Collins opposes Trump's Canada tariffs and Iran war, 'explores' blocking his rescission after the $810 million already spent.

…(cont) Four days on, same notebook, next page — September 22nd. Jackson again, this time calling something "corruption of the highest order," after ProPublica reported what it described as a "pay-to-play operation." "Susan Collins delivered millions in taxpayer dollars for a corrupt donor bankrolling her campaign," Jackson said. I don't have a clean figure written down for that one, just "millions," which isn't a number you can hold in your hand, so I'll leave it where I found it.

Then September 29th. The Washington Examiner had Senate appropriators exploring a ban on something called a pocket rescission — a way of clawing back spending Congress had already approved. The president had just clawed back $810 million that way, and the exploring, by the paper's own account, came after, not before. Collins herself — not an office, not a spokesperson, her, on the record — told reporters that week she would "once again try to curb" the administration on spending. Try. That's the word the paper used. The ban itself, the thing that would stop the next $810 million, belonged to the appropriators, plural, who were exploring it. Explored starting when, concluded when, voted on when? The record's answer, as far as I've got it written, stops at "exploring."

Which brings me to the fourth page, the one I almost didn't need the notebook to find. Tuesday. Collins stood on a stage in Maine and told the room she is "not exactly his favorite senator." The Guardian had her saying she opposes the Iran war. In the same debate, by the Guardian's account, she said she opposes the Canada tariffs. And she told the room — her words, same night — that she'd voted against her own party more than any other senator, and that she'd voted with Joe Biden more than 90 percent of the time when he held the office.

I checked the dates on all four pages twice, because I'd written "three weeks" the first time, between the judge vote and the debate, and then crossed it out. September 18th to October 7th is nineteen days. Not three weeks. That's the kind of thing I correct myself on now, in pencil, so it stays correctable.

Excuse me — before you let me go, one more page. The ban on pocket rescissions was still being "explored" on the night of that debate. The $810 million was already gone by then, had been gone for a while. So tell me which page a voter in Maine is supposed to turn to first: the one where she says she isn't his favorite senator, or the one where the money already left.