Maine Republican maverick Olympia Snowe will, in fact, vote for the Senate Finance Committee’s health-care-reform bill later today, she announced earlier. Snowe’s vote is seen as crucial to giving wavering moderate Democrats sufficient cover to support the bill themselves, as she’ll certainly be the only Republican to vote the bill out of committee and is still probably the only one who could potentially vote for the final legislation, whatever that ends up looking like. Now Democrats can claim tenuous bi-partisan support! A major coup these days! But their victory could portend peril for Snowe. It’s being reported that her fellow Republicans may exact revenge on her by preventing her from ascending to the chairmanship of another committee, which she would be “assured of” otherwise because of her seniority. That seems like a great way to demonstrate, to a wildly popular senator who has already mused about the rightward drift of her party, how small the GOP tent has shrunk.
Sens: Snowe’s healthcare vote puts her top Commerce perch at risk [Hill]
