BREAKING: Angus King will announce at 3:30 which party he plans to caucus with

[njwes]

If you're truly an independent, why is it wrong for you to change who you caucus with? He's not a Democrat.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but here he'd clearly be doing it for opportunistic rather than ideological reasons. Plus, if he goes over to the Republicans now, the Dems should not take him back if he tries to come running back in 2016 if they retake the senate.

But I do think that there's something to be said for opportunism--after all, as part of the majority he will have a somewhat better platform to voice Maine's interests. I guess the fact that Collins is already in the Senate negates that argument a bit, but still.

[njwes]

I won't criticise him if he does caucus with the GOP. He's an elected independent who's beholden to neither of the parties. That being said, if I were him I'd stick with the Democrats to avoid becoming associated with the extremist GOP.

I actually imagine that Mitch McConnell would really like him on the GOP side, precisely because of the radicalism of some of the Pub Senators. Sasse, Cruz, et al have the potential to cause enormous problems for McConnell and having a centrist in the Collins mold would be very helpful for some of the close votes that will inevitably come up.

[njwes]

I won't criticise him if he does caucus with the GOP. He's an elected independent who's beholden to neither of the parties. That being said, if I were him I'd stick with the Democrats to avoid becoming associated with the extremist GOP.

I actually imagine that Mitch McConnell would really like him on the GOP side, precisely because of the radicalism of some of the Pub Senators. Sasse, Cruz, et al have the potential to cause enormous problems for McConnell and having a centrist in the Collins mold would be very helpful for some of the close votes that will inevitably come up.

LOL, when you have 51 whackjob Senators, what does it matter if there's some moderates too?

Come come now the election's over, no need to be an ideological hack for at least a few months