Questions From the AP

It's not worth spending time dissecting the answers Sen. Collins' campaign submitted to the AP.

Sure, several of the replies are misleading. And I agree with Gerald that her camp's answer about the Bush tax cuts is ridiculous.

But what keeps the Q & A from having any real value is the questions themselves: They're generic and open-ended. And because only one of them touches on her record (and she's permitted to sidestep it without any follow-up) they don't illuminate what's really at stake in the race.

Because the main problem with Susan Collins has never been what she says she thinks. The problem is what she's willing do about what she supposedly thinks. And when championing the interests of Mainers has required standing up to the reactionary, corrupt bullies who run the Bush administration, she's wilted pretty much every time.

So it's all well and good for her campaign to cobble together some talking points about energy. But the real question is why--when she actually had an opportunity to weigh in on the issue--Collins voted for enormous tax breaks for big oil companies.

Three years later, we still don't have an answer to that question. And the AP questionnaire doesn't get us any closer to one.