enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer Sen. Olympia Snowe discusses Iraq war policy Wednesday during a visit to Becky’s Diner on the Portland waterfront. Listening, from left, are Dana Morse, Chris Davis and Sebastian Belle.

Everyone loves a rebel.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, who split from the Senate Republican caucus and President Bush last month to support a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, couldn't take more than a few steps before being stopped Thursday on a walking tour of Portland. In small groups, people approached Maine's senior senator to clutch her hand and congratulate her.

"We're ready for the war to end. We'd like our troops to come home," said Michael Zielinski, 45, of Phippsburg, leaning from his booth at Becky's Diner.

Later, on a curb in downtown Portland, others pressed forward. "The surge isn't working," said Susan Hudson-Wilson, 55, of Chebeague Island. "Every kid who dies from now on, it's just – you really want to go right to that kid's parents and apologize."

Snowe remains isolated among Republicans on Capitol Hill. Most of her GOP colleagues are supporting the president on the war, at least until September, when Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is expected to issue a report on the progress of the war and the fragile Iraqi government.

But Snowe's call for the removal of most U.S. troops – and her support for an unsuccessful Democratic amendment to the defense spending bill, which would have imposed an April 2008 deadline – puts her in the middle of Maine public opinion, which became obvious as she spent Thursday talking to people in Portland, Brunswick and Saco.

Mainers were fairly evenly split on their approval of Bush's handling of the Iraq War a few months after the U.S. invasion in 2003, according to polling data from Critical Insights of Portland. However, opinions soured as the war dragged on; at least 3,678 U.S. troops have died. By April of this year, according to Critical Insights, nearly three-fourths of Mainers said they disapproved of Bush's handling of the war, in a telephone poll of 600 Maine residents with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percent. Nearly half of the Republicans in the poll said they disapproved.

In a separate statewide poll, conducted in May by Pan Atlantic SMS Group of Portland, 60 percent of Mainers said they wanted the United States to set a timetable for withdrawing its troops from Iraq and stick with it. Only 31 percent of Mainers said U.S. troops – 162,000 strong this week – should remain in Iraq for as long as it takes to secure the country. That telephone survey of 400 Maine voters, had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.

On Thursday, Snowe said she concluded that an exit strategy for Iraq is necessary while she campaigned for re-election last year and spoke to frustrated constituents.

"During the course of my re-election, I made certain statements, including that our commitment in Iraq could not be open-ended and the status quo could not prevail," Snowe said. After voters returned her to office, she said, she made fixing Iraq policy a top goal.

Snowe should be commended for being able to change her mind, said University of Maine-Farmington political scientist Jim Melcher, who teaches about government and public opinion. Not that Maine voters object to a senator who strays from her party's official views, he said.

"Maine tends to value independence in its elected officials," Melcher said. "It's going to play well to Mainers that they have a servant who is following her own mind."

By contrast, several people on Thursday who thanked Snowe for her war stand quickly added that they want Maine's other senator, Republican Susan Collins, to either join Snowe in calling for a withdrawal of troops or lose her seat next year. Collins is being challenged for re-election in 2008 by Democratic Rep. Tom Allen, who opposes the war.

In Washington, Collins spokeswoman Jen Burita said Maine's junior senator does not support a deadline for troop withdrawal, although she wants "a change in mission," with U.S. troops redeployed in Iraq to secure the border and train the Iraqi...