For some reason the online Left has decided to go bonkers on Senator Collins about the Swine Flu scare. Aside from the usual lunacy of the folks that brought you 'General Betray-Us' and a whopping 38% of the vote for Tom Allen last year, there seems to be a ton of coordination in this effort:

RedState:

This wave of netroots nonsense is being led by Media Matters, the George Soros-funded organization started by notorious journalistic hitman David Brock, perhaps best know as the author of books attacking
the personal lives of Anita Hill and Bill Clinton. Brock’s group is circulating a video which attempts to connect Senator Collins with the Swine Flu outbreak. Brock and his netroots cohorts are claiming the removal of flu preparedness money from the stimulus package somehow relates to the current scare.

The Portland Press Herald is knocking back the claims:

Collins right to have pushed flu funds out of stimulus
The blogosphere has already started to buzz with recriminations aimed at Sen. Susan Collins in light of the international swine flu outbreak.

Maine's junior senator stood tough in negotiations over the federal stimulus bill, insisting that some items that belonged in the regular budget process come out of that legislation.

Among these was more than $800 million to beef up the government's ability to respond to a flu pandemic. As a moderate Republican and ranking member of the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Collins got her way.

But the senator never said the United States didn't need a better plan for a flu pandemic. Collins' point – and it was a good one – was that the economic stimulus package wasn't the place for new federal programs that didn't have a direct impact on economic growth.

from the Senate floor last night:

more stimulus news from the Collins Newswire >>

National Journal's Tech Daily Dose had a post that explains a bit about what I'm doing these days:

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has a new position in her office that does not yet have a recognizable acronym on Capitol Hill when the hires of LAs, LDs, COSs, and AAs, are discussed. Collins’s new media director, Lance Dutson, will be charged with oversight of online forums, blogs, increased use of the Web site, Web video initiatives, and user-generated content. "Our use of new media will take many forms, the most obvious of which will be an increase in the use of our Web site as a medium for two-way communication," Dutson said in an email.

"We plan to dramatically increase our use of Web video to keep constituents abreast of what is happening in Washington, and to use the medium to explain both the process and the reasoning behind the legislative work that is done on their behalf," he said. Web video will provide an efficient way for Collins to speak directly to Mainers and provides a venue for her to hear concerns of her constituents, he said. The office will also boost communication through email and RSS distribution and employ micro-targeting, hyper-local blogs and user-generated content.

Read the whole story >>

The Collins campaign is announcing Shipbuilders for Collins, a coalition of over 150 BIW workers.

Here's the press release:

PORTLAND, Maine — In recognition of her unwavering commitment to the men and women who work at Bath Iron Works, today a coalition of shipbuilders pledged their support for Susan Collins for re-election to the United States Senate.

The Kennebec Journal endorsed Senator Collins for reelection today:

As Washington Post political reporter Shailagh Murray writes, if the Senate Democrats have 57 or 58 votes post-election, "the most powerful people in the Senate will be a handful of Republicans like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, along with Joe Lieberman."

The Press Herald is reporting on a new poll by Maine Democratic pollster Patrick Murphy's Pan Atlantic/SMS:
Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins holds a 21 percentage point lead over her Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, in a poll released today by a Portland market research firm.

The poll by Pan Atlantic SMS Group found that Collins had 57 percent of the vote, Allen had 36 percent and 7 percent were undecided.

http://news.mainetoday.com/updates/034562.html

Peter Chandler, chair of the Maine Democrats' Victory Campaign, is sending out emails that are putting a creative spin on Tom Allen's role in the Fannie Mae/ Freddie Mac fiasco.

In typical Maine Democratic Party style, Chandler is playing a shell game: he's calling Susan Collins a liar based on a statement he made up. Chandler and the Allen campaign are claiming Senator Collins criticized Allen for a vote against a bill - HR 1461. Clever attempt, but Chandler is not telling the truth. Collins has, instead, been critical of Allen's attempts to block amendments to the bill.

A SurveyUSA/WCSH6 poll is showing Senator Collins continuing to dominate Tom Allen. She leads 55-39, and holds a 14 point lead in Tom Allen's own district.

Here's the story:
http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=93318&catid=2

I'm on board the Collins for Senator campaign bus today, blogging and editing video as Senator Collins visits fire stations and police departments across Southern Maine. We're being escorted by a group of 25 or so firemen on motorcycles, wearing yellow 'Firefighters for Collins' shirts. It's an amazing scene as this bus and all of these bikes roll through these small towns, and the response we're receiving is unbelievable.