The above sentiment comes from Erick Erickson at RedState. Now, before I quote what he says, I want to point out the difference, for me as a strong liberal, between a conservative blogger with whom I completely and unequivocally disagree on this issue (and most others!), but who is nevertheless in possession of his sanity. There are actually many such, but I’m going to let Ed Morrissey stand in for the others. Here is what Ed has to say about Olympia Snowe’s decision to vote for the Baucus bill:
Charles Grassley predicted that the Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee would stick together on the final panel vote on the Baucus health-care overhaul plan. Unfortunately, he didn’t reckon on colleague Olympia Snowe’s desire to make “history,” which apparently trumps fiscal responsibility and common sense. Snowe will vote to pass the non-bill, giving Democrats some much-needed political cover:
Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe says she will vote for a Democratic health care bill, breaking with her party on President Barack Obama’s top legislative priority.
The Maine senator kept virtually all of Washington guessing how she would vote until she announced it late in the Senate Finance Committee debate Tuesday. Until then, she told reporters, she had not even let Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in on her secret. She told her colleagues: “When history calls, history calls,” even though she had some criticism of the bill.
History? Certainly, we don’t often see Congressional committees passing summaries instead of writing legislation, so that’s one for the history books. We also don’t often see Congress passing trillion-dollar bills in a rush, although to be fair, they managed to do it earlier with Porkulus — a bill on which Snowe also helped make “history”. Unfortunately, we see Snowe often crossing over on critical votes, so that’s neither history nor a surprise.
This does give Democrats momentum on the floor. Snowe’s approving vote makes it tougher for Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson to buck their caucus and oppose it. Joe Lieberman’s opposition may make that a little easier, and a negative CBO score when the language gets written may push Snowe back into opposition. It’s more likely, though, that the CBO won’t score it in time to make a difference in the floor vote on cloture.
Now, see, this is someone I could most likely sit down and have a Diet Coke or a cup of coffee with. We’d argue about politics, sure — but I think I’d like Ed in person, and he’d probably like me (I can be pretty charming in person!). I often find myself infuriated by Ed’s opinions (and I’m sure vice versa), but he doesn’t scare me.
Olympia Snowe has sold out the country. Having been banished to our world after Aslan chased her out of Narnia, Snowe is intent on corrupting this place too.
So we should melt her.
What melts snow? Rock salt.
I’m going to ship this 5 pound bag of rock salt to her office in Maine. It’s only $3.00. You should join me.
It is a visible demonstration of our contempt for her. First she votes for the stimulus. Now this.
It’s time to melt Snowe. ORDER YOUR BAG HERE.
Just to reassure the more literal among us, I do realize that this idea of Erickson’s is in reality harmless, that Olympia Snowe is not really made out of snow, and cannot actually be melted.
What frightens me is the imagery and the language. Snowe has “sold out” the United States. She is an evil character in a novel who doesn’t belong in our world and is corrupting it. She is a wicked witch like the one in The Wizard of Oz, and although we can’t really melt her out of existence, it’s fun to act it out as if we can. The power of these literary allusions, and the extremeness of the language, is extraordinary. I’m sure Olympia Snowe will get a good laugh out of seeing bags of rock salt at her office door — the action being taken here is essentially meaningless. But the violent emotion and extreme thought pattern behind the symbolic theatrical stunt is not meaningless. And I think it should give us some pause.
One thing I can say for certain. Not only would I never dream of conversing over coffee with Erickson — I would not want to live within 100 miles of him.
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