Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Health / Politics Olympia Snowe to Break with Republicans and Vote for Senate Finance Committee's Bill
Posted by Christopher Frizzelle on Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 11:27 AM
WASHINGTON — Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, said Tuesday that she would support the Democrats’ landmark health care legislation.“Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it,” Ms. Snowe said at a meeting of the Senate Finance Committee. “Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls.”
Anyone else suddenly convinced she's going to run for president in three years? Her biography is inherently compelling. From her Wikipedia page:
Snowe's early life contained much tragedy; her mother died of breast cancer when she was eight, and her father died of heart disease barely a year later... Tragedy struck Snowe again in 1973, when her husband was killed in an automobile accident... Snowe was the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the United States House of Representatives; she is also the first woman to have served in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of the U.S. Congress. Additionally, she is the first Greek-American congresswoman... She has never lost an election in 35 years as an elected official, and in the 2006 midterm senatorial elections, Snowe won with a reported 73.99% of votes...
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10
Snowe's not going anywhere. There's no constituency for moderate Republicans anymore. In the first primary, she'd finish eighth of eight. David Duke could outpoll her nowadays.
11
Snowe wouldn't have a chance as a presidential candidate, compelling story or no. She may be able to be elected as a Republican in Maine, but she's about as close to the current mainstream of the Republican party as Ralph Nader is to the current mainstream of the Democratic party. She'd get like five votes in all of the South, total.
13
Fnarf and shabadoo are right. The current Republican base would never, never, never go for her. These are the people who are convinced that McCain/Palin lost because they weren't wacko enough.
15
I'm glad she finally made her decision, it's important, we need people like her to show that this is not a Democrat or republican issue but an American one.
17
WIth all of the Sarah Palin wannabes around, I'm just glad to hear that there is at least one intelligent female Republican out there.
18
@16 shows that Obama will be re-elected because the only type of republican that can win the GOP nomination is one that is repugnant to moderates.
21
Huh - never having seen a picture before, I just realized my (now-shattered) mental image of someone named "Olympia Snowe" was of a larger, older woman with impressive, well-coiffed silver hair, wearing pearls.
24
@7
You're right about the eye, but look at the dress and the hair. She's clearly the offspring of Olive Oyl and Popeye.
Not a woman to be trifled with.
You're right about the eye, but look at the dress and the hair. She's clearly the offspring of Olive Oyl and Popeye.
Not a woman to be trifled with.
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