AUGUSTA – Republicans attending their party’s convention this weekend gave Sen. Susan Collins a rousing sendoff as she embarked on a campaign for a third term.

The crowd of delegates and alternates waved signs, stomped their feet and filled the Augusta Civic Center with cheers Saturday morning as Collins took the stage to address the convention. She urged party members to support the ticket from local races to president.

Although Springvale High School teacher Tom Ledue is running in the Democratic senatorial primary against 1st District Rep. Tom Allen, Collins indicated she believed Allen would be her opponent in November. She said that while both she and Allen were proud to represent Maine in Washington, “the similarities pretty much end there. We have very different philosophies and very different records.”

Collins cited her work on port security, revamping the intelligence services and the investigation of FEMA after Hurricane Katrina as recent successes. She noted that “each and every one” of the bills she wrote dealing with those matters was enacted into law.

Collins said that she and Allen had very different priorities and nowhere was that more evident then her decision to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee and his to exchange his seat on the House committee for a seat on the House Energy Committee. She noted that since that decision the price of diesel fuel had gone from $1.56 a gallon to $4.34 a gallon.

Collins said that when she voted to cut taxes to help small-business owners, “Tom Allen said ‘No.'”

The delegates quickly picked up on the chant every time she listed an issue where she and Allen differed.

In praising the leadership of John McCain, Collins also took swipes at Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the two senators running for president as Democrats.

“John McCain is an authentic hero. He does not need to embellish his record with tales of being under fire. He has been under fire,” she said. “When people exercise their right to go to church, he does not see bitterness, he sees Americans proud and free.”

Preceding Collins on the podium was Sen. Olympia Snowe, who addressed the convention on behalf of McCain, Collins and the state’s other Republican candidates. “We will move heaven and Earth to put Maine in a win column for Republicans,” Snowe pledged.

She said she could not ask for a better colleague in the Senate than Collins and commended her for taking on the “Herculean challenge” of the largest overhaul of the intelligence system “since Pearl Harbor.”

“The quality of her service has not gone unnoticed,” Snowe said.

Snowe also took aim at Clinton and Obama, much to the delight of the gathering. She said both have promised major spending programs that in Clinton’s case would cost an additional $709 billion, and in Obama’s an additional $622 billion.

“We might just as well staple a blank check to our ballot on November 4,” she said.

Snowe pointed out that she has known McCain for decades, having served with him in both the House and the Senate. She said there was a “yearning in America” for the type of leadership he would bring to the office.

“This is a man that couldn’t be more ready to serve in the highest office in the land. … He stands alone,” she said and predicted that “the Straight Talk Express will roll into the driveway of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January 2009.”

Also addressing the convention was Fox News commentator and syndicated newspaper columnist Cal Thomas, whose limited-government, conservative views excited the 2,500 delegates and alternates that filled the hall. With one one-liner after another, Thomas had the hall rocking and cheering his every pronouncement.

Thomas recalled spending summers in Maine as a youth and lamented the fact that the days of standing firm for one’s convictions and $1.25 lobster rolls were things of the past. He cautioned the delegates against relaxing the party’s rock-ribbed principles.

“Conservatives and the Republican Party are in trouble because they’ve been cross-dressing as Democrats,” Thomas said. “Too often we see Republicans willing to move in the direction of Democrats, but rarely does it work the other way.”

Referring to his namesake, Calvin Coolidge, as his and Ronald Reagan’s favorite president, Thomas said it was time to return to the era of low taxes that both men worked hard to bring about. He said lower taxes created conditions that gave people a better chance to be successful in their lives and led to individual initiative.

“It wasn’t that he was silent,” he said of Coolidge’s nickname, “it was when he said something, it was worth saying.” Coolidge, he said, described the collection of taxes as “legalized larceny.”

Thomas said the economic stimulus plan that will send $600 checks to most Americans in the next few weeks is a joke. “We are borrowing money from China to go to Wal-Mart to buy products made in China. How is that going to improve our economy?”

Turning toward the presidential race, Thomas predicted a grim future if either Clinton or Obama were elected. “I’m all for an African-American or a female president, just not this African-American and this female.” He said he would prefer a woman like former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher or an African-American like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

He said the “liberal agenda” played on victimization and entitlements. “You know, the only thing I’m entitled to is liberty. The rest is up to me.”

Thomas said that the country was engaged in a “world war” against Islamo-fascists, who unlike communists or fascists prefer death to living. He said Democrats “remain in denial and invested in defeat” over Iraq where there have been signs of progress.

“It’s fine to oppose the war, but it’s folly to oppose success,” he said.

Thomas said that while McCain was not his first choice for president he advised Republicans to pull together on his behalf or they would live to regret it.

“Socialized medicine is right around the corner. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it’s free,” he said.

Thomas left the stage by reminding the gathering of Thomas Jefferson’s observation: “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government strong enough to take everything you have.”

Saturday’s speeches followed the convention’s keynote address Friday night by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who bowed out of the GOP presidential campaign in February.

wgriffin@bangordailynews.net

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