Years ago, I worked with a person who habitually used the word “concerned.” They had a junior role on our team but, nevertheless, constantly interrupted meetings with her “concerns.” They'd come to me expressing “concern” for how something didn’t meet their satisfaction, always “concerned” about being “concerned.”
It drove me crazy. Eventually, she was moved to another team because I was “concerned” she was affecting my mental health and, more seriously, the momentum of our team.
Maybe that’s why Sen. Susan Collins gets on my nerves. She frequently uses phrases like “concerned,” “deeply concerned,” or “very concerned” to signal her disapproval of controversial actions or statements by presidents and fellow politicians, particularly Donald Trump, without breaking ranks to take strong legislative or punitive action.
It smacks of wimpiness, an inability to have a backbone, and when it comes from Collins, it's a mealy-mouthed way to make her sound like she gives a damn when she really doesn’t. So, thank God, Mainers are getting more “concerned” about Collins being their senator for the next six years.
She shouldn’t even be in this election at all. Thirty years ago, Collins promised she would serve just two terms. Three decades later, she is still here. Still “concerned” about a host of issues, without actually having the fortitude to do anything about her “concerns.”
Unquestionably, she has become an entrenched creature in the slimy swamp that is Washington, practicing the exact kind of backroom, self-serving wheeling and dealing that should raise serious concerns about her honesty, integrity and morality.
First and foremost, and the most recent example, is a damning investigative report by ProPublica that recently exposed what Democratic challenger Troy Jackson rightly called "corruption of the highest order." The investigation unsealed internal records revealing a sprawling, pay-to-play operation involving defense contractor Navatek.
The contractor allegedly funneled an illegal $150,000 donation into a pro-Collins super PAC. In return, Collins used her immense legislative power to deliver millions in taxpayer-funded federal contracts straight back to that very donor.
It is a classic Washington swamp deal, by an embedded creature of the swamp. And who helped bury the initial FBI investigation into this alleged bribery scheme? None other than Donald Trump and his administration.
Now that this has been put into the public record, ask yourself this question: “Why hasn’t Susan Collins been more vocal, more angry, more energized in speaking out against Trump, and against the rot, destruction and diminishing of our democracy?”
Well, I don’t think I have to spell it out for you, but I will. Trump has her in a sort of blackmail situation, that he likely has with other members of Congress. If you speak ill of me, I will rain down campaign finance violations upon you.
She’s denied that there was any wrongdoing, but I don’t believe her for a second. She’s been a fraud and phony and mealy-mouthed defender of Trump from the get-go. In fact, she mirrors him in other ways, which makes you wonder if she’s Trump lite.
In 2012, Collins’ reported net worth was actually in the negative, languishing around negative $255,000. But after years of wielding massive leverage on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, her mandatory federal disclosures reveal her personal wealth has ballooned up to an astronomical $9.6 million.
Her stock and bond portfolio alone has surged too, heavily packed with blue-chip tech giants, corporate securities, and aerospace companies.
It makes you wonder if Navatek is the only other company that benefits from a financial arrangement with Collins. I’m not saying there are others, I’m just pointing out that it would be a bit unusual if this is just a one-off. When it comes to campaign donations, and when your coffers are empty, you’ll fudge around the outskirts of the law to improve your lot.
And why wouldn’t Trump protect her when she’s been a solid vote for him? Collins has been his most dependable legislative rubber stamp. While she desperately tries to market herself to Mainers as an independent, "pro-choice moderate," her actual voting record tells a devastating story. CQ Roll Call verified that Collins voted in lockstep with Donald Trump’s stated positions a staggering 94.6% of the time during 2025.
When Trump needed to demolish the federal government, Collins was right there to greenlight his most radical picks. She voted to confirm Trump's controversial budget director and Project 2025 architect, Russell Vought. You would have to be an obtuse idiot to confirm Vought and not think he wasn’t going to run the federal budget based on his extremist views expressly laid out in Project 2025.
Collins might as well have voted for another wacko to run government intelligence. Oh wait, she did. She voted to approve Tulsi Gabbard to oversee the nation's core intelligence agencies. One of the reasons she supported Gabbard was because “Ms. Gabbard addressed my concerns regarding her views on Edward Snowden.”
Oh, there go those concerns again!
But her ultimate betrayal of Maine women and families remains her monumental vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Now, you would think that she would vote against him because Mainers were concerned about him.
But her concerns lay elsewhere. She voted for him citing “concerns” with the “special interests” that opposed Kavanaugh from the onset and misrepresented him, i.e., Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s.
And in hindsight, Collins still refuses to apologize. Recently, she doubled down on her betrayal, stating on the record to the Portland Press Herald, "I do not regret that vote," and even admitted in an audio recording obtained by The New York Times that she "would vote for him again."
She clearly has no concerns whatsoever about what her vote for Kavanaugh unleashed. She clearly has little concern about watching her wealth balloon while middle-class Mainers struggle with high gas and grocery prices caused by a woefully incapable and corrupt president Collins supports nearly 95% of the time. And she doesn’t seem to be too concerned about ProPublica’s recent expose.
Susan Collins' “concerns” are the biggest package of BS in American politics, and Mainers should have zero concern for her on November 3rd.
