Friendly Fire

From one of those hysterical lefty bloggers at The Wall Street Journal:

Maine's Susan Collins lectured the GOP this week that it needed to be open to "centrists." It does. Though it might help if Sen. Collins ever explained what she thinks that means.

When Joe Lieberman broke with his party on Iraq, or John McCain with his on global warming, or when Daniel Patrick Moynihan stood for Social Security reform, they were able to clearly articulate what it was about their political beliefs that led them to those positions. They also took their positions at some political risk.

When Ms. Collins positions herself as a deficit hawk, even as she votes for every spending bill in sight--often with a pure eye for re-election--and then scolds her colleagues for not being more accepting of her "centrism," well, the party tends to get a bit cranky.

And here's another op-Ed is worth sampling--if only because it would never get published at any of the major papers in Maine.

In fact, even though they come at Sen. Collins from very different angles, what both pieces have in common is that they stray outside the parameters of what's considered acceptable discourse by the folks at the Blethen papers and BDN.

Sharp, skeptical criticism of the junior senator is simply out of bounds.