The ego meter idles at 35 as Collins celebrates casting her 10,000th consecutive vote. Hitting the threshold first feels like proof she alone understands Senate duty.
It climbs to 55 once the streak gets sold as historic evidence of iron discipline. The fact that this is happening during a tumultuous re-election suddenly reads like proof the voters are the problem.
At 75 the story shifts into legacy mode. Missing even one vote would apparently rewrite the Constitution, so the unbroken record now outranks any policy question on the table.
The needle hits 90 when the campaign starts treating attendance itself as the main achievement. Everything else, including the actual race, gets demoted to background noise.
By the time the meter maxes out, the 10,000th vote has become the entire argument for why the seat should stay occupied.
