Olympia Snowe retiring, basically penning a letter saying she is sick of all the crap:
In announcing her plans, Snowe, 65, emphasized that she is in good health and was prepared for the campaign ahead. But she said she was swayed by the increasing polarization in Washington.
“Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term,” Snowe said in a statement. “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.”
Snowe’s retirement represents a major setback for the GOP’s efforts to regain a majority in the Senate. As a moderate Republican, she may be the party’s only hope to hold a seat in the strongly blue state.
By retiring, she is actually doing the GOP a favor. If she had run again, there is no doubt in my mind that she would have been driven out by some teahadist lunatic in the primary who would then go on to get decimated in the general election ala Sharron Angle or the other idiot who had to inform us she was not a witch (I can never remember that clown’s name). Now, at least, there is a sliver of a chance the GOP may find someone to run against her who does not have her unpopular record as a “moderate” and will stand a better chance in the general. But had she stayed in and run, the anger from the fringe right would have created a backlash, and you can bet the house some crazy tea partier would have run against her and won.
And I say sliver of a chance, because I’d bet the GOP base will still nominate some fire-breathing monster anyway. I’d also bet it is a matter of when, not if, Dick Lugar retires. Indiana being Indiana, they probably will elect some wingnut to take his place.
TenguPhule
Corrected.
No chance of being elected.
Mark
Good riddance to her. She enjoyed playing rotating president-for-a-day along with Collins, Lieberdouche, Nelson, Landrieu, Lincoln, Pryor and Brown, and a lot of Americans suffered because of it. Like when the Dems thought she’d sign on to ACA but then said “Things are just moving too fast.”
Well, fuck her. She should have taken a stand – she didn’t utter a peep over Maine’s anti-gay marriage amendment. And for what, if she’s not going to try to get re-elected?
vhh
There is no one left in the GOP but Teabaggers, especially with a real chance of His Frothy Eminence at the top of the ticket. You can count on them to run one of their lot in Maine. The Dems can win this one by putting up an articulate candidate with a backbone. I am thrilled. Now if only Susan Collins will resign in sympathy (and thereby avoid being accused of being a lesbian, as the wingers will surely do the next time she comes up for re-election). JHH
Steve
I look forward to seeing her on the Americans Elect ticket.
Dave
The GOP here in Maine is super-wacky. These are the guys who put a reference to “Austrian economics” in the GOP platform in 2010. They’ll nominate a true fire-breather who will get smoked in the general.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
If only somebody would stand up and represent the passive voice in Washington, maybe something would get done. I blame Obama for this.
gex
@Mark:
Maybe she just doesn’t give a shit. Entirely possible.
ETA: A Senator who complains about polarization that wouldn’t cross the aisle to make votes she wanted to make in favor of party loyalty can fuck off.
shortstop
@TenguPhule:
A couple of threads southward, Davis X. Machina is making a convincing case for why he/she could be. Maine Democrats are mightily divided, which provides opportunities Republicans wouldn’t ordinarily have.
beltane
1) The GOP base will still nominate a lunatic because electing lunatics is all they are capable of. 2) Snowe could have won as an independent ala Lisa Murkowski 3) Maine is currently suffering under Teabag rule, meaning the electorate at large has probably soured on all Republicans who are not Olympia Snowe.
And don’t forget #4: HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
Christine O’Donnell.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
Possible, but she was immensely popular in Maine, so I am going with good news for dems to pick up a much needed senate seat. They are all precious, and since it’s Maine, we may get an actual progressive minded dem to run that can win.
IM
I still prefer a Stephen King candidacy.
redshirt
Indeed, the only real threat to the Dems taking this seat are the Dems themselves, and any 3rd party such as the Greens. The “Holier than Thou” brigade in other words.
Maine is strongly liberal – but infighting cost us the Governor’s seat and many state house seats in 2010.
