Aunt Susan’s on the Take.

How did Maine’s Senator Susan Collins go from a negative net worth when she was elected to now having millions?

Susan Collins radiates the energy of your grandmother’s sister—if your grandmother happens to be Blanche Hudson. For years, many of us were bamboozled into believing this seemingly innocuous moderate Republican actually represented decency in an increasingly radicalized party. But let’s be clear: Susan Collins is not innocuous. She’s not decent. She’s just a less obvious catastrophe. Baby Sue.

She’s perfected a particular political theater: the furrowed brow, the hand-wringing, the carefully staged consternation before every consequential vote. We know the routine now. The “concerns.” The “disappointment.” The telegraphed anguish designed to signal just how gosh-darn conflicted she feels right before voting to strip away rights, confirm extremist judges, or enable the very worst impulses of her party.

And here’s the thing about the Senate that makes Collins particularly insidious: despite all the rhetoric about representing Maine, the structure gives her an outsized voice in all our li…