Olympia Snowe: "45% of Americans" Are Moderate

As quoted in the New York Times, Senator Snowe puts hits the nail on the head about the precipitating peril of the GOP:

Ms. Snowe, meanwhile, had a message for fellow Republicans: "Frankly," she said, "the election of the president drew from Americans who describe themselves as moderates, which is about 45 percent of Americans today. That's something we overlook at our own peril."

And Senator Collins identifies the character of the right wingism in Wash D.C.:

By this week, Ms. Collins seemed a bit worn down by that debate. "It seems like it's issue after issue this year," she said, adding that she often envies "those senators for whom everything is black and white."

For more information on how important moderates are to America, go to thresholder's blog this morning.

The story, titled "Republican Moderates in Senate Sense Intensifying Pressures," is a concise sum up of the calculus of the Senate Republican moderates, namely these seven:

1. Senator Chafee
   
2. Senator Collins
   
3. Senator Snowe
   
4. Senator Specter
   
5. Senator McCain
   
6. Senator Hagel
   
7. Senator Voinovich

Of the seven, there are four solid moderates--Chafee, Collins, Snowe, and Specter. And those four alone, along with Jeffords, if they all vote with the Democrats, will lose in an up or down simple majority vote, where Vice President Cheney breaks a tie.