Snark Watch

New York Magazine:

Reading the Post article today, we were reminded of one of our favorite things that happens whenever [Sens. Snowe and Collins] are covered in the press together. There's always a line like this, in every story (emphasis ours):

Snowe and Collins, who are not personally close and are at times competitive, could be critical crossovers.

Is that a necessary detail? No. It's like the political version of, "Claire Danes, who stole Billy Crudup away from a pregnant Mary-Louise Parker, could be an Oscar contender." Not key to any particular story, but always so much fun to write!

Zip It

Sen. Susan Collins is unhappy with the pace of the H1N1 vaccination program.

“There still is an issue of whether the vaccine is going to get to people too late,” Rep. Susan Collins (R-Maine), vice chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Education Secretary Arne Duncan testified.

[...]

Collins questioned Napolitano on emergency preparedness. Collins said Bowdoin College, in her home state of Maine, reported an increase from six H1N1 flu cases to 245 in little more than a week's time.

But here she is in April.

In the face of the recent outbreak of swine flu cases reported in Mexico and several southern states, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins stands by her efforts to eliminate $780 million for pandemic flu preparedness from the federal economic stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year.

Here's contemporaneous video:



Collins is--literally--the last person in a position to be criticizing the government's response to the flu pandemic. So you might expect that, when the issue came up, she would have the decency and humility to keep her mouth shut.

No such luck.

Quote of the Day

Sen. Susan Collins:

"I don't play the game with the administration, 'I'll give them a vote if they give me X, Y, Z for Maine.' I advocate very hard for the state of Maine on a host of issues, but I'm not interested in a quid pro quo."

Rare Burst of Candor

From Roll Call:

"Susan Collins is as conservative a Senator as can be elected from Maine," a former GOP Senate leadership aide said. "She is wired differently than Sen. Snowe."

That sounds about right. More:

Republican Senate aides say Collins has kept [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell informed of her position from the outset, again noting that she has emerged as one of the loudest voices in private Conference meetings against the Democratic bills.

This isn't a surprise to anyone paying close attention. But it runs directly counter to the impression conveyed by the media in Maine and Washington.

How To Pay For It?

Watch Sen. Collins avoid three questions in a row:



Still no idea how the junior senator wants to pay for reform. (Hint: $54 billion over 10 years gets you nowhere.)

Collins: "I'm Not Seeking More Attention"

Alas, more of the same.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Sen. Collins doesn't want the money to pay for reform to come out of Medicare. Fair enough. So where does she want it to come from?

(And why doesn't anyone ever ask her?)

Insur

We haven't run this chart in a while.


Anyone paying close attention knows that Sen. Collins is a stalwart supporter of big business and a vigilant guardian of corporate interests. She has been for a long time.

UPDATE: Incidentally, "Health"--just below "Finance/Insur/RealEst"--includes pharmaceuticals and HMOs.

The National Media

I don't think this is a case of Sen. Collins duping the national media.

The truth is that, for obscure and complicated reasons, many Washington-based reporters are desperate to believe that Collins is above the fray. And so they'll do somersaults to support that narrative, even in the face of evidence that undercuts it. Even when the junior senator herself is supplying the evidence.

Collins may have created the myth that she's indifferent to partisan concerns, but members of the national media have always been willing accomplices.

Seriousness Watch

When it comes to health care, Sen. Susan Collins professes to support universal coverage.

But she's never come anywhere near articulating a plan for how to get there. (Except that she wants lots of hearings.) And she opposes all five health care reform proposals currently making their way through Congress.

What does that say about her seriousness on the issue?

Right Wing Talking Points

If she's such a serious-minded, results-oriented, pragmatic, moderate bipartisan centrist, then why is Sen. Collins slinging mud instead of offering solutions?

Why is she fear mongering--and parroting unsubstantiated insurance industry claims--instead of explaining how she proposes to improve the legislation?

"Many individuals and families would be forced to pay more for their health care under the Finance Committee bill, and they would have fewer choices...

"As structured, the bill actually could discourage small businesses from adding more jobs...

"The legislation contains no meaningful medical liability reforms to reduce frivolous lawsuits..."

Potholm: Mainers Trust Snowe More

The Boston Globe:

Christian Potholm, a political scientist at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, said he believes that if Snowe still favors the bill when it comes to the floor, she could have a significant influence on the state's junior senator, Susan Collins, another moderate Republican. Like Snowe, Collins supported the Democrats' stimulus plan in February.

"I think there is a fair amount of rivalry" between them, Potholm said. But because of the importance of this issue, and because Mainers do not understand what is in the bill but trust Snowe deeply and see her as the expert on this issue, they are likely to view Snowe’s vote as the right one.

"People have a great sense that if anybody knows whether it's a good or bad bill, it will be her," he said.

Nelson: Collins "Likely" On Health Care

In the wake of Sen. Snowe's 'yea' vote on health care reform in the Finance Committee:

"It'll now be a 14-9 vote coming out of Finance Committee," he said. "That's a huge margin. Olympia makes it bipartisan. This is a first step in a long process, but it's an extremely important first step."

Nelson also had a prediction:

"Susan Collins now will likely come with her fellow Maine senator once they vote on the floor."

More proof that even Senate colleagues are blind to the fact that Sens. Snowe and Collins are discrete human beings with different priorities?

Or is Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) actually on to something?

Thought of the Day

I wonder how this plays out over the next several weeks. And whether it influences the national debate.

Still Silent On Johnsen

Sen. Collins' refusal to say much of anything about Dawn Johnsen's nomination is disappointing, if not surprising.

It's a reminder that the junior senator is, at best, a selective supporter of the rule of law.

GAO Answers Collins On Ethanol

Kudos to Sen. Collins for asking the question. Sure seems like a dubious program to me.

The GAO report, requested by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), says that a 45-cent-per-gallon federal tax credit is doing nothing to spur production of renewable fuels that government mandates aren't already achieving...

The credit "may no longer be needed to stimulate conventional corn ethanol production because the domestic industry has matured, its processing is well understood, and its capacity is already near the effective RFS limit of15 billion gallons per year for conventional ethanol," the GAO said.

The 45-cent-per-gallon credit available to ethanol blenders is up for renewal next year.

Dinner With Orszag

Very swanky. I guess the idea is that, when appeals to reason--and to the clear preferences of your constituents--fail, maybe a $29 entree will do the trick.

Let's hope so.

I still think Sen. Collins is likely to oppose the health care reform legislation that comes out of conference. But since the bill has gained momentum, and since it seems increasingly likely that passage won't require her support, the incentives have changed.

