On Aug. 19, The New York Times reported that Sherry Lansing and Casey Wasserman were organizing a bipartisan Hollywood fundraiser for Republican Sen. Susan Collins, celebrating her “moderation.” In Maine, we checked the calendar — was it April Fools’ Day?

After many years, we know two things about Sen. Collins: she is not a moderate, and even if she were, it wouldn’t matter.

Collins strategically casts a few symbolic votes against Republican leadership to maintain an illusion of moderation, but only when her vote can be spared. She knows how to count to 50, and so do they. Maybe that performance impresses Hollywood, but most Mainers know it’s just a show.

GOP leaders tolerate it because her seat helps them keep the majority. That’s the real power. The Senate majority controls committee chairs, agendas, the legislative calendar, everything. Mitch McConnell used that power to lock in three far-right Supreme Court justices; Collins helped (Collins voted for McConnell as majority leader every time).

So, even if Collins were an authentic moderate, her presence as a Republican Senate seat secures the GOP’s majority power — power it has put in the service of President Trump’s abuses.

Those organizing this benefit seem stuck in a fictional version of American politics — “The West Wing,” not 2025 Washington. Today’s politics are defined by brute force, not productive, respectful moderation. Collins’ Republican Senate seat keeps those politics in place.

This fundraiser doesn’t celebrate moderation. It helps sustain Republican power. It’s not just misguided. It’s a terrible April Fools’ joke.

John Shibley
Eliot