PH Gets It Right

I've been critical of the Portland Pres Herald more than once.

So it's worth giving the paper credit for the strong piece it ran on Friday, which generated a good deal of blog interest: Reporter John Cheves drew attention to the gap between Sen. Olympia Snowe's (R-ME) views on Iraq and those of Sen. Collins.

What distinguished the article--and made it illuminating--was Cheves' willingness to cut through the spin to focus on the key distinction between Snowe's and Collins' views: That only one of the senators supports a deadline for troop withdrawal. (Hint: It's not Sen. Collins.)

But I'd like to make another observation.

Namely, I've been struck by how little we've heard from the junior senator on Iraq lately.

Even as she's held fast to a view rejected by her constituents and Maine's senior senator, she's made virtually no effort to lay out her assessment of the Iraq landscape, no effort to enumerate the principles that are guiding her decision-making, etc.

There've been no extended televised interviews that I'm aware of; no constituent letters or opinion articles; and the only town hall-style Q & A I've heard about seems to have been straight out of Karl Rove's playbook.

So, why has Collins been as close to silent on Iraq as she can get away with without being seen as ducking the issue?

Well, there are a couple of reasons.

First, speaking up hasn't been a great strategy as of late for the junior senator.

Remember this quote about Sen. Joe Biden's plan (D-DE) to devolve power in Iraq from the federal government to local officials?

"It’s essentially giving federal approval to ethnic cleansing," Collins said. "On the other hand, nothing seems to be working."

So it pays to keep your mouth shut when the alternative is offering up statements like that one.

But there is, of course, another reason to stay quiet: The less she says now, the more wiggle room it preserves for later.

And I suspect this is the key reason Collins has had so little to say about Iraq.

But if that's the case--if Senator Collins is willing to sit on the sidelines of a roiling national debate as Americans and Iraqis die because it advances her political interests--her crass calculation is yet another reason that she should be bounced out of office next November.