Never mind party loyalty,where are the conservative Maine values that got them elected in the first place?

I am glad to know there are people in the Senate that are concerned still about "we the people" and NOT we the party.

Conservative values???? Who are you kidding? That's the purest oxymoron - emphasis on moron - that I've heard. The Senators would not be elected if they weren't moderate; they would be on a permanent political vacation. They know Maine's real values and that's the only reason they win in a liberal leaning state.

They are spineless fence sitters and they need to take a real stand!! They are probably double agents getting money from both sides,lol

"Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said the GOP needs to embrace moderates like Snowe and Collins if it hopes to reclaim control of Congress."

Okay, so then the GOP reclaims congress, but as what? He wants us to embrace ideologies we don't believe serve the best interests of the American people, in order to get elected? Why be a party of pretenders, we already of two those. Snowe might as well have a big D in front of her name; and Collins isn't far behind if she votes in favor of a government run health care plan, or cap and trade when that resurfaces.

Moderate is a relative term. What the AP reporter meant was compromisers or maybe appeasers. One who bends principals to garnish popularity. I am reminded of a Goldwaters quote "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!". No one would want to be defended with "moderate" force or a spouse whose loyality was described as moderate or a sports team member that only exerted a moderate amount of effort. There is a huge and dangerous difference trying to be popular or doing the right thing. Snowe and Collins excel in the former and fail in the latter.

It's great to see Republicans who do not need to ask for Limbaugh, Hannity and BecKKK's for marching orders.

It always amazes me that the conservative republicans continually insist on biting the hands that feed them. Somehow they have convinced themselves that they are this super majority. What I just can't understand is how. Nationwide, the republican party as a whole consists of only roughly 23% of all voters. Of that slim number, a smaller percentage is on the conservative fringe. They like to point to a number of plus or minus 60% of the electorate that consider themselves 'conservative. ' They assume (or take for granted) that group is going to trend toward the republican lock step method of policy making in the voting booth. Realistically, the only time conservative republicans get voted into office in most places outside of the deep south is because moderate and conservative democrats, independents, and others vote for them. They just can't accept the fact right now that GW Bush and the Congress' that rubber stamped his failed policies went way too far for the very people who crossed over from their own affiliations to elect them . The conservative republicans, with their lock step slash and burn policies, have destroyed the Reagan coalition. The general electorate have moved back toward sanity, ie pragmatism and moderation. Why aren't they getting that?

I also find it highly curious that in the conservative scramble to right the ship, they are attacking their own from within. For the conservatives to be labeling and alienating their moderate members with polarizing terms like rino, they bite the other hand! Apparently they don't get that either. The republican party right now is hijacked. The conservatives believe they can force policy. I am glad that the american people, and some republicans, have pushed back.

I quit the Republican Party when the Bush administration started arresting people without charge and holding them without trial or access to a lawyer. The party has abandoned principles and the Constitution, and now turns its anger on the few members like Snowe and Collins, who still hold true to the idea that we are one nation rather than divisions of "Us" and "Them" . . .

You Can Not Blame Snowe and Collins

For Having to Work the System to Get Anything DONE

We Are to Blame

And IT IS TIME to Change The Way The System Works

So A Snowe and Collins and All Others Can Stand UP

And Say What they Really Believe IN

Our Political System is Nothing More

Than A Reflection in The Mirror of Us ALL

"independence is what makes Snowe and Collins popular back home"

If Dems in this State like them so much let them run next time with the D in front of their name and see how well they do in their primary.

Enough fake Republicans.

Where are the influenza vaccinations for us your Maine constituents? You know traditional and H1N1vaccines that were promoted as being important earlier this year by you our elected leaders.

Eat your veggies and you wont need the flu shot.

Free advice from Dr. Stevey........

Wait until the Obama thugs from Chicago get to use the "new and improved" constitution that Snowe and Collins would sell their souls for.

Interesting that your paper thinks it would be good if responsible Senators joined those who MUST do exactly as they are told by Nancy and Harry. I know that Susan tries her best to represent the working people of Maine, if they will listen. have the readers of the BDD ever heard of the Acorn group?

A couple of years ago, Olympia joined another unethical senator and threatened to use the police power of the senate to block honest research into man-made warming. Did the BDD question her right to use that abuse of power? Back in the '50s, MCS challenged Senator Mccathy when he made acquations without having proof of anti-American behavior, I wish Susan had challenged this time when there already was plenty of proof.

I still support Susan, however she did drop the ball when Sen John Davidson Rockefeller IV and Olympia Snowe abused their power. Susan probably was spineless on that issue; unfortunately, your paper and the lemmings who believe the trash you publish would likely have hanged her for telling a truth you did not want to hear.

How many more months do you think the people will tolerate the dishonesty of your paper? Many of your contempories are already on last breaths.

Sumner, a native born Mainer

who remembers when Maine

got truthful news.

I fear that Senator Collins is becoming less and less of a moderate.

I have a question:

Why is a left-leaning Republican called "moderate", while a right-leaning Democrat is called a Conservative?

"In the new poll, 69 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaners say they think it is all right for the party's candidates to take moderate positions on some issues; 27 percent say they want candidates to hew exclusively to conservative positions. " from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/29/AR2009112902935.html

The 27% of republican that are swinging the republican party back to it's former roots of Eisenhower and Reagan will NOT stand for Snowe or Collins. Their glory days of Collins's canary yellow pantsuits and Snowe's black goth outfits on the senate floor are over. In order for the Republican to gain back leadership and credibility, it needs to drop the Jesus thingy.. and endorse smaller and limited government, fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets, free markets, and the spirit of the constitution.

