Owner: Collins Watch URL:http://collinswatch.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 12:30:43 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Keeping an eye on Maine's junior senator. Site statistics:Click here
The Case Against Susan Collins 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The recent election gave lefties a once-a-decade jolt: The good guys won, the Republican party got the throttling it deserved, and even candidates who once seemed unbeatable--Sen. George Allen (R-VA) and Rep. Clay Shaw (R-FL) come to mind--went down to defeat.But as election night unfolded, as Democrats soared ahead in one tough congressional district after another and hung close in places like Wyoming and Idaho, one bad result seemed like a real head-scratcher: Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) absolutely obliterated her Democratic opponent, capturing 74% of the vote and winning by a staggering 53% points. (Hillary Clinton, by contrast, won her race by 36%.)With candidates to the left of Snowe garnering 90% of the senate vote in nearby Connecticut, it was hard not to see Snowe's landslide win as a missed opportunity. That Snowe was able to win in a walk seemed even more unfortunate once we learned that only a single Republican congressman had survived in New England.So, how did a Republican Read more:Collins
, Susan
Collins Watch 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Sen. Susan Collins
(R-ME) wants you to think that she's sane on the issue of global warming.But if she'd had her way on election day and Republicans had retained control of the Senate, notorious climate change-denier Sen. James Inhofe (R-ME) would still be chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.Here's what Inhofe said about global warming as recently as November:Inhofe...argued that the current wave of unprecedented warming is due to "natural changes." "God's still up there," Inhofe said, and to the extent there is warming going on, it is "due to the sun." He added, "George Soros, the Hollywood elitists, the far left environmentalists on the committee that I chair--all of them want us to believe the science is settled and it's not."Democrats have a one-seat majority in the Senate. A vote for Collins in 2008 is a vote for Inhofe to resume control of the Committee on Environment and Public Works.There's no other way to look at it.
Collins Watch 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Sen. Susan Collins
(R-ME) has signed on to head the Maine wing of Sen. John "surge" McCain's presidential exploratory committee.At the same time, Collins is sponsoring an anti-surge resolution in the Senate.Guess that's why they call her a centrist.
Collins Watch 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Via Newsweek:QUESTION: Do you see any contradiction between supporting McCain, who is in favor of escalating the war, and your current role now in trying to stop the escalation?SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): No, because there isn't going to be any candidate who I agree with 100 percent. This is a major issue, and I'm sure that John wishes he hadn't taken me on the trip [to Iraq] with him in December. That's the real irony.Silly me. And I thought the irony was that almost two years before the election, Collins
has already signed on to back a candidate for president who she vehemently disagrees with--or at least professes to--on the most important issue facing the country.
Collins Watch 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post weighs the prospects of Sen. Susan Collins
(R-ME) in 2008:The decline and fall of Republicans in the Northeast over the past few elections bodes poorly for Sen. Susan Collins' (R) chances of avoiding a tough race in 2008.Collins has long stood in the shadow of her colleague Olympia Snowe (R) and is seen as the more vulnerable of the two Senators. Rep. Tom Allen (D) told Roll Call...that he was seriously considering a challenge to Snowe. Allen would likely be the most formidable Democrat the party could put forward. He has held the 1st district, which takes in the southern part of the state including the state capital of Augusta as well as Portland, since 1996. Allen's challenge would be to introduce himself to the voters in the state's massive 2nd district--the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi.Collins skated to victory in 2002, winning with 58 percent. Democrats won't let that happen again.CONTRAPOSITIVE will be keeping cl
Seriousness Watch 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Today we learn that Sen. Collins is working to stall the Real ID Act, which includes national standards for drivers' licenses.I don't know enough about the act to know if its security benefits outweigh the costs (as Collins seems to believe). But reading about Collins's legislation was a fresh reminder that the junior Senator was the chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs as recently as December.What does she have to show for her tenure? The record isn't pretty: Under her leadership, the Senate failed to heed the lessons of 9/11 and pass the kind of vital port security, chemical plant security and air cargo security legislation that the country desperately needed.In fairness to Collins, she was confronting a White House and Republican majority more interested in launching foreign wars than in doing the difficult, boring work of securing the homeland. But she can't blame the White House for her sordid role in the homeland security funding f
Funding Formulas 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Just yesterday I revisited Sen. Collins's sorry tenure as Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental affairs--during which time she successfully beat back a White House attempt to allocate homeland security funds on the basis of risk. Well, today we learn from Congress Daily that Collins is at it again:The Senate is planning to move legislation to implement unfulfilled recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, but with provisions that appear to put the chamber on a collision course with the House.[...]The Lieberman-Collins bill does have some controversial provisions...For example, it would guarantee each state receive more guaranteed funding than the House bill...The 9/11 Commission recommended doing away with state guarantees, saying all grants should be based on risk..."I have concerns with the first responder funding formulas," House Homeland Security ranking member Peter King (R-NY), said. "I believe the Senate should follow the recommendations of the Read more:Formulas
, Funding
Twelve and Out? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Last week I assessed the evidence that Sen. Collins had promised to seek only two terms in the Senate and concluded the following:While it doesn't sound as though Collins made a formal, explicit promise not to seek re-election in 2008, she certainly made something close to a pledge.Well, hold the phone.It looks like she may have made a full-fledged pledge after all.Craig at Turn Maine Blue has produced an audio tape on which he says Collins is caught pledging to serve no more than two terms.A transcript of the tape reads as follows:Audience Member: Simple question, requires a one word answer, three of you support term limit amendment to the constitution, I want you to take the pledge, if you are elected will you serve twelve years and no more.Female Voice: YesMale Voice: YesMale Voice: YesIf it's Collins's voice on the tape, the water just got a bit hotter. Read more:Twelve
Scenes From The Senate 1970-01-01 00:59:59 On Saturday a vote was held in the Senate
to close debate on the Iraq war resolution. Sen. Collins was among seven Republicans lining up with Democrats in favor of bringing the resolution to a vote.COLLINS WATCH was there.Photos by Willow Lawson.More at Contrapositive.
