11 Responses to “Maverick”

1. 1.   Anthony McCarthy Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 7:35 pm

   That remains to be seen. I think my Sr. Senator realized that public health insurance is a very popular idea in the one and only state she depends on to get elected. Whether or not she supports the inevitable is far from known. I don’t trust either her or Susan Collins.

2. 2.   inde Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 7:48 pm

   http://www.merriam-webster.com:

   mav·er·ick: an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party

3. 3.   Jon Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 9:02 pm

   After the last election, that word should be retired. It’s lost its use for non-snarky discourse.

   (Sorry, even for GOP senators who’ve retained minute traces of Margaret Chase Smith in their political DNA…)

4. 4.   JakeR Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 9:07 pm

   Anthony McCarthy at 1. has it mostly right and inde at 2. has it mostly wrong, relying on the second definition in most dictionaries. A maverick [Possibly after Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803-1870), American cattleman, or perhaps after Samuel Maverick (1602?-1676?), English-born colonist.] is an unbranded animal free for the taking. Sen. Snow has the reputation of voting her conscience, however, rather than the dictates of lobbyists, whether or not that reputation is entirely deserved. She clearly stated that she doesn’t know how she will vote on the final bill. That position is entirely reasonable because she cannot know how the reconciliation will go.

5. 5.   Jerry Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 9:42 pm

   I don’t know if you are coming from the right or left from day to day. Must be the middle. I like it in the middle, lets all go there. You know what? Most of us already are.

   Oh, $20 that she votes against whatever the final Senate bill is.

6. 6.   Cameron Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 10:09 pm

   She’ll be a maverick if she votes for it on the Senate floor.

7. 7.   Sheril Kirshenbaum Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 10:18 pm

   @5 Jerry

   I don’t know if you are coming from the right or left from day to day.

   I’m nonpartisan.

8. 8.   Erasmussimo Says:
   October 14th, 2009 at 12:34 am

   What’s striking here is that Democrats who don’t go along with the party line are fairly common, but Republicans always march in lockstep; hence a Republican who deviates from the party line is a maverick. This tells us a great deal about the underlying philosophies. The superficial analysis is that Republicans are disciplined and Democrats are not. I think that closer to the truth is the notion that Republicans place more emphasis on personal loyalty to the family/troop/tribe/party/nation than Democrats do. While this can give them strength, it also robs them of intellectual flexibility.

9. 9.   John Kwok Says:
   October 14th, 2009 at 8:47 am

   Have always had the utmost respect for Joe Lieberman, and he’s proving it once more by saying that he will vote against the Baucus bill, because he’s afraid that insurance companies will pass along costs to consumers. Hopefully there are others – both Democrats and Republicans – who realize that they need to rethink completely the whole notion of health insurance reform soon.

10. 10.   Anthony McCarthy Says:
    October 14th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

    John Kwok, I couldn’t disagree with you more. I’ve seen many people who have private health insurance, both personally purchased and through work cheated by their health insurance companies. I’ve without health insurance and who in the past had the insurance companies use quite a different number of tricks to try to deny services owed me.

    Joe Lieberman is a shill for the insurance industry, Baucus is carrying water for them. We gave up single payer as our part of compromise, a real public option plan PAID FOR BY PREMIUMS, is not negotiable. I would break the law and refuse to buy insurance from the private companies that have been cheating us and killing us if there is no public plan.

11. 11.   Benjamin S. Nelson Says:
    October 16th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    I completely agree with Anthony.

    Snowe is not significant to anything. She is the Republican’s token carrot, just a way to show that they are not addicted to the stick. The Republicans have no reason in the world to care about her. They have nothing to lose, since all meaningful parts of the bill have been removed from the bill by a handful of appeasement Democrats. (Shameful stuff. How is anyone supposed to have hope without solidarity?)

    All in all, the only maverick I’ve heard about in the past two months is WASP-17b. Everybody else is just playing the game.