Olympia Snowe: What the GOP Doesn’t Need
The two Maine problems for the GOP members of the Senate are Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Had Olympia Snowe’s vote gone from opposing victory and opposing the troops to favoring victory and supporting the troops opinions like the one below would have accused her of flip-flopping on her position or caving to political pressure. Since the opinion presented below hales from an area known as the People’s Republic of Madison, characterizing Snowe as ‘now right on Iraq’ is certainly no surprise.
Snowe now right on Iraq
The Capital Times-Madison, WI
An editorial — 7/16/2007 9:44 am
As the most sensible moderate member of the Senate Republican Caucus, Maine’s Olympia Snowe should have been on board long ago for a strict timeline to bring the troops home from the senseless war in Iraq.
The only thing Snowe would be anguished about is probably more severe after the defeat of the Dems attempt to support the insurgents. Between now and the 2008 elections, if voters were not still angry at GOP members of Congress from problems before the 2006 midterms, Snowe will find out soon enough if her strategy to seek re-election by defecting to the Democratic party will work or fail. Most GOP fans would like to regain the majority in 2008 but with performances like Snowe and, as yet not detailed here, Susan Collins, the RNCC had better look for replacements for Snowe and Collins or wait for another election to win back the seats.
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
The Anguished Moderate | Olympia Snowe
By Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 15, 2007; A06
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on the phone, pleading for more time.It was Tuesday morning, and Sen. Olympia J. Snowe was closer than she ever had been to breaking with President Bush over the Iraq war. For weeks, the Maine Republican had been hesitating, caught between a war she had concluded was a lost cause and a Democratic alternative insisting on a firm deadline for a troop withdrawal that her party opposed.
The night before, she had joined Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) on a television program and gone further on Iraq than she ever had in public. It was time, she had said, to move to a binding date for the troops to leave. Reed, sensing an opportunity, had lobbied hard when they talked after the show. He is co-sponsor of the Democratic amendment calling for all combat troops to be home by April, and he would buttonhole Snowe repeatedly over the next 48 hours.
July 21st, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Olympia Snowe just won re-election and is not up again until 2012. Nice research.
July 21st, 2007 at 5:16 pm
That’ll teach me to rely on memory rather than refer to the 33 in print. However, you could have offered your opinion on Snowe.