Olympia Snowe

As the weekend's syndicated Chris Matthews Show concluded, the entire panel chose political figures echoing sentiments either from the left or at least in criticism of conservatives to answer host Matthews's "Big Question" of who has "made a big, gutsy decision so far this year."

Appearing as a panel member on Sunday's Melissa Harris-Perry show, comedienne Margaret Cho wondered why some women are Republicans as she asserted that the GOP is "a party that's so against our rights, our reproductive rights, so many rights in so many ways." Cho also complained that Sarah Palin tries to "beat feminism down," claiming that "Sarah Palin wouldn't exist without feminism."…

Since Senator Olympia Snowe's (R-Maine) surprising announcement that she won't be seeking reelection in November, the media have been doing a victory lap blaming her decision on the lack of moderate Republicans in Congress. Yet an op-ed she published in Friday's Washington Post suggests her dissatisfaction with government stemmed from the behavior of Democrats that have controlled the Senate…

"The American Conservative Union just came out" with their latest congressional scorecard and what do you know, retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) has "the lowest lifetime conservative record [48.59, just left of center] of any Republican. In Diane Sawyer's book, that makes her the principled voice of reason," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity on last night's "Media Mash"…

On Thursday's CBS This Morning, anchor Charlie Rose spotlighted the apparent "the disappearance of political moderates" in Congress in the context of Republican Senator Olympia Snowe's retirement. Correspondent Nancy Cordes gushingly asked Snowe, "Was it just getting too lonely to be a moderate Republican in the Senate?" CBS also listed several "moderate" senators who are actually liberals.…

On Thursday, New York Times reporter Jonathan Weisman fretted over the lack of GOP centrists (a common and long-lasting theme in Timesland) after news broke of the surprise retirement of "fed up" moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine: “After Many Tough Choices, the Choice to Quit.” As Weisman tells it, it was the rise of those distracting “social issues” that sent Snowe over the…

MSNBC on Wednesday brought on Ed Schultz, a man who once decried Republicans as killers who profit off of "corpses," to lament the decreasing number of moderate, temperate voices in the U.S. Senate. Host Chris Jansing mournfully discussed Senator Olympia Snowe's retirement and how there is "so much noise on the extremes." Schultz, who once trashed Laura Ingraham as a "right-wing slut,"…

On Wednesday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd was looking for any excuse to be an Obama spokesman as made this declaration about the announced retirement of Maine Senator Olympia Snowe: "...she's serving as a personal testimonial to the President, who says there's no more centrist coalition inside the Republican Party." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the…

According to the Washington Post, examining every detail of the relationship between moderate Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins is worth devoting an exhausting 6228 words to. Writer Martha Sherrill offered a fawning analysis of the two senators who often frustrate conservatives. The near book-length profile investigated the apparent dislike the senators have for each other…

When Maine Republican Olympia Snowe backed aspects of health care reform early last fall, CBS’s Nancy Cordes cheered the "rebel Republican." Now that Snowe is sounding a tougher, more skeptical tone on the legislation, how will journalists treat the moderate Senator? Appearing on Thursday’s edition of On the Record, host Greta Van Susteren asked Snowe if health care was dead. She bluntly replied…

The advocacy on display Monday by "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric was almost unimaginable.In her "Notebook" video posted at CBSNews.com, Couric read a poem fashioned after Clement Clarke Moore's classic "The Night Before Christmas."Without any regard for hiding her position on healthcare reform legislation currently before Congress, Couric used the coming holidays as an excuse to wax…

George Will on Sunday accused the media of manufacturing the return of government mandated healthcare to the current reform debate.Discussing the subject on the recent installment of ABC's "This Week," Will said it was highly unlikely Democrats actually have the votes for what they call a "public option," but the media are assisting them in "cleverly and skillfully manufacturing a sense of…

Last fall, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel remarked, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."  That quote has become part of a rallying cry for conservatives, that those currently in power are trying to create the perception of a crisis to force things through the legislative process that couldn't be done…

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, is a media darling now that she was the only Republican to break ranks and vote a health care reform bill out of the Senate Finance Committee Oct. 13. "Good Morning America" interviewed Snowe about health care reform on Oct. 14 and didn't challenge a misleading statistic about the number of medical-caused bankruptcies. Snowe, who backed the $829-billion bill, claimed…