Renegade Republicans Push Stimulus Over The Finish Line

President Obama owes the passage of his stimulus bill to three senators from the losing side, reports CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier.

(CBS)

Renegade Republicans – senators Arlen Specter (left) of Pennsylvania and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine – tipped the balance toward Mr. Obama's plan in a late night Senate vote on Friday, forwarding the package to the president's desk by a 60-38 margin.

"I really believe that what I decided to do was right," Collins said.

(CBS)

She and Snowe (left) used the political weight of their swing votes to wield influence far greater than their state's 1.3 million residents, Dozier reports.

As the Hotsheet reported on Friday, their support of the economic recovery bill has them in hot water with a GOP political action committee. The National Republican Trust, the group famous for producing anti-Obama commercials featuring the Rev. Jeremiah Wright during the 2008 election, is back on the airwaves with new radio ads targeting the senators who supported the stimulus.

"It's sort of like being a skunk at the lawn party," Snowe said of the unpopularity of her decision within her party.

Watch Dozier's report below:

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