jm of Augusta, ME Jim Smith of Buxton: I have nothing against Michaud. In fact, overall I'd say he's doing a great job.

I'm responding to a letter that attempts to puff up Collins' record in preparation for the upcoming campaign. You still don't quite have her role right. Yes, she is elected by Mainers to serve in the United States Senate, but she is NOT there merely, or even mainly, to look out for parochial Maine-related interests. Yes, she does do that as part of her duties, but the United States Senate is, overall, concerned with setting policies and passing laws that are supposed to be good for our country AS A WHOLE.

That's where Collins, and Snowe, have let us down miserably. It'll take decades to clean up the mess they've helped to create.

Here's just one more example: Collins and Snowe voted to pass enormous tax cuts for millionaires, knowing that it would only increase the federal deficit and leave enormous bills for our children to pay off. If they took the time to look around Maine, they'd see that there aren't too many millionaires here.

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Darren McLellan of Cape ELizabeth, ME How many votes has Collins missed?
What about her pledge to only serve 2 terms. Out the window now. How do all you apologist sluglicons explain that one? Was it a LIE? I am waiting for this one...report abuse

Darren McLellan of Cape ELizabeth, ME Beserker is a Lying FOX news troll!!
GHW Bush , your hero no doubt, trashed Clinton repeatedly. Nixon trashed Carter and GHW Bush, your hero no doubt.
Try READING A BIT instead of just spewing!!
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Jim Smith of Buxton, ME
Wow jm,

This is where I end looking at this blog, as it has become nothing but partisan BS now (I may be a republican, but I can at least acknowledge the good work of Michaud and others - you can't even do that). I'm sorry you must regurgitate info.

Susan Collins is a US Senator ELECTED BY MAINERS and to REPRESENT MAINE on a national level. I'm sorry you aren't able to see that distinction.

Here is the difference between our posts jm: I'm positively supporting Collins role for Maine and its citizens. I can demonstrate her actual role in national politics and how it helps us in the state and also the nation. Yet your argument in favor of Tom Allen getting the seat is simply "republicans are bad / bush / collins is pro iraq / bush / blah blah blah". I have heard this rhetoric before, and it's getting old.

The key question (in my opinion) is this:

WHY ARE ALL COLLINS SUPPORTERS TALKING POSITIVELY ABOUT HER RECORD AND WHAT SHE CAN ACTUALLY DO FOR OUR STATE AND COUNTRY, YET ALL ALLEN-SUPPORTERS HERE ARE DOING NOTHING BUT TRYING TO BASH COLLINS OR BUSH (AS IF THAT IS THE SAME)? IT IS SAD THAT YOU HAVE NO LEG TO STAND ON TO DIRECTLY SUPPORT TOM ALLEN WITH ACTUAL EVIDENCE OF HIS SUCCESS, LEGISLATION HE HAS SPEARHEADED, ETC - ONLY THAT HE ISN'T A REPUBLICAN. BOY, THAT ARGUMENT REALLY MAKES ME PROUD TO BE A MAINER TODAY.

Thank you for allowing all of our opinions PPH.report abuse

jm of Augusta, ME Jim of Buxton: looks like you're the one in need of Civics 101: a STATE senator works in Augusta on Maine issues. Collins is a UNITED STATES senator; as such, she is responsibly for voting on issues of NATIONAL importance. It is on those votes that she fails miserably.

Last time I looked, Maine was still part of the United States.report abuse

Jonathan Albrecht of Dixfield, ME "Enemy of the people". Berserker, you only demonstrate how out of control and irrational freaky conservatives are. I know you like to invent traditions that never were; ignore traditions that actually were traditions; and have only a Hannity-Savage connection to reality.But "enemy of the people" that would be a little much even for them.
Suzie has done nothing to help Maine and she has been an active member of the Bush gang. She has to go. report abuse

jm of Augusta, ME Berserker: "Lose face in the world community"? Where have you been? Bush has DESTROYED our reputation in the world community. Many think of us as a nation of torturers who go around invading other countries for our own profit. Most people around the world now view the United States as a greater threat to world peace than al-Qaida!

