NationStates Jolt Archive

Guys know Olympia Snowe? The McCain-esque moderate R senator from southern Maine who was a part of the filibuster deal? Well, I called their office to ask about Snowe's stance on the Plame investigation and this is kind of how it went (none of this is direct quotes, just a representation of the conversation)...

aide: Olympia Snowe's office
me: Yeah hi. I'm a constituent of Snowe's and I was wondering whether she had a stance on the Plame investigation?
aide: One second....
aide: Name? Address? (in a quick way, to get my info and send Snowe a memo (that's what they do apparently), as if to avoid a material discussion on the affair)

aide: So Plame? How do you spell that?
me: You haven't heard about the Plame investigation?
aide: All I do is sit here and take phone calls all day, I don't have time to keep tabs on the headlines (ok.. but still? Haven't heard ANYTHING about it? It's huge news now and has been out there for years)
aide: So, tell me about Plame.
me: (I go into it and how it started with Bush's claim in Niger to be interrupted.)
aide: sorry, there is some background noise there?
me: yeah, that's my fan (It's been on every day for the past few weeks and I've had DOZENS of calls with it in the background and never a complaint)

me:... and SO they are investigating who it was that leaked this classified..
aide: woahwoahwoahwoah, slow down! How am I supposed to write this? (never said I was supposed to talk at a speed for her to write at)
me: ok....
aide: so specifically what do you want to know
me: (thining a bit)... I'd like to know if Snowe has a position on the Plame investigation and if so, what it is. And a second one.
aide: (writing it down). Ok, and your second one is about Karl Rove? (I NEVER MENTIONED ROVE!!!!. I went through the whole thing without even bringing in Rove- I just ended the story at "someone leaked" when I was explaining it)
me: I don't think I had yet mentioned Rove, but yeah. I wanted to know if Snowe has a response to Rove's "Fair Game" quote.
aide: What quote??
me: (going into Rove's quote about Wilson being "fair game" and all the context)
aide: (again telling me all the difficulties of interpreting what I'm saying, etc.)

me: and do you know if Snowe has a stance on it?
aide: no not that I'm aware of
me: Can we infer anything from the fact that Snowe voted against a democratic bill to revoke Rove's security clearance? Would that mean she has support for Rove in some form?
aide: no, no, no, she doesn't call in every day and tell us how she votes...
me: so you don't keep tabs to interpret?
aide: we don't speculate, no.

So that's the jist of it. No investigative breakthroughs or anything, but for me, it was interesting. And leaves me with some Q's.

Why on earth did she bring up Rove when I had never mentioned him, if she never heard about the case? And was she just playing dumb to keep from having to respond to the sticky issue? Or maybe I'm taking things too seriously because I called and I'm trying to make it an issue when it really isn't one?

And how come all the inconveniences? I called my congressmen Tom Allen's office, no probs. Collin's office, no problems really. Michaud's office, no problems, but with the Snowe's I was talking too fast and there was background noise and I was talking about an issue that was unheard of...

Any reactions to this? Any of you guys called your senators and get similar treatment?

I emailed Mel Martinez a few weeks about Rove on another situation and haven't even gotten a form letter response on it. Bill Nelson is solidly with the Democrats, so I'm not worried about that.

And I think you give McCain too much credit when you compare Snowe to him. Snowe's actually a moderate, although she could buck the party a little more often to my liking.

And I think you give McCain too much credit when you compare Snowe to him. Snowe's actually a moderate, although she could buck the party a little more often to my liking.


You're right and I agree a LOT with that last part, but I figured McCain is the well-known one. I don't even think Snowe is extremely moderate. If you see her voting record she's always right there within party lines it seems when she's needed for a vote, and on a few issues- Tax breaks (I really appreciate what she did on that, though) and the filibuster, etc., she'll break from the party lines and be in the headlines for it.

Collins, the only other major Republican figure in Maine, is also a moderate very similar in style to Snowe. I think it says something about what kinds of images the Republicans have to put up to win elections in maine.

True, but damn would I like to see a couple of Democrats in those seats.

You can call take this however you please, constructive, non-constructive, what ever...

But you guys have serious, and I mean life-threateningly so, reasons to Kick It Over.