With no obvious way to prevent the bill from becoming law, Collins (and her corporate benefactors) may be more inclined to try to influence the final negotiations. And the only way to do that is by supporting the legislation--or at least pledging not to filibuster it.

Quote of the Day

From BDN, which is now the saner of the two major Maine dailies. By a lot.

While lawmakers, including Sen. Susan Collins and the Senate Armed Services Committee on which she serves, are right to want to question Gen. McChrystal, they must also ask themselves how they let the situation in Afghanistan get so desperate.

Diverting much-needed manpower from Afghanistan, which was a base for al-Qaida and where the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were likely plotted, to Iraq is a major reason. Doubling the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan years ago could have made a big difference. So, too, could have setting benchmarks and ensuring progress toward them was being made.

Sliding Scale

Sen. Collins keen interest in ACORN and her disgust with the way the Obama administration is treating our allies would be a lot more credible if she hadn't spent years refusing to lift a finger to investigate deadly defense contractor abuses.

They'd be a lot easier to swallow if she hadn't spent years as a steadfast supporter of the most catastrophic--and transparently misguided--foreign policy in memory.

Changing The Subject

In the middle of the most important domestic policy debate in two generations, with Mainers supporting the public health plan option she adamantly opposes by a 2-1 margin, Sen. Collins writes an Op-Ed...

...about the National Senior Games.

Amazing.

Olympia Envy?

Via Huffington Post:

Speechwriter Matt Latimer's new book trains its gaze on the lunacy of the late-era Bush White House. And there was plenty of material...Some of the best stuff:

[...]

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins is fond of sending angry, middle-of-the-night e-mails to staffers because she's frustrated that her colleague and rival Olympia Snowe gets more and better press. As a result, reports Latimer, she rips through press secretaries like 30-packs at a beer-pong tournament. (A Collins press secretary didn't respond to a request for comment.)

"Rips through" implies that Collins' press secretaries often quit, or are fired. But that seems not to be the case: Kevin Kelley has been with the junior senator for years. So the anecdote deserves to be viewed skeptically.

On the other hand, maybe "rips through" is supposed to mean something closer to "tears into." That would be more plausible.

Guess we'll have to check out the book, which comes out tomorrow, to see for ourselves.

Consistency at PPH

Just weeks ago, PPH wanted Sens. Snowe and Collins to do everything they could to block health care reform. Now the editors want them to support it.

Is there an amnesia epidemic at the struggling paper? A rogue copy editor? One wonders.

Of course, the editorial is thinly-reasoned, short on solutions and it scrupulously avoids criticizing Sen. Collins. So those things certainly haven't changed.

Where Are The Amendments?

Sen. Collins now says that pending health care legislation, "does not do enough to lower health care costs for all Americans."

It's a more plausible criticism than her objection to the program's size. (Though an odd one given Collins' opposition to a public health plan alternative, which the Congressional Budget Office says would lower costs to consumers.)

But the logical next question, then, is: How does the junior senator propose to achieve these lower costs? Bigger subsidies for middle class insurance buyers? More concessions from drug makers? Something else?

If health care reform is as critical as Collins has always maintained, and if lowering health care costs is a pivotal concern, then what steps is she taking to revise the legislation accordingly?

Or this just more hot air?

Collins Health Big Picture

Watching Sen. Collins talk about health care reform over the last several weeks, it's been hard to suppress a snarky, sarcastic response to her maneuverings. We've certainly been guilty of our share of snide comments.

But it's important not to get desensitized to the staggering hypocrisy of her behavior here.

Remember, the basic thrust of Collins' position on reform is that the legislation making its way through Congress is too expensive.

To drive that point home, she's repeatedly cited a $1.6 trillion ten-year price tag, even though it's long been clear that the package would be much smaller. And her worries about cost aren't easy to square with her position, during last year's campaign, that the Obama health care plan was "pretty good"--and that she was open to supporting it.

But obfuscation and bad faith are really the least of her sins here.

Rather, what's shocking and unforgivable about the junior senator's approach to health care--and what's gone totally unreported both in Maine and in the national media--isn't so much the substance of her critique as its context.

Because while the junior senator now wants us to believe that she's spooked about governmental red ink, her record doesn't just suggest otherwise. It screams otherwise.

Susan Collins, after all, voted for all three Bush tax cuts. She voted for Medicare Part D.

The combined ten-year cost of these four laws is more than three trillion dollars. ($2.1 trillion for tax cuts plus $1.0 trillion for Medicare Part D.)

Health care reform, by contrast, is expected to clock in at less than one-third as much.

What's more, while none of the Bush-era programs were paid for with cuts elsewhere in the budget, President Obama has publicly vowed, in a nationally-televised address, that if health care legislation increases the deficit he will not sign it.

In the context of these facts, the questions practically write themselves: If Collins is so worried about deficits and the debt, where were these worries when she and her GOP colleagues were doling out huge tax breaks to billionaires?

If red ink is such a big issue, why did she vote for a large, unfunded new health care entitlement program just a few years ago? Why does she oppose, on budgetary grounds, a reform package that pays for itself?

And why the fixation on fiscal prudence only after running up trillions of dollars in public debt?

There's simply no way to have a serious, candid discussion about what Collins has been up to lately without facing up to these questions.

Sure would be nice if someone would ask them.

The Diluter

If you've been following Sen. Susan Collins in recent months--let alone for longer periods--the clear impression that emerges from reading this article is that the junior senators will work to make health care reform less effective and less efficient--before voting against the whole package.

Collins and Lieberman both told The Hill they are more supportive of a "trigger" concept floated by Collins's Senate colleague, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, which calls for a public option to be implemented if insurance companies fail to fix the current system’s cost inefficiencies.

[...]

"I'm opposed to a Washington-run public option," Collins said. "I believe it would cause many people to lose health insurance that they’re currently happy with now, and that’s contrary to the assurances that advocates of the public option have been giving. I'm also concerned about the cost and control issue.

"A trigger is certainly a better approach, but I'm not convinced that we could rely on this administration to resist the lure of triggering the public option."

Collins's wariness comes despite “several” conversations she said she had with Obama in July on the issue, as well as other administration officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Collins isn't convinced that the administration could be trusted to "resist the lure of triggering the public option"--even though the conditions for any trigger would (obviously) be written into the legislation.

Talk about bad faith.

Of course, we all remember how much skepticism Collins showed in her dealings with the previous administration.

