i Maine's GOP senators support state, country over politics
Morning Sentinel
Maine's GOP senators support state, country over politics
Gordon L. Weil Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 02/19/2009

Maine likes its U.S. senators to be independent, to put country above party and to be national figures.

Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican and then the only woman in the Senate, stood up against GOP Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch hunt. Her 1950 Declaration of Conscience speech was historic, but her party took away a key Senate post she had held.

Edmund S. Muskie, a Democrat, was the father of national environmental legislation, accomplished by reaching across the political aisle. He went on to be U.S. Secretary of State.

William Cohen, then a Republican congressman, voted for the impeachment of Richard Nixon, a Republican president. Maine then elected him to the Senate. A Democratic president appointed him Secretary of Defense.

George Mitchell, a Democrat, became an effective Senate majority leader. Then, he became a non-partisan peacemaker, first in Northern Ireland and now in a similar role in the Middle East. Once a federal judge, he also was baseball's drug-use investigator.

Two new candidates for this Maine pantheon have emerged.

The votes by Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins against their party's attempt to toss President Clinton out of office and this month to support a compromise economic recovery bill are tributes to their courage and patriotism.

The two Maine senators represent the traditional Republican Party as it existed from after the Civil War until the last quarter of the 20th century.

It was a party of economic conservatism. But it was also the party of good government, best demonstrated by the administration of Theodore Roosevelt.

Both Snowe and Collins came up during a period after the historic GOP stranglehold on Maine state office had been broken. Still, the Republicans held onto the state Senate.

Collins' father Don and uncle Sam, later a Maine Supreme Court justice, were both members of a group of Republican senators who were far more dedicated to good government than to partisan battles.

When Democratic Gov. Joe Brennan appointed me to head a government department, I met with members of this group in the Senate majority leader's office. They wanted my assurance that I would not use the post, deeply involved in regulation, for my political advancement. Having that assurance, they usually supported my proposals.

Collins grew up in that atmosphere, though it had changed by the time she ran for office. But the notion that people hold public office to provide good government seems to have remained with her.

When she ran for re-election last year, she stressed her ability to work with people on both sides of the aisle. To her credit, when the chips were down, she did.

Snowe served in the Maine House and Senate. She established herself even then as a person who would decide issues more on their merit than their politics. Even before this recent vote, she had become a Maine political star. In terms of prime appointments, the U.S. Senate Republicans already had punished her for her independence.

Collins and Snowe both will suffer for their vote on economic recovery. Last year, in a state sure to go for Obama, they supported McCain. Last week, he sneered at them.

The now hard-right Republican Party calls them RINOs -- Republicans in name only. How can they afford to cast out Republicans in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower and expect to win elections?

And by what right do they determine just who is a good Republican?

For a hundred years, the Republicans and Democrats often agreed on goals for America, but equally often disagreed on policies and strategies. That common ground was popular with the people and probably what President Obama has in mind with his notion of post-partisanship.

Now, the congressional Republican Party defines itself by opposing whatever the majority Democrats propose. It is likely that Republicans would have gained more concessions in the final recovery bill if they had provided more votes for it.

But many of them wanted no recovery bill at all. After having piled up the largest deficits in American history under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, they suddenly became fiscal conservatives.

The GOP continues to believe that government is too big.

In his inaugural address, Obama said: "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works...." Snowe and Collins seem to agree.

I am a Democrat. I will disagree with our senators. But Maine, the Republicans and the country need them and ought to thank them for their commitment to good government.

 

Gordon L. Weil has written books and articles on economic, governmental and historical subjects. He served in international, U.S., and Maine government positions and is a long-time energy consultant and publisher.

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