Chellie Pingree, who's in a six-way race for the Democratic nomination in Maine's 1st Congressional District, finds herself under fire this week for her position on the Iraq War. And today, her campaign released an ad that doesn't respond directly to the criticism she's facing, but does tout her anti-Iraq War credentials.

The Iraq discussion heated up on Saturday, when the Press Herald published a
letter about Pingree and Iraq from retired Army Maj. General Paul Eaton. A few weeks earlier, Pingree and Eaton had co-authored an op-ed article in the Press Herald about Iraq; the op-ed piece touted their support for a document called "The Responsible Plan To End The War In War."

Six Iraq war protesters were found not guilty on Wednesday of criminal trespassing for refusing to leave Senator Susan Collins' federal office last year.

A 12-person in a jury in a Penobscot Superior Court in Bangor deliberated for about two hours before finding the group not guilty.

Had they been found guilty the defendants could have been sentenced to six months in prison or fined $1,000.

The group went to meet with Collins to protest the Iraq war and encourage her not to vote for an Iraq war spending bill. The protesters wanted to talk with Collins, who one of the defendants said was not in the office that day. When the office closed, the building manager called the police.

Collins' district director testified at the request of one of the defendants and each defendant testified for themselves. The arresting officers testified against for the prosecution.

One interesting wrinkle in the case is that the Senate approved a measure late Monday authorizing the Senate to pay for Collins' legal fees.

This is from the Congressional Record on Wednesday: [The] Senate agreed to S. Res. 539, to authorize testimony and legal representation in State of Maine v. Douglas Rawlings, Jonathan Kreps, James Freeman, Henry Braun, Robert Shetterly, and Dudley Hendrick.

The trial was not short on politics. Senate candidate Tom Ledue, a Democrat, and Laurie Dobson, an independent, held a rally for them on Monday at the Bangor Public Library. Ralph Nader issued a statement in support of the group whose advocates are calling "The Bangor Six."

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the Armed Services Committee chairman, told Bloomberg News on Friday that Iraq out to start picking up the tab for the war.

It is the same suggestion that Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who also sits on the Armed Services Committee, made to Army Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker during their testimony last week.

Raising Iraq's share "is something we can do,'' said Levin said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. "We have the votes because there are enough Republicans who would join us on this.''

Here's the link to the interview .

Here is Sen. Susan Collins' statement on Iraq. Maine's junior Republican senator calls on House and Senate leaders to put aside partisan politics and come up with a bipartisan solution to change the mission in Iraq to "allow for a significant draw down of our troops."

Here's her statement.

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.

After this story and this sidebar were published last Monday, some readers asked why I didn't ask the Republican congressional candidates about their views on the Iraq War. I did; I just didn't have room in the newspaper to include their answers. Here they are: