Maine deserves better than Collins' tricks

Original Link: http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/view/letters/4446129.html

It didn't take long for Sen. Susan Collins to borrow the Karl Rove re-election playbook.
Just weeks after loudly decrying the practice by her opponent of videotaping her public appearances, Collins stood silent while the crawl atop the Morning Sentinel Web site pointed to a Swift Boat-style advertisement by a group that supposedly has no connection to her.

Seems the princess of clean campaigns and No. 1 cheerleader of George Bush is above authoring vicious attacks, just like Bush was supposedly above "approving" the dirty tricks played on Sen. John McCain in the 2000 North Carolina presidential primary.

What has become of America since Bush managed to seize the Republican nomination in 2000 by smearing McCain, calling in chips with the Republican appointees on the Supreme Court to take office when he didn't win the popular vote, and "Swift Boating" Vietnam war hero John Kerry while using his office to scare enough Americans into re-electing him?

There is a one-word answer to that question: Iraq.

Collins has been part of the problem facing America since the moment Bush stepped in office. She has played games with her support for Bush, never actually going against him when a legislative victory for this president was on the line.

Now that her re-election hangs in the balance, Collins is trying to claim that she has always gone her own way.

Maine deserves better than a Bush-loving, Republican National Committee pawn like Collins. It always has.

Mark Tardif

Waterville