The picture said it all: Susan Collins, Republican senator from Maine, at the state dinner last week. Not only at the dinner but placed in the best seat in the house--right next to George W. Bush. "It was the president's idea," coos a top White House adviser. "He really likes Susan." Absent (that is, not invited) was the senior Republican senator from Maine, Olympia Snowe. Even by Washington standards, it was a pretty good snub. "The president wanted to say thanks" to Collins, says an aide, because she wound up supporting his $350 billion tax cut after holding back at...