Were Snowe and Collins threatened with a primary?

[sandyd921]

Is it possible that Senators Snowe and Collins withdrew any hope of their supporting the public option and any Democratic healthcare bill because they were threatened with a Republican primary? That's the story one expatriate journalist is reporting based on unnamed sources ("a senior GOP Senate staffer"):

Maine’s two usually reasonable and moderate Republican Senators – Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe – spent the summer trying to find ways to support health care reform, including some form of a public option. Suddenly, they did an abrupt about-face: No public option, no non-profit co-ops, no triggers, no anything in the bill they’d previously supported.

So what happened?

“Last week, they were bombarded with calls, elevator and hallway chats, and e-mails from the RNC, the Senate leadership, other Senators, people on the party’s Senate campaign committee, serious donors,” a GOP Senate staffer explains to me Tuesday afternoon by phone.

“Basically, the message was the same” he insists. “Support health care in any form and face serious, well-funded primary challenges when they’re up for re-election.”

http://www.ukprogressive.co.uk/gop-thugs-warn-collins-snowe-oppose-health-care-or-face-primary-challenges/article6134.html

While not as many as in some parts of the country, here in Maine we certainly have our share of right-wing-nuttery. Just take a look at the board many of them hang out at, As Maine Goes: http://www.asmainegoes.com/ (if you don't mind wading into that muck). You can be sure that that ilk would not forget their moderate senators voting for "Obamacare" (even though their terms are not up until 2012 and 2014) and if the GOP funneled money to a conservative opponent, those two would be out on their keisters. So, if true, their sudden opposition would make a lot of sense. That, combined with the fact that they are still republicans and all the money they're raking in from the insurance and healthcare lobbies, explains a lot. For example see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/10/snowes-ties-to-health-car_n_213798.html

Gotta say I'm not all that surprised. Been saying to people (including some involved in coordinating efforts to convince them to support healthcare reform and the public option) all along that they'd back out. I also kept saying that maybe it was time to take the gloves off with these two but was told that there was lots of hope they'd go along.