Summer42 - you need professional help.

Conservative Maine values? Like high taxes, well-protected union jobs, and a very generous social net? THOSE conservative values?

Democrats always seem to want to tell us what we are.

Read what they write when the subject of Snowe and Collins comes up and you can see them defending their own.

You want them, you vote for them.

Both of them have done a good job for the people of Maine. Their reelection to office shows that they have the support of the people. You do not have to agree with all of their positions on certain issues to vote for either of them.

Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe will continue to do what they feel is right; they do not vote based on re-election prospects. However, their political careers will continue as long as they wish to serve. The people of Maine will continue to re-elect them (wait and see....)

It seems that too many posting here are ignorant of our own history, since the Republican Party was founded on liberalism...think Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Ike Eisenhower. And since President Eisenhower's name is being thrown around here, let's look at some of his words:

"I despise all adjectives that try to describe people as liberal of conservative, rightist or leftist, as long as they stay in the useful part of the road." President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing." President (& former General & Supreme Allied Commander) Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms in not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense." President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace." President Dwight D. Eisenhower

If these were words heard from current GOP leaders, I'd still be a Republican.

Mainers - You get what you vote for.

I repeat, it is time for Obama's loyal democrats Snowe and Collins to step aside. The people voted in Republicans and got Democrats. We need people who will stand up for the people of Maine, not those who will kiss Obama's feet. Obama is the worst thing that ever happened to this country, we don;'t need Snowe and Collins helping him drag it down further.

Mapletonboy - George Bush 2nd bears the responsability for where this country is in its presant shape. But for most of the right wing there is allways someone else to blame. I used to be a staunch republican but now i no longer feel alligance to a party that is controlled by the far right. That is why this country and Maine need the Senators that we have. They do not blindly follow the party line as se down by the far right hacks that have taken it over.

If the Republican Party does not awaken to this it will soon cease to be a viable part of the American political landscape.

Wow. The Dems have been in charge for 3 years and Obama has been in the White House for nearly a year, and still, some continue to blame Bush. There is a definite lack of knowledge and responsibility on the left. Even the New York Times is beginning to discover the truth.

Mr. Parsons would like you all to believe that there is knowledge and responsibility on the right. Wrong!

Snowe and Collins "successful"as moderates ......I believe a more apt headline would be....Snowe and Collins continue to thrive only because they have never had any Conservative opposition .....They have been elected time and time again by Maine Republicans only because they are the lessor of two evils on the ballot. .....

.

To hold these 2 up as a shining star for the GOP to aspire to , is incorrect and an obvious attempt by Liberals to neutralize the GOP.

I beg to differ; they are NOT thriving. Their party supporters intend to 'oust' them next election. Don't you read the paper you write for?

exlex94 -- Get over blaming dubbya for everything and open your eyes to the destruction that ODummer is perpetrating on the American people. He hates us and only wants to destroy this country. I find it very difficult to get my mind around the fact that he has been elected. You folks who elected him were drawn to his soft spoken rhetoric like sheep to the slaughter and if this keeps on, we will all be victims. Many members of the republican party have been called silent and so it is. We are not 'in your face' and you often forget about our numbers. We ARE the silent majority, just saying we will cease to be, does not make it so.

"On 11/30/09 at 10:43 PM, exlex94 wrote: Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Mapletonboy - George Bush 2nd bears the responsability for where this country is in its presant shape. "

When do the failed policies of the present administration start taking the blame for the fact that he is stalling the recovery of the economy.

A crash that I would point out was caused by welfare housing market policies put in place by Barney Frank and his group not by Bush who warned them that they were going to cause these sort of problems.

It is funny to read the responses of the george bush apologists. they are so in tune with the knownothings.

ex - Is that the best you can do? What about honestly defending your messiah? That's a nearly impossible task, so you choose to diss Bush. Straight out of the liberal playbook.

I am a registered Republican, but I have a brain of my own. Snowe and Collins should become Independents if that is what they claim to be. They won't be voted out because they are incumbents. Half of the people going into the voters box only check off their names because they have heard of them before. Many voters don't pay any attention to the way that Snowe and Collins vote in the senate, but instead wait until the political season and judge them on information they acquired from a political ad on TV. Some like myself vote for them because they are the lesser of two evils. Tom Allen? Are you kidding? It is why I voted for GW Bush. I didn't want to, but I knew Gore or Kerry would be worse.

ALL politicians are inherintly corrupt. It is part of the job. People blame Bush for the economy. For six of his eight years I was doing fine. He wasn't conservative enough. He spent too much money. The terrible economy can be blamed on several things. Bush not wanting any regulations, Barney Frank wanting to pump money into Fannie and Freddy so that people could buy homes they couldn't afford, The Banks lending to anyone with a pulse, people applying for and getting adjustable rate loans that had nowhere to go but up when they adjusted. Now it's more of the same. Bush and Obama both thought that the bailouts of the banks and car companies were a good idea. I didn't. They thought the stimulus plan was a good idea. I didn't. They think that the government will be able to run healthcare efficiently. I don't. They have never run anything efficiently before. Why start now? We are printing money by the truckload evryday and going deeper into debt to China. Why? Tell them to stop spending money we don't have.

It's time that we started paying attention to the way all of our politicians are voting no matter what party they are from. They work for us! It's our country!