enlarge The Associated Press

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, prior to attending the weekly policy luncheons. “I think I’m in the eye of the storm,” she said, referring to her role in the health care reform debate.

enlarge The Associated Press

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, right, talks with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, during a Senate Finance Committee hearing early this month. He called her “an intelligent, thoughtful, decent, honorable, good woman.”

Olympia Snowe
Background

Past Coverage
Where will Snowe fall on health bill?
[October 9, 2009]

All eyes on Maine senator with key vote on reform
[September 29, 2009]

These days, Snowe 'most powerful' member of Senate
[September 5, 2009]

Senators still wield clout as moderates
[May 3, 2009]

Snowe breezes back to Senate
[November 8, 2006]

Rep. Snowe 'didn't seek' all that media attention
[August 31, 1979 - PDF]

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — From early morning until well into the evening, the phones in her office never stop ringing.

Whenever she shows her face inside the hallways of the Capitol, a media swarm lets fly a thousand pointed questions – every one tethered to health-care reform and every one landing somewhere in the future.

Her fellow senators, at the mere mention of her name, speak glowingly of her class, her intelligence, her independent mind, her fidelity to the art of legislating.

Welcome to Sen. Olympia Snowe's world.

"I never saw it unfolding this way," Snowe said with a rueful smile last week. "I think I'm in the eye of the storm."

For weeks, she's been the lone Republican in the Senate willing to at least entertain the notion of voting with a Democratic majority on the thorny issue of reforming the nation's troubled health-care system.

It's earned her the label RINO (Republican in Name Only) from many in the right wing of her party.

It's earned her praise and deference from Democrats, all the way up to President Barack Obama, who covet her support not just to lend at least a bipartisan tint to whatever legislation finally comes out of Congress, but also to provide a much-needed 60th vote if necessary to head off a GOP filibuster.

It's even earned her a nickname from her husband, former Maine Gov. John R. McKernan.

"Jock describes me as a 'hyper-tasker'," Snowe said with a laugh between votes on a complex defense bill last week. "Instead of multi-tasker, I'm a hyper-tasker."

And her task – the exclusive focus of a day that usually begins with an hour or two poring over documents at home (where it's quiet) and ends with meetings that can run well into the night -- is to find the right ending to what Snowe considers a defining moment of our time.

"I don't get up every morning and say this is going to be another can't-do day," Snowe said. "I get up and think, 'Is this something we can accomplish today?' "

Last week, the Senate Finance Committee, on which Snowe sits, accomplished a lot.

The health-care bill shepherded by committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, came back from the Congressional Budget Office late Wednesday with a 10-year, $829 billion price tag attached – well below the $1 trillion or more cost estimate many, including Snowe, had feared.

The bill, which carries the added bonus of reducing the federal deficit by $81 billion in the next decade, easily could have received final approval by the committee by Friday, clearing the way for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and a select few fellow Democrats to mesh it with another bill already passed by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

But Snowe, no fan of the fast track, wanted time to review the 27-page CBO report. So, after a long chat between Snowe and Baucus on the Senate floor Wednesday evening, the word spread quickly around the Capitol: The Finance Committee vote had been put off until Tuesday.

"You have to provide a level of assurance to people that you're getting the policy and the numbers right," Snowe explained Thursday morning, shortly after fielding a call from the Oval Office.

The calls from the president come frequently these days. This time, like everyone else, Obama wanted to know if Snowe had made up her mind on how she'll vote this week. And once again, like everyone else, he was left hanging.

"He obviously is very anxious to accomplish his goal," said Snowe.

No doubt. So when will she make up her mind?

"That's a good question," she replied.

THOROUGH, DELIBERATE

Snowe's go-slow approach is nothing new. As far back as late winter, she said, she's urged both Senate leaders and the Obama administration to avoid setting "arbitrary deadlines" and accept that any comprehensive health-care bill...