Collins was one of four votes preventing restoring habeas corpus.

And to add insult to injury:  Read more 

CNN:

Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.

The act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver’s licenses and state ID cards into a sort of [“sort of”???] national identification system by May 2008. The law sets baseline criteria for how driver’s licenses will be issued and what information they must contain.

The Real ID Act repealed a provision in the 9/11 Commission Implementation Act calling for state and federal officials to examine security standards for driver’s licenses.

It called instead for states to begin issuing new federal licenses, lasting no longer than eight years, by May 11, 2008, unless they are granted an extension.  Read more 

Online Wall Street Journal:

Sens. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Susan Collins of Maine are mixing it up at the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

For future hearings, Democrats and Republicans won’t sit on opposite sides of the dais but rather, next to each other — alternating Democrat, Republican, Democrat, Republican etc.

In a joint statement , Chairman Lieberman, an independent, and ranking Republican Collins, said “In the last election, the voters said they were sick of the partisanship that produces gridlock… So, as a start, instead of sitting on opposite sides of the room like a house divided, we want the American people to see us sitting side by side as our committee members work together make our nation more secure and our government more efficient.”

They credited Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) a new committee member, with hatching the idea.

[’Scuse me a minute—Somebody said Bipartisan. There. That’s better.]

“Let’s all sit in a circle!”  Read more 

Pairs with Maine Girl Susan Collins (R-Protorture) in yet another Bipartisan wankfest:

There’s a call for a new congressional advisory group to help forge a new direction for the U-S in Iraq.
Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins want it to be made up of the bipartisan leadership of the five Senate panels that deal with national security.

They say the group would meet regularly to discuss the latest developments in Iraq while formulating recommendations for the president.

Collins says those leaders have never gotten together and used their expertise to discuss such an issue.

She says such a get-together would offer the opportunity for “a much freer exchange of ideas” on a critical issue.

I quote the story in its entirety, so its complete vacuity is all the more evident:  Read more