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.