After three weeks of near-silence, credit Jonathan Kaplan for being the first member of the Maine press corps to delve into the Collins fundraising smear story.
Kaplan's even-handed write-up includes some news: That the video was sent by the Collins camp to "potential out-of-state contributors" (my emphasis); and that the Collins camp alleges that "Collins did not see the video, which her staff composed, until after it ran."
Both bits of information suggest that Sen. Collins understands how radioactive the spot is, even as she embraces the ugly, Rovian tactics that the video epitomizes.
We also learn from Collins flack Steve Abbott that the video "isn't intended to inform people about...Congressman Allen." But I'd be surprised if Abbott was able to keep a straight face while saying that.
Unfortunately, the article doesn't examine the George Soros wrinkle of the attack, which I wondered about here.
And Kaplan does repeat one serious error, describing Collins as having, "stopped short of embracing a full withdrawal [from Iraq]." That's like saying the Patriots stopped short of embracing full victory at the Superbowl.
But overall, Kaplan does a good job of letting Mainers know about the giant dose of attack-dog negativity that Collins has injected into the race. And that's far more than anyone else in the Maine media has done.
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