In 1996 when campaigning for the US Senate, Susan Collins pledged that if she were elected, she'd only serve two terms. Up until now, there was only audio of Collins making that promise. But now video has emerged and it doesn't get any more unambiguous than this:

"I have pledged that if I am elected I will only serve two terms regardless of whether a term limits constitutional amendment passes or not."

Pesky YouTube (h/t Turn Maine Blue):

In 2002, during her Senate re-election campaign, Collins reaffirmed her pledge as you can see here in this letter to a constituent.

"I intend to serve only two terms as I indicated in the Sanfgord forum 6 years ago."

Yet here she is in 2008 running for a third term, having blatantly broken her promise to Maine voters. Turns out that whole term limits thing...just a "frenzy".

On October 12, 2006 Collins stated that she was breaking her pledge and would seek another six year term in the Senate. Collins justified her new position stating that her viewpoint on seniority has changed, "At the time, I thought that 12 years, that two terms, would be enough. This was at the height of what I would call the frenzy over term limits."

Susan Collins saying one thing and doing another is nothing new, of course. In fact, it's the central premise of her entire post-Bush tenure in the senate. She claims to be moderate yet over and over she's proven to be nothing more than a Bush rubber stamp, whether it be her approval of George Bush's anti-choice judges or her refusal to increase veterans' healthcare benefits in favor of preserving tax cuts for the rich. As Collins Watch makes clear, Maine does have a Republican Senator with a real claim to a moderate, independent label, but Susan Collins ain't it:

--Only one of Maine's senators has opposed setting an Iraq withdrawal timeline.

--Only one Maine senator supported President Bush's irresponsible 2003 tax cut package for the rich.

--Only one Maine senator voted for the habeas-shredding Military Commissions Act of 2006 and then against reinstating habeas corpus in a later bill.

[...]

Just how has Senator Collins pulled the wool over the eyes of Maine voters? The DSCC counts the ways:

Luckily for Maine, Rep. Tom Allen is running to replace Susan Collins and end her string of broken promises.

In the last couple days, there have been several posts across the blogosphere citing what various candidates running for Congress have said on FISA and retroactive immunity for the telecoms.  But so far, it's been all over the map.  I'll try to corral all their statements into this diary, so you can see who the "good guys" are.

First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill.  They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.

Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.

The latest Rasmussen Reports poll of the Maine senate race keeps looking better and better for Democratic challenger Rep. Tom Allen. Not only is he now within single digits of faux moderate Republican Bush enabler Susan Collins, but for the first time, Allen keeps Collins below that magic 50% mark.

As you can see, the tightening is due more to a loss of support for Collins than to a surge in support for Allen. This tracks with their respective favorabililty ratings.

Collins' favorability rating has fallen as well for the third month in a row, but she is still is viewed favorably by a substantial majority of Maine voters (65%), down from 70% last month. By a nearly identical number, the incumbent's unfavorables have risen from 29% in May to 33% now.

By contrast, Allen, who has served in the House since 1997, is viewed favorably by 56% of voters and unfavorably by 37%, virtually identical to his ratings in May.

That's not to say Allen isn't gaining among some groups, particularly Democrats and Republicans. It's among those pesky unaffiliated voters, which make up 37% of the electorate, that Allen is actually losing ground.

She also has lost support from voters in her own party - with 81% of Republicans now backing Collins compared to 89% a month ago. Allen now earns support from 12% of the state's Republican voters, up from 9% last month.

Among Democrats, Allen's support has increased to 72% this month, up from 64% in May. Twenty-four percent (24%) still support Collins.

However, when it comes to unaffiliated voters, Collins leads 52% to 34%. These numbers represent a major improvement for the incumbent since last month when the two candidates were tied at 44%.

This is one area where Barack Obama can be particularly helpful downticket. Rasmussen Reports polled the presidential race and finds McCain just cratering in the state, which is particularly satisfying since Susan Collins is one of John McCain's BFFs.

And look at how Obama is doing among unaffiliated voters:

Among unaffiliated voters, Obama leads 57% to 30%, up 10 percentage points since last month.

Help Tom Allen inch even closer to overtaking Senator Collins next month by contributing to his campaign over at ActBlue.

Update [2008-6-18 16:31:18 by Todd Beeton]:And if you really want to help Allen, you can choose him as the recipient of support from Barbara Boxer's PAC For A Change. We have a ridiculous embarrassment of riches when it comes to senate challengers this year, but I think it would actually be quite appropriate if Allen were to win the support of Boxer's PAC, as he's been as solid a Democrat in the House as Boxer has been in the Senate.

