Olympia Snowe

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White House Probes Minn. Plane Stranding

Incident 'troubling': transportation sec.

(Newser) - The Obama administration is investigating last weekend’s 9-hour stranding of 47 passengers on a Minnesota airport tarmac, the AP reports. Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood says his department's general counsel is determining whether laws were broken in the case. “While we don't yet have all the facts, this incident...

Senate Group of 6 Moves Health Reform to the Center

Dems' priorities fall by the wayside

(Newser) - The bipartisan group of senators who've been hammering out their own health reform plan, led by Montana’s Max Baucus, are close to a compromise that leaves out key pillars of the Obama-backed plan, including the government insurance option to compete with private plans and the mandate that employers offer...

Senate Votes to Expand Hate Crime Laws to Gays

Five Republicans join in 62-38 vote

(Newser) - The Senate has voted to extend hate crime protections to include those attacked because of their gender or sexual orientation, mirroring a similar measure already passed in the House, the Hill reports. Five Republicans, including Olympia Snowe and Dick Lugar, joined all the Democrats present in supporting the bill. Other...

10 Who Can Make or Break Health Reform

Who to watch as debate rages on Capitol Hill

(Newser) - As health care talk heats up in Washington, Mark Halperin of Time lists the key players to watch:
  • Sen. Max Baucus is trying to wring out as much GOP support as possible on his finance panel.
  • White House health czar Nancy-Ann DeParle has been winning concessions from the health care
...

6 Conservatives Worth Obama's Time
 6 Conservatives 
 Worth Obama's Time 
OPINION

6 Conservatives Worth Obama's Time

(Newser) - There are a few in the conservative camp who the Obama administration respects. “By respect, I mean, quite simply, the degree to which the White House responds to their worries and needs and believes that the time spent responding is useful and necessary,” Marc Ambinder writes in the...

Dems Spoof 'Marooned' GOP
 Dems Spoof 
 'Marooned' GOP 

Dems Spoof 'Marooned' GOP

Web ad likens Republicans to Survivor cast

(Newser) - A new DNC ad touts the latest Survivor series: the GOP edition, the Huffington Post reports. The Web spot begins with Sen. Olympia Snowe, the “Last of the Moderates,” describing how being a Republican moderate can feel like “being a cast member of Survivor,” and goes...

Blind GOP Drove Specter Away: Snowe
 Blind GOP Drove 
 Specter Away: 
 Snowe 

OPINION

Blind GOP Drove Specter Away: Snowe

(Newser) - Arlen Specter’s departure is a “tremendous loss” for the Republican party, made “all the more painful because I believe it didn’t have to be this way,” Sen. Olympia Snowe writes in the New York Times. The party ought to have learned its lesson when Jim...

Newt to Specter: Good Riddance
 Newt to Specter: 
 Good Riddance 
OPINION

Newt to Specter: Good Riddance

(Newser) - Newt Gingrich’s take on Arlen Specter’s defection? Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, senator. Specter left the party “in spirit” when he cast his vote for “a $787 billion big-spending bill no elected official had even read,” the former speaker...

Republicans Take Page From Libertarian Book
Republicans Take Page From Libertarian Book
Analysis

Republicans Take Page From Libertarian Book

From tea parties to budget proposals, GOP changes tune

(Newser) - It looks as though the GOP is turning libertarian, says Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com. The tea parties it championed last week take their cue from libertarian movement shindigs, and participation was high in libertarian-leaning states like New Hampshire. The GOP’s alternative budget was a like-minded proposal, "dramatically...

Senate Centrists Hold House Dems Hostage

Stick up to Reid, Dems urge Pelosi

(Newser) - The Senate requires 60 votes to avoid filibuster, so the 58-strong Democrats are at the mercy of centrist Republicans Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins. Politico reports that House Dems, who have no trouble passing bills on their own, are unhappy that their legislation has to run this gauntlet....

Obama Needs Maine Senators
 Obama Needs Maine Senators 
analysis

Obama Needs Maine Senators

Snowe, Collins are backbone of administration's bipartisan coalition

(Newser) - Maine’s moderate Republican senators find themselves unexpectedly empowered in the Obama era. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, along with Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter, form the bipartisan wedge President Obama can use to get bills—like the stimulus package—past a Senate filibuster. After years of being taken for granted...

Conservative PAC Puts GOP Stimulus Backers 'On Notice'

Three senators face conservative wrath

(Newser) - So much for bipartisanship. A conservative political action committee is pledging to support primary challenges to the three Republican senators who backed the compromise economic stimulus package, CNN reports. It's the right wing’s latest public show of dissatisfaction with Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter...

Senate Passes Stimulus Bill
 Senate Passes Stimulus Bill 

Senate Passes Stimulus Bill

(Newser) - The Senate passed its version of the $838 billion stimulus bill today, in a 61-37 vote, the Wall Street Journal reports. Three moderate Republicans—Susan Collins, Arlen Specter, and Olympia Snowe—jumped across the aisle to prevent a filibuster. Now the House and Senate must reconcile the differences between their...

President Gets Personal With Swing Senators

Holds highly unusual 1-on-1 meetings with stimulus holdouts

(Newser) - President Obama is reaching across the aisle to moderate senators whose votes are crucial to passage of the economic stimulus bill. He put in a call to John McCain, who has been a vocal critic of the bill’s current incarnation. “We'd like to sit down and try to...

Geithner's Nomination Is Unlikely to Fail
Geithner's Nomination Is Unlikely to Fail
ANALYSIS

Geithner's Nomination Is Unlikely to Fail

Taxes, schmaxes: Senate wants to know if he can fix economy

(Newser) - The herculean task awaiting Timothy Geithner is so critical to the nation that a niggling detail like unpaid taxes is unlikely to derail his bid to head up the Treasury Department, writes Deborah Solomon in the Wall Street Journal. While senators will likely press Geithner about his missteps during his...

They've Begged Off Obama List (But So Did Hillary)

Use a pencil in crossing Powell, McCaskill, Pritzker, others off administration watch list

(Newser) - There is a sizable list of qualified candidates who have expressed no interest in Obama cabinet positions—for now. Noting in the Washington Post that Hillary Clinton once demurred, too, Al Kamen takes a look at a few pols who’ve said no, or haven’t been “approached.”...

Best Members of Congress
 Best Members of Congress 
opinion

Best Members of Congress

There are "public servants." Then there are people who actually serve.

(Newser) - It's easy, and usually fun, to bash members of Congress. But what about those who deserve praise? Esquire picks some favorites, starting with Rep. Henry Waxman of California; the Democrat has long been the sole member not only criticizing the Bush team's missteps but actually investigating them. Then there's principled...

Romney Wins Maine Caucuses
Romney Wins Maine Caucuses

Romney Wins Maine Caucuses

He will likely earn 18 delegates in lightly contested contest

(Newser) - Mitt Romney easily won the lightly contested Maine caucuses tonight. Though the caucuses amount to a nonbinding preference poll,  Romney will likely gain all of the state's 18 delegates to the national convention, the AP reports.  With about 70% of precincts reporting in, Romney had 52%, McCain 21%,...

Hagel, Snowe Jump Ship
Hagel, Snowe Jump Ship

Hagel, Snowe Jump Ship

Number of GOP defectors backing withdrawal plan climbs to 3

(Newser) - Two more Republican senators crossed party lines today to back legislation that calls for the US to start pulling out of Iraq within 4 months and withdraw by April. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Maine's Olympia Snowe of Maine signed on on as co-sponsors of the measure, along with Oregon's...

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