Olympia J. Snowe may be, for the moment, the most powerful woman in Washington.
As the lone congressional Republican working to support President Obama's healthcare overhaul, no one will be more closely watched when the Senate Finance Committee votes next week on a bill aimed at curbing costs, improving coverage and making insurance more attainable for those without.
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Wouldn't it be nice if every reporter who profiled a member of Congress quoted her constituents? This is one of the first stories on the *politics* of health care of health care reform that I've seen do so. High marks for sourcing for getting out of the suffocating Washington news bubble. Beyond that, this piece was somewhat worshipful for my taste. The author portrays Snowe as a steadfast, dispassionate lone wolf -- not the go-getter who's carefully and patiently worked the politically advantageous position she's achieved in this debate.
This is an odd quote. What makes the Senate a politically erratic place is that states without a strong presence in the House — Vermont, Delaware, South Carolina — can produce senators with lots of clout. That the tide has shifted to Maine, another state with a small population, isn’t all that shocking. Furthermore, this isn’t Snowe’s first time in the spotlight, as the Times notes…