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Maine Sen. Susan Collins has made a career of late out of being willfully dumb about Republicans' true intent. She did it for months on the Affordable Care Act and taxes, and she's been doing it for weeks on Brett Kavanaugh, the unindicted co-conspirator's nominee for the Supreme Court. She's already talked her way into pretending that he's not going to be the fifth vote on the court to destroy abortion rights, even after the revelations at his hearing last week in which his true beliefs were exposed.
Collins insists that when Kavanaugh mouths the word "precedent" it means something. "He often describes Roe as precedent upon precedent," she bleats, when Kavanaugh has said, directly that the "Court can always overrule its precedent." Collins remains steadfast in her determination that he wouldn't do that. "Roe v. Wade is a case that was decided in 1973 so it’s 45 years old. It was reaffirmed 26 years ago. If you look at how much a part of our society Roe is you could argue it would be very difficult to overturn." She's just as convinced Kavanaugh hasn't lied to her as she was that Mitch McConnell's promises on healthcare votes were real.
But speaking of lies, here's where Collins has a bit of a problem—actually, a big one. Because she also says "If in fact (Kavanaugh) was not truthful, then obviously that would be a major problem for me." There are at least five instances in which Kavanaugh likely perjured himself before Congress. Collins might try to rationalize her way into pretending that Kavanaugh wasn't lying, but it's not going to fly back home in Maine.
The most widely read and respected political columnist in Maine, Bill Nemitz, is making sure of that, writing this weekend that the "problem with Collins, as she inches her way toward what looks like a vote to confirm Kavanaugh, is that she’s trying to have it both ways."
Put more simply, she seems far too trusting of what Kavanaugh told her—echoing last winter's debacle when she voted for massive high-end tax cuts in exchange for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's promised protections of the beleaguered Affordable Care Act. After the tax bill passed, the promises went poof.
Collins has been playing games with her constituents, and she's been lying to them.
Health care activist and Mainer Linda Homer blew the whistle on her on Twitter over the weekend. Collins has been saying that she's not hearing from constituents on the nomination, but Homer was in her office in Bangor on Friday, watching her aides take constituent calls without recording them, without taking names, without taking notes. If she's not hearing from her constituents, it's because she doesn't want to. As Nemitz says, this means that with the "looming 2020 election, Mainers long comfortable with Collins and her pro-choice persona will find themselves in a decidedly different mood when it comes to her political future."
He concludes: "The word 'hostile' comes to mind."
The people of Maine need to call her on it. Directly. Every day. At her office numbers: (207) 622-8414, (207) 945-0417, (207) 283-1101, (207) 493-7873, (207) 784-6969, (207) 780-3575, (202) 224-2523. And since she's ignoring calls, she needs to see them in person.
Do you live in Maine? You have a powerful voice in stopping Trump's Supreme Court nominee. Click here to write Sen. Collins.