Quote of the Day

Edward Luce in The Financial Times:

In order to win over Susan Collins, a Republican senator from Maine, the Democrats removed $83bn of short-term spending from the [stimulus] bill at the cost of 400,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.

Collins, Carly and Crist

Also in the latest FEC filing from Dirigo PAC, Sen. Collins' political action committee, is news of donations to the senate campaigns of ousted executive Carly Fiorina and Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL).

The support for Crist, in particular, puts the junior senator at odds with conservative activists.

Old Friends

The top contributor to Sen. Collins' political action committee, Dirigo PAC, for the 2009-10 cycle? Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

In Perspective

The entire "jobs" bill that Sen. Collins has decided not to try to block clocks in at less than two percent of the stimulus bill.

It's $15 billion cost is also a mere fraction of what Collins and allies stripped from the Recovery Act, at a time when every additional dollar of stimulus was sorely needed.

So let's be frank: Her support is little more than a token gesture.

This isn't a centrism; it's a feint toward centrism. Though it's almost certain that the junior senator and her friends in the Maine media will pretend otherwise.

Thought of the Day

The fact that so many wingnuts hate Sen. Collins with such passion demonstrates that they're focused much more on rhetoric than substance.

With the exception of the stimulus bill--which she worked hard to water down--the junior senator has voted with the Republicans on every single major piece of legislation over the last 9 years.

Lucy, Charlie and the Football

Sen. Collins has spent half a year, give or take, carrying water for the GOP and lying about health care. But now she says she's back to being a bipartisan moderate pragmatist.

Anyone who thinks she's interested in advancing serious reform rather than killing it is either incredibly--almost willfully--gullible or just hasn't been paying attention.

Pet Projects

Thomas Cushing Munjoy notices something the deferential, power-coddling Maine media aren't in a hurry to report.

I do wonder where he got that picture.

Joke of the Day

Yesterday:

"It's a bad sign," Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told me about Bayh's retirement. "The loss of someone like Evan speaks volumes about people's frustrations with the Senate and our failure to work in a bipartisan fashion."

Two weeks ago:

"The Obama administration appears to have a blind spot when it comes to the War on Terrorism.

“And, because of that blindness, this administration cannot see a foreign terrorist even when he stands right in front of them."

Quote of the Day

Thrasybulus at As Maine Goes:

Collins is 100% as conservative as she can be AND win re-election in the dystopia that is Maine. Cut some slack.

Insult, Injury, Etc.

She's lost Tornoe too.

Crisis Management Mode

Just a week ago, Sen. Collins had a national platform and was on the attack. This morning, she dialed in to a local talk radio show to--in the show's own words--"defend her criticism" of President Obama.

Things haven't exactly gone according to plan.

Not surprisingly, Collins spends much of the interview on the defensive, testily delivering the talking points she's been using since the argument turned against her.

But she also manages to deliver this gem: "What's frustrating to me is that it's [the discussion of Abdulmutallab] becoming politicized."

Seriously.

This is a woman who teed off the discussion by quipping, "this administration cannot see a foreign terrorist even when he stands right in front of them."

On the radio, the junior senator tries to walk back that ridiculous, overheated rhetoric--at least implicitly--by saying, "I'm not seeking someone's head. I'm not calling for someone to be fired."

But really, who is she kidding? Not the host, who basically calls her out on her hypocrisy and bad faith.

It seems the damage to the junior senator's reputation has already been done.

Coming Out of the Closet

Yes, we're on Twitter.

End of a Bad Day

A bit more unflattering exposure for Sen. Collins. Start at 0:55 and stick around for the great Bush clip:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Collins Losing Maine Media?

It's not just BDN. All of a sudden, even PPH has the audacity to allow criticism of Sen. Collins in its pages.

Greg Kesich unloads on the junior senator today.

Remember: Since Richard Connor's early flirtation with Collins skepticism, the Portland daily (like BDN) has handled her as a kind of sainted celebrity, keeping its pages totally free of sentiments critical of Collins.

So what to make of today's about-face? And the fact that it comes the same day that BDN is taking a break from its pro-Collins posture?

Interesting stuff.

Anyway, here's Kesich:

Sen. Susan Collins wrote a column for this newspaper explaining her objections to the package that she voted against in the Senate on Christmas Eve. ("Cost control essential if health care reform is to succeed," Feb 1)

Collins said that she would not vote for the bill because it didn't do enough to control costs and listed several areas in which it could be better...

[But] voting against this health care reform package because it doesn't control costs is like voting against Social Security because it's not nice enough to old people.

Despite a few polite words now and then, partisanship is the order of the day. Collins...is right in the middle of it.

Her ongoing critique of the Obama administration's handling of terrorism does not look like someone trying to find common ground. She lambastes Obama for decisions with which she had no problem when Bush was making them. And she is so dismissive of FBI interrogators, you'd think they'd handed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab over to ACORN for a few questions last Christmas.

It's not entirely clear, but it would appear that Collins' demagoguery about the Christmas Day bomber is what pushed Kesich over the edge. (We unpacked her disingenuous health care critique at greater length here.)

In any case: Bet they're having a wonderful day over at Collins HQ.

Merrill: Collins Pawn in GOP Machine

Who would have thought that a former state senator would have the temerity to call out Saint Susan's noxious rhetoric about the Obama administration? Or that BDN would have the temerity to publish his criticism?

A year ago in an OpEd published here, I praised Sen. Susan Collins for the independence she demonstrated in crafting and voting for the Obama recovery act...

Sadly, last week Sen. Collins allowed herself to be made a pawn of the Republican spin machine. The issue is the government's handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young man who botched an attempt to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day...

Sen. Collins played her partisan role with all the finesse of an old city ward boss...