I think Mainers have learned the lesson well though, and I will guarantee VICTORY for the Democrats in this Senate seat pickup.
aimai
So, she’s 65 and in good health? Thank goodness for all that National Health Coverage and free medical care she got from the taxpayers. Other 65 year old women aren’t so lucky. Too bad for them choosing to be cooks and waitresses, home health aides, stay at home moms, truck drivers, and just about any other job you can name that doesn’t have insurance.
aimai
redshirt
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): Yeah, I disagree with Cole here. Yes, she would have had a teabag primary challenge, but she would have won and then gone on to win the re-election, hands down. She’s maintained that illusion of moderation up here.
Valdivia
Apparently the filing deadline is in two weeks. Glad to see Snowe doing to the Reps what Bayh did to us also last minute.
shortstop
@redshirt: Right on. Y’all know what to do.
Tonal Crow
Of course they will. It’s roll-out-ze-Guillotines time in the Crazy Party, and heads will roll at an increasing pace as the probability of “meep-meep” increases, which, in turn, will increase the probability of “meep-meep”. A virtuous positive feedback.
Get your popcorn before it’s gone.
lamh35
But TPM is saying that the deadline for filing for the election is March 15th. Did/does the Dem party have a candidate on hand who was/will run for Snowe’s seat?
max
Gonna be a Democratic year. So it’s good that she’s going away now. Hey, she had a chance to switch parties and wouldn’t take it, so I think she should not let the door hit her ass on her way out.
Steve @ 4: I look forward to seeing her on the Americans Elect ticket.
Heh. AKA ‘the Wax Museum ticket’.
max
[‘The Third Way crowd is making a game attempt at seizing the agenda at the moment, but the vital center continues to contain very few votes.’]
Davis X. Machina
Snowe was a dead lock, a shoe-in.
One of her two tea-baggy primary opponents bailed last week, and the other one is a nutter from way back, in a state where nutters are now past their sell-by date, to the extent that Gov. LePage been editorialized against by leading state house Republicans.
Davis X. Machina
@lamh35: Four of them.
lamh35
@Davis X. Machina: are there any good/credible ones?
dedc79
I think you’re wrong on this Cole. She was going to cruise to victory (Nate Silver put her chances over 80%) and now the Dems will likely pick up a seat in a state obama won by close to 20 points in 2008.
lamh35
this is OT, but this just tickled me so I gotta post it:
Rush Slams Romney For ‘Hair On Fire’ Line About Base
Mark S.
Maybe she’s afraid of the guy who’s challenging her.
BGinCHI
Gotta agree with others here. She was the finger in the dyke against a tea party deluge, and now they are going to be forced to nominate a nutjob. She would have saved them from themselves.
And after what Lepage and others have done to the GOP brand in ME, good luck to whomever steps in to get the GOP nod.
Davis X. Machina
@Mark S.: Dodge bailed last week.
Linnaeus
Good chance for a Democratic pickup. I certainly welcome that.
Linda Featheringill
@IM:
Stephen King:
That sounds good to me. Of course, I’m not in Maine. Does anyone know King’s political philosophy?
Davis X. Machina
@lamh35: My call: internecine Democratic warfare, and an inability to understand the concept of ‘tactical voting’, will give the Maine Senate seat to a tea-baggy Republican, Stephen D’Amboise — a totally un-necessary outcome, too.
But that’s how we got our present tea-baggy Governor, and that’s how Sen. Collins got in in ’94.
It’s how we do things in Maine. Disciplined Republican pluralities, in a blue state.
DanielX
All too true, sadly enough. As if it’s not bad enough that Mike Pence will be the next guvnor, likely enough. People who think Governor Deadeyes Scott Walker is the cat’s ass are just going to luuuuuv them some Mike Pence, you betcha.
Re: Lugar, it is kind of a pity. Yes, he’s pretty much a standard issue corporate Republican, but as far as I’m concerned the country does owe him (and Sam Nunn) a debt for the Nunn-Lugar program, which took one hell of a lot of nuclear weapons out of circulation. That was when Republicans were actually interested in governing, of course. Not that it takes much of a stretch to look like a statesman alongside Frothy Mix…Lugar was one of the last “reasonable” Republicans to run in the primaries. However, it has to be admitted that, charisma-wise, Lugar makes Mittens look like David Lee Roth.
