Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post has a clear-eyed take on the political skullduggery that Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have been engaged in, trying to play both sides of their "moderate Republican" position in an increasingly extreme political age. Of course, Phoenix readers know exactly how "moderate" they are, having voted with George W.

Are you a fan of campaign finance reform? In the wake of the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court (which banned limits on corporation spending to influence voters), federal lawmakers are scrambling to force disclosure by those who spend to influence campaigns.

It's called the DISCLOSE Act (another backronym-named piece of legislation), and key to its passage are none other than Maine senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, according to Sam Stein of the Huffington Post.

In a blog post entitled "Does Kagan Support Stoning?" Mother Jones's Stephanie Mencimer explains the twisted attempt at logic that passes for the neoconservative movement's attempt to "prove" that Elena Kagan, who if confirmed would become the eighth Jewish justice on the US Supreme Court, in some way backs Islamic sharia law.

The New Republic has a running series about how health-care reform was ultimately passed in the form we got. Today is part four of the five-part epic, in which the publication reveals that despite hours upon hours of one-on-one conversations with Senate leaders and even President Obama, Olympia Snowe ultimately opposed the deal because it wasn't debated enough.

The Phoenix's editorial this week discusses the passage of health-care reform. At the end, it makes observations about various Massachusetts politicians. To that, I add: Maine Republican senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who opposed the bill, receive large contributions from the health-care industry, according to OpenSecrets.

Senator Olympia Snowe has said the recent US Supreme Court ruling allowing unlimited corporate spending on elections is "regrettable" and "disappointing."

What remains to be seen is whether she will back the Fair Elections Now Act, which would provide public funding for federal elections (similar to the Clean Election system in Maine), some other attempt to solve the problem of corporate personhood, or take no legislative position at all.

The Associated Press reported late Friday that Senator Olympia Snowe still wants to be involved in crafting health-care reform in Congress.

In part, she's objecting to the process, which has largely not involved Republicans, many of whom have called Obama's plan akin to "socialism" (though they have conveniently forgotten that term is exactly what their beloved Medicare is).

(Um, yeah, they both voted no. Here's what they had to say for themselves. And no, they're not likely to vote for it in the future, either.)

Snowe:

“Having been fully immersed in this issue for this entire year and as the only Republican to vote for health reform in the Finance Committee, I deeply regret that I cannot support the pending Senate legislation as it currently stands, given my continued concerns with the measure and an artificial and arbitrary deadline of completing the bill before Christmas that is shortchanging the process on this monumental and trans-generational effort.

US House Democrats made a huge concession on women's health the other day, in order to move forward the massive healthcare bill that passed 220-215 on Saturday night. Under pressure from (shocker!) the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as conservative Dems who said they'd hold up passage of the whole shebang if certain abortion restrictions weren't in place (and despite the fact that there is already an existing ban on using federal funds to pay for abortion -- it's called the Hyde Amendment), Nancy Pelosi and other pragmatic politicians allowed the Stupak Amendment (so named for its legislative sponsor, Bart Stupak, a Democrat from Michigan) into the bill.

Olympia Snowe (whose fashion sense is the subject of a survey here) says she will vote for the Finance Committee's healthcare reform bill today, according to Ryn Grim. She's not promising how she'll vote on anything down the road, and we know the thing will be reworked substantially, but it's a move in the right direction.