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By JONATHAN E. KAPLAN
Washington D.C. Correspondent 01/04/2008

Washington D.C. Correspondent

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine sharpened the distinction with her opponent in this year's election, Rep. Tom Allen, noting on Thursday that she remains opposed to any deadlines for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Collins has been less willing than fellow Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe and Democratic Reps. Allen and Michael Michaud to criticize President Bush's handling of the war and support legislation requiring the withdrawal of troops by a certain date. Iraq is expected to be a major issue in Maine's 2008 Senate race, even though the economy and health care rival it as leading issues in the presidential contest.

Political analysts have suggested that the best strategy for Republican senators from states like Maine, New Hampshire and Oregon, which voted Democratic in the last presidential election, is to distance themselves from the president and their previous support for the war.

On Thursday, Collins appeared to be doing just that. She and Stuart W. Bowen Jr., head of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, a high-profile critic of the reconstruction effort in Iraq, spoke at an editorial board meeting at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.

Bowen has won praise from Democrats and Republicans, including Collins, for exposing corruption and incompetence in the U.S. government's $45 billion effort to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure. He estimated that 15 to 20 percent of that money has been wasted.

Bowen's reports have exposed large-scale incidents of wasteful spending, fraudulent contracting and incompetence, and have led to arrests, prosecutions and convictions. Bowen, who was a top aide to Bush while Bush was the governor of Texas, all but endorsed Collins for re-election, saying she has been the "most consistent and effective supporter of our oversight in Iraq."

Collins positioned herself between Bush, who she said has not moved quickly enough to change the military's mission in Iraq, and Allen, who favors a deadline for withdrawing troops.

Collins spoke of her support for a timeline, rather than a deadline.

In November, Collins voted for a $50 billion Democratic spending proposal that would have funded the war for four more months and required Bush to end combat missions in Iraq by Dec. 15, 2008.

"We should start transitioning the mission now. We should have started already," Collins said, adding that troops should remain in Iraq for counter-terrorism missions, to protect American personnel, to help protect Iraq's borders and to train Iraqi soldiers. Allen supports a "responsible deadline to bring our troops home," said Valerie Martin, Allen's campaign manager, adding that it is the "only way to force Bush to change course in Iraq and put pressure on the Iraqis" to assume responsibility for security.

"Susan Collins' position amounts to a re-labeling of the job troops have," Martin said. "We need a firm deadline to bring our troops home. It's a significant distinction." Allen opposed the $50 billion measure in the House, arguing that it was not aggressive enough to force Bush to change course in Iraq.

Bowen and Collins flew to Maine on Wednesday to speak at the Husson Business Breakfast at Husson College in Bangor.

Bowen's reports to Congress on progress in Iraq have been well received by critics of the Bush administration. His next report is due Jan. 30. It will include a review of many new audits, including a review of Parsons, a major construction firm, which poorly rebuilt and mismanaged the Baghdad Police College. "A project I describe as the most significant failure in the U.S. reconstruction program," Bowen said.

Bowen's office also audited the Commander's Emergency Response Program, which allocates money for military commanders to use for smaller reconstruction projects, ranging in cost from $400,000 to $1 million.

Bowen said that even though security has improved throughout Iraq, he could not leave Baghdad's Green Zone, home of the U.S. Embassy and top military brass, without three cars and six sharpshooters. If he went to visit a reconstruction project, he was not allowed to stay for more than 20 minutes.

Collins has been a crucial ally for Bowen in Washington. She helped save Bowen's office in 2006 after House Republicans quietly slipped a termination date into a defense spending bill.

Bowen's investigations have spurred Collins and Connecticut's independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, to pass legislation to reform government contracting.

Portions of the bill were included as part of a massive defense spending bill, which Bush vetoed last week. She vowed to make sure those provisions remain in a new bill. Collins and Lieberman also have proposed legislation to give more independence to inspectors general, agencies' internal watchdogs who investigate potential wrongdoing. The bill, which is pending in the Senate, would bar inspectors general from accepting pay bonuses, beef up an existing government office that reviews allegations of wrongdoing against inspectors general, and require officials to give Congress 30 day' notice if an inspector general is going to be removed from office.

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