“Susan Collins” on The Daily Caller

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is vowing to bring the immigration-related “DREAM Act” to the Senate floor and some Senate Republicans are sounding the alarm bells, highlighting that it would offer amnesty to an estimated 2.1 million illegal aliens. (more)

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are co-signing an amicus, or friend of the court, brief to be submitted to the federal court in Florida that will hear a constitutional challenge of the federal health care reform law. (more)

Well, it didn’t take long. The Republican Party was handed an historic opportunity with women. For the first time since the advent of exit polling data in 1982, women voters favored the GOP in the 2010 election. A rather shocking occurrence given that just two short years ago, President Obama had a 14-point advantage with women. What does the GOP do with this historic opportunity? Blow it! (more)

Harry Reid’s gambit to attach the DREAM Act as an amendment to this year’s Defense Authorization Bill failed miserably last week.  Republicans, who strongly oppose DREAM as a stand-alone measure — but might one day consider it as part of broader immigration reform legislation — weren’t biting.  Reid, however, never expected them to.  He wanted Republicans to vote DREAM down so that that he could continue to paint the GOP as “anti-immigrant” with Latino voters back in Nevada.  Reid’s been in a dead-heat with Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle for months, and may well lose his seat.  Latinos comprise 22% of the Nevada electorate, and voted 3-1 for Obama in 2008.  Reid desperately needs to get them to the polls. (more)

NEW YORK (AP) — An unusually large contingent of female Republican candidates with strong anti-abortion views is heating up debate on the issue and could change the political equation in the next Congress. (more)

The DISCLOSE Act, a campaign finance bill that forces organizations that run political advertisements to reveal their funding sources, would not take effect until after the November midterm elections if passed, New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said Wednesday.

Republicans blocked the bill in July, and Schumer said he hoped the change in the bill’s date of enforcement would sway at least one Republican vote, which is needed to block another filibuster. (more)

Despite a last-minute appeal from pop icon Lady Gaga, two moderate Republican senators said Tuesday morning that they will not break with their party on a key vote that would set the stage for a repeal the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. (more)

MILL HALL, Pa. (AP) — For many in this stretch of rolling forests, small towns and dairy farms, images of the two U.S. Senate candidates are shaped by the steady stream of television commercials that cast Democrat Joe Sestak and Republican Pat Toomey as extremists who are wrecking the economy. (more)

During post-election analysis, Republican luminaries stumbled badly in discussing Christine O’Donnell on the night of the Delaware senatorial primary. (more)

As Senate Democrats come back from another long hot summer, one would think that their focus would be our struggling economy and job creation.  But even though the unemployment rate is stuck at 9.6 percent, Senate Democrats’ main focus is not jobs; it’s President Obama and Senator Schumer’s crusade against the First Amendment.  Senator Schumer and other anti-First Amendment Democrats have floated the idea of resurrecting the DISCLOSE Act during this work period.  Senator Schumer failed back in July when he brought this ill-conceived legislation to the Senate floor, and now he is going to try again while Americans are still looking for work. (more)

The Tea Party effect may have hit Maine’s sometimes-liberal Republican Senator Olympia Snowe on Friday as a new Public Policy Polling poll suggested she might have to consider running as a Democrat in 2012 if she wants to keep her job – something that conservative Scott D’Amboise, who announced his candidacy back in February, is jumping at. (more)

I’d like to re-visit a quote from Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), circa 1996: (more)

Using the classic Washington fib that “It’s paid for,” Congress is spending an extra $26-billion to bail out state governments (who already got the lions’ share of last year’s failed $787-billion “stimulus” bill). (more)

A $26 billion measure to help states and local school boards with their severe budget problems faces a make-or-break vote Wednesday as Senate Democrats try one last time to advance their faltering jobs agenda. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Last-minute money to save the jobs of tens of thousands of teachers and other public workers overcame a Republican filibuster Wednesday and sped toward Senate passage. The House, under pressure to help hard-pressed schools nationwide, was being called back from its summer break for an expected final vote next week. (more)

With less than two weeks until the August recess, the U.S. Senate has a lot on its plate. In addition to Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan’s hearing, the Senate will consider a number of bills covering topics ranging from taxes to food safety to my favorite topic, energy. (more)

Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama on Monday criticized Republican opposition to a Senate campaign finance bill, calling it partisan gamesmanship that threatens to give special interests undue influence on U.S. elections. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Senator Susan Collins said Friday that she would vote to confirm Elena Kagan as a Supreme Court justice, breaking with her party to back President Barack Obama’s nominee. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a GOP filibuster safely broken, the Senate is poised to pass legislation restoring jobless benefits for millions of people unable to find work in the frail economic recovery. (more)

Does anyone think there might be something suspicious behind the timing of President Obama’s quick family vacation to Maine this past weekend? (more)