Dave
I’d be shocked if it took Eliot Cutler more than two days to get into the race for the Dems.
Suffern ACE
Ok. My memory and Wikipedia reminds me that the dems lost this governors race and came in 3rd. No one had a majority, but the rep beat the dem 2 to 1. So why would this time be different if the dems were in disarray 2 years ago.
Elizabelle
What are the chances Susan Collins could be persuaded to become a Democrat, or even an Independent?
MikeBoyScout
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Origuy
Lugar is already being challenged by a teabagger named Richard Mourdock, the current State Treasurer. For a change, he has a Democratic opponent in the general election, Congressman Joe Donnelly.
redshirt
@Linda Featheringill: King is a kick ass Liberal Progressive. He puts his money where his mouth is too.
IM
@Linda Featheringill:
As far as I understand he is liberal, campaigned with democrats etc. On the other hand I just learned on Daily Kos that his health is failing.
But I mostly mentioned him so that I cuold make jokes about the Castle Rock vote and a possible candidacy of dark horse Greg Stillson.
redshirt
@Suffern ACE: Because no one could convince the 2 dems running for the seat to back down. They were both good candidates and equally split the liberal vote, allowing for Mr 38% I HAVE A MANDATE LePage to come in wreck things good and proper.
I don’t see that mistake happening again.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Davis X. Machina:
That election was Clinton’s first midterm and the year the GOP took the House. Any chance that a different sort of national race this year might have an impact on the local dynamics determining the degree of Dem disarray in Maine, or is that asking too much?
Ben Franklin
The two House Democrats (Pingree and Michaud) are potential candidates. The filing deadline is in March.
Davis X. Machina
@Elizabelle: Zero. Collins is running for VP in 2016. After the crazy burns itself out. She’s a woman, not a God-botherer, not a Southerner, nominally pro choice, and doesn’t even sound like a politician. She’s the anti-Newt, and she’s going to be the junior member of the phoenix ticket, all reasonableness and light, that rises from the GOP’s 2012 ashes.
lamh35
Wow, now let’s imagine the shrieks that will be heard if Michelle Obama said this:
Ann Romney: Media Doesn’t “Want Anyone Who Has A Chance” Against Bam
redshirt
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: And Collins is a good example for me on how times have changed. I had to work with her office quite a bit in 1998 and I found everyone helpful and pleasant. She was helping pass legislation against “Telephone Slamming”, and as my then current company had been a victim, I gave all testimony and evidence to her staff, and spoke with Collins once. I was impressed by the whole experience and thus I had warm memories of an R in Maine.
Everything’s fucking changed, let me assure you.
trollhattan
@Linda Featheringill:
Objectively pro-boogieman.
schrodinger's cat
@Ben Franklin: What about Baldacci?
vheidi
@Davis X. Machina: so who do you like?
Lojasmo
@shortstop:
You were convinced by our resident concern troll.
“ha ha”
/nelsonmuntz
Davis X. Machina
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Two of our last five governors were independents. Independent and third-party voters have decided governor’s races and Senate races before, and bid fair to do so again.
Mainers fundamentally don’t believe in parties, don’t like politics, and don’t understand tactical voting. Perot beat Bush pérè here in ’92, finishing second to Clinton, for example.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@DanielX: I saw Lugar, along with Hatch, described as a “moderate” today. Both are hard right partisans, but Hatch has a sick grandchild and so votes for stem-cell research, and Lugar actually knows something about foreign policy and briefly belatedly made some critical noises about Bush’s handling of the Iraq War after five plus years of lockstep support, His work on nukes alone makes him better than most of his current colleagues, and certainly several magnitudes better than what will almost certainly replace him, but he’s about as moderate as Jeb Bush or Mitch Daniels.
as for Collins, she always strikes me as slightly surprised that she’s actually in the Senate. So am I.
Davis X. Machina
@schrodinger’s cat: Deader than Kelsey’s’ nuts. Left office very unpopular.
schrodinger's cat
@redshirt: My friend who was a Democrat, used to volunteer at Olympia Snowe’s Bangor office, this was in the late 90’s.
