Olympia, Jump The Fence!

Published Dec 22 2008, 01:02 PM by David S. Bernstein

Congressional Quarterly's latest roll-call vote analysis confirms yet again what we already know -- that Maine's Republican Senators are out of step with their party.

In fact, they are the most out of step, and are the only two to vote against their party more than they vote with it. Olympia Snowe voted with the majority of Republican senators just 39% of the time, and Susan Collins just 46%.

I realize that it would be impolite of Collins to change parties so soon after letting the GOP spend a bunch of money helping her get re-elected. But Snowe could certainly jump. Jump, Olympia, Jump!

Snowe and Collins are likely to only grow further estranged from the Senate's Republican caucus. Only 12 other Republicans voted with the party less than 85% of the time. Of those 12, three have just retired (Warner, Hagel, Domenici), three have just been voted out (Smith, Dole, Stevens), another might be on the way out (Coleman), and one has announced he's retiring in 2010 (Martinez). Two more (Specter, Voinovich) face very difficult re-elections in 2010.

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Olympia, Jump The Fence!

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