So Senator Olympia Snowe has announced that she's done with the Senate and retiring. Among all the commentary of why she's chosen to walk away from a guaranteed re-election to retire, and how this will affect the Democrat's chances to pick up another Senate seat, I'm left wondering "How will this change Snowe's voting for the rest of the year?"
I can understand that people are excited at the prospect of breaking up the Republican dominance in Maine. People are even wondering if Collins will announce her retirement in 2014. But something I've noticed about Snowe was, in years past, she was a fairly reliable cross over vote on certain domestic issues but that the last 2 years has seen her really clamp down and vote lock step with the republican party.
She's likely been under a lot of party pressure and possibly even threatened with retribution if she deviates from the party line.
But now she's free. And she's got almost an entire year to vote however the hell she wants and speak out on whatever the hell she wants. While I don't anticipate any trashtalk from her about her republican collegues or even the republican party, I can't help but wonder how she will exercise her newfound freedom. I am also left wondering whether Collins follows her, if not in announcing her retirement (it's still way too early for that) then in a newly discovered mavericky streak.
It's going to be an interesting year for the ladies from Maine.