Elizabelle
@gex:
This.
Someone on “crazed co-ed” thread wondered if Snowe had enough time to rehabilitate her reputation.
She diminished herself in recent years. She could have stuck to her principles, rather than careerism.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Davis X. Machina:
Collins better watch out who she goes hunting with. Liz Cheney will also be gunning for that spot on the ticket.
Lojasmo
@redshirt:
This. King is a Maine Al Franken.
Davis X. Machina
Do not underestimate how fractious the Maine state Democratic party is. I caucused this Sunday, and the usual country/city, Green/growth, salt-water & money/pine trees and poverty splits were every bit as strong as they ever are.
Note how often Michaud and Pingree (our two present reps — both D) split on votes….
Ben Franklin
@schrodinger’s cat:
I dunno. Snowe seems to work with Michaud and Pingree, and she has a huge warchest for leverage. It seems anacchronistic, but I think she’s been less liberal out of a sense of survival.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/snowe-pingree-michaud-dont-feel-2012-re-election-heat-yet_2011-07-24.html
IM
OF course the republicans could run Richard Bachman against King.
Elizabelle
@IM:
What is with Stephen King’s health failing? Hadn’t heard.
I remember when he got hit by that car, years back. What else is up?
shortstop
@Lojasmo: Oh, well, you call so many people concern trolls. I don’t find DXM excessively negative, except on the Soros predictions of European doom. His reporting on Maine politics has been absolutely solid through the years.
I’m hoping that Dems there learned something in 2010 (note to ThatLeftTurn — there were two elections cited there one of them was a scant two years ago, not 1994) about the perils of infighting.
shortstop
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: And this time, they’ll just shoot the cop who shows up 36 hours after the fact to question them.
pseudonymous in nc
I doubt it. You’ve got a teabagger governor as part of the 2010 intake, and lots of teabagger legislators. Two Dems in the House, and Snowe/Collins have been around long enough that there’s not really a GOP farm team.
Conversely, Davis X. is right that the Dem contenders could very easily split the vote in their rush to replace Snowe. It may look like Wal-Mart on Black Friday.
IM
@Elizabelle:
Someone on Kos said something about him going slowly blind. Hadn’t heard that before either.
shortstop
@Elizabelle: That was I. Lost all respect for her years ago. The only — only — time she’d come out against her party these last few years, and then only sporadically, was when a women’s issue came up. I don’t have much liking for people who will stand up for their own prone-to-being-run-over group while turning their backs on other demographics who are also marginalized.
Davis X. Machina
@pseudonymous in nc: There’s a decent GOP bench, all locally well-known, but scared to death of the teabaggers. Snowe and Collins had and have enough time in, and enough money, to stare the baggies down.
The been-around-forever great-and-good non-crazy GOP’ers, either old-money people from the coastal towns, for example, or the ‘we’re not French, so we must be Republicans’ from what’s left of the mill towns, are still there, but have been lying low.
PeakVT
@IM: FAQ on his site says he has a genetic predisposition to macular degeneration, but it hasn’t started yet.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
I’ve thought it over. And am going to predict a squeaker win for Rick ‘manamal’ Santorum. His voters are crazy and they run longer on a set of batteries. Jesus loves you – even the best part that runs down yer mommas leg.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve never understood Snowe. I once saw an blog commenter from Maine say the first thing you had to understand about her was that she hates Democrats. She doesn’t seem passionate enough to carry that kind of unreasoning hatred, and where would that come from? Vietnam and The Sixties? I always figured she just really really like being a Senator, a member of the club.
IM
@PeakVT:
Then somebody over interpreted that.
Linda Featheringill
@IM:
BTW, Stephen King has a Twitter acct:
SoStephenKing
In case you wanted to drop a hint or something.
BGinCHI
@lamh35: Angry White Woman!!
Davis X. Machina
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Her husband, Jock McKernan (the man who stole a third of my pension) is the last non-teabagger GOP governor of Maine. He had a much rougher, more partisan ride than Snowe ever did, a constant guerrilla war with then-Speaker John Martin, especially, and including some loose and hurtful talk when McKernan’s son died young (college age) and if she hates Democrats, it’s on his behalf. She got along famously with George Mitchell — still does.
