Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Out-of-State Money

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 Washington: In the past several years, he's received zero ratings (out of 100) from Planned Parenthood, League of Conservation Voters, National Breast Cancer Coalition, Children's Defense Fund and the American Wilderness Coalition.

So, not only is Sen. Collins accepting out-of-state dollars--she's accepting them from a man with a couldn't-be-worse record on abortion, environmental and women's issues.

The question, of course, is why such a conservative senator would be so heavily invested in the re-election of the nominally pro-choice, pro-environment Collins.

I think we all know the answer.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not to mention the fact that 60% of her funds from 2001-2006 came from out-of-state.

Check it out here:
Open Secrets

Anonymous said...

Glad to find this Blog. It's hard to know what Collins thinks or even is up to. She does not communicate closely with the state. I suspect that is because she is an enabler for the wacky wing of the GOP.

I saw one of her "aids" at the Bridgton GOP caucus. I was hoping to hear what the senator had to say about the economy or the war or the corruption that Bush seems to have brought with him.

There was nothing about any of the issues that are facing the nation. The oddly uninformed aid just stood up and rambled inarticulately for a few minutes about "out of state" groups are giving money to help defeat Collins.

Gosh, who would have thought.

Collins posts occasional pieces in our lap dog newspaper, The Bridgton News. They are inevitable about the pork that she is bringing into the state.

No justifications for the war, or the wrecked economy, or anything else of substance. One gets the feeling that she is in over her head, and so she just smiles and goes along. Not exactly the kind of leadership we need right now.