Don't Bet On It

The New York Times on health care reform's prospects in the Senate:

Democratic leaders believe Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, the strongest Republican supporter of comprehensive legislation, might provide that 60th vote [to overcome a filibuster]. If Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the strongest Democratic skeptic, defects on a filibuster, Democrats see one more potential ally in Maine’s other moderate Republican senator, Susan Collins

Collins: I Do A Lot of Forums

That and more news here. (Also, a strange dig at Louisiana at 10:40.)

By contrast, some useful information here.

Thought of the Day

My favorite part of yesterday's Concord Coalition event was when (jump to 51:20) Sen. Collins let stand the impression that the pending health care bills provide insurance to illegal immigrants.



Lovely.

Quote of the Day

Former Maine AG Steve Rowe, via Dirigo Blue:

Maine and the nation need healthcare reform that gives every person access to affordable coverage that cannot be taken away. Our families and small businesses will not see a true economic recovery unless we can hold down healthcare costs.

One important way to keep costs down is to provide the choice of a public coverage option to compete with private insurers. With one insurance company now covering 71% of Mainers, we have little choice and even less competition. A public option would give us the choices we want, while providing the competition that will help hold down costs for everyone.

Pressure From State?

Did Sen. Collins or her staff try to pull a blog post after hearing objections from the Department of State?

Curious stuff.

They Hold Rallies

From the Sierra Club:

Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Time: 11:30am - 2:00pm
Location: Nonantum Resort
Street: 95 Ocean Avenue

Senator Collins will be in Kennebunkport on Tuesday August 25th at 12pm. Rally for a clean energy future at the event and show Senator Collins that Mainers want her support for strong national climate legislation that will curb global warming pollution and put people to work in a new clean energy economy.

Senator Collins' vote is critical to pass clean energy legislation and right now she's not sure if she'll support it. We need a huge crowd to send her the message that Mainers want a clean energy future.

Big Oil and Big Coal are pulling out all the stops to persuade our Senators
to stick with the status quo: dirty energy that pollutes our air and stagnates our economy.

Don't let Big Oil and Big Coal speak for you. Can you join the rally for a clean energy future?

The Memory Hole

On Saturday, Seacoastonline and PPH ran articles about Sen. Collins' recent overseas trip.

Both articles focused on Afghanistan. Both included a list of the places Collins visited. And both stories left her stop on the the Greek island of Rhodes off the list.

Here's Deborah McDermott at Seacoastonline:

[In addition to Afghanistan,] the trip also included stops in Libya, Yemen, Kuwait and Iraq.

Here's Beth Quimby in PPH:

Collins...spent the past week on a tour of the Middle East and northern Africa, [in addition to Afghanistan] also making stops in Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Kuwait.

To the average Maine news consumer, it's almost as if Collins didn't actually touch down on the paradise vacation island during a crucial period in the national discussion of health care reform. (A discussion which, just weeks ago, the junior senator said needed to be prolonged in the interest of getting a deal done.)

So were McDermott and Quimby working from the same misleading press release?

In a Monday morning e-mail, Quimby said there was, "no mention of Greece as far as I can recall." No word yet from McDermott.

Maybe the lesson here is that you just can't trust Sen. Collins' office--even with something as mundane as an itinerary?

(Photo of Rhodes by jsfiveash.)

Next Stop Wonderland

Just two weeks after we applauded Sen. Collins for acting like a grown-up on cash for clunkers, she's resorted to treating Mainers like children, and telling them fairy tales about health care.

I mean, "the non-partisan Lewin Group"? Canadians pouring into American hospitals?

What's next? A gig on Fox News?

Ah, Rhodes

Sen. Collins breaks her silence about her recent brief stay in Rhodes.

No real explanation, though, about how the Greek Island stop fit into the larger scheme of things. (And no word on whether she made it to the beach.)

(Photo by pictalogue.)

Postcards From The Edge

Sen. Collins has had some genuinely interesting and thoughtful things to say about her overseas trip. (Still waiting to hear about Rhodes, though.)

To be clear: The issue here isn't congressional travel. The issue, given Collins' rhetoric on health care reform, is the timing.

Flashback: Nothing But Health Care

The video from last fall's first debate takes a while to load. (Click "play" and then wait a few seconds. You can then click "pause" and it will keep loading.)

If you're patient, at 41:59 you'll see Sen. Collins talk about her desire for Congress to set aside two or three months to work on "virtually nothing but health care."



Of course, it's hard to stay focused on the mundane details of legislation when an opportunity to chat with the deputy foreign minister of Greece is dangled in your face.

What a difference a year makes.

Working Vacation?

Via Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency:

Arizona senator and former US presidential candidate John McCain, as well as Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, on Tuesday evening arrived on the Dodecanese holiday island of Rhodes for a short visit.

On Wednesday the three US senators were given a guided tour of the island's capital by Rhodes Mayor Hatzis Hatziefthymiou...Afterwards, the three US lawmakers met with Deputy Foreign Minister Yiannis Valinakis, with talks mostly touching on Greek-American relations.

All three US senators expressed their admiration for the island's natural beauty and praised efforts to preserve cultural heritage in the country.

TripAdvisor notes, "whether your interests are beaches, bars or ancient sites, Rhodes offers an abundance of all three." (More on Rhodes here. Photos here.)

Who do you suppose paid the bill for such vital diplomacy?

Amazingly, no blog posts, as yet, from Sen. Collins about her Greek Island stop. No tweets from Sen. McCain (R-AZ) either.

Probably too busy crafting amendments to improve the prospects of health care reform.

(Photo of a Rhodes beach by mrngr.)

Collins = Snowe?

MSNBC confuses Maine's two senators. Oops.

Chicken Watch

Sen. Collins: Serious or not serious?

Until last week, Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson was among the most enthusiastic backers of end-of-life counseling in government health care programs like Medicare.

That was before conservatives called it a step toward euthanasia and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin likened the idea to a bureaucratic "death panel" that would decide whether sick people get to live. And even though those claims have been widely discredited, the issue remains a political weapon in the increasingly bitter health care debate.

Now, Isakson and other Republicans who eagerly backed the idea are distancing themselves from it or lying low in the face of a backlash from the right.

[...]

Isakson and other Republicans such as Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana and Susan Collins of Maine have co-sponsored legislation in recent years promoting the counseling, including in initial Medicare visits and through a proposed government-run insurance program for long-term care.

[...]

Isakson, who initially called Palin's "death panel" characterization "nuts" in an interview Monday, declined later in the week to criticize Palin's statement...

Spokesmen for Lugar and Collins — two other longtime proponents of end-of-life planning — declined to comment on the House bill.

