Snowe is no longer in the forecast
Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, one of the last moderate Republicans in Washington, will not seek reelection in 2012.
Snowe is no longer in the forecast
What a winter! First there was no snow. Now, the long-range political forecast calls for...no Snowe:
Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe will not seek reelection in 2012, according to two source with knowledge of her plans.
Snowe’s retirement represents a major setback for the GOP’s efforts to regain a majority in the Senate. As a moderate Republican, she may be the party’s only hope to hold a seat in the strongly blue state.
This is major political news -- all "as Maine goes, so goes the nation" jokes aside. Snowe -- along with her state's other senator Susan Collins -- has been one of the last couple of moderate Republicans in Washington. It will be interesting to see what her stated reasons are for deciding, at this late hour, to not seek re-election; whatever the official story line, it won't escape notice that she leaves as her Republican Party is lurching to the extreme right, and as GOP lawmakers increasingly pursue an agenda that is hostile to women. The GOP will be eager to prove in November that the party is not anti-female, but it's going to be harder to make that case now that Snowe is not in the picture.
Comment removed.
"I'm not sure what the GOP loses with Collins and Snowe gone." . . . Well, aside from the majority seat and committee chairs, not much that they haven't already lost.— montani semper liberi- "You know what's hostile to women? An 8 X 10 glossy of bunch." . . . . Sure, batty, blame it on your wall decor.— montani semper liberi
- "And this whole "real unemployment" statistic is a joke. Where has this stat been all these years"Its been calculated for years. The rate the government provides only shows people who are actively looking for work. When people become frustrated and drop out of the workforce, it no longer counts them. It also doesn't count people who are working less than they would like to (underemployment). (HTML deleted)— RG
- "When people become frustrated and drop out of the workforce, it no longer counts them." Another talking point. I have yet to meet, talk to, or hear about anyone who becomes so "frustrated" that they just decide to stop looking for work. Who are these people? Do you know any of them?— wokmaster
- Then you are simply spouting ignorance, wokmaster.
— RG - Hey Will, what happened to the Blue Dogs?— CD75
- RG - Do you know anybody who just decided to stop looking for work because they were so "frustrated"?— wokmaster
- I stopped looking for work and started my own business. Does that count? — michael_b
- Great logic. Because you don't know them, they don't exist. Do us all a favor and look up U 3 and U 6, then come back and talk about it.— RG
- So just to be clear, your point is that the country is still shedding jobs?— wokmaster
- "So just to be clear, your point is that the country is still shedding jobs?"
So just to be clear, you enjoy engaging in strawmen?— RG - Just want to establish that the economy has added jobs over the last 23 months before I get sidetracked by a typical RG minutiae arguement.— wokmaster
- "by a typical RG minutiae arguement."
Its a minutiate argument that you clearly don't understand U6, use child like logic to try to argue against it, and then try to shift the conversation?— RG - Oh RG, look at you mentioning various forms of counting U? Wow I thought that "it also doesn't count people who are working less than they would like to (underemployment)"? So it does count them? But you're not happy with what U number has been decided to be the headline number? The insinuation needed to be made by the right (RG included, in all his libertarian glory) - is that the percentage drop in the Labor Participation Rate is due to frustrated workers dropping out due to lack of opportunity (which of course is due to Obama and his radical agenda). This would be structural unemployment. Fact is about 1/3 of the drop in LPR over the past two years is due to frustrated workers (mainly workers without a diploma or with just a high school diploma, mainly in contruction). Of course if a person near retirement decides to retire with less of a PV of their future payments, then they are frustrated too. Keep in mind also, as RG has been quick to link to and is featured here on philly.com today -- quite a bit of the current portion of the unemployment rate is frictional unemployment -- there are an increasing number of jobs open, and there are many seeking work -- it just so happens that for whatever reason they are mismatched -- time, location, skill. Thank god the POTUS hasn't called for increased education and training. Caveat: Granted, there are huge numbers of people who have stopped looking for work due to being frustrated -- suggesting the drop in the LPR is solely due to these frustrated workers is bunk.— Murrayman
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