WASHINGTON, D.C. — Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have announced the names of the Democratic colleagues they will be seated next to during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address next week.
Democrats and Republicans usually sit with their parties, but some lawmakers began breaking with tradition last year because of calls for more civility and less partisanship after Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting in Arizona.
Snowe and Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, announced Tuesday that they will sit next to each other during the address. Snowe and Begich are the ranking member and chairman, respectively, of the U.S. Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard.
“I could not be more pleased to sit next to Mark, my good friend and colleague, during the State of the Union,” said Snowe. “In a Congress that has been plagued by legislative logjams and political quagmires, both of us have worked to set aside partisan politics in our efforts together on the Commerce Committee to achieve what is best for Maine, Alaska and the nation. While sitting next to each other is a symbolic gesture, I hope all our colleagues in the Congress can pursue a similar form of bipartisanship as we begin our legislative session in 2012.”
Collins will sit with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., during the president’s address.
Last year, Collins joined dozens of her Senate colleagues in urging congressional leaders to allow Republicans and Democrats to sit side by side rather than in the usual partisan divide with members of each party on opposite sides of the aisle.
“Americans want our two parties to set aside partisan bickering, come together and reach agreements in an atmosphere of mutual respect and good faith,” said Collins. “This simple gesture demonstrates to the American people that Republicans and Democrats are willing to work side by side to seek consensus on our nation’s most pressing problems.”
Collins and Lieberman each have served as the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Together they have authored many pieces of legislation, including the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. Most recently, they joined to introduce legislation to stabilize the U.S. Postal Service and to modernize the government’s efforts to safeguard the nation’s cybernetworks from attack.
Are they gonna hold hands?
To both you and StillRelaxin: there’s precedent and in boith cases they’re on and active on the same committees. Get over it.
Look how nice they play together! We should all vote for them again, and again, and again. NOT!
Ya, maybe the Dems will be passing out whoopie pies to their Repub colleagues…time to show everybody that they know how to have a good time.
My question is can we perform a citizens arrest on Snowe and Collins and deport
them to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan to stand trial for crimes against humanity?
Spain is moving forward with its case against George cokehead Bush to stand trial
for torture.
see
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/374-bush-administration/9472-focus-spain-proceeding-with-bush-torture-case
Spain Proceeding With Bush Torture Case
By Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald
16 January 12
Fail to see your reasoning or relevance.
well, in that case, also do the same to clinton, for giving the chinese missile guidance technology.along with his drug use.the chinese could never get a missile, or satellite in orbit til clinton came along.,also his nat sec advisor, sandy burglar, caught with tapes, taking out of archives, stealing them. and what happened to him??
Yo Stiffy, just so you know I am having a problem with the name stiffchicken
but……….
In 2001 we brought attorney John Clarke to speak at our 12th Annual Conference Investigating Crimes Committed by FBI agents,
Attorney Clarke represented a client who was a critical witness to the Vince Foster
murder. John detailed the evidence for Bill and Hillary Clinton assassinating Vince Foster with the help of the FBI.
I just took out my GPS device to find out where you are coming from.
Here is a heading that will take you to attorney Clarke’s website
http://www.fbicover-up.com/index.htm
If you find you’ve just written a sentence that begins, “Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins” . . , just stop writing. We already know the rest.
If only they could do more than just sit next to each other.
I guess they know who will be buttering their bread for another 4 years.
Sit with them? Both of you girls always vote NO NO NO so why bother sitting with them. You girls hurt Maine every time you vote NO.
n ot everytime.they do get it right at times
That only seems appropriate for those two……..
Ms. Snowe should be remembered as having cast ‘THE’ crossover vote for our failed stimulus package — that she should disguise her preference for sitting with the leftcoast as civility should not come as a surprise to anyone.
she also cast the vote to move this disasterous healthcare along its way.these two need to be replaced, but not with another democrat.
No big surprise here. Both Collins and Snowe as GOP’rs are now so identified with the Tea Party and their temper tantrum’s, and are facing re-electon, that they have to find a way to break from the GOP hardliner’s. But sitting with a Democrat is, at best, window dressing. They want to make a serious statement, they both come out publicly and denounce McConnell’s constant blocking of legislation that we all know the country need’s, but that the Senate GOP’rs are constantly blocking at the direction of the Tea Party and the Norquist bunch. And it wouldn’t hurt for them to come out with Michaud and Pingree and stand up for the citizens of Maine as far LePage’s comments about MaineCare go.
