She's Kidding, Right?

Sen. Collins sends the hypocrisy meter soaring:

JEFFREY BROWN: Senator Collins, we heard you raise this question as you look at the new strategy [on Afghanistan] of benchmarks. How do we know if we're winning? How do we know how it's going? Were you satisfied with the response? Tell us more about what your concerns are.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, R-Maine: That is the fundamental question...And it troubles me that the administration has committed troops and is coming to Congress for additional resources without having a clear set of benchmarks for evaluating whether or not this strategy is working.

That's a mistake that our government made in Iraq, until General Petraeus took over and until we had a different strategy and clear benchmarks to measure its success.

I don't think we should repeat that mistake.

Hmm. I don't remember Collins making much noise about tactical and strategic errors during the first few years of the Bush administration's tragic bungling of Iraq.

And yet here she is, fretting about benchmarks on national television just days into the Obama administration's reworking of our Afghanistan strategy.

What a difference a new president makes.

Remember, this has nothing to do with politics.