Susan Collins Give GOP Address

Sen. Susan Collins from Maine gave the Republican weekly address, in which she excoriates the Obama administration for coddling the Christmas Day Bomber. As weekly addresses go, this one is exceptionally well-written and takes on added punch because it comes from a moderate Republican.

First Collins blasts the Obama administration for failing to connect the dots -- allowing Abdulmutallab to board the plane even after his own father tried to turn him in to the authorities:

The government’s security system, a front line in the war against terrorists, failed long before Abdulmutallab boarded his flight to the United States.

It failed when his visa wasn’t revoked, even though his father had warned our embassy in Nigeria about his son’s ties to Islamic extremists.

It failed when the intelligence community was unable to connect the dots that would have placed Abdulmutallab on the terrorist watchlist.

It failed when this terrorist stepped on to the plane in Amsterdam with the same explosive used by the ‘Shoe Bomber,’ Richard Reid, more than 8 years ago.

Then Collins takes on the administration's bizarre decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab and let him lawyer-up after just 50 minutes of questioning -- 20 minutes less than Obama's State of the Union speech:

When the Obama administration decided to treat Abdulmutallab as an ordinary criminal, it did so without the input of our nation’s top intelligence officials.The Director of National Intelligence was not consulted.

The Secretary of Defense was not consulted.

The Secretary of Homeland Security was not consulted.

The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center was not consulted.

They would have explained the importance of gathering all possible intelligence about Yemen, where there is a serious threat from terrorists whose sights are trained on this nation. They would have explained the critical nature of learning all we could from Abdulmutallab. But they were never asked.

President Obama recently used the phrase that ‘we are at war’ with terrorists. But unfortunately his rhetoric does not match the actions of his administration.The Obama administration appears to have a blind spot when it comes to the War on Terrorism.

And, because of that blindness, this administration cannot see a foreign terrorist even when he stands right in front of them, fresh from an attempt to blow a plane out of the sky on Christmas Day.

Two points jump out. First, Collins sometimes votes with the Democrats on domestic issues. Nonetheless, she is no liberal squish on the issue of Islamofacism. Second, by noting who the administration failed to consult before it decided to treat the Christmas Day Bomber like a common criminal, Collins makes clear that Attorney General Eric Holder is endangering the lives of all of us. He should be sacked.