As a Republican and a conservative, I have been disappointed by Sen. Susan Collins at times over the years. But her Oct. 5 speech on the Senate floor, supporting the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, was both a salve for past disappointment and an insulator for Collins from any future criticism from me.

With logic, the facts, enormous political courage and a moral and civic clarity that is likely lost on her detractors, Collins delivered one of the most powerful political speeches in recent memory. It was her finest hour, and it made me proud to be her fellow Mainer.

The Portland Press Herald’s same-day editorial, “Our View: Collins should vote ‘no’ on Kavanaugh,” looks pathetic by comparison, a fact that makes me not angry, but sad. I have been a subscriber to the Press Herald for over 40 years. I am an avid consumer of news, and reading the Portland Press Herald is the very first thing I do every morning. And, nearly every day these past two years has seen the Press Herald wage unrelenting warfare on Donald Trump, reaching a crescendo these past three months with the vitriolic assault on Brett Kavanaugh.

There is nothing wrong with a newspaper expressing opinion, but at some point a line is crossed between editorializing on one hand and diatribe and demagoguery on the other, and I would urge the Press Herald to examine itself.

Readers on my side of the aisle look in vain for a truly conservative voice at the paper and wonder if it has consigned us, in Hillary Clinton fashion, to the list of “deplorables.”

For my part, I don’t need to always agree with my local paper. But I would like to always be proud of it.

Charles Todorich

South Portland

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