Snowe Job Part 5

This Politico article from this morning should be sounding major alarm bells about Olympia Snowe's position on Obamacare.

Mitch McConnell and his deputies in the Senate Republican leadership are responding very cautiously to Olympia Snowe’s decision to become the first GOP vote for a Democratic health care reform bill.

That’s about all they can do.

“My job as whip is not to twist her arm but to bring all the information that we can bring to bear on the issue and hope that people vote the way we would like to see them vote,” said McConnell’s No. 2, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).

Kyl said a heavy-handed approach “doesn’t work.”

And indeed, it could backfire — not just with Snowe but with other Republicans who’ve indicated that they could cross over to help Democrats pass some of President Barack Obama’s top domestic policy initiatives.

On Tuesday the GOP said it would indeed exact revenge on Olympia Snowe should she vote for the Finance Committee legislation. Not more than 48 hours later, they are now "treading cautiously" around her and will not take such a "heavy-handed" approach. The article goes on to explain that there are other Republicans who are looking to pull their own Snowe Jobs on other parts of Obama's upcoming agenda: climate change legislation, education reform and immigration reform.

Why? What has prompted the change? Is the GOP firewall really crumbling this quickly?

I don't buy it for a second. Something's going on here, and what I think it is involves the realization that Olympia Snowe can do more damage to Obamacare given her queen-like status than the entire rest of the GOP. They know she's now able to direct the final bill, and her mission is to wreck it from the inside. She wants to call the Democrats' bluff: she's betting that Democrats will weaken the Baucus Bill to the point where it falls apart rather than lose Snowe's vote, the progressive Dems will revolt, and the bill will die.

If the GOP leadership honestly thought Olympia Snowe's vote was going to help Obama, they'd be warming up her replacement. This reaction here is a dead giveaway that the Snowe Job is underway. I know the Democrats have to be able to see this coming.

The question is are they willing to throw their own progressive wing under the bus for one Republican vote?

The fact I even have to ask that should tell you everything you need to know about Operation Snowe Job here.