Sen. Collins knows that far from being soft on terrorism the Obama administration has been aggressive in going after terrorists around the world. Sen. Collins knows that under Obama, the drone attacks on terrorist enclaves in Pakistan have more than doubled. Sen. Collins knows that Obama beefed up our efforts in Yemen even before the botched Christmas Day attack.

Sen. Collins knows Abdulmutallab is said to have told the FBI that in Yemen he was in contact with terrorists released from Guantanamo by the Bush administration. Sen. Collins knows that one of the tools terrorists are using to recruit young men like Abdulmutallab is America's failure to give detainees captured abroad the benefit of trials.

Does this mean there is no room for a critical look at the administration's handling of the Abdulmutallab affair?

Not at all, but an honest inquiry would start with Collins making a statement like this: "I know trying Abdulmutallab in federal court was simply following a policy set down by the Bush administration in 2003, a policy I have not previously tried to reverse. I know the Obama administration is working on many fronts to keep this nation safe, but we should use this event to see if there is a better way to proceed in the future."

That is the approach Mainers have every right to expect from a senator who won our votes on the promise she would put our country before her party.

Keep in mind the context: It's been many months--if not years--since BDN has published explicit criticism of Sen. Collins anywhere outside its letters to the editor. Her point of view is never countered in news articles and her views are virtually never challenged in editorials or op-Eds. It simply isn't done.

So is this an aberration or a watershed moment?

Clearly, it's too early to tell. But the fact that BDN is willing to risk offending the junior senator suggests that the landscape has shifted.

NYT: Collins Plays Fear Card

The New York Times editorial page:

An election is coming, so the Republicans are trying to scare Americans by making it appear as if the Democrats don't care about catching or punishing terrorists.

[...]

Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, suggested--without any evidence--that vital intelligence was lost by [having the FBI arrest and interrogate Abdulmutallab].

[...]

The Republican propaganda is a distraction from the real issue: that the counterterrorism system is malfunctioning more than eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Like many of the nation's other problems, Mr. Obama inherited this one. For eight years, Congress failed in its legal duty to oversee the intelligence community and the basic operational tasks of the Department of Homeland Security and correct the abusive system of detention at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere that made our country more vulnerable, not less.

Guess who was chair of the Homeland Security Committee for most of that stretch?

One quibble, though: Collins didn't just suggest that intelligence was lost when Abdulmutallab was placed in FBI custody. She asserted it as fact--and then backtracked.

Her irresponsible, authoritarian rhetoric is certainly getting lots of national attention. But is this the kind of attention she had in mind?

Even More Hypocrisy

Sen. Collins, you'll remember, voted in favor of policies generating trillions of dollars of debt during the Bush administration.

But now, things are different:

Collins, meanwhile, said she would be open to exploring a bipartisan jobs bill that focuses on creating private-sector jobs without adding to the federal deficit.

It's just like her response to the Christmas Day bombing: One standard for Republican administrations, another standard for Democratic ones.

Hypocrisy Watch

For the Maine audience, Sen. Collins shelves the McCarthy-inspired rhetoric about the Christmas Day bombing in favor of a slightly more nuanced argument, albeit one riddled with holes and distortions.

Still no explanation for why she's appalled at the Obama administration for following the Bush approach (which she never criticized) to the letter.

Still no explanation for why Collins expressed no concerns about the FBI's conduct in a discussion with an administration official as events were unfolding.

And still no explanation for her eccentric reading of the Constitution.

Here's a tip: If the junior senator offers you legal advise, run in the opposite direction.

Collins' Blind Spot

After campaigning for and winning reelection as a results-oriented centrist who brings people together to get things done, Sen. Collins has spent the last two weeks spouting often-false, ultra-partisan talking points and making objectively ludicrous, hyperbole-laden assertions like, "this administration cannot see a foreign terrorist even when he stands right in front of them."

Even though the Obama administration followed Bush administration precedent (and the law) in its handling of the Christmas Day bomber.

Even though the junior senator registered no qualms about the Bush administration's approach to similar cases.

And even though there's no evidence that her preferred--illegal--approach to the case would have resulted in a better outcome.

But now we learn that Collins was briefed on the administration's handling of Abdulmutallab on Christmas day? And that she raised no concerns about the actions that only weeks later she would call "dangerous" and "a charade" and "inconceivable"?

It doesn't get much more brazen and disingenuous than this.

It's pretty clear that the last couple of weeks have damaged Collins and debunked, once and for all, the idea that she's a straight-shooter. I suspect that it'll be a while, for example, before she gets any glowing "above-the-fray" treatment from the big, national news organizations.

But her debut as GOP attack dog has been so poorly managed--and so cynically executed--that you have to wonder if she knew what she was signing up for.

Did Sen. Collins jump off the diving board without checking to see if the pool was full of water?

Oh Dear

Greg Sargent breaks some news:

Senator Susan Collins, who's emerged as a leading critic of the decision to Mirandize the bomb plot suspect, raised no concerns about his handling while being briefed on Christmas Day about his capture on a private call with a top Homeland Security official, a source familiar with the conversation tells me.

[...]

When Collins delivered the GOP weekly address in late January, she devoted the entire thing to criticizing the decision to Mirandize the suspect...

But on Christmas Day, Collins was briefed by a top Homeland Security official about the circumstances surrounding the capture and arrest of the suspect, a source familiar with the call says, and she had no objections...

"Senator Collins did not raise any concerns about the possibility of him being Mirandized or about the suspect’s handing," the source says.

Ouch.

UPDATE: Double ouch: Collins' office confirms. And spins desperately. But as Sargent correctly sums up:

The basic point...remains unchanged: There was no reason to assume the suspect wasn't going to be Mirandized, and no concerns about this possibility were raised [by Collins]. In other words, there was no sign that this was a matter of concern for Collins and others until it became a political talking point.