Breaking out the Kid Gloves 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The Kennebec Journal lets Sen. Collins off way too easy in this editorial on the junior senator's decision to renege on her 1996 commitment to serve no more than two terms:Collins' answer to her critics is that when she made the pledge, she wasn't truly aware of the power of long-term incumbency--and now she is. We're a little suspect of that explanation...Susan Collins was an experienced political hand when she made her pledge who surely knew, at some level, the power of seniority.We'd be happier with the good senator if she just said what really appears to be the case: She changed her mind. She likes being a U.S. senator (who wouldn't?) and wants to stay on the job. Changing one's mind is generally a signal of openness to new ideas and evidence, not political perfidy...Certainly, it would be nice if none of us made promises we can't keep, or don't intend to keep. But who among us--except the saintly, perhaps--has not changed our mind at least once, an act which could be inte Read more:Breaking
, Gloves
4 Out of 5 Bushies Agree 2007-03-05 23:01:00 Senator Collins gets a presidential support score of 79 from Congressional Quarterly.The Senator will go to great lengths over the next two years to distance herself from the administration. But over the last six years, on issues large and small, she has been an advocate, supporter and enabler of the destructive and poisonous policies of President George W. Bush.Her accountability moment awaits.
Collins on Gonzales? 2007-03-16 15:13:00 Radio silence, so far, from Maine's junior senator on the fate of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
--at least I haven't been able to track down a statement. She hasn't made a peep about the behavior of anyone in the administration during the US Attorneys scandal, as far as I can tell.This after two of her Republican colleagues have taken the unusual step of calling for the Gonzales' dismissal.What's she waiting for? Permission from the White House? Read more:Collins
Collins: Gonzales Not My Business 2007-03-18 20:29:00 Sen. Collins
breaks her silence on the US Attorneys scandal to tell the Associated Press the following:"I do not think the attorney general has served the president well, but it is up to the president to decide on General Gonzales
' continued tenure."Reading between the lines, the implicit point Collins is making here is that what happens in the executive branch is none of her business. (Of course, several of her Republican colleagues have had no trouble calling for Gonzales' resignation.)Interesting to know that, six years into the President's term, she still believes he deserves this kind of deference. Read more:Business
Thanks, Maine Bloggers 2007-03-23 18:40:00 Wanted to write a quick post to tip my hat to the folks at Turn Maine
Blue, Maine Democrats and Thinking Beyond Tomorrow for their great work and for giving this humble blog a warm welcome to the Maine blogging community.Adding a link to a blog roll is a small, silent gesture. But to the new guy on the block, it means a lot. Read more:Thanks
Lieberman Takes On Collins? 2007-03-23 03:27:00 By all accounts, Homeland Security Committee chair Sen. Joe Lieberman
(CFL-CT) and ranking member Sen. Collins
have one of the chummiest across-the-aisle relationships in Congress.Which makes the following Lieberman swipe at Maine's junior senator all the more remarkable:Where we've seen failure is when the US government failed to plan projects carefully and then failed to keep a close watch over contractors and now we've seen billions of dollars wasted--a cost measured not just in dollars but in the undermining of the overall US mission in these war-torn countries.(Emphasis added.)Naturally, Lieberman wouldn't call it a swipe--he'd say he didn't mean to single out Collins.But let's be clear: When people talk about dismal-to-non-existent oversight of Iraq spending over the last four years, they're talking, in no small part, about the ineffectual tenure of Sen. Susan Collins as Homeland Security Committee chair.
