I’ve been traveling most of the last three days. So I’ve been fairly out of the loop editorially at TPM. But on the train now back to New York I was just reading David’s post on the repeal of DADT and the apparent centrality of Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine. And at this point I think it is difficult not to detect a certain underlying Maine Senator ‘wanna help but’ pattern.
This reminds of the late stages of the Health Care Debate when Sen. Snowe (R) had basically run out of reasons why she was refusing to vote to break the Republican filibuster and said that even though she didn’t have a clear problem with the legislation the process had just been too quick.
I hope Sen. Lieberman (I-CT) is right that she’s negotiating in good faith. But we do have this consistent taxonomy.
1) Maine senator supports and wants to vote for Mainstream Policy X …
2) and will vote for it if Harry Reid (D-NV) can put one hand on red, one foot on blue and still be able to spin the spinner for his next turn.
or …
3) and will vote for it if Harry Reid can also convince Sens. DeMint, Coburn and Crapo.
or …
4) and will vote for it as long as the clock can be run long enough so that time will run out and there won’t be any vote at all.
