In the ranks of Republican politicians generally considered most likely to switch parties, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe has been a clear Number One since the defeat of former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee in 2006.
Since Republican stalwart Arlen Specter - a five-term GOP Senator -has now switched parties, speculation has arisen that Snowe (the most popular GOP target for party switching) might be ripe for the picking.
Snowe has been recruited in the past, and has said no every time, but with Specter now gone (and Democrats poised to control 60 seats in the Senate), will that be subject to change?
Snowe says that she has been pursued...but not lately. Moreover, she recalls the party conversion of another moderate Republican, Jim Jeffords...and expresses deep concern about the current direction of the Republican Party.
"I've been asked, but not recently," she said.
Snowe said the Republican Party never learned its lesson from the "painful" party switch of Sen. Jim Jeffords in 2001.
"For me personally and then for the party, it's devastating," Snowe said of Specter's move. "I've always been concerned about the Republican party nationally, about their exclusionary policies towards moderate Republicans. That's not a secretly held view on my part."
Well, that certainly stands in contrast to most other Republicans, like Michael Steele and John Cornyn, who excoriated Specter. Maybe it just isn't the right party for her anymore.
She says she's planning on staying a Republican...but she sounds quite a bit like a potential switcher:
Centrist GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) said the news should serve as a "wake-up call" to the party and added she has no intention of leaving the party herself.
...
"The blunt reality is that we're losing another key moderate who has played a key role in the Republican Party ... If the Republican Party fully intends to become a majority party in the future, they will clearly have to move from the right toward the middle," Snowe said. "That was certainly indicative in the last election, and it's certainly indicative in the polls that are being released. The leadership here understands that.
"I haven't abandoned those principles that have been the essence of the Republican Party. I think the Republican Party has abandoned those principles," Snowe added.
She doesn't sound as if she's planning to switch parties, but she does sound pretty devastated by Specter switching...and she certainly doesn't seem happy with today's Republican Party.