then Earlier this year, in a shock decision, Republican Olympia Snowe announced her retirement from the Senate, citing gridlock and the desire to help encourage moderates. “But as I enter a new chapter in my life,” she said at the time, “I see a critical need to engender public support for the political center, for our democracy to flourish and to find solutions that unite rather than divide us.”
now Snowe’s replacement in the Senate will be none other than former Maine Gov. Angus King, who will become the Senate’s second independent. King, like Snowe, is a moderate, but he hasn’t said who he is more likely to caucus with, though both parties expect him to caucus with Democrats. Hopefully he doesn’t repeatedly get sucked into the gridlock like Snowe did. source
