One can only hope she will, that would be one more RINO gone. The GOP better be careful soon all we will have are real republicans and conservatives and the leadership can’t have that!/SAR

[buwaya]

She votes slightly more conservative than 50/50. She is an in-between.

Her constituents, perhaps consequently, like her a lot.

The smart thing to do - and that does not include illogical ranting - is to see a way to electing more like her in Democratic-leaning states and districts. One attracts more flies with honey than vinegar.

And democratic politics is pretty much the art of attracting flies, like it or not. The point is popularity, not cleanliness.

Ideological purity tests are much like applying disinfectants. One gets clean, but one does not have much life on the surfaces so treated. These things are a guaranteed means to democratic failure.

[Pontiac]

Box of rocks plus a liar

I doubt it.

New England Republicans were always pretty liberal.

Ever hear of Rockefeller Republicans?

[buwaya]

She is very popular in Maine.

Short answer - no she can’t, not in that state.

[buwaya]

She votes like some Democrats - those that the equivalent Democrat ranters are always claiming they want to expel.

Arrogant positions like this are a sure way to having no power.

[mulligan]

The sooner the better.

[buwaya]

Won’t happen.

The people there like her, a lot. What does that fact do to your position ? It is not really the politician you object to, but her constituents. If we can’t live with the choices of her constituents, or some of them, we don’t have a hope of having any power.

Purity = Irrelevance

[Jim Noble]

Can she be replaced?

Well, this is the eternal RINO question.

Since Ray Malone (CommonTator) has gone to be with the Lord, there's really no one here anymore to explain this well, but let me give it a shot.

There are states that will vote Democrat no matter what. There are states that will vote Republican, no matter what.

But the balance of power in the electoral college, and in the Senate, is held by DINOs and RINOs. Right now, the Democrats are loving their DINOs and the Republicans are hating their RINOs, and the results are clear for all to see.

A Republican Party without RINOs cannot elect a President and can elect, at the most, 36-38 Senators. That's just how it is. (The GOP could nominate an independent conservative who wasn't tainted by the "Republican" name, or a former Democrat like Reagan and win, most people are conservative - including most DINOs).

Yes, Olympia Snowe and her sister RINO Susan Collins can be replaced - by communists. The Maine electorate has about 20% true conservatives, 30% communists, and a bunch of RINOs and DINOs. Right now, the conservatives have put up with Snowe and Collins, who can attract enough RINOs and DINOs to sit in the Senate.

When the conservatives can't put up with them any more, or when Snowe and Collins can't put up with the conservatives any more, the Con-RINO-DINO coalition that has held those seats all these years will fracture, the Republicans will nominate someone who is unacceptable to DINOs, and Snowe and Collins will be gone, replaced by communists.

The anti-RINO crusade has or will turn at least seven, and maybe as many as twelve, GOP Senate seats blue.

In 1980, states that voted for Gore in 2000 sent thirteen Republicans to the US Senate.

By 2004, they were down to one.

By contrast, in 1980 states that voted for Bush in 2000 sent eleven Democrats to the US Senate. In 2004, they kept all eleven, and now have added a few more.

The RATs are winning with DINOs, the GOP is losing without RINOs.

Something has to change.

[dforest]

If she wishes to change parties, she should wait until she is up for the next election.

Ms Snowe, what you and your fellow RINOs do smacks of having no integrity.

[buwaya]

The politicians are incoherent because the PEOPLE are incoherent.

Leading a democracy requires a lot of tolerance for Olympia Snowe’s - or rather really the people who elect Olympia Snowe’s. We must work at persuasion and compromise with her and hers. And even when we press hard to get our way we must - must - avoid antagonizing them.

Arrogance and demands to choose one side or another is a quick way to lose power.

[Ev Reeman]

I wonder if many democrats sensing the real angry mood against them, the government and Washington DC that they will opt for retiring rather than face the loss of their seats and bitter defeat at the hands of fed up voters.

[dalebert]

so there is no hope

[CharlesWayneCT]

She gave a pretty good explanation of what Republicans should be, so far as she went. She left out a lot, but what she said was good.

Problem is, she hadn’t much lived up to the ideals she espoused.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Headline editing:

Will Olympia Snowe Bolt the GOP PLEASE!

[buwaya]

There is hope.

What must be done is not a change in principles, but a change in attitude.

Away with arrogance.

The book in every serious conservatives night-stand should be this one -

http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671723650

[buwaya]

NO !

Away with this pointless self-defeating arrogance. Democracy is addition, not subtraction.

[IronJack]

Parting is such sweet sorrow ...

There will be more pain before the Republicans wake up ... IF they wake up. Instead of excising these tumors when they were small, they waited too long and now the surgery is even more painful. But if it isn't done, the patient will die.

[buwaya]

Her constituents like her. Apparently she does their will well by their lights.

What then is the proper definition of integrity ?

Ideological consistency ?

That is a false standard.