Olympia Snowe: Moderate Republicans like 'Survivor' cast members

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: On MSNBC just now, Olympia Snowe said she is not switching parties.

It's Snowe-ing all over the Rushpublic party:

"Being a Republican moderate sometimes feels like being a cast member of "Survivor" — you are presented with multiple challenges, and you often get the distinct feeling that you're no longer welcome in the tribe," Snowe wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times. [...]

"It is truly a dangerous signal that a Republican senator of nearly three decades no longer felt able to remain in the party," Snowe says. "It didn't have to be this way." [...]

"Ideological purity is not the ticket back to the promised land of governing majorities - indeed, it was when we began to emphasize social issues to the detriment of some of our basic tenets as a party that we encountered an electoral backlash," she writes. "We should view an expansion of diversity within the party as a triumph that will broaden our appeal."

What appeal? Sorry to interrupt. Do go on, Olympia:

"We cannot prevail as a party without conservatives. But it is equally certain we cannot prevail in the future without moderates," Snowe warns.

There it is. Can't prevail with 'em, can't prevail without 'em. Conclusion: The Party of Uh-Uh cannot prevail.

My take? IMHO, the Democratic party has its own sub-party, if you will: the ConservaDems (Moderate Republicans/Conservative Democrats/Blue Dogs, which include Bayh, Specter, etc.). This may be an oversimplification, but it's starting to feel like the Dems are two! Two! Two parties in one! It will be interesting to see what develops, and whether our party is evolving into a single home for what used to be the two parties formerly known as Democrats and Republicans.