With Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins voting to confirm the very conservative Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, it shows they are not the moderates their public relations campaigns would have the public believe.

Consistently they have both played up sitting on the fence, “deliberating” on high profile issues, only to vote conservatively at the final moment. A week after the vote, which does the public remember: all the media spots pushing this fallacy, or that their vote helped pass the fundamentalist Republican agenda? Chances are, the polishing of the moderate image stands out.

Both politicians have gone against their party’s leadership on those issues that any elected official from Maine would have to support in order to get re-elected. Bath Iron Works contracts, the environment and heating assistance moneys are prime examples of this. The truth is, they have voted more often to support big business concerns over those of the citizens of Maine. Just a year ago, they both voted against an amendment to raise the federal minimum wage rate.

There are many bills and amendments that don’t get exposure in the media that have deep, long-term effects on daily life. Those votes show their true conservative colors (voting records are available on the Web).

Historically, Maine has almost always elected moderates, whether they were Republican or Democrat.

The bottom line is, the party with the most members elected controls which bills get voted on.

Voters need to remove Republicans from office.

Thomas McDonald-Sawyer, Auburn