There are two nominally pro-choice women in the Senate Republican conference: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine. Both voted Tuesday to confirm an aggressively anti-choice nominee to the 9th Circuit, Daniel Collins. That's the federal appeals court that's been most crucial in stopping Donald Trump's actions, and it's about to flip in his favor.
One of those senators, Susan Collins, is up for re-election in 2020. Apparently she's more worried about fending off a primary opponent that standing up for what used to be her principles, or for the people who have helped get her elected all these years. In fact, this is at least her ninth vote for an anti-choice nominee, with Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh topping the list.
This judge has proven his misogyny and his forced birth bona fides plenty of times in court filings , in arguments, in book reviews, in articles, and in the political donations he's made over the years. That includes donations to eight current Republican senators, seven of whom voted for him last night (the eighth, Ron Johnson, wasn't there to vote). So those donations worked out well for him. It's really, really impossible to think that any Republican senator was not completely aware of exactly who this guy is, though Collins will undoubtedly try, if pressed. Playing dumb about reality is what she does.
Daniel Collins is also an extra special case because he's one of a raft of recent nominees that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has advanced over the objections of home-state Democrats, in this case Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris. This is the first time in modern history judges have been confirmed by an entirely partisan vote over the objections of the senators representing the states where the vacancies are being filled.
That makes for two strikes against Susan Collins on just this one vote, betraying the women who helped get her elected and boosting Mitch McConnell's destruction of the Senate.
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