Class Warfare

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 clear why she thinks beginning to redeploy troops in 120 days counts as an "abrupt withdrawal" while moving most of the military out by March 2008 is sound policy.

Presumably, getting most of our soldiers out by next March will require getting some of them out, y'know, sooner.