Olympia Snowe Courts Tea Party Early For 2012 Re-election

Newsmax.com:

After seeing what tea-party-backed candidates did to moderate Republicans in primary elections, moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe is taking no chances. The Maine senator is talking up the tea party movement, even though she’s not up for re-election until 2012, Roll Call reports.

“I’ve been a Republican for all of my political life, since I was registered to vote,” she told the paper. “I’ve been at the forefront of a number of anti-spending initiatives [and] fiscal issues. I agree with tea-party types when they say that the Republican Party lost its way. I agree. I was arguing that case for many years.” 

The Republican Party should serve as a big tent, Snowe says. “It’s where I grew up. It’s where I grew in the Legislature in learning how to govern and how to legislate — which is to build bridges. That’s what Maine has been all about.”

Shocking.

Senate Panel Passes Baucus Bill, Olympia Snowe Joins In

YahooNews.com:

With support from a lone Republican, a key Senate committee Tuesday approved a middle-of-the-road health care plan that moves President Barack Obama's goal of wider and affordable coverage a giant step closer to becoming law.

Maine Republican Olympia Snowe said she was laying aside misgivings for now and voting to advance the bill, a sweeping $829-billon, 10-year health care remake that would help most Americans get coverage without creating a new government insurance plan. "When history calls, history calls," said Snowe.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., called his bill "a commonsense, balanced solution." A distance runner, Baucus has endured months of marathon meetings to get this far. It's not the finish line.

Health care legislation is expected to be on the Senate floor the week after next, said a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. But it won't be the Baucus bill. Reid will combine the Finance version with a more liberal proposal from the health committee — with unpredictable results.

Olympia Snowe has once again made it clear that she plays by her own rules. Snowe has no fear of the Far-Right, much less their attempts to bully her. BaucusCare has been roundly dissed by the Left, more reason for Snowe to join in, but then I doubt BaucusCare will have enough votes to make it to Barry's desk anyway. Such is the life of partisan politics.

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Liberals Want Obama To Chase After Olympia Snowe

Can you blame them? They know that they don't have the votes, so why not go after a RINO whose turned her back on the GOP time and time again:

Given Mike Enzi's departure from the bipartisan talks and the imminent collapse of the Gang of Six, it looks like there's just one Republican Senator still willing to negotiate seriously with the Democrats-Olympia Snowe. Even if the leadership decides to take a more partisan route for the bill, Snowe is sometimes more liberal than the right flank of the Democratic Party, and her vote could still be critical to reform's survival. But what does she really want out of the current bill? And is she in a place where she can still see eye-to-eye with the Democratic leadership? Over the past few days, I've spoken with close observers of the debate, both on and off the Hill, to get a better sense of Snowe's positions on the key issues that will shape the final Finance Committee bill. Here's the quick rundown on where Snowe appears to stand, based on my reporting so far:

-Supports the public plan-but only as a fall-back option. Snowe has essentially maintained the same position that she came to months ago: a government-run insurance plan that would be a fall-back option, only if the reforms to the private insurance industry did not provide adequate savings. This is the "trigger" option has largely fallen to the wayside in the midst of the hysteria over the public plan and the popularity of Kent Conrad's co-op plan. Snowe is continuing to lobby her colleagues to support what she calls a "safety net plan" to avoid the politically combustible association with the liberals' "public plan."

-May agree to scale back insurance subsidies, but allows room for negotiation. The Finance Committee has already indicated that they plan to scale back the subsidies to help low-income individuals to buy insurance, providing help to those earning up to 300% above the poverty line, as opposed to the 400% that's in the HELP/House bills. Snowe argues that most of the uninsured fall below the 300% mark, though-according to multiple sources-she believes there are some "unique problems" that those in the 300-400% range face. She is going to continue deliberating ways to help these individuals in negotiations. But it's not clear what those mechanisms might be if Finance isn't willing to budge from the lower figure--and if Snowe's not willing to fight to push it higher:

-Wants financing for the bill to come from within the health care system. Snowe apparently wants to finance the bill from "within the health care system," according to one source, and expects much of the savings to come from industry groups and cost-savings measures within the system. But for meaningful reform to happen, more money will probably have to be put on the table--and the means for doing so might not be to Snowe's liking. Back in May, she spoke out against putting a cap on the tax exclusion of employer-sponsored benefits, opposing a significant potential revenue stream for the bill. Altogether, it's still unclear whether she will support taxing individuals-either within or outside the system-to pay for the bill.

-Supports a reduction of the minimum benefits that all insurance policies would have to provide.The "actuarial standard" basically means the percentage of medical bills that insurance would have to cover. The HELP bill set this at 75%, while Snowe seems inclined to support something closer to 65%. According to my sources, it's partly because Snowe thinks this is less of a priority for the public-they don't understand this provision very well and are more concerned about, say, the high cost of insurance premiums. And plans that provide fewer benefits are bound to cost less.

Olympia Snowe Says That She'll Vote To Confirm Sonia Sotomayor

BangorDailyNews.com:

U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, today announced her support for the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court.

"I was impressed with Judge Sotomayor’s comportment and obvious mastery of the law during this week’s nomination hearings," Snowe said in a statement. "She appears neither rigid nor dogmatic in her approach to the essential task of constitutional interpretation."

"Barring any unforeseen developments, I expect to join the majority of my Senate colleagues in confirming Judge Sotomayor to a seat on the highest Court in the land before the August recess," she said.

In May, Senator Snowe said she urged President Obama to nominate a woman during a private meeting in the Oval Office and then followed up on the suggestion with a letter jointly signed by Senator Barbara Boxer.

Ha! No doubt this move won't help Snowe's crippled standing within the GOP. But anyway, on qualifications alone Sonia Sotomayor belongs on the Supreme Court, so people need to quit with the partisan bickering and give up the robe already.

Centrist Democrats Will Be No Pushover For Obama

WashingtonExaminer.com:

Former Sen. Norm Coleman conceded defeat in his eight-month recount battle after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled former comedian Al Franken the winner of the state's contested Senate seat, giving Democrats a 60-vote majority supermajority that could make Senate Republicans largely irrelevant.

While Franken's win will allow Democrats to push some legislation through without the worry of a Republican filibuster, the party will still have to grapple with defections from its many centrists who have the power to derail key legislation, including global warming fees that just passed the House.

"It's not correct to think that the caucus will be unified," said Jake Thompson, an aide to Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who is one of at least a dozen moderate Democrats who meet regularly. "There are a number of independent minds in that group and they will stay that way."

Nelson and other moderate Senate Democrats will likely become key figures in the effort to pass health care reform and a climate-change bill.

Nelson, for example, is opposed to a cap-and-trade plan, which would set limits on carbon emissions and requires polluters who exceed a certain cap to purchase costly permits.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has said she will not "rubber-stamp" a cap-and-trade proposal. President Barack Obama praised the House cap-and-trade bill and is now pushing for the Senate to move similar legislation.

"It's going to be a tough fight," Thompson said. Other Senate moderates include Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Centrist Democrats are also opposed to aspects of the health care overhaul bill under construction in the Senate, including a plan to create a public health insurance option that would compete and potentially undermine the private insurance system.

Despite what the liberal media likes to portray, Democrats are not a monolithic group--indeed conservative Democrats such as myself make up over 20% of the party. So instead of worrying about the Dems now 60-vote majority, the Right should worry more about keeping RINO's like Olympia Snowe in check in the future.

H/T: BookerRising