Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who has the reputation of being a moderate New England Republican, doesn’t seem to be getting on board with the recent hard-right push from the Tea Partiers. In fact, the Kennebec Journal reports, she’s even badmouthing Sarah Palin for costing the GOP Senate seats — and she thinks Palin would rather be a “celebrity commentator” than run for president and govern:
Collins said Palin will be weakened if Sen. Lisa Murkowski wins her write-in campaign for re-election in Alaska. Election officials say enough write-in votes were cast that Murkowski could be the winner.
…
Collins does not expect Palin to run for president.
“I think she likes being a celebrity commentator for Fox and a speaker and being able to provide for her family,” Collins said. “I think that life appeals to her. It’s a lot easier to charge people up than to actually govern.”
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Governor Sarah Palin: A Long Goodbye]
Collins also said of Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), “they cost us two seats we could have won,” referring to the primary victories of Tea Party candidates in Delaware and Nevada. In fact, this isn’t exactly true — Palin did endorse Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, but only endorsed Sharron Angle well after the Republican primary.
Collins will be up for re-election in 2014.
(Via Collins Watch.)
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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