The Fannie and Freddie Dodge

As we just mentioned, Sen. Collins either no idea what she's talking about or she's so eager to avoid a discussion of the financial crisis that she's content leaving that impression.

But there's another wrinkle to her decision to look back at the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bailouts instead of discussing the current crisis: Before they were absorbed by the feds, Freddie and Fannie were government sponsored companies.

And clearly, Collins would rather talk about the (admittedly abundant) failures of government-linked entities than focus on the crisis at hand, which implicates not the government but rather her Wall Street friends, patrons and allies.

So there's a good chance that there's cynicism at play here, too.

You'd think kind of cynicism might melt away in the heat of a global financial storm, with the Maine economy--and the assets of Mainers--on the line.

But apparently, you'd be wrong.

UPDATE: The market just closed for the day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down nearly 400 points.