Top notch

Like many Mainers, my eyebrows shot straight up when I heard the news of Sen. Olympia Snowe's decision not to run for re-election. For as long as I've lived in Maine, she has been a voice of compromise and common sense in Washington, qualities sorely lacking in that city. It saddens me that the bickering and partisanship in Congress have reached a level where even a veteran, respected politician throws up her hands in frustration and bows out of the fray. Score one for the ideologues ...