Turning Collins Blue? 2007-03-24 22:53:00 Yesterday, Sen. Collins
was one of only two Republicans to back the Democratic budget resolution.Collins explained her vote this way:As with any major legislation, the fiscal year 2008 that was approved by the Senate is by no means perfect. But it does include many provisions that I support including increased funding for health insurance for low-income children; restored funding for the LIHEAP program; more funding for vital first responder grant programs; increased funding for veterans’ health care, and an expansion of the tax deduction for teachers...It's worth mentioning that the resolution is nonbinding.
Dudley Reacts 2007-03-29 04:44:00 Via KayinMaine over at Turning Maine Blue we get Maine Democratic Party Chairman Ben Dudley's response to Collins' vote on the Cochran amendment:Dudley today called on Senator Susan Collins to explain her statement following yesterday's vote in the Senate when she supported an amendment to remove a timetable to end American involvement in the Iraqi civil war.[...]"It seems that Senator Collins is reading from the President's talking points," said Dudley. "But Maine needs a leader who will stand up and tell the President that it's time for a new direction that will end the War in Iraq.""Senator Collins voted to go to war in 2002, and despite what she may say when she's home in Maine, Collins has consistently supported the President's failed policies in Iraq," Dudley said. "In Maine she says she is an independent voice, but when George Bush needs her vote to stay the course in Iraq, she's with him, not the vast majority of Maine people who want our Armed Forces to come home from
Class Warfare 2007-03-28 05:12:00 Via Maine Democrats we learn that Sen. Collins voted with her Republican colleagues to strip troop withdrawal language from the Senate appropration's bill. (Their attempt failed.)Still haven't been able to find a statement from Collins explaining her vote. The lead item on her website, in fact, concerns her recent meeting with Sumner Memorial High School students enrolled in teacher Vern Campbell's Social Studies class.Seriously.UPDATE: The New York Times quotes the junior senator this way: Ms. Collins said she was more troubled by the requirement that the administration begin removing troops within 120 days of the legislation rather than the March 2008 deadline for having most of the military out."I don't think it is wise to have an abrupt withdrawal from Iraq," said Ms. Collins, who said she was willing to wait until August to see if the continuing troop increase improves conditions there. "This doesn’t mean I support an unending commitment of our troops in Iraq. I don’t."Not Read more:Warfare
Flashback: $87 Billion 2007-03-30 19:22:00 November 4, 2003:The Senate yesterday sent President Bush an $87.5 billion spending package for Iraq and Afghanistan, capping a month of tumultuous debate in Congress over how much of a burden to place on American taxpayers for Iraq's reconstruction.[...]"Despite my reservations, I believe that this package will pave the way to the day when our soldiers finally come home from Iraq," Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) said in a sentiment echoed by many.--Philadelphia Inquirer
Americans United for Change 2007-04-05 02:41:00 The Hill has the goods on the AmericansUnited
for Change
ad buy:The anti-war coalition will turn its fire from Kentucky, where Americans United for Change continues its $200,000 ad buy blasting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), to Maine and New Hampshire, home of GOP Sens. Susan Collins and John Sununu. Both Collins and Sununu face reelection challenges next year in blue states where voter frustration runs high.The ad buys in the New England states, topping the McConnell push’s price tag, will “call on [Collins and Sununu], when they have another opportunity, to vote to end the war in Iraq … and make sure the Bush administration is held accountable in the process,” Americans United President Brad Woodhouse said yesterday.You can watch the ad here.
Collins' Good Posture 2007-04-04 19:23:00 Craig at Turn Maine Blue tacks up an excellent post reminding us of Sen. Collins
' support for the confirmation of now-Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.The vote for Alito is only a single piece of evidence for the proposition that Collins' "centrism" is more myth than reality, more posture than substance. But it's an especially stark piece of evidence, and one that demonstrates how deep her allegiance to the Republican party runs.Does Sen. Collins actually believe her moderate, blue state talking points and just cave to the Republican leadership on matters of importance? Or is she really a close right-winger who moderates her message for the home state crowd?I, for one, have never been sure.Of course, to Maine voters, the answer shouldn't really matter.
