Maine senators question military's Iraq policies

[MaineDem]

WASHINGTON — The deadly attack on American troops in Mosul could complicate President Bush's anticipated request for $80 billion or more to fight the war, and has already intensified criticism that spending priorities have left troops poorly protected.

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Republicans from Maine, have each criticized the lack of armor on Humvees used by troops in Iraq. Collins, a member of the Armed Services Committee, criticized Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's leadership of the fighting. And Snowe wrote a letter Wednesday to Rumsfeld criticizing the hiring of Iraqi contractors to build a new dining hall for troops at the base where soldiers died in an explosion Tuesday.

"The political climate has unquestionably changed, given a confluence of legitimate concerns including force protection and adequate armor for our troops - especially as insurgent terrorists have increasingly attacked our forces. Therefore, it is imperative the Pentagon immediately become light years more responsive to the needs of our troops and recognize that public support is critical," Snowe wrote.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/041223funding.shtml

Ladies, this isn't going to sit well with your President. He defended Rummy, you know.

[LynnTheDem]

1. AKA: We don't mind illegal wars of aggression, killing 100,000 innocents..

we just DON'T like LOSING our illegal war of aggression.

[saltpoint]

2. A lot of encouragement here.

Seems like Maine has really great representatives in the House and Senate. Snowe and Collins are a lot more independent than senators from other states. I like 'em.

As in baseball cards, it would take dozens of Richard Shelby or Jim Talent or John Ensign or Rick Santorum to trade for one Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins.

Thanks for this post.

ed.: spellin'

[NNN0LHI]

3. Have these "senators" forgotten who the commander in chief is?

Hint for the senators. Its Butch. Yea, no shit. Why don't you leave that party of the brown-shirts you belong to and go independent? Then I might have some respect for you.

Don

[Massachusetts]

4. Maine woman aren't cold

they have more warmth between their ears than most of the Sens and Reps in this country.

However, a little to late for comments like this, the dam already broke.:mad:

[apple_ridge]

5. Susan Collins is for the most part

a Bush boot-licker, however Snowe has always been a very moderate repuke and willing to speak out against the more egregious policies of any administration.

[izzie]

6. The GOP I heard is trying to get some one to run in place of Snowe

It should be interesting. She is not Far Right enough. I think she gets over 60% of the vote. Collins is more a Bush lap dog. Both stick up for women ssoooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[MaineDem]

7. Have you heard anything about Olympia being ill?

I heard that rumor last week. Someone speculated that she may resign her seat.

I know, I know...it's only rumor and I feel horrid about spreading something without any knowledge but I wonder if anyone else had heard that?

I can't imagine her losing in a GOP primary.

[Davis_X_Machina]

8. These ladies' vaunted 'independence'...

....consists of one vote a Congress -- against impeachment, in favor of family leave, against drilling in ANWAR -- on the strenght of which they coast the rest of the session.

A pair of frauds, both of them.

Collins in some cases is actually less objectionable. She is a non-entity, beat Joe Brennan on the strength of her "Hey, I have a uterus' campaign, and a lot of help from the Greens, to get into the Senate, and then has survived on a mixture of incumbency and pork. Her pre-election 'civilian' job was as a a senatorial staffer and political consultant. In a bigger state, she wouldn't have gotten within sniffing distance of the nomination.

She is now a wholly owned subsidiary of MBNA -- a big employer on the mid-coast -- and a fixture on all the 'ten dumbest senators' list. An old student of mine is involved in her constituent-service operation back here in Maine, and says "Susan is living proof you can fuck your brains out". That's from a staffer.

Snowe should know better -- she is not an idiot. Instead she is chained to a corpse -- a Republican party that hasn't existed since the days of Nixon, when in this part of the world it was associated with civil rights, conservation, good government (the Dem party was the ususal urban-ethnic-machine variety, with the attendant corruption), etc. The Margaret Chase Smith--Frank Sargent--Ed Brooke--Bill Cohen good gray Republican party is as dead as Kelsey's nuts, and she refuses to look at that fact.

She can't jump parties -- the line for jobs for women in the Democratic party is too long, and like Colin Powell, she is intensely ambitious. She'll stick with the party that offers the shortest queue. Her marriage to the state's most Republican governor turned über-lobbyist, Jock 'The man who stole my pension' McKernan, pretty much precludes her going independent.

[Aries]

15. Interesting analysis

I wrote them both after the election, telling them they should quit the Republican party as a bloc along with Chafee and Voinovich to get some leverage. But did they listen? Noooooo.....

I'd like to know where McKernan (Mr. Snowe) fits into the Carlyle/Bush/Saudi/Halliburton nexus, too.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

9. Two Mainers dead, 9 injured in mess hall bombing

I'd say they have every right to tell Bush to shut up and put up.

[Malva Zebrina]

10. They both must have gotten a lot of feisty e-mails

because there are a lot of feisty people in Maine who are interested in politics and don't mind saying what they think to their representatives.

This is another one of those political safe issues. Of course anyone would speak up and demand the right equiptment for the troops. These two only jump off the fence, in tandem, on safe issues.

They both attended and I think Snowe gave a speech, at the Laura Bush and the "W stands for Women" conference here in Maine. These are supposed two pro-choice women.

Collins did a tour of Iraq and came back oh so very shocked that she saw the "mass graves" and how terrible it was--translate that to mean that Bush's lie about regime change being the reason to invade Iraq was justified, after all the other lies failed in the UN

I have not heard anything about Snowe's health or lack of.

[VegasWolf]

11. It hardly seems to take courage to challenge Iraqi policies at this POINT.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. What good is a armored car? You have to get out of the car

sometime and get some lunch....

The idea that the problem in Iraq will be solved by putting armor on the cars is kind of bullshit.

[Davis_X_Machina]

13. The old Loring AFB...

...up in Limestone, is home to an operation rebuilding and up-armoring Humvees. link.

You'll forgive me if I find the combination of the Senators' statements coming on the heels of a.)Maine casualties and b.)Maine jobs -- in the only solidly Republican part of the state -- to be less than a Profile in Courage.

[Jacobin]

14. Precisely

Armoring Humvees is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

the fucking war is lost. It was illegitimate, immoral, wrongheaded, geopolitically stupid, counterproductive, a violation of international law, and it is a complete and utter clusterfuck of a blunder, as only George The Idiot and the Neo-Con cabal could have produced.

Now, only ten more years and 100,000 deaths of US soldiers from now, we will have "Peace With Dignity" or some such other blather as we skulk out of IraqNam

Bastards