Olympia Snowe will not run for reelection

This is a shocking turn of events. Senator Snowe, a supposed “moderate” Republican, was up for reelection this year, and she was facing her first primary challenge from the right in the form of Scott D’Amboise. Three Democrats were seeking the Democratic nomination: State Rep. Jon Hinck, state Sen. Cynthia Dill, former Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap and Portland home builder Ben Pollard. However, Maine’s two Democratic Representatives, Rep. Michael Michaud and Rep. Chellie Pingree. Former Rep. Tom Allen could also get in the race now. But if Chellie Pingree runs, I think she wins easily, both the nomination and in the fall.

Snowe says she is retiring because over frustration over Washington’s current “atmosphere of polarization.” She says she sees a “vital need for the political center in order for our democracy to flourish and to find solutions that unite rather than divide us.”

Her complaints would be more interesting to me if they were not covered in crap. It is not Washington’s atmosphere of polarization, it is the Republican Party’s (of which she is a part) strategy of complete and total obstruction that has caused that polarization. Such a strategy was clear from even before President Obama was sworn in. If Olympia was so troubled, perhaps she should have left her party and become an independent, like James Jeffords.

But whatever. So long Senator Snowe.

And welcome to a great pick up opportunity for the Democrats. This election year keeps getting better and better.