It’s true, Sen. Susan Collins has done many things for Maine. But so has Tom Allen, as congressman. Any good senator would.

Consider Collins’ record. She’s called a moderate, but voted with Bush and Cheney over 80 percent of the time. On their economic policy, it’s been 100 percent of the time, and we got a Wall Street meltdown, massive tax cuts for the very wealthy and unemployment going up.

She voted for the Cheney energy bill, with billions in tax breaks for oil companies, leaving Mainers to struggle with high gas and fuel oil prices. She supported the war in Iraq, and still has no real plan for ending it (even Sen. Olympia Snowe is in favor of withdrawal).

Sen. Collins was chair of a Senate committee that could have investigated the billions in waste and fraud in Iraq but refused to do so. For example, no hearings on the contractors who made our soldiers shower in sewage. She’s aided in the shredding of our constitutional rights and liberties, supporting warrantless wiretapping of Americans and opposing habeas corpus, a fundamental legal right (Sen. Snowe voted the other way). Not what I’d call moderate.

Tom Allen has been on the other side of all these issues. He voted against authorizing the war in Iraq, supports the middle class and working Mainers, supports regulating Wall Street and supports our Constitution.

Isn’t eight years of Bush and his enablers enough?

Peter Kleban

Bangor