Just before Christmas, Susan Collins, a moderate Republican senator, was driving alone on that road, headed to her parents' home

when her cellphone rang.

It was Joseph R. Biden Jr., the soon-to-be vice president, calling to talk up the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan.

Less than two months later, Collins and Maine's other senator, Olympia J. Snowe, defied their party by casting two of the three Republican votes that Democrats needed Friday to pass President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan.

Democrats won them over by shrinking the package, stripping some items that Republicans considered pork. The votes immediately transformed Snowe and Collins into the most unlikely of Capitol Hill power duos

and gave notice that sparsely populated Maine is going to be a force to be reckoned with on the national stage

It's a situation tailor-made for moderate Republicans to become kingmakers.

Collins and Snowe

hold the key

Senator Mitch McConnell