"Jimmy Carter: the first former president to publicly mock a sitting president...." That's what you get for using Fox News and talk radio as your sources; try checking out former president Theodore Roosevelt's blistering comments on then sitting president Taft.

When you're wrong, you're wrong. Get used to it!report abuse

Berserker of Freeport, ME
Let's not forget that Allen is also an enemy of the people, a Democrat. You know, the ones who hate America, want to see her lose wars, lose face in the world community, the ones who secretly applaud war casualties because it strengthens their political party by weakening the other, the ones who elevate seditious and traitorous "Americans" to celebrity status. The ones whose Senate Majority Leader has declared a war lost and his fellow fools who wish to let terrorists of the world know how to win.

Jimmy Carter: the first former-president to publicly mock a siting president, a violation of tradition.

Rep. Murtha: Threatened to use his power as the head of the appropriations committee to deny projects to another's state as punishment for thwarting him, a violation of Pelosi's new standards of ethics voted in by the same body that refused to reprimand him for violating them.

Ted Kennedy: Needless to say, I'd rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than go for a drive with Ted "Chivas" Kennedy.

Maine: A state on the brink. A state with 35 years of Democrat-led entropy. A wasteland leading the nation in tax burden, hence the slogan "Dirigo" (I Lead) which I pronounce "Der I go", a take on Reagan's famous rejoinder to Carter's babbling during a debate; "There you go again..."

Tom Allen is the worst possible thing for Maine. He's more of a Democrat than even Collins who, by the way, deserves a good caning for her idiotic pandering to stupid liberals.



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Jim of Buxton, ME JM,

In terms of politics, at the end of day, what is good for Mainers is good for Maine. And yes, that is MORE important to me for a STATE senator to represent the state and THOSE CITIZENS IN THAT STATE first and foremost. Politics 101 jm -pure and simple. You can complain about Bush and policies all you want, and that type of attitude is why Tom Allen is trying to be the non-bush-party candidate. Really brave of him for a "true leader". He is another talking head and nothing more.

Susan Collins has done more for our state than most recent Senators. History will judge her legacy, but when you are cherrypicking specific votes out of thousands she has made, just to prove your point, then you are obviously pushing an agenda.

I said that Michaud does a great job too, so this isn't a partisan issue. But you have made it one, and it honestly seems like you have your liberal-101 book. If you want to make a true argument, look carefully at Tom Allen's very odd abstentions over the past 3 years, and the fact that after all these years nobody really knows who he is right now. Whether you like it or not jm, reputation and respect makes a Senator a true force - and Allen has neither.report abuse

jm of Augusta, ME When the chips are down, Collins is just a rubber-stamp for all the outrageous excesses of the Bush Administration.

Her votes to promote the Iraq war showed her lack of critical thinking. She also voted in lock-step to pass (and renew) the "Unpatriotic Act" of 2001, which authorizes government agents to break into Americans' homes and businesses without ever showing a search warrent. She voted for the disgraceful Military Commissions Act of 2006 which authorizes kangaroo courts and removes habeus corpus rights. Our American freedoms that we used to take for granted have been placed in serious jeopardy by Collins' votes.

Susie also voted to confirm Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, despite knowing that, as White House Counsel, Gonzales had advised Bush that he could ignore all laws (both domestic and international) and authorize torture. That vote destroyed all confidence in our system of "justice."

Add to these votes her rubber-stamping of Supreme Court justices Roberts and Alito, and you can see that the combination of Collins' poor judgement and blind loyalty to Bush has endangered our country and shamed the people of Maine.

I know that Jim of Buxton would like to pretend that Maine issues are more important than national ones, but I believe that it isn't going to profit us in the long run if, in order to help Maine a little, we lose our country. report abuse