Desparately Seeking Susan

By CJP | February 6, 2009

After two months of talk, up to $920 billion of proposed spending and tax cuts, one bi-partisan White House cocktail party and three weeks of heavy duty back-and-forth, the fate of the entire stimulus package seems to be coming down to one woman:  Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican  of Maine.

Collins, a former Capitol Hill staffer herself, is a moderate who is usually focused on issues like homeland security.  But her spot at the ideological center of the Senate has made her a key vote as the Democrats struggle to get to 60 votes on the stimulus bill.

President Obama invited her to White House this week for a one-on-one meeting to talk about what it would take to get her vote on the bill.  Yesterday, Collins paired up with Democrat Ben Nelson to get a group of about 20 moderates together to come up with a compromise bill everyone could support. 

This morning, word came that Collins had been meeting in Harry Reid’s office to negotiate a stimulus that’s big enough to suit the Dems (at least $800 billion), but small enough and targeted enough on jobs to get Collins and her fellow moderate Republicans, and even some moderate Democrats, on board. 

Stay tuned, Janes…

Topics: Economy, Senate, Women in Politics

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