This is kind of a minor point but ever since Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine announced that she won’t seek another term, she has started to vote ‘present‘ a lot. This is not something I’ve noticed her do before. It’s like now that she is liberated from having to worry about things like getting primaried or getting reelected in the general or being punished by Mitch McConnell, she is exercising her newfound freedom by refusing to take a side. She doesn’t vote with her caucus, but she still refuses to vote against them. She’s like Patty Hearst, or something.
I find it perplexing and more than a little pathetic.
Tonight, she did it twice. First she voted ‘present’ on Lamar Alexander’s (R-TN) substitution amendment and then she did it again on Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill to extend low-interest rate college loans.
