From TPM Reader DY …
With all the (rightful) recriminations among supporters of health care reform about Nelson and Lieberman, the person who hasn’t come in for nearly enough scorn is Olympia Snowe.
Snowe, who’s concerns about health care reform were substantively more liberal than Nelson’s and more grounded is a sense of facts than Lieberman can’t even summon a policy, or even partisan, reason for opposing the bill. (McConnell’s invocation of bipartisanship, while false, is a better reason than Snowe’s).
Snowe opposes the bill because it is being rushed even though 1) she was one of 6 people in the room writing the Finance Committee bill which 2) was delayed, but not substantively changed from Baucus’s June outline to it’s passage in order to accommodate “more time” from people like Snowe. The final bill 3) didn’t really change the bill on the concerns that Snowe had (public option, etc) and changed in her direction on other issues (affordability). And Snowe has been griping about 4) more time since the beginning of the process.
So here’s the question. Does anyone other than Olympia Snowe and the media who has deemed her the most important Senator in history of the body really believe that if the vote were held on January 10th or March 22nd rather than December 24th that she would vote for it?
