Sibyl Masquelier’s recent opinion piece correctly indicts the Bush administration’s oppressive policies on women and families, world economy and health and reproductive rights. At the end of her excellent account, she, a moderate Republican, pleads with our senators to be heroines and insist that George W. Bush honor the rights of “the planet’s most disenfranchised people.”

As Susan Collins runs for re-election, we must look at the record in asking whether she can play such a role. With all due respect, it doesn’t look good.

The truth is, Collins hasn’t made a dent in this area. Her party’s hard-line Republican leadership routinely stifles or circumvents moderating dissent from within. Has any moderate Republican been able to block Bush assaults on women’s rights so far?

No. The damage has been done by appointment, executive order and stealth.

Reinstatement of the global gag rule restricting U.S. family planning aid abroad was implemented by executive memorandum in March 2001. To her credit, Collins and other moderates joined Democrats in a resolution of disapproval. But the memorandum isn’t subject to Senate review, so it still stands. Similarly, in 2001 the Bush administration quietly closed the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach, which helped develop policy and economic opportunities for women and families. To be fair, it’s hard for senators to do anything about such executive fiats.

But senators could affect presidential appointments – which require direct senatorial review under the Constitution’s “Advice and Consent” clause – and in 2001 Democrats opposed extremist nominees like John Ashcroft. Did Collins or other moderate Republicans do the same?

No. Deference ruled, despite extraordinary circumstances. The Supreme Court had made Bush president. He had lost both Maine and the national popular vote. Lacking a people’s mandate, he promised humility and non-divisiveness. He then reached to the far right to nominate the anti-choice Ashcroft as U.S. attorney general.

Wouldn’t this have been the moment for Collins – or any moderate Republican – to exhibit Ms. Masquelier’s brand of heroism? Rejecting cabinet appointments is rare, but the circumstances in 2001 cried out for scrutiny and balance. The heroism didn’t happen. Instead, Collins took the lead as Ashcroft’s Senate peer sponsor, alarming many constituents back home.

Considering her party’s right-wing leadership, doing otherwise may have meant political suicide for Collins; and she may genuinely have believed she was doing the right thing. Either way, the result is the same.

Bush’s appointments have been a potent tool in advancing the agenda Ms. Masquelier correctly calls oppressive. The continuing effects are far-reaching for women, families and the disenfranchised. Ashcroft is one of the most flamboyantly troubling attorneys general in memory, spending thousands in public funds to cover the breasts of a statue, assuming extreme legal stances and creating unprecedented government secrecy undermining civil liberties. Among his critics are conservatives William Safire and Kenneth Starr as well as Reagan judicial appointees. But having added the credential of Attorney General to Ashcroft’s resume may facilitate what some believe is Bush’s next move: to appoint Ashcroft to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last week, without objection from Ashcroft’s Justice Department (one assumes it was consulted), Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced that states may now define a fetus from the moment of conception as a child eligible for government-funded health care – with no federal funds for post-delivery follow-up for the woman unless she’s under 19. Thus is Roe v. Wade altered via cabinet appointment. Additionally, Time.com reports controversy around Bush administration nominee Dr. David Hager, who would head an FDA panel on women’s policy. Hager has scanty medical credentials, refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women and helped a Christian medical group petition the FDA to reverse itself on RU-486.

Finally, Solicitor General Theodore Olson – another Justice Department member – is now arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that Maine Rx is invalid. Collins had asked Bush to support this legislation. So much for influence from within. The ripple effect of presidential appointments on women, families and the elderly grows wider.

With the Bush administration pushing its agenda this aggressively, we need a vigorous, principled, intelligent loyal opposition that will push back. If I were Ms. Masquelier, I’d be taking a serious look at Chellie Pingree – author of Maine Rx and a great candidate in her own right. She is capable of reinvigorating the Senate to seek the balance of power we desperately need.

Stephanie Cotsirilos, an attorney in Orono, is a volunteer with the Pingree for Senate campaign.