I enjoyed Olympia Snowe's play on Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s words:
I see a vital need for the political center in order for our democracy to flourish and to find solutions that unite rather than divide us.
That is, Sen. Snowe sees a political need for a Vital Center in a healthy democracy, even if, I grant you, Schlesinger's theory pertained to foreign, not domestic, affairs. Still, quite clever.
One strains to locate other enjoyment in Snowe's announcement, however. Her pessimism -- "I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term" -- is rather ghastly, nonetheless I suppose "up" is pretty much the only direction the Senate can go.
I find it ironically peculiar that my entrenched cynicism should pale in Snowe's dark shadow, yet a thorough drubbing of the GOP this year should -- should -- begin to reverse the hyperpartisanship she observes.