I disagree with the Oct. 14 editorial, “Senators’ weak words make strong statements.” The concluding statement: “Maine is lucky to have two senators unafraid to speak their minds,” is misguided and flat wrong.

Not only are the senators Republican, which means they help keep Republican control of the Senate, but they also vote to further the right-wing agenda of the Bush administration. These senators voted for the invasion and the continuing disastrous occupation of Iraq, voted to confirm radical activist judges to the U.S. Supreme Court, voted for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, voted to approve reckless deficit spending that’s bankrupted our country and created the largest national debt in history.

These senators have failed in their Congressional duties. Sen. Olympia Snowe sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee where, instead of overseeing intelligence gathering by the Bush administration, she voted to retroactively approve warrantless wiretapping, thereby eliminating any need, or purpose, for oversight.

Sen. Susan Collins is chairwoman of the Standing Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, where she oversees activities of the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Under her management was the Katrina debacle, billions lost to waste, fraud, and theft, and the failure to secure ports, railways, and borders.

Most recent, our senators approved the “Military Commissions Act,” one of the worst laws in American history. It allows our president sole discretion – with his hand-picked commission’s approval – to declare any American an “enemy combatant” and secretly arrest, imprison and torture them without access to a court. Our Democratic congressmen voted against this shameful legislation.

About this law, George Washington University constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley said: “The Congress just gave the president despotic powers and you could hear the yawn across the country as people turned to ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ It’s otherworldly. People clearly don’t realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country.”

It’s the job of the Sun Journal to help people understand the senators’ real nature and the harm they are doing, rather than praise them as outspoken mavericks.

The Bush administration is not moderate; it is radical and extreme. Senators who enable and abet this administration are not “moderates” either. It’s unlucky that they represent us. Their “weak words,” as the editorial described, are that: weak. We need strong leadership and real courage, not empty rhetoric after Bush’s failures have become obvious and ‘politically correct’ to oppose.

The only chance to save American values is retiring the Republicans, including our senators, from Senate control and replace them with Democrats.

Jeffrey Rosenblatt, Albany Township