Snowe on Specter

Though Jeff wondered yesterday if Maine's Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, are far behind Arlen Specter in defecting from the GOP, Snowe's New York Times op-ed today indicates that she's more focused on reforming her party and making sure it learns lessons from this most recent blow. 

"When Senator Jeffords became an independent in 2001, I said it was a sad day for the Republicans, but it would be even sadder if we failed to confront and learn from the devaluation of diversity within the party that contributed to his defection," she writes, before blaming the GOP's lack of perspective for "the disasterous elections of 2006 and 2008."

"There is no plausible scenario under which Republicans can grow into a majority while shrinking our ideological confines and continuing to retract into a regional party," she continues. 

Of course, there are lessons to be learned for Dems and progressives in those words as well.