Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) apparently doesn't want to be elected in Maine again. Maybe she is operating under some delusion that there's something bigger for her out there, because she sure as hell is burning her bridges with the people who helped get her elected in the first place. Officially, she is undecided on Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court pick of the Russian asset in the Oval Office. Unofficially, however, it appears the fix has been in since even before the nomination was made public.
A source close to Collins’s staff tells the Huffington Post's Laura Bassett that Collins consulted with Trump before it was finalized, and signed off on Kavanaugh. Collins's spokeswoman, Annie Clark, gives a weak denial to the report, telling HuffPost "that while the senator talked extensively with Trump throughout the process of choosing a nominee, she 'never gave [the White House] a list and never committed to supporting anyone.'" Yeah, in all those "extensive" talks with Trump, Collins never indicated who she'd be willing to rubber stamp.
It's not really been much of a question, particularly after she met with Kavanaugh and told reporters that when she asked him about abortion rights, he said "that he agreed with what [Chief Justice John] Roberts said at his nomination hearing, at which he said that it was settled law," and that his answer on Roe was "very strong." Sure, Roberts might have said in his confirmation hearings that Roe is settled law, but that's talk in a hearing. Since he's been on the court, he's voted to uphold a late-term abortion ban, voted with the minority against a majority ruling that states could not place an undue burden on a woman's access to abortion, and voted to overturn California's regulation of anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers.
It's all semantics for Collins—as long as she hears the code words "precedent," "settled law," and "Roe," she'll ignore the willingness of these justices to chip away at abortion rights until there's nothing left. She'll pretend that she's not complicit in the erosion of women's reproductive rights, that she's not the key vote that could end this nomination and uphold the principles that she supposedly represents.
Every Democratic senator must announce their opposition to Kavanaugh’s confirmation immediately. Use this tool to tell your senators—Democratic and Republican—to oppose this confirmation.
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