No More Snowe For Washington.

Well, Olympia Snowe is retiring from the U.S. Senate. She's been a Senator from Maine since 95. But what's really important is that she has been one of the few Senators who is truly a moderate. She's been willing to cross the isle in order to help make things happen. Things like softening legislation from one side or the other in order to make it more palatable to the other side. How come she's quiting? She points out that the Senate has become more partisan then at any time she can remember. Well she ain't wrong there. The partisanship in the Senate has converted that body into a useless stage of posturing and finger pointing. They just don't seem to understand that they were elected to serve the people. They have it in their minds that the reason they were elected is to serve the party. Unfortunately, in most cases, that's true. But not only that, some think they were sent to Washington to disagree with everyone including their own party. I'm not sure how that helps. Imagine an army going to war with some units of that army deciding they don't like the plan of attack so they go off and fight their own way. Maybe even fight their own army. I don't mean to suggest these folks are prepared to shoot their fellow Senators or Representatives, but we are at war. In fact we're at war with a stubborn recession and a guns and bullets war in Afghanistan. How can being obstructionists help our country? So now we're losing one of our best leaders in Snowe. We used to have a "group of fourteen". Now there are only five left. Fourteen carried a big stick in the Senate. Five, not so much. If things continue down this path, they won't be able to even vote for their own wage increases because of partisan bickering. At least that would be a good thing. Maybe we could put them on a straight commission basis. You get paid for what you pass. Kidney stones don't count.