Too bad Olympia Snowe is leaving U.S. Senate
Senate Finance Committee member Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington as the committee continued its markup of the health care legislation (Sept. 25, 2009). Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Republican moderates in Congress inched closer to extinction Tuesday with Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe's surprise announcement that she will not seek re-election.
Her old-school way of doing business -- stake out a strong position, negotiate with those with opposing views and then compromise to get things done -- is the essence of a functioning democracy. Unfortunately, a growing number of voters and elected officials see compromise as a vice.
In announcing her decision, Snowe expressed frustration that "polarization and my-way-or-the-highway ideologies have become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions." That hasn't been her way over eight terms in the House of Representatives and three in the U.S. Senate.
She voted with Republicans on many key issues, such as opposing health care reform. But she also broke with her party, for instance, voting for President Barack Obama's stimulus package and the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill that were needed to resuscitate the economy. That didn't win her favor in a Republican Party captive to scorched-earth partisanship.
Snowe was still a shoo-in for re-election. She won in 2006 with more than 70 percent of the vote, capping a three-decade career in Washington. But the drive for ideological purity has put her safe seat in play, and hurt Republicans' chances of capturing a Senate majority.
It has also increased the odds that compromise will become a lost art.
