More Line-Item Veto

A couple more points about the junior senator's sloppy about-face on the line-item veto:

--An e-mail from Project Vote Smart Research Associate Matthew Cornwall confirms the accuracy of the online questionnaire.

I just took a look at [Sen. Collins'] Political Courage Test from 2008 and the answers all match what is on the website. These Tests go through numerous checks and the candidate's responses should be entirely accurate.

--Yesterday, I missed an obvious point about Collins' purported reason for opposing the line-item veto--that it concentrates too much power in the executive.

Coming from Collins, that line of argument is ludicrous. This is a pol, after all, who has been practically begging the Obama administration to hold American citizens indefinitely without charges, in violation of the law and the Constitution.

So we're supposed to believe that a policy of snatching up Americans without charges--and the unchecked agglomeration of executive power it would represent--is no big deal to Collins. In fact, she welcomes it.

But it's the line-item veto that apparently raises all sorts of red flags.

I would call this line of reasoning facetious. But even that doesn't capture the depths of its cynicism and bad faith.