Collins In Libya

And yet somehow I developed the impression that slowing down health care reform was necessary precisely so that Sen. Collins and her fellow "moderates" could spend the recess doing the serious work required to reach a compromise. Silly me.

Anyway, she's blogging from the road.

Collins Will Take Questions

More from the Concord Coalition:

We have sold out of reserved seats for the event on August 25th. There may be extremely limited seating available, on a first come first serve basis, on the day of the event.

And:

The event is not a Senator Susan Collins town hall meeting; rather, Senator Collins will participate with our panel of budget experts. We have been doing these Tour stops since 2005 and we have worked with a number of politicians from both sides of the aisle.

If you would like more background on the Tour, please go to http://www.concordcoalition.org/act/fiscal-wake-tour

The panel for the 25th will consist of:

Hon. David M. Walker, President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former Comptroller General of the United States;
Robert L. Bixby, Executive Director, The Concord Coalition
Will Marshall, President, Progressive Policy Institute
Stuart Butler, Vice-President, The Heritage Foundation

Senator Collins and the panel of experts will participate in a question and answer session following the presentations.

More details here.

Observation of the Day

Sen. Collins has proposed exactly the kind of end-of-life care proposal that, in recent days, has been used as a jumping-off point by right-wing scaremongers and lunatics working to hijack the health care reform debate.

With the decibel level rising, Collins has remained silent on the issue, even as the scaremongers have taken center stage in the national debate.

And the Maine press hasn't so much as acknowledged Collins' proximity to the controversy.

Quote of the Day

Sen. Susan Collins:

"I'm always surprised when I hear some of my colleagues describe the public plan as being needed to keep the insurance companies honest...when insurance carriers are regulated in every state in the nation," Collins said. "They are a heavily regulated industry."

But Will She Take Questions?

Breaking with tradition, Sen. Collins has agreed to participate in an open forum in Kennebunkport--hosted by the Concord Coalition. From the press release:

Tuesday, August 25
Noon until 2:00 p.m.
Lunch begins at Noon and the discussion begins at 12:30 p.m.
Nonantum Resort
95 Ocean Avenue
Kennebunkport, Maine

This event is free to the public, but seating is limited. Donations will be accepted...If you are interested in attending please RSVP to jthiebert@concordcoalition.org or call (936) 676-1899. (Emphasis added.)

Jeff Thiebert, national grassroots director for the Concord Coalition, tells us that the room seats 150, with space for another 50 in an overflow area.

"We are optimistic that we will have a full house," Thiebert says. So it probably makes sense to reserve as soon as possible.

But will the junior senator take unscreened questions from regular citizens? "I am unclear on the exact specifics of the agenda," says Thiebert. "My colleague has been working with all of the panelists and Senator Collins' office on the specifics."

Indeed.

Still, it's hard to see how Collins could expect constituents to sit through a two hour event billed as a "public discussion" without an opportunity, somewhere along the way, to quiz their senator.

If we learn more, we'll pass it along.

Allen: PPH Or Fox News?

They write letters:

When the new owners took over, I hoped the Press Herald would be less bland and more informed.

Your editorial urging Sens. Snowe and Collins to act like "real Republicans" on health care reform certainly failed the second test.

I served in Congress for 12 years with both of our senators. We worked together on many issues, but trust me, they are real Republicans. They just don't uniformly ignore evidence that conflicts with standard Republican rhetoric...

Your readers can get that unfounded opinion from Fox News. But the plans don't do that, and neither does Medicare, our country's most popular and cost-effective health care plan...

Our senators' constituents want real reform, and they won't get that from "real" Republicans.

Tom Allen
Portland

PPH: Collins Surrenders On Clunkers

It's extraordinarily refreshing to see a local paper taking on Sen. Collins, and viewing her with skepticism. But I couldn't disagree more with the substance of PPH's critique of the junior senator, which borders on unfair.

After all, "cash for clunkers" is one of the fleetingly rare instances when Collins put forward a position on the issue before the last minute; publicly set out her priorities for the legislation; and then was flexible enough to reverse herself--on the basis of substance--when it was clear that, despite some faulty architecture, the program was nonetheless meeting her stated goals.

Collins, in other words, let herself be swayed by new information. That's not surrendering. That's acting like a grown-up

Don't get me wrong: I wish Collins had brought the same deliberative, open approach to the debate over the Bush tax cuts. Or the Iraq war. Or virtually any of the controversies of the last eight-plus years.

But to say that Collins simply folded here is awfully misleading.

Kesich Slams PPH Editorial

Things are getting awfully interesting at PPH and the other MaineToday properties.

First, all three papers had the temerity to criticize Maine's senators--apparently prompting Naomi Schalit, opinion editor at the KJ and Morning Sentinel, to resign.

And now, Greg Kesich, an editorial writer at PPH, is skewering his own paper's editorial position--explicitly--in the paper's own pages.

Tension, anyone?

But seriously: Kesich's trite, mushy paean to bipartisanship-over-substance is full of the kind of obsolete boilerplate that PPH would really be better off consigning to the Jeannine Guttman era.

Naturally, there's no acknowledgment in Kesich's column that the biggest mistake in recent US history--the Iraq war--was a quintessentially bipartisan project.

There's no concession that the popularity of Sen. Collins might depend, in part, on the junior senator's kid gloves treatment by Maine editors--who seem to have a more or less open invitation to join her staff.

And on the subject of health care in particular, there's no reckoning with the fact that decisive majorities in both chambers support the outlines of the Obama plan--and that if Sen. Snowe and Sen. Collins would simply forswear filibustering the legislation, it would be pretty much assured passage.

Finally, if Kesich wants a single-payer system--a bewildering admission, given what else he says here--his column inches would be better used laying out a nuts and bolts case for that approach.

He should be asking tough questions of his senators instead of blindly carrying water for them.

Thought of the Day

It's a good thing Sen. Collins doesn't do town hall meetings.

Not So Cozy

Al Diamon brings us the news that Naomi Schalit has resigned as opinion page editor of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel.

Collins Watch readers may remember Schalit for her willingness, repeatedly during the recent Senate race, to publish pro-Collins letters penned by Maine GOP pols and bigwigs--without identifying the writer by title.

(Then, mysteriously, as the election approached, the KJ felt it necessary to strictly limit discussion of the Senate race on its letters page.)

We'll also remember Schalit's tenure for this editorial, one of our earliest hints that the relationship between the junior senator and the Maine media might be a bit cozier than we'd been used to.

