Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Rep. Tom Allen are continuing to use the war in Iraq to criticize the other's record.

For weeks now, the Allen campaign has attacked Collins for failing to investigate allegations of waste, fraud and abuse among civilian contractors, such as Halliburton, operating in Iraq during the first few years of the war, when she was chairing the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. flew in to Portland today to endorse Allen and criticize Collins' oversight record at a press conference at the Holiday Inn by the Bay. Lautenberg served on the panel when Collins was the chairwoman and repeatedly pressed her to hold more hearings.

Collins' campaign sought to preempt Lautenberg's appearance by providing reporters with a six-page document defending Collins' work on the committee.

It stated that Collins' first priority was homeland security and that she had a record of aggressive oversight in a variety of areas, including terrorism financing. It also noted that other agencies were investigating Iraq war contracting.

There wasn't much new at Allen's press conference this morning, beyond what my colleague, Jonathan Kaplan, reported in a story published late last month.

Lautenberg argued that Collins' failure to hold hearings on the U.S. government's contracts with Halliburton was meant to protect Vice President Cheney, the company's former chief executive officer. But the New Jersey senator acknowledged, in response to a question, that he couldn't point to specific evidence to back up that assertion.

Shortly after the press conference, a Collins spokeswoman, Jen Burita, called me to point out that – despite Allen's criticism of Collins on Iraq contracting – the congressman actually missed a vote last March on the House Contracting Reform Bill.

"He didn't even vote on it," Burita said.

Minutes later, an Allen spokeswoman, Carol Andrews, called to respond. She said that Allen was in a classified briefing on Army readiness at the time of the March 15, 2007, vote.

– Kevin Wack

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