Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) did a remarkable thing Thursday. She decided to be a human being before being a politician in announcing her intent to vote against the Supreme Court nominee. "When I listened to Dr. Ford testify, I heard the voices of women I have known throughout my life who have similar stories of sexual assault and abuse. Countless North Dakotans and others close to me have since reached out and told me their stories of being raped or sexually assaulted—and expressed the same anguish and fear," she wrote.
"Survivors should be respected for having the strength to share what happened to them—even if a generation has since passed. They still feel the scars and suffer the trauma of abuse," she said. She listened. She responded. She decided she would rather wake up every morning as someone she could live with even if that meant not waking up every morning a United States senator.
Apparently, that's something Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) are struggling with. They watched the same hearing in which Dr. Christine Ford Blasey "gave heartfelt, credible, and persuasive testimony," as Heitkamp said. The same hearing that, for her, "called into question Judge Kavanaugh's current temperament, honesty, and impartiality." That they could watch those two people testify on the same day and still stand with their fingers in the wind is a testament to their own lack of character.
Yes, there's all the political maneuvering, there's the unceasing pressure from leadership on the Republican side, pressure trickling down from Donald Trump. The man who stood in front of a national television audience and mocked Dr. Ford.
In marked contrast to Heitkamp, Collins hid from all the people who had come from Maine to meet with her, using Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), as a human shield. She's standing with her finger to the wind, refusing to announce her position until she knows whether she'll have the protection of being with the majority. Flake is just hiding, "using a series of hidden passages and tunnels to escape media hordes."
Manchin and Murkowski are at least meeting with constituents. One can only hope they actually hear the voices of the survivors, the same voices that moved their colleague, Sen. Heitkamp. [ed. Murkowski did hear it.] One can only hope that they decided to be decent human beings.
We’ll know as soon as 10:30 AM ET, when they vote on cloture.