Lurker
@Linda Featheringill:
Here’s Stephen King speaking out against Florida Governor Rick Scott: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1vW1zPmnKQ
Elizabelle
@shortstop:
Ah. Thinking sadly of how Sandra Day O’Connor and Snowe disappointed me in recent years (O’Connor with deciding for Bush; yeah, she’s SORRY about it now. Ain’t we all …)
Better to stick to your principles, even if you pay a price.
IM
@Linda Featheringill:
God, no. Poor man has probably got enough serious or semi-serious proposals that he should run for senate.
Elizabelle
@PeakVT:
I’d take not being able to see over being blind, blind, blind like too many of the GOP.
Davis X. Machina
And I’m not concern-trolling about GOP candidates surviving on plurality elections, independents, and a failure by D’s to vote tactically. It’s been going on for decades.
pseudonymous in nc
@Davis X. Machina:
Is Baldacci likely to be interested? It looks as if Maine voters like promoting from the House, but would they go for the ex-gov?
Linda Featheringill
@Lurker:
That was nice. Thanks.
Draft Stephen King!
geg6
Good fucking riddance to bad rubbish. I’m embarrassed that this cowardly bitch is the same gender as I am.
harlana
@shortstop:
zactly how i feel, i’m sick of it
Elizabelle
Gag.
Last sentence of WaPost article about Snowe’s retirement:
Moderate is not the word I would have used.
Davis X. Machina
@pseudonymous in nc: No. Baldacci is toxic. He was the governor on the bridge when the economy hit the iceberg. He’s also a charsima sink.
rikyrah
good riddance
pragmatism
i, for one, can’t wait for candidate dodge to tell us that he can see canada from his house.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: Jesus they are unbelievable. after all these years the relentless stupidity of our political media can still put my chin on the floor. I’m sure there will be a correction that Senator Joe Lieberman, the most moderate senator ever, is not technically a Democrat. It’s Politi-Factual!
Davis X. Machina
@pragmatism: Ex-candidate Dodge. He bailed last week.
PeakVT
Why do people think King might want the job? And be good at it? Being a fiction writer is about as different from a legislator as a white collar job can be. He’s wildly successful, 65, and enjoying his life. Why give up a comfortable semi-retirement to waste time on cloture votes?
Davis X. Machina
@PeakVT:
In a world where Michael Moore calls on Matt Damon to primary/oppose Obama, you have to ask?
pragmatism
@Davis X. Machina: did the birfers take him down? he is english as i recall.
IM
@Davis X. Machina:
And there is Al Franken.
harlana
@Mark S.:
not that i enjoy looking at Olympia Snowe all that much but yikes
priscianusjr
@Dave:
Davis X. Machina
@pragmatism: Heterodox on the issue of gay marriage, mostly. Will run in the general as a libertarian, get about 12 votes…
cmorenc
Snowe could have easily out-maneuvered the right-wing GOP crazies in Maine by running as an independent, and she would likely have easily won reelection over her opponents from both respective parties. IMHO she woke up one day and realized that she could no longer go along with the hard-right wing take-no-prisoners bullshit of the GOP, but yet was not willing to switch parties and join team Democrat, even by simply being an independent caucusing with them in order to keep her committee positions. She thought I’m 65, and want to do other things before I get too much older than to keep doing this.
tarylcabot
the other idiot who had to inform us she was not a witch (I can never remember that clown’s name).
Christine O’Donnell
pragmatism
@Davis X. Machina: sounds like time well spent for him. the baggers’ purity control sure is strong.
Ben Franklin
I don’t know about you folks, but I could use more threads, like this.
The Meat Circus is tiring and trite. This stuff is great.
The Moar You Know
@Mark S.: Holy fucking hell, there’s a guy who’s murdered someone in the last week. I’d quit too.
handsmile
@Davis X. Machina:
As I understand it (which may well be underinformed), none of the four declared Democratic Senate candidates have much standing/name recognition in the state.