That said: With Schalit and Jeannine Guttman out of the picture, and three of Maine's most prominent papers criticizing Maine's senators--rather than offering them political cover--the relationship between the state's media and its political establishment seems a lot healthier than it did a few days ago.

Ownership Has Consequences

Well, now it's official: The new owners of PPH are discarding their predecessor's stealth conservative approach on the paper's editorial page.

Today's chatty lead editorial--cursory and disjointed in way that reminds me of, say, a Richard Connor column--basically tells Sen. Snowe and Sen. Collins to block President Obama on health care.

The piece is fact-free, devoid of substance and it indulges in empty sloganeering. So the new PPH editorial page should fit right in with the rest of the right-wing noise machine.

Still, this is a positive change. Better to have PPH honest about where it's coming from than disingenuous--as it was in the past--about its editorial views.

Of course, how this plays with left-of-center readers in Portland and elsewhere is another story.

Collins Right On Clunkers

Sen. Collins was apparently right from the start that the "cash for clunkers" bill was not as narrowly-tailored as it should have been.

The junior senator's version, with tighter standards, would have been better for the environment. And given the level of demand, it seems pretty clear that Collins' greener version of the bill would have had the same stimulative effect.

Part of the Solution

Sen. Collins is certainly capable of playing a constructive role in the health care debate, as this article suggests.

If the House does go ahead and adopt her proposal, maybe it will help Collins feel more personally invested in the success of reform.

Questions for Collins On Health Reform

--Does Sen. Collins support raising taxes on the super-rich to pay for expanded coverage?

--Would she vote to block an up-or-down vote on a bill that created a public insurance plan to compete with private insurers?

--Does she support taxing employer-based health care benefits if that's what it takes to pay for reform?

--Does she support MedPac reform?

--Does she support increased use of comparative effectiveness research within Medicare?

--Will Sen. Collins or her staff take calls from Jane Alonso on the subject of health care reform?

An Answer

Well, it took a newspaper based 300 miles south of Maine to extract even a kernel of information from Sen. Collins about her perspective on the substance of health care reform:

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, worries about requiring employers to provide insurance to workers. Without categorically rejecting the idea, she said: "My inclination is to oppose an employer mandate. Employers want to provide health insurance and do so if they can afford it."

[...]

Ms. Collins...said she had several big concerns about the House health care bill and a separate measure approved last week on a party-line vote by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

She said that she was "very skeptical" of the new government health insurance plan that Democrats want to create.

Helpful, if hazy. And of course, a slew of questions about the junior senator's views remain unanswered.

(Will anyone ask them?)

BDN: Reform Needed Now

Bangor Daily News seems constitutionally incapable of crossing Sen. Collins or Sen. Snowe. But if you read between the lines, this editorial comes off as a dig at both senators.

Flashback: Higher Taxes For The Rich

Before the election:

I do believe that wealthier Americans can and should pay higher tax rates, and I have voted in support of higher tax brackets for these taxpayers that have an ample ability to pay a higher top rate.

Something to keep in mind over the next several weeks.

Collins: Yes On Sotomayor

I'm actually a bit surprised it took so long.

The Rally: Another View

Here's some raw video from Saturday's rally in Portland for fast action on health care reform:



The footage conveys the size of the crowd in a way that the slanted NECN report never manages to.

Disingenuousness Watch

As we all know, Sen. Collins and her lackeys in the Maine media want Congress to slow down on health care reform.

This eight months after the junior senator told voters during her recent campaign that, "I actually think [Obama's] plan is pretty good."

Of course, no one remembers Collins playing for more time during the debate over President Bush's unaffordable tax cuts for the rich--which had a much higher ten-year price tag than the health care legislation currently on the table.

But the idea seems to be that health care reform is so tricky--and so important--that the decades spent refining proposals, the two years spent testing the public's appetite for reform during the presidential campaign and the months spent cobbling together legislative language in six different congressional committees aren't enough.

Apparently there's lots more heavy lifting to do--so much more that an up-or-down vote on a bill shouldn't happen any time soon.

So with such urgent work left to be done, how did the junior senator spend the weekend? Holed up in her office, determined to find a way to lower the cost of reform? Stuck in sweltering Washington D.C., crafting amendments to strengthen the legislation in ways that will improve health care for all Americans?

In a word, no. Instead, she spent Friday evening in Presque Isle at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Look: There's nothing wrong with politicians cutting ribbons. And Collins can certainly talk and chew gum at the same time.

But the junior senator would have more credibility on the issue, and seem less disingenuous, if she'd had more to say lately about the substance of health care reform. And her request for a delay would seem more like a good-faith move if her schedule was crammed full of health care-related activities.

Instead, Collins has been harping on process--her trademark approach to initiatives she opposes but wants her constituents to think she supports.

Delay, then water down, then scuttle. Unfortunately, that seems to be the formula.

Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong.

(Not Even) Equal Time

Hundreds of people rally for health care reform. Three dozen rally in opposition.

So which side gets more play in NECN's report?



Let's see: Counter-demonstrator Terren Bragdon gets the first word--for 16 seconds. He speaks up close, directly to a reporter. And then the shot cuts away to a tightly-edited montage of anti-reform placards while his commentary continues.

Then we get a mere 12 second chunk of Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree's pro-reform speech from the podium. And then the anchor wraps things up.

Not exactly proportional representation.

Of course, the report characterizes reform legislation as, "government-run public-option health care reform." That tells you pretty much all you need to know about what NECN is up to here.

UPDATE: The PPH report puts the number of reform supporters at "about 500" and opponents at "about 25."

That's twenty-to-one.

On the Outs?

When Sen. Snowe went to talk health care reform with President Obama yesterday, the White House paired her with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE). Both are fence-sitters who are seen as potential--and perhaps crucial--"yes" votes on reform legislation.

Sen. Collins, on the other hand, was invited to see the President as part of a group rounded out by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN). All three are reform critics whose votes really don't figure into the success or failure of the legislation.

So has the junior senator's stock gone down inside the White House? (Remember, Collins had the benefit of a one-on-one meeting with the President during the stimulus debate.)

Are Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to blame?

Or has the White House simply concluded, based on Collins' record, that the junior senator is likely to be an obstacle to meaningful health care reform?

UPDATE: Or maybe someone at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue remembers what happened the last time they listened to Collins.

Still Hiding Behind Process

Sen. Collins ventured to the White House today to talk health care:

Obama met at the White House with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Bob Corker of Tennessee and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

"I urged him not to rush consideration of the bill," Collins told reporters later. "This bill is going to affect virtually every American. If the president tries to rush this through in the next two weeks...I fear the process will be very divisive."

