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CITYWATCH TODAY--Poor Sen. Susan 'Sure Let's Put Drunken Rapists On the Supreme Court 'Cause What Could Possibly Go Wrong' Collins, who hasn't held a Town Hall or otherwise inter-acted with the people she purportedly serves since the days she still had a fragment of a spine, just endured the indignity of one of those uppity constituents - gasp - asking what she thought about some stuff.
The outrage occurred as she was waiting to board a flight from D.C. to Portland; several other passengers also waited, including Erik Mercer, a Portland social worker who with his teacher husband Sandro Sechi was the subject of a documentary, "The Guys Next Door," about their life as gay dads of two kids. Mercer politely asked if he could chat with Collins; she was entirely willing until the first of the dreaded questions came. Did she think soliciting foreign interference in our elections was a crime? Collins, no doubt "concerned," or maybe it was "disappointed," wouldn't answer. What did she think of Trump's incessant spewing of hateful rhetoric toward immigrants, people of color, all those "others" who aren't rich white straight men? Collins, "chagrined" this time - or "perturbed"? - wouldn't answer, though she did briefly babble about the "lack of civility" in D.C. And was she yay or nay on impeachment? Stonewall City, revisited. Mercer, under the impression they'd had a civil conversation, later recalled, "We parted agreeing to disagree."
Imagine his surprise, then, when boarding began and he heard Collins complaining to other passengers that a constituent had been "rude" to her. Rude? So now it's "rude" to ask elected officials - who work for us, who are paid by us, whose job is to be accountable to us - what they believe these fraught days? Hey Collins: Listen up.
It's rude to facilitate the dismantling of women's health care. It's rude to be complicit in the slow disintegration of our judicial system and democracy as we know it. It's rude to call yourself a moderate and vote with fascists virtually all the time. It's rude to rake in $1.8 million, of which just 1% came from Mainers, for putting a drunk, liar and rapist on our highest court. It's rude to have the chutzpah and arrogance to whine when someone calls you on your sins.
And it's rude not to recognize that you, along with Mitch McConnell, are the single most compelling, toxic argument for term limits - which is why you have two excellent, well-funded challengers, Sara Gideon and Betsy Sweet. In response to their encounter, meanwhile, the heroic Mercer took out a full-page ad in Portland's Maine Sunday Telegram titled, "Sen. Collins, You Said I Was Rude." He recounted the conversation, noted the stonewalling at every turn, and concluded, "It was my intention to do the work of a democracy, but you were unwilling to participate in that."
He said other passengers on the flight thanked him for approaching Collins, and added that he, and they, are still waiting for answers to their questions. We only have one for her: Why are you still friggin' here?
(CityWatch guest columnist, Abby Zimet, writes for the excellent Common Dreams … where this piece was first posted.) Photo credit: Enjoying a good one, no doubt at the expense of women's health and lives. Getty Image.
-cw
