Listening to the radio this morning was not a pleasant experience...

[ticapnews]

every news cast I heard (three stations) credited Susan Collins with bringing extra heating oil funds to Maine. Apparently, no one else was involved in trying to push the Administration into releasing the funds and the rest of the Maine delegation was taking the winter off. :eyes:

In case there was any doubt, I think we know who the media are supporting in November.

[luckyleftyme2]

1. it seems they lean right

it does seem like the right gets the most coverage at election time. perhaps thats a secret weapon for the left. maybe people see this and vote democrat.
I mean their has to be a reason we vote more for democrats (as a state) than republicans.
she also got the contracts for BIW and the contracts for the weapons in sanford.
while the rest of them just looked on.
are you interested in ocean front property in arizona! this is what I hear when
I listen to bias news reporting.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

2. Tom may have helped a little bit.

Statement Concerning the Release of $8.8 Million in Emergency LIHEAP Funds for Maine

Wednesday January 16, 2008

by U.S. Representative Tom Allen

Washington, D.C. (Wednesday, January 16, 2008)---U.S. Representative Tom Allen, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Budget Committee, issued the following statement today concerning the announcement that the federal Office of Management and Budget will release $450 million in emergency funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), including $8.8 million for Maine:

“This $8.8 million is welcome news for Mainers struggling to pay for skyrocketing heating fuel, especially families with children and seniors on fixed incomes. I am very pleased that OMB has responded to the appeals from all of us in Maine’s Congressional delegation and Members of Congress from many states, especially in the northeast and Midwest. I will continue to work with the rest of the delegation and others in Congress to secure additional emergency LIHEAP funds to assure that Mainers are not forced to choose between keeping warm and buying food, medicine or other essentials.”

http://tomallen.house.gov/index.cfm?ContentID=891&ParentID=4&SectionID=15&SectionTree=4,15&lnk=b&ItemID=870
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Gotta hand it to "Silly Susan," she's savvy enough to defuse her Dixmont based critics and turn a problem into an asset.

"...Scott Fish, the top PR flack for Maine Republicans in Augusta for most of the 1990s. GOP House Leader Tom Murphy fired Fish last week for exercising "questionable judgment" in his after-hours editorship of "As Maine Goes," the conservative Web site. Fish's crime was not moving fast enough to remove vulgar e-mail postings by several readers who characterized Sen. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins as women of loose virtue because they voted against removing Clinton from office."
- Bangor Daily News, January 12, 2000

http://mainepolitics.blogspot.com/2005/05/long-knives.html
-------------------------------------------------
"Fish said on a local radio show last week that the job he lost cost him $40,000 a year."-- mile53 (112 posts) May-01-06 10:05 PM
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So, how did she make ex PR flack now blogger Fish, love her once again you might well ask? She threw enough cash in his direction, made the hatred go away and Fish now regularly displays "Collins for Senator" ads on his blog.

Susan Collins
Our senator
(Picture of "Not So Silly Susan")
YOU CAN HELP!
Learn more online at
Susan Collins.com
paid for by
Collins for Senator

[Shorebound]

3. Ticapnews

I suspect it has more to do with Collins having an extremely media-savvy staff. Not much gets past Jen Burita, and she has a reputation for cracking a (metaphorical) whip over a reporter's head when it suits her needs. If Tom wants to move up to the Senate, he's going to have to move his staff up to the next level, too. So far that doesn't seem to have happened.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

4. Release of energy funds is cold comfort

Families facing 'worst winter'

By John C. Drake

Globe Staff / January 18, 2008

...the allocation brings this year's total federal energy assistance to about $1.95 billion, advocates said that is far short of the $5.1 billion the program should have to distribute to poor families, according to the legislation that reauthorized the energy assistance program.
<snip>
"We're focused on the failure of our national government to meet the responsibilities that we have toward families that are hard-pressed to
provide one of the most basic necessities of life, and that is a warm home,"
he added. "Many of them, after they scrape
together enough resources to purchase some heating oil, are looking over
their shoulder at their mortgage."
<snip>
"In 55 years of providing fuel assistance, this is by far the worst winter we have seen for the poor, elderly, disabled, and working families in Massachusetts," said Robert M. Coard, president of ABCD, citing the increase in heating oil costs coupled with the early onset of bitterly cold temperatures this winter in New England.

Mark Wolfe, the Washington-based executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, said federal fuel assistance does not keep pace with the increasing burden that heating oil costs place on families.
<snip...>
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/18/release_of_energy_funds_is_cold_comfort/

Maybe some of the held back 3.15 billion is rewarding media and bloggers for touting Silly Susan and the "great job" she and her fellow Repugs are doing for us.

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TOP TEN SENATORS(TIMES MAGAZINE)

"it was a pleasure to see sen. snow getting recognition for her out standing work.although she is a republican,she represents" maine" well.

Kudos to the lady sen from "MAINE" we love you!"

--luckyleftyme2 , Apr-18-06

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One can easily imagine Olympia's reply went something like this---

Thanks for your continued support, luckyleftyme2.
I love you too, little man!
XOXO, Oly