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Home › Politics

Senator Olympia Snowe | 04/29/2009 9:10 am

Sen. Olympia Snowe Blames Republican Party for Arlen Specter Departure

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
© AP

Republican Senator Olympia Snowe took to The New York Times today to say that she’s upset her colleague, Arlen Specter, has decided to become a Democrat. Though she’s saddened, Snowe insists she’s not surprised.

The party, writes the moderate senator, has made little to no effort to expand its ideological breadth, and it could be digging its own grave:

Senator Specter indicated that his decision was based on the political situation in Pennsylvania, where he faced a tough primary battle. In my view, the political environment that has made it inhospitable for a moderate Republican in Pennsylvania is a microcosm of a deeper, more pervasive problem that places our party in jeopardy nationwide.

I have said that, without question, we cannot prevail as a party without conservatives. But it is equally certain we cannot prevail in the future without moderates.

There is no plausible scenario under which Republicans can grow into a majority while shrinking our ideological confines and continuing to retract into a regional party. Ideological purity is not the ticket back to the promised land of governing majorities — indeed, it was when we began to emphasize social issues to the detriment of some of our basic tenets as a party that we encountered an electoral backlash.

The Republican party has been undergoing some growing pains in recent years, that’s a fact, but it remains to be seen whether the Grand Old Party can really grow up and learn its lessons, lest it go the way of the Dodo.

 

Read more about: Arlen Specter, democrats, News, Olympia Snowe, republicans

62 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

caj p
There is no Rep Party anymore they may as well just disappear in a cloud of smoke, they will not move forward as they are too stuck in the past.  The party of "no" have lost all credibility and only have traction with the hard core, die hards who will follow them no matter what just as long as nothing changes from the status quo.
By caj p on 04/29/2009 9:17 am
laureen f
Do you have an opinion or do you mostly quote from the Huffington post? Just wondering…The grouping of people (republicans) and then labeling them all as one kind of person does not usually bode well as an argument in the arena of ideas…Love ya…
By laureen f on 04/29/2009 9:21 am
caj p
That is my opinion thanks!  The party have lost their way if you can’t see it there are plenty of others who can it’s not rocket science!
By caj p on 04/29/2009 9:24 am
Patty E

I have not read the Huffpo for a long time—-mostly because I hadvn;t the time to sit in front of my computer all day…like when I have need to interact with my community.  But I agree withCaj..it IS a no-brainer!  All one needs to do is pay attention to what is going on around you.  If you needs ‘proof’, then look at the polls taken, talk to people you do not know, while standing in line at the grocery store, visit a small business that is stugging to survive. and talk to the owner.

 

You will find, laureen, that people care less about anti-abortion, for example, than they do about eating, having a job, and having a home to live in.  When the GOP says that it is WRONG to help folks keep a roof over their head, becasue of some theory, written well before the likes of Countrywide re-wrote the way of doing business—-well….then the GOP is stuck in the past, and not paying attention to reality….

The ideal could be 2 children, a house with a white picket fence, one dog, and 2 cars…but the reality is that a lot of people no longer have a home, are farming their children into foster care, because they have no job, and no health insurance, and have to eat whatever food stamps will allow them, they are abandoning their dogs to the streets (I know, I have one that got abandoned),  and if the cars haven;t been repossessed, thye can seek employmet in an economy that offers no jobs at a liveable wage………So how can YOU say, the GOP is on top of things, and up-to-date,  with their ideaology!!!!!!  OH!  FORGOT!  the ME-FIRST, Do it MY way or NO-way, has been around for a very long time—-they just all havn;t been put into jail for greed and fraud, and manipulation of the plebians!

 

By Patty E on 04/29/2009 10:00 am
S.J. Morgan

Obviously we live in much different neighborhoods!  My fellow business people have the same concerns but it is NOT the DEM party that is helping them!  Things were great till the Dems took control of Congress and now that Obama is there we will never get out of the deficit hole he has dug.  With Bush at least theere was light at the end…..now it is beyond our liftime if ever!

 

 

By S.J. Morgan on 04/29/2009 10:29 am
Patty E
Obama is on CNN doing a live Q&A in Missouri—-you should wathc it—-you might get a bit more of the truth exposed to your insight.  I am in Michigan….we have over 12% unemployment—we may have the worst unemployment in the country….we have been bleeding since Bush took his anger out on us, because his buddy DeVos, got beat out by Granholm…..we had monies cut in 2004 by the Bush admin—-specific to our State——I guess I DO live ‘in a different neighborhood’…When we got hit with the loss of huge amounts of money—-for political reasons—-it did not just affect the poor folks, and the middle class, that his administration was working adamantly of destroying—it hit the businesses as well—-big time!
By Patty E on 04/29/2009 11:13 am
S.J. Morgan

Well sorry Patty I’m at my office trying to keep my struggling business from failing!  My county is 12.8%

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090324/NEWS/903240306

 

We had the most successful years in our business for 7 of the past eight with Bush in office.  The Dems cut our funding for the past ten years in our Timber industry.  I certainly know the pain.  We have closed libraries, cut police forces…and we still have the ability to glean the Timber resources that the Clinton Administration comprimsed for us!  60% of our lands are government owned and not subject to property tax. ……….we are no strangers to pain.  Bush attempted to remedy that but was blocked by the Dems and decisions reversed by Obama when he came into office .

 You are far from the only community suffering…

 

 

By S.J. Morgan on 04/29/2009 1:24 pm
Beth Cornell
I agree with you totally, S.J. Bush always gave us hope. Now that hope is gone.
By Beth Cornell on 04/29/2009 11:22 am
S G
Bush gave you hope? How. He was a nightmare. He removed Habeas Corpus , made people afraid to speak ,took the constitution and ripped it to shreds ,sent young people to Iraq to die for greed and lies,made us look like morons to the world,not to mention put our economy in the hole.. If that is your hope I would hate to see your sorrow.
By S G on 04/29/2009 12:44 pm
Beth Cornell
I don’t think he ripped the Constitution and ripped it shreds. Johnson sent people to Viet Nam. And that was more a disaster than Iraq and Afghanistan put together. 
By Beth Cornell on 04/29/2009 1:38 pm
Amanda C
read the patriot act. then you’ll realize he basically peed on the constitution and our bill of rights.
By Amanda C on 04/29/2009 3:02 pm
Dana Seilhan

Are you serious???  The budget was balanced under Clinton… then Bush decided to go get revenge for his daddy.  4000+ servicemembers dead, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, lots of mess going on in Afghanistan too… and us spent way into the hole.  We were already in trouble.  Why do you think the Dems took over Congress??

Don’t get me wrong.  I consider myself a Green.  I don’t think the Dems have the answers to every little old thing and I don’t agree with all their ideology.  But please do NOT pretend Bush was getting us out of a mess.  I’m old enough to remember the nineties, thank you very much!

By Dana Seilhan on 05/04/2009 12:52 am
Patty E
BTW, laureen—-my former father-in-law was, when alive, the chair of the GOP here in MI—-so I know enough to be dangerous—-and outside of Detroit, AnnArbor, and the University towns where people are smart, the rest of the State is solid Republican….and many are just frustrated with shame that the GOP has gone so far right as to ignore the ‘love thy neighbor’, and all those other ‘christian things’ about helping those who cannot help themselves……instead, the GOP says NO—-we cannot spend the money to do what it takes to fix this house! (metaphorically)
By Patty E on 04/29/2009 10:05 am
S.J. Morgan
In your dreams!
By S.J. Morgan on 04/29/2009 10:24 am
caj p
In my dreams what exactly?
By caj p on 04/29/2009 11:27 am
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