Senator Collins at the Bangor Foreign Policy Forum

Bangor Daily News - When time came Monday morning to talk about the specifics of America’s policies overseas, Sen. Susan Collins started off on an issue she has mentioned before and is likely to mention again in the months leading up to the Senate election this fall: bipartisanship.

The Republican incumbent cited her work in 2004 on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with Sen. Joe Lieberman, a former Democrat who became an independent in 2006, as an example of how bipartisanship can get things done. She and Lieberman, the committee’s ranking minority member, had set about to implement reform recommended by the bipartisan Sept. 11 Commission.

"This [resulting] legislation brought about the most sweeping changes in our intelligence community in more than 50 years," Collins told approximately 65 people who gathered Monday morning at Bangor Public Library for the Bangor Foreign Policy Forum. "I strongly believe we need more of that approach in Washington."

During the event Collins did not refer to her main political rival, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, nor did she allude to the fact that she is in a re-election campaign this year. The most direct reference she made to any sort of political opposition was when she said she is against any plan for Iraq that would establish a deadline for withdrawing American troops....Read more >>