Fair enough. But more important: What does the junior senator think about the content of the plans moving through Congress? Could she support the House bill? The legislation emerging from the Senate committees?

Are there popular ideas that she considers off the table? Reform features that she can't live without?

Or does she believe--as one might infer from her near-silence on the substance of health care policy coupled with her persistent calls for a go-slow approach--that the most important thing about health care reform is the timing?

On the Same Page

Just days after Sen. Collins added former PPH editor Jeannine Guttman to her staff, we learn that another aide has left the fold:

Jane Alonso has joined Monument Policy Group as vice president of government relations. Alonso is a former legislative director for Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and also oversaw Sen. Collins’s work as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Alonso, who was on Collins' staff as recently as January, is still listed in that role on her own LinkedIn page.

Monument Policy Group is, of course, a lobbying shop. The company counts General Dynamics and PhRMA, the pharmaceutical trade group, among its clients.

You'll remember that PhRMA intervened aggressively on behalf of Collins in the junior senator's recent fight for reelection.

Federal Building

Credit where it's due: On Saturday, BDN ran a nuanced, carefully-reported piece about a puzzling allocation of stimulus money.

It seems that $53 million is slated for renovations of a federal building in Bangor that houses (among other things) offices for Sen. Collins--and soon Sen. Snowe. The building was built for $4.5 million in 1966.

"Our roads are crumbling all around, and we're painting a federal building. It doesn't make sense," said Thomas Davis, chairman of the Penobscot County commissioners. "I can think of a bunch of things that are more deserving of this kind of money. As a taxpayer, I'm sick of money being thrown away. I don't mind spending, but this is overboard."

Neither Collins nor Snowe seems ready to criticize the project. It's hard to believe it would have been approved without input from their offices.

Of course, there may be compelling reasons for its selection: Federal control of the site may mean fewer opportunities for delays and corruption; the project may take less time to complete--and thus have more stimulative effect--than other public projects in the region; the building, which has never had a major upgrade, may be in truly dire shape.

Still, it seems a shame for so much money to go to a use that will benefit relatively few people--especially at a time when broad swaths of the population are hurting.

Nothing in the article corroborates Davis' view that money is being thrown away. But to local citizens--and officials trying to fill budget gaps--I can understand why it might feel that way.

More Guttman

"The erosion of journalistic credibility."

That's what Jeannine Guttman said in 2000 when an interviewer with the American Society of News Editors asked her what she worried about the most.

You can't make this stuff up.

UPDATE: Even more:

The press is the watchdog, providing citizens with a lens on government. If we do our jobs correctly, readers are well informed, they understand the issues of the day, they can fully participate in our democracy and keep it healthy and alive for future generations.

I couldn't agree more.

State Media

So let's review: First, as editor of Portland Press Herald, Jeannine Guttman supervises soft, superficial, spotty and error-prone coverage of the Allen-Collins race--coverage that seems, almost invariably, to tilt toward Sen. Collins.

She never runs profiles of the candidates, and even allows the publication of a Collins endorsement that side-steps literally all the major issues in the race.

Then eight months later she goes to work for Collins.

Did I mention that the editor of Bangor Daily News, the state's only other large newspaper, is also a former Collins staffer? (And so is his wife.)

A paranoid guy like me starts to wonder if there's some sort of pattern here.

But seriously folks: Unseemly doesn't begin to describe it.

We're talking about a blurring-beyond-recognition of the line between the Maine media and the Maine political establishment. We're talking about institutions that are compromised not just at the margins, but in ways that raise questions about their core missions.

Very ugly. And a serious problem.

(A call to Guttman for comment went unreturned.)

Tangled Web

This is gross:

The former editor of the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram has taken a post in Washington, D.C., as communications director for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.

The appointment of Jeannine Guttman was announced Wednesday by Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the committee's ranking Republican. Collins said Guttman has tremendous experience both in media and in Washington, D.C., and cares about the critical issues that affect Mainers.

Some more thoughts later.

Questions of the Day

Why is Sen. Collins stalling confirmation of the administration's nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel? Is it because the nominee, Dawn Johnsen, is willing to call out illegal torture and the lawyers who abetted it?

Because Johnsen is unambiguously pro-choice?

Something else?

Seriousness Watch

Sen. Collins' office:

U.S. Senator Susan Collins today met privately with Judge Sonia Sotomayor for 45 minutes...

"During our meeting, I was able to ask Judge Sotomayor a broad range of questions. Much of our discussion focused on a speech that she delivered in 2001 in which she says she "would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." I have been troubled by this remark.

You read that right: Sen. Collins had a precious 45 minutes to question Judge Sotomayor.

And yet the junior senator focused her inquiry not on any of the thousands of opinions Sotomayor has signed off on. Or the judge's apparent tendency to lean right on criminal justice issues. Or her as-yet-undisclosed approach to abortion and related issues.

No, instead Collins spent "much" of her time discussing a single, poorly-worded sentence--from a speech, not a ruling. And one that, the context shows, was used to build the simple, uncontroversial argument that we're all shaped by our backgrounds.

Collins is a likely vote to confirm Sotomayor. (I'd be stunned if she voted no.) So maybe this is just about throwing a bone to the dittoheads in the Republican base.

Still, not exactly a profile in seriousness.

Collins With Sotomayor

CQ:

"She assured me that she understands when deciding cases that she needs to put aside any personal experiences that might color her decisions and, as she said it, that the law is the law," Collins said.

Collins said she was "somewhat frustrated" that Sotomayor would not discuss perhaps her most controversial case, Ricci v. DeStefano, in which Sotomayor was part of a three-judge panel that upheld a district court ruling against a group of New Haven, Conn., firefighters who alleged discrimination.

Collins said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit had reached an "unfair result" in the case. But, Collins said, Sotomayor declined to comment on the case because it is pending before the Supreme Court.

(By way of comparison, you can get a sense of the junior senator's ferocious reaction to disclosures about then-Judge Samuel Alito's staunchly anti-Roe views here.)

Context

The New York Times:

Much attention, however, focused on Judge Sotomayor’s remark in 2001: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who voted to confirm Judge Sotomayor in 1998, said she needed a fuller explanation and would request one at a meeting set for Thursday. "I need to know what the context of that comment was," Ms. Collins said.

Okay, Sen. Collins wants context. How about, y'know, reading the speech?

Hint: A link to it--and some sane right-wing commentary--can be found here.

