While We Were Out

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--matter.

I'm not convinced their old approach will work this time around.