Snowe complained that toxic partisan battles have made the Senate unworkable. Snowe departure exposes GOP rift

Sen. Olympia Snowe’s bombshell retirement announcement brought into focus the fault line within GOP ranks: Conservatives are demanding a sharper focus on bedrock principles, and party strategists are more concerned with courting swing voters.

It is a fight that has raged inside the GOP since the rise of the tea party movement in 2009 — the “electability” vs. “real conservative” argument — and is also playing out in the nominating battle between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.


The abrupt departure of the moderate Snowe could heighten those intraparty tensions within the Senate. Snowe complained that toxic partisan battles have made the Senate unworkable, and she acknowledged Wednesday that the GOP’s task of winning the majority may be more challenging because of her retirement.

Some Senate Republicans — despite the fact that they have to defend only 10 seats vs. 23 for Democrats — worry that they may not win a majority this year and are concerned that Republicans have yet to offer a compelling governing vision for voters.

“I think for the Americans to trust us with big issues, we’ve got to prove on smaller issues that we’re credible in leading again,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), citing the lack of GOP will to derail a popular highway bill because of its high cost. “It’s like people have become so desensitized and are almost forgetting that all these little examples were things that either caused people to trust us or not trust us.

“And we need to build that trust,” Corker added. “And time is shortening.”

How Senate Republicans do that remains a point of sharp internal debate. There is clamoring in the ranks for the party to put forth a Contract With America-style agenda to present to voters in the fall, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been skeptical of that idea, preferring to wait for a presidential nominee to present a unified agenda for the party. Instead, McConnell has vigorously attacked the White House over gas prices and is pushing for the Senate to adopt targeted House bills Republicans say would create jobs.

But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted a rank-and-file “rebellion” that would produce a more ambitious election-year agenda for their party.

Asked whether he is concerned about McConnell’s skepticism, Graham said, “I think the conference is going to come up with the agenda. I think the rank and file on both sides of the aisle is getting frustrated. You may have a rebellion of the rank and file on both sides of the aisle.”

Graham said Snowe’s retirement also puts a finer point on the argument that the party needs to sell its vision to moderate and independent voters in order to build a bigger tent for the GOP.

“This is a game of addition, we’re trying to build a majority,” Graham said. “You’ve got to have a coalition to build a majority; I wish everybody thought like me, but they don’t. … But there is no way to get to a majority in this country without coalition building. For those who are happy she’s gone, I’m not.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) remains firmly in the purist camp, insisting that being in the minority is better than winning without adhering to core principles.

“I don’t want to be in the majority if we don’t have bold ideas and that we’re going to reform government,” DeMint said Wednesday. “I think the problem we have as a party is when we are so afraid of losing elections that we’re afraid to do the right thing. That’s what hurts us as Republicans. I think it’s the principles that people relate to.

“The challenge we have is not that there’s not room in the party for different people, but there has got to be a party that recognizes that somehow we need to transition toward a smaller, less expensive government,” DeMint added. “And if there are people in the Republican Party who don’t think we have to do that, there’s probably not room for them.”

Compounding the concern are the numbers.

The GOP needs a net gain of four seats to win back the Senate if President Barack Obama is reelected in November. But they suddenly face the real possibility of losing Maine and they’re playing defense in two other states: Massachusetts and Nevada.

Republicans will need to stem their losses, while running the table in states where Democrats currently hold seats, such as North Dakota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska. Democratic leaders successfully wooed former Sen. Bob Kerrey to jump into the race in the Cornhusker State on Wednesday.

And Snowe’s decision to step down created some unusual dynamics in Republican primaries in Utah and Indiana.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) had been pointing out to conservative voters back home that the moderate Snowe would assume his top GOP spot as ranking Republican on the powerful Finance Committee if he were to lose a primary challenge. He can no longer make that case.

“That’s neither here nor there as far as I’m concerned,” Hatch said Wednesday when asked about the changing dynamic. “By any measure, she’s a fine senator.”

And as he faces a tea party rebellion in Indiana, Sen. Dick Lugar’s allies said Snowe’s departure gives fodder to this argument: Lugar is the only person in the Indiana Republican primary who can ensure that the GOP will hold the seat and put the party on a path to the majority.

“I do think it’s important to win my primary to win the majority,” Lugar said Wednesday.

The internal GOP struggle comes as Senate staffers and leaders were still grappling with the news of Snowe’s retirement.

Snowe said she came to the decision Tuesday, and informed her staffers at about 4:30 p.m. in a conference room in her Senate office.

“It was emotional,” said one Snowe aide who was in the room. “She was in tears.”

On Wednesday, Snowe told reporters that it was “a tough decision” and that the filing deadline for Senate candidates in Maine — just two weeks away — was a “clarifying” factor.

“I was so focused on my campaign itself since before the last election, frankly, from many different standpoints that I never really sat down to think the overall context of the decision I was making for the reelection,” Snowe added.

Asked whether she is worried about costing her party the majority, Snowe said: “Obviously, I’m concerned about that” and noted that Republicans “have many opportunities to become the majority, as well. I think that’s clear.”

Snowe insisted that she would have won the race had she stayed in.

“I couldn’t have actually asked to be in a better place than where I was in facing a primary and, of course, a general,” she said.

Sen. John Cornyn, National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, called Snowe’s retirement a “bump in the road” and noted that a Republican governor was elected in 2010 in Maine, so it’s “hardly unfriendly territory for us.”

Asked how the party needs to communicate its vision, Cornyn said there has been “a lot of distraction with the [presidential] primary” but “now that that seems to be narrowing, then I think the people need to be reminded why they voted for divided government in 2010.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she was stunned by Snowe’s decision to leave the Senate. Collins and former Sen. Bill Cohen (R-Maine), who served as defense secretary under President Bill Clinton, had even scheduled a fundraiser for Snowe next week.

“I think we’ve done a good job in pointing out the pitfalls and the dangerous direction of the Obama administration wants to lead our country in,” Collins said. “I don’t think we’ve done as well in developing a postive alternative for America to see on where we would lead the country.”

Collins conceded it is difficult for “Congress to do that in a presidential election year. It’s usually the presidential nominee who sets forth the agenda for the party. I think once we have a nominee, that will become a much clearer picture.”

Scott Wong contributed to this report.