Collins on Health Care

Sen. Collins has left herself wiggle room. But given what the junior senator has said so far, it's not clear how she would defend (for example) trying to block a vote on the health care legislation that will soon be coming down the pike.

New York Times, October 26, 2008:

After the debate, she told a voter concerned about health care who came up to talk to her that she was open to supporting Mr. Obama's health care plan, should he be elected president. "I actually think his plan is pretty good," Ms. Collins said.

Portland Press Herald, May 25, 2009:

Kevin Kelley, spokesman for Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, said Collins is committed to a few key priorities, including accessibility, price, quality and freedom of choice for consumers.

"She believes the goal should be universal health care coverage..." Kelley said.

Remember, Collins' 2008 campaign was bankrolled in no small part by drug companies, insurance companies and big business. And she's been doing the bidding of multinational corporations for years. So I'm more than a bit skeptical.

But let it be said: So far, she's been making the right noises.

Past As Prologue?

In 1998, Sen. Collins voted in favor of Judge Sotomayor elevation's to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. (Ditto for Sen. Snowe.)

Empathy Free Zone

Sen. Collins on the Supreme Court vacancy. (Prior to the Sotomayor announcement.)

Questions for the Weekend

The Hill:

"He has every right to speak out about issues he cares about, and he has some valid points to make," said centrist GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine [on former Vice President Dick Cheney's recent volubility].

What "valid" points does Sen. Collins think Cheney has been making?

When it comes to the facts, the morals and the law, does she more or less accept Cheney's view? Or would she prefer to associate herself with the ideas put forward by President Obama?

Even more to the point: What does Sen. Collins think about stress positions, sleep deprivation and waterboarding?

And why hasn't someone--anyone--with access and a megaphone asked her these questions?

Caps Off

It's no surprise that Sen. Collins voted against capping the interest rates charged by credit card companies.

But I'm curious about The Times' claim that there's a groundswell of interest in the (lopsided) vote.

People who still don't understand that financial institutions call the shots in Washington--and with the Republican party in particular--simply haven't been paying attention.

They certainly didn't watch the Allen-Collins race closely.

Collins Obstructs

Earlier today, Sen. Collins voted to bottle up the nomination of President Obama's pick for deputy secretary of the Interior Department.

Collins, you'll remember, showed extreme deference to President Bush when it came to presidential appointments. She even helped form a group tasked with preventing the filibustering of his judicial nominees.

And yet today, the moderate liberal bipartisan centrist joined 37 other Republicans in blocking an up or down vote on the nomination of David Hayes, who served at Interior during the Clinton Administration.

(Sen. Snowe, as you may have guessed, voted against blocking Hayes.)

Thanks again, LCV.

Collins Mum On Johnsen

In the past, Sen. Collins has been pretty clear about the importance of giving qualified presidential nominees up or down votes.

And yet when it comes to the fate of Dawn Johnsen, President Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, the junior senator's lips are sealed:

Right now there are 59 Democrats. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) has said he's "concerned" about her nomination, but his office strongly suggested to me that he'd vote for cloture on her confirmation.

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has said he "opposes" Johnsen, but hasn't answered the cloture question thus far. Republican Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN), though, says he supports her...

For what it's worth, the Senators from Maine haven't responded to my repeated requests for comment.

What exactly is going on here?

Pro or Con?

Sen. Collins:

"I've always said I think the states are best able to determine this issue. The governor has changed his position and is signing the bill into law," she said in an interview on MSNBC. She said she expects "a referendum to try to repeal that decision. But this is an example--family law’s always been decided at the state level, and that's what I support."

Okay, the junior senator wants gay marriage decided at the state level.

But decided which way?

NYT: Flu Funds Are Stimulative

Reading this, you could be forgiven for concluding that The New York Times is audacious enough to disagree with the sages at PPH.

Here's The Times:

The scramble to keep up with the new flu strain has underscored how wrong some Republicans were to eliminate $870 million for pandemic flu preparedness from the stimulus package on the grounds that it was not relevant to creating jobs or stimulating the economy.

President Obama was wise to come back with a request for $1.5 billion to supplement medication stockpiles, develop a vaccine, improve monitoring and diagnostic capabilities and assist global efforts to stem the outbreak. Such spending would not only help protect against the flu, it would help keep Americans at work rather than bedridden with swine flu should the virus spread widely.

(Here's PPH.)

A Worthy Cause

We have nothing to do with this. Honest.

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.

Blethen To The Rescue

Talk about a political intervention masquerading as journalism.

There are enough straw men in the piece to fill a THE WIZARD OF OZ costume party. But the real tell is how much of the column is devoted to imputing impure motives to Sen. Collins critics, and then painting them with the broadest possible brush.

Just another day in the life of the Maine print media.

Collins: Specter All About Politics

From Sen. Collins:

"I have great respect for Senator Specter who has worked hard for many years on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania.

"I am, however, extremely surprised and disappointed with his decision to leave the Republican party.

"Senator Specter has long been a leading moderate voice in the Senate, and I believe that his decision is more a reflection of Pennsylvania politics than anything else."

Contrast Collins' reaction with the senior senator's take.

PPH: Flu Funds Wouldn't Help Economy

Wrap your head around this, from Sen. Collins' defenders and abettors at the PPH editorial board:

Collins' point--and it was a good one--was that the economic stimulus package wasn't the place for new federal programs that didn't have a direct impact on economic growth.

Setting aside for a moment that any stimulus spending would not have come quickly enough to help with the current swine flu situation, such a program is not stimulus. True, while the spending will create government jobs, a program of this type is not like building a road or researching alternative energy, which spur growth beyond any government spending.

A flu pandemic program is more of a direct government service, one that is necessary for the public welfare, but there are better ways to jump-start an economy.

But is this even remotely true?

Beefing up public health infrastructure doesn't just mean hiring a bunch of bureaucrats. It requires investing in medical equipment and computer systems and drug stockpiles.

Those things have to be purchased from somewhere.

And, presumably, vendors pump the money earned from those sales back into the economy.

Now, there may be other kinds of spending that are more stimulative. But the notion that pandemic preparedness funding has no "direct" economic impact? Or that public health investments aren't real investments? Or that building out a robust disease preparedness infrastructure has nothing to do with economic growth?

PPH is either propagandizing to its readers or its editors are deluding themselves.

Now Wait A Second

Sen. Collins has implied since the beginning that she supported the $800 million in pandemic flu preparedness funding, but blocked the spending on procedural grounds--she didn't believe it belonged in the stimulus bill.