Identified with the Tea Party? The Tea Party doesn’t want them, they’re Rino’s and that’s why a Tea Party candidate is running against Snowe.
And Maine doesn’t want the Tea Party. Just wait for the laughable performance of their candidate and see.
finally someone is accurate
I think they all should hold hands and sing Kumbaya.
… instead of shouting “liar” at the POTUS ?
He did lie and continues too…
Where are all WMD’s and who got OBL ?
So he is a more effective liar than your last lying liar.
he is a liar, and an america hating Muslim
Okee dokee.
Hey, the RINOs are in bed with them. Might as well sit with them
Hey SPINO!!!
You dont represent SP just because you are an Alumni and sat with them at the graduation!!!
SPAlumni
I am so proud to be from Maine! With a long and gloried history of great and moderate politicians; these two women are putting country before politics.
STG
They should sit in the cloakroom till they figure out how to serve the needs of their constituents and not just the 10% who pull the strings in many meaningful ways in this increasingly dysfunctional republic of ours.
did i vote for either one of them? no.
do i applaud their effort to cross the aisle when their conscience dictates? yes.
didn’t these women (collins or snowe, i forget) cast the deciding vote for healthcare reform?
When the chips were down they voted against health care reform and for the status quo. The grand old party still does not have any alternative than to kill it. To me they are just hypocrites working both sides of the street.
“The grand old party still does not have any alternative than to kill it.”
Typical lefty ignorance.
Folk have a right to their opinions. If an ideological litmus test is what defines ignorance for you, you had better exercise care in who you call ignorant.
“Folk have a right to their opinions.” Yes they (you) do, but the statement I posted of yours was simply not true. But I guess it’s not a lie if you believe it.
Interesting concept. I disagree with your political perception and it follows that I am deluded. Deranged but not responsible. Saved by my sincerity. I will grant you that one of us is having a tough time with reality.
Oh how nice, Snowe being up for re-election is sitting with the dems. But remember she can sit with whoever she wants but it won’t change her politicial views.
true, but she still smells 70 pct. of the time
They can sit wherever they want, as far as I’m concerned. On the other hand, I miss the causal relationship between a disfunctional/polarized/vitriolic Congress and Rep. Gifford’s shooting by a deranged/psychotic/apolitical lunatic seeking his 15 minutes of fame. Then again, I suppose when your collective approval rating is around 11% a little PR diversion couldn’t hurt.
Like it really matters which band of criminals these two skid marks on the national underwear choose to sit beside.
Let us unite and give all 535 of these fools, rogues, and harlots what they truly deserve. Someone please pass the tar and feathers.
They’re not moderates, they’re both total phonies who will vote with the party of no at any chance. Both have been in too long and need to be voted out no matter who they sit with.
“This simple gesture demonstrates to the American people that Republicans and Democrats are willing to work side by side to seek consensus on our nation’s most pressing problems.”
Really?? Really?? Ya’ know as a kid about the age of five or six my mom used to make my sister and me sit side by side holding hands until we could behave ourselves and play well together.
Oh barf.
Birds of a feather, they…
I guess I’m more suprised that Snowe and Collins didn’t pull one of their “I support the issue, but not the mechanism” excuses, like they’d have loved to sit with a Senator from another party, but they just can’t do so because of the method in which it was proposed. These two have so many excuses lately.
Collins will sit next to Lieberman? Lieberman isn’t a Democrat. Lieberman isn’t even an American, he’s Israeli. He only votes for the pro-Israeli legislation and doesn’t give a hoot about Americans.
These 2 are really Democrats anyhow.
Please remember they were also part of ruining the greatest nation in the world on their watch.
Follow the money. Their policy of taking care of number 1 has been accomplished at the cost of the nation. How they can keep the job is really beyond comprehension. Real conservatism is the only hope of reversing the damage.
2 Wolves in sheeps clothing sitting with more wolves at least for the moment until the wind blows in another direction….. 2 self centered PHONIES
So this is what it comes too. Being criticized for sitting next to someone. Society as a whole is doomed when the types of behavior like those shown on this forum is the norm.
They just want to be on the coat tails as obama sends us down the river!
Thank you for the bipartisianship, Senators.
Too many dems and repubs would rather see the country go down the drain than see some compromise that leads to real progress.