Olympia Snowe: Damn These Tea Partiers For Demanding Policies I Claim To Demand As Well

She hears the footsteps. At Hot Air's headlines.

"Understand, there are a lot of issues that, for example, in the Tea Party that they raise that are legitimate issues. Did we abandon our basic principles of fiscal responsibility? Absolutely. I was arguing those points during the Bush administration," Snowe said emphatically, "I made those very arguments."

"Congress isn't working right and it's not working well, and I share that frustration and anger. They're angry? So am I," Snowe said as her voice got louder, "I'm angry, because I work here ever day and I want things to be different. I'm here to solve problems to make people happy, not to make them sad and angry," Snowe insisted.

And what does Castle's loss tell Snowe about whether there's a place for moderates like her in the GOP?

"Well there are fewer of us so that goes without saying," Snowe said, but then immediately argued that "we can't be endangered if you want to be a majority party."

"It doesn't stand to reason that the Republican Party would want to exclude moderate Republicans if they want to be a majority party. Those are mutually exclusive propositions," Snowe said.

At times, as the Maine Republican talked about this issue, she became exasperated.

"Ideological purity at 100 percent is a utopian world and I don't know who lives in utopia. I've never lived in utopia," said Snowe.

This is an odd thing. Snowe is talking about "moderate Republicans" being driven out as if they're being driven out over abortion or gay marriage. They're not, really. They're being driven out over small government/spending/etc.

I heard about Castle being pro-choice like three times during the Delaware Demolition Derby. Everything was cap and trade and DISCLOSE. (And claims that he voted for the Stimulus or ObamaCare, which he in fact had not.)

So Snowe is getting exasperated by a movement that is 75% motivated by the part of the Republican platform she supposedly agrees with -- fiscal conservatism. As you just read, early in her remarks, she's claiming what a damn good fiscal conservative she is.

The trouble is, she isn't. Why did Stimulus pass? Because she and her idiot Maine Sister Collins joined with ex-Republican and now ex-anything Arlen Spector to break with an otherwise unified party and vote for it.

And we made it clear to her -- we all did, screaming on blogs and talk radio and letters to her and all that -- that this was considered an obligatory vote. This was central. This was a crucial vote as regards fiscal restraint.

And she didn't care. She didn't care. History called her, and she gladly did "history's" bidding.

Well, now she is history. And it's not due to abortion or gay marriage, as she's making it sound. We've always known she was a moderate-leaning-liberal on these issues. We (or at least I) excused that. It was baked in the cake. It is what it is.

No, what doomed her was selling out fiscal conservatism in a headlong rush to make nice-nice with Obama and be "moderate" on the one issue she is not claiming she's not a moderate on at all.

She's not a social conservative. Fine. But the problem is she's also not a limited government or fiscal conservative. Nor, in fact, a judicial conservative.

Then what is she? And why would we elect her? To what end? To see our goals thwarted at every turn?

If she were a social moderate but a bear on fiscal issues I could see her being reelected easily. But she's not. She's a social liberal and a fiscal moderate and a judicial moderate.

Yeah, on this one, I have to agree with the Tea Party: Then, um, what good are you, exactly? (It's easy to agree, too, because I have confidence there will be strong challengers to her contending for the nomination.)

The Republican Party is a conservative party. Period. Full stop. She thinks she is entitled to continue thwarting the hopes and ignoring the pleas of the very people who elevate her to high office. We think she is not so entitled.

In two years we will learn who is right, and who is now an independent candidate.

posted by Ace at 03:24 PM

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