BLUE AMERICA AND JOE LIEBERMAN-- WORKING TOGETHER, IN OUR OWN WAYS, TO ELECT TOM ALLEN TO THE U.S. SENATE

Susan Collins' campaign video starts with the voice of Joe Lieberman. It ends with a long minute of... blank time, the time she might have explained why she has been a dependable and disgraceful rubber stamp for the entire catastrophic Bush-Cheney agenda-- both domestically and in Iraq. The "bipartisan celebration" of Susan Collins also features another Bush enabler, Jane Harman. Unlike Collins, though, Harman was severly chastised by her constituents last year, nearly losing a primary, and has since abandoned the failed policies of Bush, Cheney, Lieberman, and Collins. Harman has been voting an awful lot like Tom Allen, the U.S. Congressman who is offering Mainers an alternative to endless war in the Middle East and endless tax policy that enriches the very rich at the expense of the middle class and at the expense of an evolving society that could be improving education, health care, real national security, and infrastructure. Yesterday we mentioned that Tom Allen was one of only six congressmen who has a perfect voting record when it comes to challenging the Bush Regime's odious agenda. One of only six! That's the kind of leadership America needs to clean up the neck-high mess Bush will be leaving us after his nightmarish two terms in the White House.

Let me recommend, chipping in at Tom's Blue America page and let me recommend taking a look at the video Susan Collins hopes everyone will watch.



John McCain, seems very enthusiastic about her. He says she "has a very methodical way of tracking an issue. She first tries to find everything about it; then she listens to other people, holds hearings and then reaches conclusions." The process sounds fine. The conclusions... not so fine. Susan Collins, for all her protestations of being a "moderate," has a voting record that undercuts that claim and exposes what she really is: a rubber stamp Republican who has abandoned the actual moderate perspective of Olympia Snowe to pursue the radical right agenda of Bush and her new mentor, Joe Lieberman. Since the 5 October 10, 2002 roll calls on S J Res 45, the Resolution Authorizing the Use of Force in Iraq-- with Collins supporting Bush on all 5 of course-- the Senate has taken up 38 bills related to Iraq. Collins has voted in complete lockstep with the Bush Regime on all but 7 of these 38 bills and the ones she hasn't supported the regime on were non-partisan and insubstantial, like to provide food assistance for Iraqis, something opposed by Cheney but supported by Democrats and Republicans alike. But when it's come down to making sure Bush could escalate his disastrous war agenda, Collins was right there with him, while across Capitol Hill, Tom Allen was voting the way most Mainers wanted their representatives to vote: against recklessness in the Middle East.

This morning the Blue America community got a note from Congressman Allen. He told us something Jane, John and I hadn't noticed-- but that someone on his staff had. Last night donors from Firedoglake, Crooks & Liars, and Down With Tyranny went over the $10,000 mark in contributions to his campaign, our biggest committment to any campaign so far this year and the single biggest blogging community's effort on Tom's behalf. Here's the letter Tom sent us:

Dear Friends,
 
Thank you for your generous and enthusiastic support. Since I announced my candidacy for the U.S. Senate in May over 380 members of the Blue America community have donated over $10,000, a lot of it in donations of $5 to $10.
 
This race is about choices. Susan Collins and I have been in Congress for the same amount of time.  We have voted on the same issues, but our records are very different. Susan Collins supported the war in Iraq while I voted against it. Susan Collins does not support timelines for withdrawal while I believe we need to stop talking about if we will bring our troops home but how and when we will do it. And a fixed timeline for withdrawal is the place to start. Susan Collins voted in favor of Bush’s failed economic policies that do nothing to help our middle class, while I voted against them and am working for middle class tax cuts. The list goes on and on.
 
Again, thank you for your help. Together, we can help achieve a working majority in the Senate and get out of the mess in Iraq.
 
Best,
 
Tom Allen