Senator Susan Collins, the lefty Republican from Maine, has crossed the aisle to vote for the Democrats’ bills and policies more than some Democrats have over the last 10 years. She is pro-abortion, pro-Cuba, pro-fetal stem cell research, anti-gun, ant-free trade… well, the list of things she is for and against seems to follow the Democrat’s path straight down the line richly earning her the title of RINO (Republican In Name Only). Because she is such a reliable Democrat friend one might think that the Democrat Party would be on her side in her 2008 re-election bid, or if not on her side, exactly, at least not too fired up to defeat her in her re-election bid, at least.
But, no. In fact, the Democrats lined up in ranks deep and long to attack her with some of them even going to her district to campaign against her. Even her colleagues in the Senate came to her state to try to defeat her, quite despite the fact that she voted their way at nearly every opportunity. And Collins is a bit upset by that fact, too.
Quite a few of her Senate colleagues campaigned to defeat their “friend” in that chamber during the 2008 campaign season. Among the Democrat Senators that campaigned against Collins were Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) even Democrat Whip Dick “Turban” Durbin (D-Ill.) attacked her.
That’s not much gratitude shown by Democrats for Collins’ efforts to cross over from her own party to vote their way so often, is it?
Well, according to The Hill, Collins herself is admitting she was hurt by the massive effort by her Senate “colleagues” to beat her.
Collins told colleagues at a small Senate prayer breakfast meeting last week that she still felt lingering resentment toward Democratic senators who campaigned against her in Maine.
She confessed that she had “trouble forgiving colleagues” who traveled to Maine and told voters she was “a Bush clone and called into question her ethics,” said a senator who attended the meeting.
Collins won her election with 61.5% of the vote and the efforts of the Democrats was wasted, fortunately for her.
But, here is the whole point. Why should a Republican so often cross that aisle? What will it get them? It certainly doesn’t get cooperation or gratitude from the left. In fact, it seems to get powerful forces lined up to defeat you. It also shows that Democrats do NOT want to work with their opposites. Their claims of being “bipartisan” is nothing but a lie.
Maybe Susan Collins will wise up from this experience?
If I know my RINOs, though, she won’t be.
(Photo credit: Washingtonpost.com)
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She won't learn
SeriousLaff Tuesday, November 25th at 3:46AM EST (link)Gordon Smith and others fell for this crap too. The $700 billion bailout vote is an example. The Dems DEMANDED Republicans vote for it and then used it as a club to beat them with. This is the reason for about half of the senate losses. They could have demanded Pelosi and Reid film TV commercials saying, “We have our differences, but this isn’t one of them”. No. The Democratic Senatorial Committee probably had the ads already made.
They will keep “reaching across the isle” and idiots like McCain will never make the Dems pay for bipartisanship that backfires with the public.
I really wish someone would “primary” McCain. I wouldn’t mind if he switched parties. I bet as a Democrat his “Reaching across the isle” days would come to a screeching halt.
I'm afraid we never learn.
itrytobenice Tuesday, November 25th at 12:06PM EST (link)It’s what happens when the stupid party comes up against the evil party.
Our leaders are too stupid to know they’re evil.
The problem with America is stupidity. I’m not saying there should be capital punishment for stupidity, but why don’t we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?
It will be helpful
reldim Tuesday, November 25th at 12:33PM EST (link)Collins is actually the more conservative of the two. And a quick scan turned up a number of times where the caucus was able to hold her vote against cloture on some bills.
The 2008 race might not change her underlying views, but nothing that the Democrats try to do is going to be “moderate” or “bipartisan.” And perhaps the chip on her shoulder will stay for the next 2 years and serve as a helpful point when McConnell is looking to hold the caucus for a cloture vote.
I’d note that she stuck with us on the Card Check cloture vote - I see no reason why she would change her vote there. She also voted for Laci and Connor’s Law (which makes a harming a fetus in the commission of a crime a separate criminal act and the fetus a separate victim) - which Snowe voted against - so I don’t take her to be some radical on the subject. You’d be better off worrying about Snowe or Specter being a problem when critical cloture votes come around.
I am so tired of Sunday Shows touting RINO's as "republicans." What, do they just hang out in MSNBC's parking lot?
wag Wednesday, November 26th at 3:20PM EST (link)Collins ran 20 points ahead of McCain
charliehall Wednesday, November 26th at 3:52PM EST (link)She was the only Republican to be elected to Congress this year in all of New England — a region in which McCain carried only a single county, and even that one cast less than ten thousand votes.
Instead of deriding her as a RINO, why aren’t Republicans asking her about her secret?
Charlie Hall
RINOs
indym Wednesday, November 26th at 4:44PM EST (link)If the Republican party is to be a majority party again, it will have conservatives, moderates, liberterians and others. There are areas of the country that are not very conservative and a more moderate candidate is the best choice. I think the northeast and Atlantic have become for republicans what the south has become for democrats. The battleground is going to be the middle west, mountain west and southwest. Things change over time. Political opinions today will be different next year or in four years. Republicans actually enjoyed success in the Northeast and Atlantic in the 1990s. Gorge Patacki in New York, Bill Weld in Massachusetts, John Sununu in New Hampshire, Chrissy Whitman in New Jersey, Tom Ridge in Pennsyvania and there either recently have been republican governors in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont. The party will come around again in these areas. The spending and tax plans being presented will turn off voters.
Tell it to Bob Packwood.
Diogenes314 Wednesday, November 26th at 4:57PM EST (link)For over a decade he was NOW and NARALs favorite republican because of his pro-abortion stance, even though it was well known that he was a serial sexual harasser. Then they get a Dem in the White House (and the majority in the Senate) for the first time in 12 years, and all of a sudden he is a pariah and sexual harrasment is the new crime du jour.
Until Bill clinton’s past comes out. Then it’s all a personal matter, of course.
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