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.