Ed Morrissey
HotAir.com
5/9/2011
Say, what has happened to Olympia Snowe lately? The Senator from Maine has spent years cementing her reputation as one of the few moderates left in either party willing to cross the aisle to cut deals. In the last two years, though, Politico notices a lot more party-line votes from Snowe amid rumors of a feud with Harry Reid. Is she voting with James Inhofe on environmental legislation out of spite, fear — or common sense?
Snowe has been voting far more along Republican party lines as she faces the possibility of a tea party challenger in her 2012 Republican primary, making her a much less willing partner for Democrats in search of a Republican deal maker. Democrats also are targeting her seat in 2012, so Reid has less incentive to give her bipartisan cover.
Senators in both parties are starting to talk about the spat.
“I don’t think it’s smart,” South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in Senate GOP leadership, told POLITICO, referring to the way Reid dealt with Snowe. “I don’t know if I get why of all people that you would want to hope you can appeal to in the future — Olympia would be someone like that.”
But according to Democrats, Snowe has lurched to the right and abandoned her moderate leanings. She surprised environmental activists earlier this year when she voted with Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to block environmental regulations on greenhouse gases. And she sided last month with just nine Republicans on a resolution by tea party favorite Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) criticizing President Barack Obama’s policy on Libya.
Vote rankings this year show that she’s siding with her party 20 percent more often than she did in the previous Congress, meaning she has voted nine times out of 10 with a majority of her conference.
The “spat” apparently started with the ObamaCare bill, from which Reid excluded Snowe along with most of the other Republicans in the Senate. Snowe had provided a key vote for Reid on the Porkulus bill despite Reid and Nancy Pelosi locking Republicans from drafting that bill as well…
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Read also, Olympia Snowe Challenger Scott D’Amboise Calls for Her Resignation in Light of Husbands Scandal
