Somewhere, the ghost of Lyndon B. Johnson is smiling. Senator Olympia Snowe's lone Republican vote for health-care reform in the Senate Finance Committee didn't just advance an issue close to LBJ's heart--as President, the Texan signed Medicare into law--it was also a masterstroke in political leverage. And no one loved Senate politics more than he. Snowe's yea earned her--a member of a weakened minority, from the lovely but not very influential state of Maine--a voice in the small group hashing out the final version of the bill. In the Senate, she is just one among 100. But on probably the biggest...
The Moment
10|13|09: Washington
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