In addition to electing a Democrat to the White House, the other dream result for November is to gain 9 seats in the senate for the magic filibuster-proof 60-seat majority (this is, of course, still counting Lieberman as part of our majority, which lately has become more and more questionable.) I've felt for a while that we should set 60 as our goal no matter how unlikely it seems. Hell, if we got that elusive 6th seat for the majority in 06, anything's possible. But now, looking at Chris Bowers's rundown of our winnable seats, it's remarkable to see just how doable 60 seats actually is.

Likely Democratic Pick-ups

• 1. Virginia: Warner (D) 55%--37% Gilmore (R)
• 2. New Mexico: Tom Udall (D) 54%--40% Pearce (R)
• 3. New Hampshire: Shaheen (D) 51.5%--41.5% Sununu (R-inc)

Current Toss-ups

• 1. Colorado: Mark Udall (D) 45.0%--43.5% Schaeffer (R)
• 2. Alaska: Stevens (R-inc) 46%--45% Begich (D)

Competitive Seats, Republicans Favored

• 1. Oregon: Smith (R-inc) 45%--42% Merkley (D); Smith 47%--41% Novick (D)
• 2. North Carolina: Dole (R-inc) 47.7%--44.0% Hagen (D) (see also PPP)
• 3. Texas: Cornyn (R-inc) 47.5%--43.5% Noriega (D)
• 4. Minnesota: Coleman (R-inc) 51.0%--42.5% Franken (D) (see also Survey USA)

There's your nine right there, either ahead or behind within single digits. That is phenomenal. But why stop there? Let's make Lieberman irrelevant, let's get that tenth seat. I'd argue the most likely candidate for that tenth senate seat is the one held by faux moderate Bush enabler Susan Collins up in Maine. She's also one of Joe Lieberman's best buddies, so how sweet it would be if her defeat sealed his irrelevancy. But is it doable? Hell yes. Check out these new numbers from Rasmussen, which show her Democratic challenger, Rep. Tom Allen, gaining 6 points since their previous poll released April 1.

Susan Collins (R-Inc.) 52 (54)
Tom Allen (D) 42 (38)

Gerald at Turn Maine Blue puts this in perspective:

Still a lot of work to do (especially in the 2nd District), and it is unlikely that Allen will be able to chip away much at Collins' GOP base (despite their disgust for her), but the two are even amongst Independent voters now and hopefully Dem's will see the fallacy of supporting her, and this can be turned as the myth of her "moderation" is dispelled.

Collins is still winning 34% of Democrats. That will decline as Allen continues to make stark distinctions with Collins on Iraq, as he has done both on funding...

“After more than five long years, there is still no end in sight in Iraq. Yet President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Senator Collins, and other supporters of an open-ended commitment still have no plan for bringing our troops home,” Allen said. “During a time when the middle class is struggling to pay for things like fuel, groceries, healthcare, and education, we continue to spend $12 billion every month in Iraq. America can’t afford to stay in Iraq indefinitely. For that reason, I will oppose any funding bill that doesn’t include a firm, responsible deadline to bring our troops home.”

...And on Collins's tragic lack of oversight when she was chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee...

"Allen...said the then-Republican-led Congress and Collins in particular should have done more before 2006 to investigate the military’s preparation for the reconstruction effort. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was supposed to oversee the work of contractors who wasted billions of taxpayer dollars in Iraq, he said, but for 3½ years Collins "refused" to hold hearings on the issue.

"If she [had] only held a few hearings, it would have exposed that the administration’s oversight was woefully inadequate," Allen said. "The consequence of that has been to make what happened in Iraq a lot worse, a lot worse than it needed to be."

The media has even picked up the story. Check out this devastating news piece that aired on CBS local news in Portland:

So, as you can see, there's reason to be optimistic about the possibility of winning the magic 60-seat majority in the senate, but if we really want to have a true filibuster-proof majority of ALL Democrats, we need to help elect Tom Allen to the senate and send perhaps the most egregious example of a Bush rubberstamp posing as a moderate that we have in the senate packing.

So, do me a favor and throw Tom Allen some love over at Act Blue today. I know we have an embarrassment of riches in terms of our candidates this year and many of us are already tapped out from the presidential campaign, but we need to step up for each and every one of our challengers, even if it's a little bit. I'm in for $20. Who's with me?

