Susan Collins

Apparently, Ms. Dobson and her peasant skirt posse have taken a liking to the confines of the lobby of the Portland office of Senator Collins

News Channel 13 had this piece tonight with U.S. Rep. Tom Allen continuing to criticize Sen. Susan Collins for not calling Senate hearings to investigate American contractors such as Halliburton for war-profiteering. (Click here for the full report, posted by the Allen campaign.)

Allen said Collins had the authority to call these hearings investigating the contractors when she chaired the U.S. Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He said she ignored 10 letters from members of the committee.

In February U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. came to Maine and together with Allen made the same allegations.

Don't expect Maine's U.S. senators to be a presidential runningmate. In a survey of the U.S. Senate's membership not already running for president on whether they'd accept an offer to be vice president, The Hill newspaper found a variety of responses to the veepstakes question. Some were accompanied by laughs, others took the question seriously.

So, how did Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe respond?

Peter CianchettePeter Cianchette was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica by the U.S. Department of State today.

When he was confirmed, Sen. Olympia Snowe was the first to release a statement. Today, Sen. Susan Collins got the first word:

“Peter is a dedicated, hard working and well-liked individual who will serve our nation well as U.S Ambassador to Costa Rica. The United States and Costa Rica have a long history of friendship and cooperation, and Peter is an outstanding choice to further strengthen this relationship. He will, no doubt, start from the ground running in his new position and make Maine and the rest of the nation proud of his public service.

“I hope I am the first to congratulate the newly-minted ‘Ambassador Cianchette’.”

Democratic Congressional candidate Michael Brennan delivered a letter to members of Maine’s Congressional delegation yesterday detailing why funding for the Iraq War should be cut off.

The letter, delivered to Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and Rep. Tom Allen, began:

Schedule? We don't need no stinkin' schedule!

The Maine GOP hierarchy lost control of their own convention timeline. Whether it was the fault of Chairman Mark Ellis and Executive Director Julie O'Brien or the long-winded tendencies of Republican politicians and activists, who can say? Regardless, elections for National Committeeman and Committeewoman moved along at a snail's pace, Olympia Snowe's speech took longer than Astroturf takes to grow, and the House Republican demonstration, in which every candidate each remarked on their upcoming race, competed for most yawns. As a result, Congressional candidates were shortchanged, Mark Ellis turned down his opportunity to address the convention and convention business usually taken up by delegates was turned over to the state committee for future consideration.

Syndicated conservative columnist Cal Thomas has written a piece about the Maine Republican Convention. He interviews Sen. Susan Collins and Party Chairman Mark Ellis about the party’s shift to the left.

Thomas spoke to convention-goers this weekend.

He writes:

A group of firefighters met U.S. Sen. Susan Collins outside the Civic Center. The all wore shirts, “Firefighters for Susan Collins”.

Sen. Susan Collins used her convention speech to differentiate herself from potential opponent U.S. Rep. Tom Allen. She talked about her record and criticized him for voting against a number of bills, including warrantless wiretapping of overseas communication and to condemn a MoveOn.org ad. She criticized him for leaving the Armed Services Committee to join the Energy Committee.

Sen. Susan Collins mentioned this post by PolitickerME’s Wally Edge on the convention floor Saturday. Check out video of her comment below.