But a careful look at her camp's words (see here and here) reveals something murkier: Collins and her handlers always seem careful to avoid taking a firm position on funding levels. And they never come anywhere near endorsing the $800 million figure.

With that in mind, check out these two paragraphs from a new Washington Times story:

The senator's spokesman said Miss Collins does want increased funding for flu preparedness, though she wanted it to be part of the annual spending process, not the one-time jobs-creation package.

"And, in fact, the omnibus appropriations bill that was signed into law in March, less than a month after the stimulus bill, contains $156 million for pandemic influenza research, which is $1.4 million more than the fiscal year 2008 level," said Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley.

So: Mission accomplished? Certainly sounds like Kevin Kelley feels that way.

Except, of course, that we're looking at something like $700 less in flu preparedness funding then was originally planned.

So does the junior senator have a problem with situation as it stands? Or was the whole point of shifting the debate to the normal budgeting process that the result would be drastically reduced funding?

Will someone please ask Susan Collins, point-blank, whether she wants more pandemic flu funding? And if so, what she's willing to do to secure it?

Flu Funds In Perspective

The Collins camp says that Sen. Collins' decision to block hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic flu preparedness funding hasn't hurt the current effort against the swine flu.

I'm certainly willing to accept that premise until we learn otherwise.

So in an important respect, the junior senator's unfortunate decision appears to be remediable.

But that makes it all the more important that we see Collins--who, remember, professes to support the flu funding--out there fighting for those dollars. And very very soon.

Is Collins willing to alienate Republican colleagues by not just standing up for public health spending but actually proposing legislation and then voting for it? Is she willing to risk something politically to do the important, serious work that the moment requires?

Question of the Day

Isn't it great that Portland Press Herald and Bangor Daily News asked Sen. Collins so many probing, substantive questions about her bottom line during the stimulus bill debate?

Collins: I Stand By Flu Funds Cut

From SunJournal.com:

In the face of the recent outbreak of swine flu cases reported in Mexico and several southern states, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins stands by her efforts to eliminate $780 million for pandemic flu preparedness from the federal economic stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year.

The Maine Republican successfully sought the removal of the funding because she didn't feel it met the criteria laid out for stimulus funds in terms of job creation or providing an immediate lift to the slowing economy.

“Sen. Collins supports increased funding for pandemic flu preparedness, but she felt it belonged in the regular appropriations bill, not the stimulus package,” said Kevin Kelley, Collins' spokesman.

Get that? Even though she took the lead in getting flu funds cut, Sen. Collins really wanted them approved--just not as part of the stimulus.

But here's the thing: When it came time to vote on the budget--which included a flu preparedness funding boost--do you think the junior senator voted for it?

Alas, no.

Look, there's nothing incoherent about supporting a piece of an omnibus bill while opposing the broader package. Maybe, in her heart of hearts, Collins does actually believe in increased funding for pandemic flu preparedness.

Unfortunately, as in so many other cases, she's had an awfully tough time finding opportunities to translate that belief into action.

Video flashback here.

UPDATE: The Collins camp spins here.

Of course, the fact that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) hasn't yet been approved by the Senate is a function of Republican stalling. And if Collins has been working to speed Sebelius' confirmation along, I can't find any evidence of it.

Question of the Day

Does Sen. Susan "Gang of 14" Collins think that qualified nominees for key Obama administration legal positions deserve up-or-down votes?

You'd think that the answer would be obvious.

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.

Thanks, LCV

The League of Conservation Voters endorsement at work:

Not a single Republican joined with Democrats in supporting a relatively innocuous budget amendment giving Senate committees the flexibility to design a cap-and-trade system that does not increase "the overall burden on consumers."

[...]

"It's a complicated issue to tackle at a time when the economy is weak," [Sen.] Collins told POLITICO later.

Wading In

Sen. Collins appeared yesterday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

If she's been on any of the Sunday morning shows previously, I'm not aware of it. In any event, it's been years.

Collins v. Whistleblowers?

What does Sen. Collins have against oversight? This is starting to look like a pattern...

Collins Zeroed Out LIHEAP?

From CQ.com this morning:

Unlike the House bill, the Senate version does not include additional funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps low-income families pay utility bills. The House bill has another $1 billion for the program.

Um, I thought Sen. Collins favored more money for LIHEAP? (Or is keeping poor people from freezing insufficiently stimulative?)

UPDATE: Gerald reads more carefully than I do: Why on earth did Collins demand a $3.3 billion cut to home weatherization programs?

Why on earth would she characterize a program that will create jobs, stimulate the economy, benefit her own constituents and protect the environment as "bloat"?

UPDATE UPDATE: A source tells us that LIHEAP and weatherization funding had been stripped from the bill that originally surfaced in the Senate. (The CQ article was ambiguous on this point.)

So it's not quite fair to say, based on what we know, that the junior senator demanded cuts to those programs.

On the other hand, she's championing a version of the bill with no LIHEAP funding and $3.3 billion less in weatherization--while rejecting the version that includes those funds as "bloated."

So draw your own conclusions.

One on One

Lost in the tumult of the last few days was a striking admission from Sen. Collins: That her face-to-face conversation with President Obama last week represents the first time she's had a 30 minute one-on-one meeting with a sitting president. (Hat tip: Maine Politics.)

Think about this for a minute.

For eight years, Collins backed President Bush down the line on Iraq, unaffordable tax cuts and torture. She did his bidding when it came to Samuel Alito, telecom immunity and war contracting.

And yet securing her support for these egregious policies--which have crippled our economy, undercut our security, violated the Constitution and diminished our international standing--required not a single block of one-on-one persuasion from the former president.

She was, I guess, already on board.

This tells us something about President Obama. And of course, it's in keeping with what we knew about the other guy.

But surely, it speaks volumes about the junior senator.

The Collins Cuts: 600,000 Fewer Jobs?

That's what Krugman says:

The centrists have shaved off $86 billion in spending--much of it among the most effective and most needed parts of the plan. In particular, aid to state governments, which are in desperate straits, is both fast--because it prevents spending cuts rather than having to start up new projects--and effective, because it would in fact be spent.

$166 Million Less For Maine

PPH tells us something worth knowing:

The Maine Education Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees joined forces to bring pressure to bear on key senators, including Maine Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

The groups estimate that about $166 million in funding for education and Head Start in Maine would be stripped from the stimulus bill as part of a compromise negotiated by a bipartisan group led by Collins.

Question of the Day

Now that Sen. Collins is a celebrity, how is her fame helping Maine?