Olympia Snowe is not a quitter. The fact that she has chosen retirement rather than re-election to the U.S. Senate demonstrates just how poisonous and dysfunctional the partisan gridlock in Congress has become. Congress now utterly fails to discharge the most basic of legislative functions: it has not enacted a federal budget in years.

There was a time when members of Congress would interrupt the task of governing for a few weeks every two years to conduct election campaigns. Now campaigns have replaced governance in congressional priorities and continue non-stop. Gaining re-election has displaced actually doing the job for which members are elected.

And votes on legislation are no longer for the purpose of enacting laws but, instead, have become mere political theater and a chance to score public relations points against the other party.

The public is well aware of the problem. The approval ratings for Congress are now less than 15 percent, the lowest in history. Yet nothing seems to change, regardless of which party is in power. And the country continues down a dangerous path that everyone understands is not sustainable.

The only real chance to restore Congress as a functioning branch of government is to elect people who will put country first.

In short, the Washington crowd tells us how to vote and insults our intelligence in the process. We could do well to send them a powerful message on Nov. 6.

Ron Lebel, Auburn