Maine's Snowe Courts Tea Party Early for 2012 Re-election

After seeing what tea-party-backed candidates did to moderate Republicans in primary elections, moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe is taking no chances. The Maine senator is talking up the tea party movement, even though she’s not up for re-election until 2012, Roll Call reports.

“I’ve been a Republican for all of my political life, since I was registered to vote,” she told the paper. “I’ve been at the forefront of a number of anti-spending initiatives [and] fiscal issues. I agree with tea-party types when they say that the Republican Party lost its way. I agree. I was arguing that case for many years.”

The Republican Party should serve as a big tent, Snowe says. “It’s where I grew up. It’s where I grew in the Legislature in learning how to govern and how to legislate — which is to build bridges. That’s what Maine has been all about.”