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Remarkable interview w Collins, full of self-pity & view of herself as victim of Gideon & Schumer (whom she loves to bring up; can only be natural self-restraint that kept her from also mentioning Soros & Donald Sussman as she did in an August interview.) https://politi.co/30Jo00G
The portrayal of herself as victim of mean people very much fits her history of being exceedingly thin-skinned, defensive, & according to some, vindictive, which I wrote about in my long February profile of her: https://nymag.com/article/2020/02/the-immoderate-susan-collins.html
In Politico (& everywhere) Collins bemoans amount of $$ being spent against her. It is indeed a grotesquely expensive race (gonna be over 100 million in TV ads in state of just over 1 million people). It's also true that Gideon has out-raised her. But! Money isn't context-free.
Remember that Collins raked in 1.8 million quarter after Kavanaugh vote (compared to 140,000 in previous quarter). That vote is what many Mainers cite as when their opinions of her firmly changed, & it came long before Gideon ran a single ad against her. SHE MADE CHOICES.
This is larger pattern in how Collins tells her own story: presents herself as passive victim of circumstance, w/out acknowledging how her active, adult, professional decisions have had repercussions. She cast that vote knowing how strongly many of her constituents opposed it.
She profited from it $$-wise & perhaps w/in her caucus, but is paying a price now, along with many of her other votes. It's not just Gideon; it's HER CHOICES that have brought increased scrutiny from voters. @c_cauterucci wrote about that beautifully here: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/maine-turned-on-susan-collins.html
If voters are paying closer attention to gaps btw SC's self-presentation as moderate & her record (voting DeVos out of committee, then against on floor, voting for bad judges when Rs need it, against when they don't) giving Gideon
ad fodder, she has no one to blame but herself.
ad fodder, she has no one to blame but herself.
In Politico, Collins complains about being asked to weigh in on Trump, as if her "personal presidential preference" is not "an important factor in this race." But this too is strange; she felt it important enough in 16 that she wrote an op-ed opposing him: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gop-senator-why-i-cannot-support-trump/2016/08/08/821095be-5d7e-11e6-9d2f-b1a3564181a1_story.html
When she once declared him "unworthy of being our president" yet has spent past 4 years casting, sometimes, deciding votes to confirm the hundreds of unqualified judges he's appointed, remaking federal bench...AND when country is in midst of public health & economic crises...
statements like "There’s a lot about his style that is completely opposite of mine...that doesn’t mean that he isn’t right on some issues," as she tells Politico, may not cut it for voters thinking of how she'd behave AS A SENATOR if this man is elected to a 2nd term & she a 5th.
I was also struck by this line of attack: "I grew up in Caribou, I’ve lived in Bangor for 26 years. My family’s been in Maine for generations. [Gideon]'s been in Maine for about 15 years and lives in Freeport." This is true! But a couple of things...
Last week both were in Presque Isle, 20 mins south of Caribou, for debate. One lefty local, used to being in minority up here, watched Gideon's passage thru town, greeted with cheers & honks. He told me w absolute shock "A lot of people really hate Susan Collins in Presque Isle!"
But also! There is some relevant history here. Collins has always claimed moderate Republican Margaret Chase Smith as her inspiration. MCS also tried to win a record fifth term in the US Senate in 1972, and was beat by a guy who'd moved to the state less than 20 years earlier.
In today's Politico interview, Collins says "What's amazing is that I’m still going to win.” And she very well might! It remains extremely difficult to beat an incumbent, especially one who enjoyed a great reputation over decades. But again: it was her choice to run again.
That she might NOT win is not an unexpected injury done to her; she had a hand in her fate. Losing is one of the risks she took when she decided to try for a 5th term after having thrown in her lot with Trump & McConnell, KNOWING what partisan politics/stakes are now.
Anyway, Susan Collins is fascinating and I wrote about a lot of these things in article form in February: https://nymag.com/article/2020/02/the-immoderate-susan-collins.html
