Health Care Reform

Dems Lose Snowe

Moderate senator will filibuster bill.

The courtship period is over. Sen. Olympia Snowe, a key Republican moderate Democrats have been courting for months, has announced she will oppose and filibuster health-care reform. Snowe was the only Republican to vote for the reform in the Finance Committee, but cited the new “artificial and arbitrary deadline of completing the bill before Christmas” as a dealbreaker. “That is shortchanging the process on this monumental and trans-generational effort," Snowe said in a statement. With Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) now signed on as the 60th vote for the measure, Snowe’s decision isn’t catastrophic for Democrats. If the bill passes, it looks like it will be without a single Republican vote.