Just in case there's any question that Sen. Susan Collins has abandoned her "bipartisan" or "moderate" street cred for the 2020 election, let this dispense with it: She's got former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, probably the Trumpiest governor to ever serve, on her side.

"I absolutely endorse Sen. Collins. I never had a problem with her," LePage told the Bangor Daily News last week. "We have some issues. We may have policy issues once in a while, but I've always supported her." Never mind that in 2016 he said he'd "cooked her goose" with Republicans in the state when she announced she wouldn't vote for Trump. In fact, that statement could be what precipitated Collins’ decision to become a Trumper—she didn't want to face a serious primary, and LePage would certainly have been happy to give her one. Since Collins has fallen into line, LePage is more interested now in getting his old job back, saying he'll challenge Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in 2022, though he won't make it official until after the 2020 election.

So now that she's got that dispensed with, she can spend her time on being disappointed that people want her to do tough things in her job, and sad that people criticize her when she does stuff they don't like, such as not having town meetings for more than two decades. Here's how she responds to those criticisms:

All she has to do to counter that is show up at the town halls. She’s been invited. Repeatedly.

Published with permission of Daily Kos