In 2017, when supporting Trump tax cuts, which eliminated the Obamacare individual mandate, Sen. Susan Collins trumpeted assurances she’d received from then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he would promote two bills aimed at stabilizing the insurance market and managing premium spikes. The bills never received a vote.

In 2020, defending her vote to acquit then-President Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial, Collins opined that Trump had learned “a pretty big lesson” and would “be much more cautious in the future.” Then came the events of Jan. 6, 2021, so egregious that Collins voted against Trump at his historic second impeachment.

Recently, Collins declared Justices Brett Kavanaugh’s and Neil Gorsuch’s leaked votes to overturn Roe v. Wade were “completely inconsistent” with assurances both men made to her that they considered Roe “settled law” (and which, particularly during the Kavanaugh controversy, she relied on to justify her votes to confirm).

The pattern is clear. Time and again, Collins makes political hay out of supposed promises she’s received over key moderate issues. Time and again, those promises prove worthless.

The lesson? Only this: Susan Collins is unfit to serve Maine as senator. Either she’s a clueless naïf, falling again and again for political bull, or she’s deceiving us about believing it. There’s really no other possibility; she’s either a sucker or a liar. Which reading is more generous to her personally, I’m not sure, but the conclusion is identical regardless: Susan Collins should resign, and let Maine choose a competent successor.

Nathaniel Webb
Portland

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