A Republican is giving cover to Democrats over Health Care bill.

[Brn2bfree]

GOP's Snowe voting for Democrats' health care bill


WASHINGTON - Forget Sarah Palin. The maverick female of the Republican Party is Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe.

The 62-year-old, moderate Maine lawmaker announced Tuesday she will vote for a Democratic health care bill, breaking with her party and giving a major boost to President Barack Obama's goal of expanding coverage.

"When history calls, history calls," Snowe told her colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee, several hours into the debate.

Snowe had kept virtually all of Washington guessing how she would vote. She had not even let Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in on her secret.
Then she captured all of Washington's attention.

"The status quo approach has produced one glaring common denominator, that is that we have a problem that is growing worse not better," she said in explaining her support for the bill.
While she described the legislation as flawed, she said it bolsters what works in the nation's health care system as well as trying to rein in the rising costs of health care.
Democrats, aware that Snowe could be the only Republican in Congress to vote for their health care overhaul, have spent months addressing her concerns about making it affordable and how to pay for it. Obama has sought her vote in phone calls and meetings.
Snowe made clear to her Democratic colleagues that her support could be a one-shot deal.

"My vote today is my vote today. It does not forecast my vote tomorrow," she said.
With her support, however, Democrats might have the 60th vote required to overcome Republican objections to the bill. Snowe's support would mean that the final version of the bill could - technically - be called bipartisan, a key tenet of Obama's agenda.

Snowe has broken with her party on several occasions

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...6ERFgD9BAC6PO5

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When Republicans give cover to Democrats over health care or cap and trade, it hurts the Republicans and the people who voted for a Republicans to represent them...They did not vote for a liberal Republican. They did not vote for a Benedict Arnold.

When the Democrats' policies fail.....they can say that they had a bi-partisan decision when one Republican votes with the Democrats. They need to let the Democrats live with their failures. The Republicans need to separate themselves from the Democrats for this issue...They need to stick to their guns ....They need to listen to the town hall meetings. Cross overs like Snowe and Grahamnesty are blowing it for the Republicans.

LET THE DEMOCRATS HANG THEMSELVES!

It looks like the public option is back on the table and it's not going to go well with the American people. The middle class will be subject to health care rationing and higher taxes. If you have private health care....it will go up dramatically.

We the silent majority don't have a voice in this. Today we moved closer to government run health care. Remember this during the next elections.

 

[Fatality]

she is as much a liberal as the demos shes in bed with, i blame her and the people who voted for her.

 

[Old Rocks]

Wah, wah, waaaaahaaaa........... Damn, you people had eight years to get it right and failed in all spheres. Now that the American People have realized the poverty of your ideologies, and the failure and incompetance of your leadership, all you have left is NO!. That will not buy you any votes, and their are those in the Republican Party that realize they must vote for what is best for the American People if they are going to retain their seats, and have a viable party.

 

[Qball]

Wah, wah, waaaaahaaaa........... Damn, you people had eight years to get it right and failed in all spheres. Now that the American People have realized the poverty of your ideologies, and the failure and incompetance of your leadership, all you have left is NO!. That will not buy you any votes, and their are those in the Republican Party that realize they must vote for what is best for the American People if they are going to retain their seats, and have a viable party.

On the other hand, the Dems won because they largely ran on a platform of not being Republicans and not supporting Bush (though in some key areas, they totally did). They didn't win on the breadth of their ideas about health care or any other key issue. People have grown to rightfully mistrust Republicans, as have I. So what the Republicans have done -- which I think is the best thing they can do -- is entirely separate themselves from the Democrats. Make them own the economy. So in the next 2-4 years, nobody can say that Republicans were in the tank for all this over-spending. That when Dems have huge majorities in all three houses, they could barely get anything done. Of course, the one thing Republicans can't do much about is the media narrative that the main reason Democrats can't do anything is because of Republican obstructionists, but hopefully the people will see right through that.

 

[rightwinger]

Olympia Snowe is doing what she sees as best for the people of Maine, not what her party tells her to do.

What a concept!

 

[Maple]

There is nothing moderate about Olympia Snowe, she is a LIBERAL DEMOCRAT in Republican clothes and it's time that the people of Maine wake up to the hoax she has perpertrated on them. She voted for the no stimulus stimulus bill along with Susan Collins and Arlen Spector without even reading it. Spector switched to the democratic party, I think he has switched several times in his political career. He does it to keep getting elected over and over and over again. I think it's time that they all were given their pink slips, you people in the states that these career politicians come from need to wake the hell up and get them out of there. THEY HURT THIS COUNTRY.

 

[rightwinger]

There is nothing moderate about Olympia Snowe, she is a LIBERAL DEMOCRAT in Republican clothes and it's time that the people of Maine wake up to the hoax she has perpertrated on them. She voted for the no stimulus stimulus bill along with Susan Collins and Arlen Spector without even reading it. Spector switched to the democratic party, I think he has switched several times in his political career. He does it to keep getting elected over and over and over again. I think it's time that they all were given their pink slips, you people in the states that these career politicians come from need to wake the hell up and get them out of there. THEY HURT THIS COUNTRY.

If the republicans don't want her, I'm sure the Democrats will accept her. It would be great for the State of Maine

 

[rightwinger]

Snowe and Collins are the last republican holdouts in the North East. The republicans have lost every other seat in the region, they might as well lose those two

 

[nodoginnafight]

I have a great deal of respect for the Blue-Dog Democrats who vote their convictions rather than their party and I respect Snow and other Republicans who demonstrate that they are more committed to country than party.
Some people talk the talk - these people walk the walk.
As an independent, I respect their withstanding the pressure to conform to the party line.
Most voters aren't Republicans or Democrats - they are independents who vote for an individual - Not a letter of the alphabet that follows the name.

 

[EriktheRed]

Mitch McConnell and his deputies in the Senate Republican leadership are responding very cautiously to Olympia Snowe’s decision to become the first GOP vote for a Democratic health care reform bill.


That’s about all they can do.


“My job as whip is not to twist her arm but to bring all the information that we can bring to bear on the issue and hope that people vote the way we would like to see them vote,” said McConnell’s No. 2, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).


Kyl said a heavy-handed approach “doesn’t work.”


And indeed, it could backfire — not just with Snowe but with other Republicans who’ve indicated that they could cross over to help Democrats pass some of President Barack Obama’s top domestic policy initiatives

Maverick fallout: GOP won't retaliate - Lisa Lerer and Manu Raju - POLITICO.com