From CongressDailyPM: Maine Dems Welcome Lieberman Endorsement Of Collins
Maine Democrats say the endorsement of Republican Sen. Susan Collins by Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman underscores a central argument in their challenge of the two-term senator next year: the war in Iraq. A political adviser for Democratic Rep. Tom Allen -- an unannounced but likely candidate against Collins -- said Lieberman's support for the war and Collins' support for the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., tie her to the Bush administration's politically unpopular war policy. "I think the Lieberman endorsement is significant. For us, it's a gift," the Allen adviser said. "It paints a picture of Susan Collins with people like Lieberman and McCain, who support the war."[MARK WEGNER]
Lieberman, who ran for re-election in 2006 as an independent but still caucuses with Democrats, told CongressDaily Thursday that he would campaign for Collins, who stumped for Lieberman during his difficult re-election last year. News of Lieberman's involvement in the Maine race came as Collins and Allen filed disclosure reports showing aggressive early fundraising. Collins raised $837,000 in the first quarter, including a $5,000 donation from Lieberman's leadership PAC, and ended March with $1.2 million on hand. Allen's campaign said he raised just under $400,000 and ended the quarter with about $800,000 on hand.
Steve Abbott, chief of staff for Collins, said this afternoon she is "extremely grateful" to have Lieberman's support and said it helps her appeal to Maine's large number of independent voters. "One of the big issues in this campaign is there is a big difference on how Susan Collins and Tom Allen approach their jobs," Abbott said. He said Collins' productive working relationship with Lieberman on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is a model of bipartisanship and demonstrates her moderate positions. "Tom Allen is a partisan. He's known in Maine as a partisan, and he's known in Washington as a partisan," Abbott said. Collins voted last month against the Democratic-authored Iraq war supplemental spending bill that sets a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. In February, she did support a resolution opposing Bush's plan to send more combat troops to Iraq.
National Democrats have touted Maine as an important 2008 battleground, and are counting on the state's Democratic leanings will help Allen. The Allen adviser said if he does run for the Senate, Allen will not attempt to challenge Collins' centrist reputation but rather emphasize the issues on which she contrasts most with Allen. "We aren't going to run the kind of campaign that Susan Collins is a radical. She's not," the adviser said. "On the largest issues of our time -- on the war, on tax cuts ... on those that are the most defining issues of our day, she's wrong." Allen opposed authorizing military action in Iraq and was among the first Democrats to call for a troop withdrawal.
Lieberman will be a big help. They improved Homeland Security by having Republicans and Democrats sit boy-girl dinner-party style instead of across the aisle from one another. See my blog post:
http://ajliebling.blogspot.com/2007/03/feeling-safer-lately.html
Lieberman needs to remember what state he "represents." He has not been home (that I know of) since the election, and has no represented the views of my state at all. I voted for him, believing his lies. Now, I'm going to go public with a little bit of a scandal: that Joe doesn't have a real address in Connecticut. He sold his New Haven home, and, according to sources in touch with New Haven politics, he is using the Taft Hotel, owned by a friend of his, as an address while living in Washington. Perhaps some hotline cub reporter would like to investigate this.
We hate the Iraq war up here, and will not stand for it anymore.
Susan collins was for the war before she was against the war before she was for the war....
Oh, it's a gift alright! Susan Collins has been in lock step with the Bush Regime all these years and so has Joe Lieberman. They don't want the illegal occupation to end either.
Both are traitors and could care less about our soldiers.