As currently serving congressmen, both Pingree and Michaud would have organizational and fundraising networks to draw upon. Do you think it likely that either would consider Snowe’s sudden announcement an opportunity to move to the other side of the Capitol?
Also, Dave (#33) mentioned Eliot Cutler. After his close defeat by LePage in 2010, what has been his role or level of participation in Maine state affairs? His Wikipedia entry states that he serves on the executive committee of Americans Elect (gulp!).
Ben Franklin
@handsmile:
Dang, Son. You peein’ in the Cheerios?
handsmile
@Ben Franklin:
And not for the first time upon reading one of your comments, I go “huh?”
Trying to figure out what may have provoked you, my phrase “an opportunity to move to the other side of the Capitol” meant that either one would choose to seek Snowe’s Senate seat rather than re-election to the House.
Other than that, huh?
Davis X. Machina
@handsmile: It’s a small state — 1.3 million people. Organization matters less here. Serve all your terms in Augusta, and get term-limited out, and all the relevant political actors — a few hundred people, maybe a thousand, total — long since know who you are. Dunlap is the perfect specimen. Hinck less so, but he has the environmental community behind him — he worked for Greenpeace and the NRDC, and that’s a powerful force in Maine. (c.f. Eliot Cutler, Jonathan Carter, etc,)
For my money, Elliot Cutler is Maine’s own Nick Clegg. A politician hell bent on saving us from politics. ‘Nuf said.
johnsmith1882
don’t let the door hit you in the ass, lady. all that handholding during the healthcare debate, all the ‘we’ll let you be in the little committee to write the bill’, and snowe still voted against it. that’s nice that she was a moderate republican, pretty rare breed these days, but from what i understand, maine is a pretty liberal place. the maine gop puts up a lunatic (because they will, the republicans just can’t help themselves anymore), the dems put up a reasonable candidate, the dems win, we pick up a seat.
not seeing your analysis here, john cole.
redshirt
You got some sharp knowledge of Maine politics Davis X. Machina. I’m impressed – I wish I could take 10% of your knowledge and share it collectively with my extended family. It would increase the overall knowledge base by a considerable factor.
I consider this my part time job the rest of the year: Educating my family. So many folks stuck in such tiny ruts though.
Ben Franklin
@handsmile:
Total fail on my part. Mea Culpa.
Feel free to alert me to my incomprehensibility. I try my best.
tkogrumpy
John your just simply wrong about Snowe’s prospects in the general. she would have cruised to victory. I know because I have Pissed away a large percentage of my discretionary income trying to unseat her.Though I am no political friend, I do respect her and certainly understand her reasons for giving it up. In her place I would too.
tkogrumpy
@Elizabelle: The last thing Steven King would do is be a politician.
killed
crazy thought: what about Angus King?
fasteddie9318
FTFY
Brandon
Fixed.
I call b.e.. She’s not going out like Truman because she is sick of the “partisanship” that she has had no problem supporting through failed cloture motion after failed cloture motion since Obama’s inaugural? She’s bowing out because she caught a glimpse of some internal polling that probably made it clear that she probably couldn’t win against a no-name teahadist moran primary challenger. And if she did wreck her studied reputation by pulling a full McCain in the primary and called for turning the St. Lawrence into a fiery moat to stop that dastardly Canadian illegals across Maine’s porous border, she probably realized that she’d lose the general because she undoubtedly took note of the fact that it was a Presidential election year and Obama probably has 500 zillion campaign offices already set up and mobilized across her state to turn out Democratic voters.
Cris (without an H)
This is what the 50 state strategy is about, people. Some of you guys bitch that “all it got us was blue dogs” but the real point is to have an organization in place so that when a safe GOP seat suddenly becomes an opportunity, you aren’t left standing around wondering who the fuck to nominate.
Best of luck to the blueberry-raking Democrats; may you get past the divisions being discussed in this thread and send a D, any D, to the Senate.
