The Huffington Post yesterday ran a preview look at former White House speech writer Matthew Latimer’s new book, Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor. In it, Latimer mostly examines the atmosphere in the waning days of the Bush Administration – and is not too flattering in his take.

But of interest to Pine Tree Politics (and also Mike Tipping, who nabbed this before I saw it), Latimer also touched on a number of interesting anecdotes – one of which involved “Our Senator”, Susan Collins:

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins is fond of sending angry, middle-of-the-night e-mails to staffers because she’s frustrated that her colleague and rival Olympia Snowe gets more and better press. As a result, reports Latimer, she rips through press secretaries like 30-packs at a beer-pong tournament. (A Collins press secretary didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

Interestingly, I have heard this kind of chatter more than once.  Specifically that all of the talk of Maine’s Senators as a monolithic duo of moderation is not at all accurate, and that in neither likes the other very much.  How much truth there is to that buzz is an open question, but I do find this blurb pretty funny none the less.

I’ve put in an email to a couple former Collins staffers that I know – but haven’t heard back yet.

UPDATE:  I have received some feedback from a few contacts in the Senator’s office (and some who have moved on).  The most oft repeated line from them has been opposition to the “rips through press secretaries like 30-packs at a beer pong tournament” comment.  The over-riding point has been made that Collins has only had 4 Communications Directors in 13 years in Washington, each of whom left for excellent opportunities elsewhere, and most stayed for a long period of time.

No specific pushback on the idea that there is a Collins-Snowe rivalry, though.

For anyone confused about the title of this post: