Sen. Olympia Snowe, a fierce advocate for Maine and an unbeatable candidate at the polls, has been beaten down by the political machine of Congress, by the partisan bickering and by the general deterioration of civility in Washington, D.C.

It’s sad commentary when public service is rewarded with personal pain.

On Tuesday, Snowe announced she would abandon her campaign for re-election to a fourth term in the U.S. Senate, an announcement that surprised voters and political insiders alike.

After serving five years in state politics, Snowe was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 and to the Senate in 1994. In that time, she witnessed the disintegration of congeniality in American politics and — for years — has been frustrated by what has become a prevailing “my way or the highway ideology” on both sides of the aisle.

“It’s not healthy for the country to have parties with polar opposite views without that bridge that you need to build consensus,” she told The Associated Press in 2009.

Politics is, after all, an artful game of compromise.

Over time, we have lost the artistic touch and replaced it with quarreling and stalling.

It’s hard to fault Snowe for wanting to step away from that, but her timing certainly has created pressure for the GOP to produce a candidate with the strength and caliber to retain the seat. It will have to be done with some speed.

Party candidates have two weeks — until March 15 — to gather 2,000 qualifying signatures for the primary. It will be difficult but not impossible for a motivated individual, especially with voters gathered at annual town meetings throughout the state this weekend.

Scott D’Amboise of Lisbon Falls is already in the primary race, but, aside from his service as a local selectman, he’s a political newcomer without the experience to fight what could become a crowded field of Democratic hopefuls, which may very well include both of Maine’s current U.S. representatives, Michael Michaud and Chellie Pingree.

The GOP has a lot at stake here, and identifying a candidate with Snowe’s commitment to Maine, knowledge of policy and personal fortitude for the congressional gauntlet is not going to be easy.

In 2005, Forbes magazine named Snowe the 54th most powerful woman in the world. A year later, Time magazine named her one of this nation’s “10 Best Senators.”

Her position of power on the Senate Finance Committee is hard-earned and well-deserved, and she represents Mainers well on small business, intelligence and commerce committees.

Snowe is tireless, doing a lot of her own reading instead of relying on staff to read and summarize legislation, and is well-received by constituents when she travels throughout Maine.

The first woman to serve in both houses of a state legislature and in both chambers of Congress, Snowe is a lawmaker who listens well and can make herself be clearly heard.

These are tremendous qualities in a political representative, and they reflect her very real sense of responsibility to Maine people.

You can disagree with her politics, and some people do, but no one can criticize the way she has conducted herself as our representative.

She is a woman of character and grace.

We could use more people with those qualities in Congress.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.