RadioOne
I think the Dems are going to pick up this seat fairly easy with Snowe retiring, and I don’t think that should surprise anyone. But there used to be a profound Yankee conservatism in New England that was very blue-blood,anti-populist, and Republican in a way that doesn’t really exist anymore there. Back in heyday of New England conservatism, the only two states that FDR never won in a general election were Maine and Vermont.
When my parents first moved to New England in the 70’s from Pennsylvania,they tried to order a milkshake at a local restaurant. Their waitress ended up physically shaking a bottle of milk in front of them, before pouring it into their glasses. I think both the Information age and the decision of the GOP to favor southern conservatives over the yankee conservatives in the 60’s has changed New England profoundly.
RadioOne
I think the Dems are going to pick up this seat fairly easy with Snowe retiring, and I don’t think that should surprise anyone. But there used to be a profound Yankee conservatism in New England that was very blue-blood,anti-populist, and Republican in a way that doesn’t really exist anymore there. Back in heyday of New England conservatism, the only two states that FDR never won in a general election were Maine and Vermont.
When my parents first moved to New England in the 70’s from Pennsylvania,they tried to order a milkshake at a local restaurant. Their waitress ended up physically shaking a bottle of milk in front of them, before pouring it into their glasses. I think both the Information age and the decision of the GOP to favor southern conservatives over the yankee conservatives in the 60’s has changed New England profoundly.
Chuck Butcher
I dunno, Maine, think you can elect something other than a round heeled shit head?
Donut
I know this thread is long dead, but I can’t believe no one has pointed out that, as with many retiring elected officials in D.C., Snowe is probably also calculating that job as a lobbyi$t will pad the bank account quite a bit, and give her plenty of power and influence still. But without all that messy stuff, like slogging through the democratic process, doing what’s best for the country and Mainers, etc.
Perhaps Chris Dodd is hiring.
Assholes.
bob h
She deplores the partisanship, but was one of Mitch’s dependable little bitches. She never had the guts to show independence, despite lots of opportunities.
massappeal
@vhh: Except by all accounts I’ve seen, she had minimal opposition in the Republican primary (a former town selectman from Lisbon), and Maine hasn’t ousted an incumbent Senator in over 30 years.
(No need to give the tea partiers power they don’t have.)
Angry Egilsson
I am a mainer and I caucused this past weekend, and I didn’t see anything like what Davis reports. People were united and cheerful and it was a great vibe. I’m in a smaller town, and we only had 38 people though.
I get to be an Obama delegate to the state convention in June, so that was cool.
Cynthia Dill is going to be a strong candidate, but unless there’s a timing issue I don’t know about, I think Chellie Pingree will jump in for senate, and then the scramble will be for Pingree’s seat.
Baldacci will not be that toxic, because (1) nobody works harder than Baldacci, (2) people have seen the replacement, and hate him, and (3) John Baldacci actually did a good job and his record compares very favorably.
I worked as a busboy/waiter at John’s restaurent when I was in high school/college, and he’s one of the most decent, hardest-working people I’ve known.
Snowe would have cruised to victory in a general election. I think the primary voters have lost steam, but maybe she did feel too vulnerable.
I remember once going to the mall in Bangor, and Snowe and McKernan were walking back to their car holding hands. It was kind of sweet. I don’t think they were doing it for show.
redshirt
There’s some chatter that Snowe’s resignation might have something to do with ongoing investigations regarding McKernan’s business interests. Don’t care, but it’s there. I just want to meet the next Democratic Senator from Maine.
handsmile
@Angry Egilsson:
Appreciate your perspective on this situation, and I’m glad you chose to comment late into the thread.
It seems that my question to DXM last night was prescient, as supporters of both congressmen Pingree and Michaud are beginning to collect signatures for a possible Senate bid. (via TPM)
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/dem-source-pingree-michaud-will-begin-collecting-signatures
As 2,000-3,000 valid signatures must be collected by March 15, I would think having a congressional district-wide organization already in place will be advantageous to achieve that.
It so happens that I will be travelling to Maine tomorrow for a long weekend’s holiday, and will be eager to read local papers and talk to Mainer friends about this development and Democratic prospects to claim Snowe’s Senate seat.