Olympia Snowe Quotes
I understand why so many Americans are fed up with government. The 112th Congress was almost universally derided as the worst ever. It was the most polarized body since the end of Reconstruction, according to one study, and I grew embarrassed by its partisan bickering, inactivity, and refusal to address the vital challenges facing America.
Snowe, Olympia J. Fighting for Common Ground: How We Can Fix the Stalemate in Congress. Weinstein Books, 2013, p. 1.
Explaining his reasons for staging a military coup in the Sudan:
With its multiplicity of committees and the polarization of the parties, Congress has been unable to legislate on large, comprehensive problems that involve more than a single issue at a time.
At the time Congress was gridlocked in bitter hyperpartisan conflict. Most people called for more comity and bipartisanship and most politicians wanted more bipartisanship but blamed the other party for the rift. Mourdock, arguing for less bipartisanship and no compromise defeated Richard Lugar in the Republican Senatorial Primary election. Lugar, one of the most respected and effective Senators was a statesman who worked with any and all to find effective compromises to reach national solutions. The nation was so politically polarized that the Republican Indiana voters ousted one of their most senior senators because he was effective at developing national solutions. See {626717} and {302706} for other Mourdock’s outrageous comments. While this rhetoric won in the Primary, it lost him the general election in a state where Republicans had a strong majority and should have had the seat.
The Grammar Curmudgeon
His Republican Party had filibustered more bills in the Senate then had been done previously in all of the Senate History together. Congress passed fewer bills in his first two years than any other Congress in history.
In the early years of the Obama Administration, the minority leader of the Senate declared that the object of the Republicans in the Senate was to prevent Obama from being reelected. Therefore, the Republicans used the filibuster to block virtually all legislation. In 2010, the Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives and would not pass any legislation that the President favored lest he get credit for accomplishing something. It had gotten so bad, that even when the President proposed Republican ideas about which everyone agreed, that too was blocked.
New York took extensive measures to reduce greenhouse gasses, prohibit smoking anywhere in the city and improve the quality of air as well as spending public funds for many other health prevention initiatives. The result was that New Yorker’s actually live longer than citizens of other states and cities.
See {598081} for a similar idea expressed by his wife Hillary.
A minority of newly elected ultra conservative Tea Party Republicans intimidated most of the main line Republicans by threatening to run against them in their primary elections. The result was that almost no legislation was passed and there was a constant drumbeat of attacks against anything the government was doing or might do in the future. Public confidence in government was driven very low, with only the public confidence in Congress lower. The Democrats who could accomplish very little in that circumstance became very unpopular while the Republicans were even more so. However, many Tea Party Republicans viewed that as a victory as their major objective is to enfeeble government—especially the Federal government.
Olympia Jean Snowe is an American businesswoman and politician who was a United States Senator from Maine from 1995 to 2013. Snowe, a member of the Republican Party, became known for her ability to influence the outcome of close votes, including whether to end filibusters. In 2006, she was named one of America's Best Senators by Time magazine. Snowe was known for her ability to compromise and her strong sense of bipartisanship. Throughout her senate career, she was considered one of the most moderate members of the Senate.
