Maine Republican Olympia Snowe served in elected office for 40 years, including three terms in the US Senate. Last year, she declined to run for re-election on the ground that extreme partisanship had rendered what used to be called "the world's greatest deliberative body" unable to perform its governing functions under the Constitution. Now she says she can serve the country better from outside than inside, and she's written Fighting for Common Ground: How We Can Fix the Stalemate in Congress about what might be done. Snowe says she "can understand why so many Americans are fed up with government."
