The Interview

Having watched the interview a couple more times, three thoughts:

1. It's sort of stunning how undignified Sen. Collins' performance is, especially for someone who presents herself as a paragon of decorum.

Can you imagine Rep. Allen laughing his way through a discussion of Edwards? Can you see Sen. Snowe dishing publicly about the paternity status of a former colleague? I can't.

2. There's also a callousness on display in the interview--a meanness--that I frankly didn't know was in Collins, even after having watched her closely for the last two years.

It's the kind of meanness you expect from Rush Limbaugh--or Tom Delay. Not someone who talks incessantly about the need for civility, and who has and staked her re-election on the idea that her very presence in Capitol Hill raises the tone.

Collins worked alongside Edwards for six years. And she professes to excel at bringing colleagues together. Even if she wasn't close with him, surely some of her colleagues were.

So how does her flagrant--and flagrantly insensitive--gossiping help her win the cooperation of those colleagues going forward?

3. If there was any doubt about the reasoning before, it's now abundantly clear why Collins' campaign has walled her off from regular Mainers, except in the most structured, scripted situations.

It didn't take a tracker to catch Collins saying something ugly. She did it out in the open, and with an extremely friendly interviewing team.

So I wouldn't expect to see her taking live questions from unscreened groups of voters--or anyone else--anytime soon.

UPDATE: Election Central has picked up the story. So has PolitickerME.com.