Out-of-State Money 2007-04-11 23:02:00 Sen. Collins' recent video makes a big deal about the out-of-state dollars fueling her opposition.This is a standard attack line for desperate, vulnerable politicians--imputing nefarious motives to opponents rather than engaging the opposition's arguments--but I've never understood why anyone would take this line of reasoning seriously.I mean, Sen. Collins isn't ready to make the argument that Maine politics should be entirely free of out-of-state money, is she? She isn't ready, for example, to swear off out-of-state donations?Well, no: Turns out she's just received a $10,000 donation from Snow PAC, operated by Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-UT).Yes, you read that right--Collins' accepted a whopping $10,000 out-of-state check less than a month before she launched a web ad castigating her opponents for accepting dollars from outside of Maine.But Collins' hypocrisy is just the half of it.Just as important to note is that Bennett is one of the most conservative politicians in Washingto Read more:Money
, State
While We Were Out 2007-04-11 16:12:00 Just when you thought it was safe to take a long weekend...Collins Watch was out of town for a few days, and it looks like we've fallen behind on an important Collins-related development.Namely, as Craig over at Turn Maine Blue notes, the junior senator has responded with her own video challenging the Americans United for Change ad. (Watch her video here. More coverage here.)The response is pretty weak--and not just because of the shoddy production values. Collins casts herself as an opponent of the surge, but refuses to engage the central criticism of her ideological foes: That when given an opportunity to push the President to change course in Iraq, she instead voted to strip the bill of its teeth (unsuccessfully), before siding with the Republican minority and the status quo.The Collins camp seems to think that, just as in 1996 and 2002, centrist rhetoric will be enough to massage the facts regarding Collins' record. But times have changed. Votes--and especially these two votes--m
Lieberman Endorses Collins? 2007-04-14 02:36:00 That's what it looks like. (Scroll down to the sixth item.)As Mark Murray points out, this isn't exactly a shock.But it is more evidence that Collins
' re-election is seen as vital by members of the pro-escalation caucus. And they're right.After all, Collins has endorsed the escalation's biggest Republican supporter for President--why should't she be endorsed by its only non-Republican supporter?Heck, Sen. Lieberman
(CFL-CT) isn't even waiting to see who her Democratic opponent turns out to be before endorsing.Wonder why.Maybe because he knows that no matter who she faces, Collins will be a more reliable vote for the pro-war agenda than her Democratic opponent.UPDATE: From The Politico (and via Senate Guru 2008) we learn that Lieberman's PAC is giving Collins $5,000!In other words more out of state money!
Actions and Words 2007-04-13 05:10:00 The Kennebec Journal gets letters:Just over a week ago, Collins voted against a plan to end the war in Iraq. When questioned, she responded "My vote against this rapid withdrawal does not mean that I support an open-ended commitment of our troops to Iraq" (March 28, New York Times). That response sounded disturbingly familiar to Bush's response to questions about withdrawal. If there is no timetable, how is America's commitment to the war in Iraq not open-ended? How much longer our country survive under international scorn and how much longer will the American public allow the situation in Iraq to deteriorate? The answer should not be "for the time-being." We need representatives that will stand up for our values in Washington, not quietly support the war while loudly complaining about the situation in Iraq.We voted for Collins thinking she would live up to what she preaches, either we were wrong or Washington has changed her. She told us that she was against the war and in favor of Read more:Actions
, Words
The Money Race 2007-04-17 04:07:00 Foster's Online breaks the news: The junior senator raised $832,075 in the year's first quarter.Cash on hand? $1.2 million.(No word yet on how much of the money was from out-of-state.) Read more:Money
Credit Where It's Due 2007-04-20 17:20:00 Via DM News:Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has introduced a bipartisan amendment that reaffirms that both federal law and the Constitution protect sealed domestic mail from being searched.The amendment comes after a signing statement from the White House issued in conjunction with the signing of the Collins-Carper postal reform legislation."The president's spokesman has explained that the signing statement was not intended to change the scope of the law," Sen. Collins said in a statement. "But the statement caused confusion and concern about the president's commitment to abide by the basic privacy protections afforded sealed domestic mail."Given this unfortunate perception, I wish to be very clear as the author of the postal reform legislation. Nothing in the Postal Reform Act, or in the president's signing statement, alters in any way the privacy and civil liberty protections provided to a person who sends or receives sealed mail," she said. Good for her.That said, do I have trouble let
Staying On Board 2007-04-20 05:14:00 Today Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), one of the most conservative members of the Senate, called for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.Coburn made a simple argument at today's hearing. To paraphrase:Over the last several months, the Attorney General has failed to live up to the very management standards he cited in ousting US Attorneys. Given Gonzales' poor management, it only makes sense for him to suffer the same fate as those he fired.It's a pretty compelling point. And it was made by a senator with rock-solid Republican credentials--Coburn is hardly a maverick.So why can't Sen. Collins get with the program? Why does she continue to stand with Gonzales, even as the most loyal of the Bush loyalists jump ship?Inquiring minds want to know. Read more:Board
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