In the flow of endorsements in recent days and weeks -- and indeed over the past few months as well -- one thing we haven't seen is very many Senate candidates come out and endorse in the presidential race. There have been a few -- both Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick in Oregon have endorsed Barack Obama, for instance. But by and large, top-tier Senate candidates have refrained from wading into the presidential contest, whether out of fear of alienating half of the party or a desire not to make press in that way. Yet today, an endorsement from a Democratic Senate hopeful and Congressman (and thus a superdelegate to boost) for Obama.

Congressman Tom Allen is throwing his support behind Sen. Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Allen, a superdelegate to this summer's Democratic National Convention, said Monday he believes Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton are both "supremely qualified" to be president. Allen has been friends for decades with Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton.

But Allen says most of the nation's primary voters have spoken, and that the time has come to bring a "graceful end" to the primary campaign.

Thus far, people like Mark Warner and Tom Udall and Mark Udall -- the top-tier of Democratic Senate hopefuls -- have not come out and endorsed either candidate for President. As alluded to before, in the eyes of most Senate campaigns, the risks of such an endorsement outweigh the potential benefits. Or at least they did.

It remains to be seen if the Allen endorsement foreshadows more to come -- if it is a dipping of the toe in water, in a sense -- or if it simply represents one American coming to a public decision about his views on the race for the Democratic nomination. In the coming weeks, we will have to wait to see if any more Udalls or Warners come out and publicly support either Obama or Hillary Clinton. But if others do follow in Allen's footsteps, we could see a new stage of coalescing in the Democratic presidential primary in which the campaign class of the party, as well as candidates who will actually face the voters in competitive general elections in the fall, are ready to see one nominee emerge.

Everywhere where we go, the campaign hears from people who are struggling to pay for the rising costs of fuel, food, healthcare and housing.  Tom continues to hear their concerns and their ideas, but we wanted to share with all of you what he has been hearing on the trail.  That is why we set out to capture what a few Mainers are thinking about the economy.  Please watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQMLxpFa- 54.

(Mike Nutter, Director of Internet Communications, Tom Allen for Senate)

This year, on our way to that magic number of 60 Democrats in the senate, we have the opportunity to replace one of the most egregious faux moderate Bush enablers in the senate -- yes, I'm talking about you, Susan Collins -- with a real progressive, Collins's challenger Congressman Tom Allen.

Today a new poll released by McLaughlin & Associates provides us with a reality check of the challenge that lies ahead (h/t Guru):

Tom Allen (D): 31%
Susan Collins (R-inc): 54%
(MoE: ±4.9%)

Now it should be noted that this is a Republican firm, for what it's worth, but still it's not far off of Survey USA's poll from late last year that had Collins's lead at 17. Ultimately, I have to say I agree with Guru:

Still, even in a GOP poll, I don't like seeing such a gap in Maine.  The ME-Dems have to do more on behalf of Congressman Tom Allen to clarify to Maine voters what a hypocritical, dishonest, right-wing-team-player-when-it-counts Susan Collins really is.

Collins's latest attempt to go after Allen is on attendance in Congress, which is a pretty sad attack if that's all she's got -- and if her own stellar attendance is her proudest achievement. An editorial in the Kennebec Journal Morning Sentinel called her out:

As of mid-March, Collins had cast 3,764 roll call votes in a row during her more than 11 years in the Senate. On the stump, Collins has charged that Allen has missed 145 votes during his more than 11 years in Congress. "That tells you something in terms of commitment," said Collins at a Lewiston Republican Party dinner recently.

No, it doesn't.

Allen's 145 missed votes notwithstanding, the congressman has actually participated in 98 percent of House votes during his tenure.

While Collins' attendance record is an accomplishment, it's a big stretch to propose that it should provide a significant basis for evaluation of her record. Conversely, short of Allen missing a large number of votes -- say 10 percent or more -- we don't think his attendance record is a substantial issue.

No wonder Collins would prefer to keep this race on the issue of attendance. The last thing she wants is Maine voters to start to scrutinize how she voted. They'll start wishing she would have stayed home.

I know I do.

It was déjà vu all over again when I picked up the paper this week and read that Senator Susan Collins had recently discovered we have a healthcare crisis in this country and proclaimed, "It is long overdue for us to tackle this issue."

How is she planning to "tackle" the health care crisis? She's drafted a letter to Senate leadership and then she wants to pass a resolution. I bet the insurance and pharmaceutical industries are just quaking in their boots.

Overdue, she says? The last time Sen. Collins felt overcome by the ambition to fix America's broken healthcare system was in 2002. If my math is correct, that was six years ago. You know, when she was up for reelection the last time. And I was her Democratic opponent.