PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine U.S. Sen. Susan Collins says it's time to elevate the level of political discourse in America.

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Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., looks on at left, as the committee's ranking Republican Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011, to discuss a Senate report on the Fort Hood shooting that is sharply critical of the FBI and its failure to adequately share information with the military about the alleged shooter's extremist views. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

In a text of a speech she'll give at the Cumberland Club in Portland, the Republican says last month's shootings in Tucson, Ariz., that left six people dead spurred a discussion of the need for a more civil tone in public debate. Collins says that discussion is long overdue.

Collins says that for too many in politics today, the goal of achieving solutions has been replaced by drawing sharp distinctions and scoring political points.

Collins' speech comes a day after an announcement that former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton — a Republican and a Democrat — will be honorary co-chairmen of a new national institute to promote civility in political discourse.