By Kevin Daley, 10-5-18, at The Daily Caller:
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced their support for Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court Friday afternoon, effectively assuring his confirmation.
Taking the floor shortly after 3:00 pm, Collins expressed hope that the judicial confirmation process — long in decay by the infestation of partisanship and outside interference — has finally hit rock bottom. She also criticized Democrats for announcing their opposition to Kavanaugh just moments after his nomination was announced at the White House.
After speaking at length about the judge’s judicial record, Collins expressed her admiration for the #MeToo movement, but concluded that the allegations marshaled against Kavanaugh were not sufficient to stop his confirmation.
“I do not believe that these charges can fairly prevent Judge Kavanaugh from serving on the Court,” Collins said, referring to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford allegations of sexual misconduct against the nominee.
Collins had lunch at midday Friday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who left their meeting expressing optimism about Kavanaugh’s confirmation process.
Moments after Collins left the floor, Manchin put out a statement announcing his support for Kavanaugh. Manchin is one of several Democratic incumbents standing for reelection in November in a state President Donald Trump carried in 2016.
“Based on all of the information I have available to me, including the recently completed FBI report, I have found Judge Kavanaugh to be a qualified jurist who will follow the Constitution and determine cases based on the legal findings before him,” Manchin said. “I do hope that Judge Kavanaugh will not allow the partisan nature this process took to follow him onto the Court.”
Republicans lavished praise on Collins’ speech, casting it in the tradition of Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican who risked her considerable political standing to oppose the nominations of Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court. Haynsworth and Carswell, both Nixon nominees, were defeated for confirmation.
President George H. W. Bush sent a rare tweet expressing his admiration for Collins. The Bush family owns a vacation compound in Collins’ state of Maine.
.@SenatorCollins — political courage and class. I salute my wonderful friend and her principled leadership.
— George Bush (@GeorgeHWBush) October 5, 2018
Mitch McConnell echoed Bush the elder’s remarks.
“It was an extraordinary speech,” McConnell said. “One of the best I’ve ever heard. It came at the right time.”
Republican senators greeted Collins’ remarks with a standing ovation. A steady line of GOP well-wishers approached Collins after her speech for hugs and handshakes, while GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Tom Cotton of Arkansas were seen exchanging a subtle fist bump.
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Everyone is praising Collins like she’s some kind of war hero, when in reality, she finally got on the Right side of things for maybe the first time ever in her career as a pro-choice senator.
Since her election in 1996, Collins publicly supported Roe v. Wade, voted against anti-abortion policies numerous times and received thousands of dollars from pro-abortion rights groups and individuals. GovTrack.us rates her ideology as middle of the road leaning slightly left as compared to that of other Republicans.
If anyone deserves applause it’s Senator Joe Manchin, who stated he will vote yes while disregarding the multitudes of whining screaming protestors. If the other Dems had an nth of his fairness, they would join him.
~Kathy
Categories: Political
Pesky Truth 
Yeah, I’ve read about Kavanaugh’s not so conservative (Constitutional) leanings. Could it be that we’ve got ourselves another Kennedy? Kind of doubt that but Kavanaugh may not be what we thought.
Collins? All I can say is God orders our steps. And it doesn’t matter who you are. He ordered the steps of Phaorh, Nebuchadnezzar and others. So, Collins was ordered by God Almighty. Even though she’s a quasi leftist.
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Kathy your comments are spot-on.
Republicans – the politicians and the pundits – are raving about Collins as if she sacrificed herself at the stake, and that’s going to come back to haunt them. In the future Democrats will hold her up as the voice of reason in the Republican Party based upon Republicans’ own words – you can take that to the bank. But it just wouldn’t be a day if Republicans weren’t shooting themselves in the foot.
Susan Collins does deserve credit for showing the country how a thoughtful, deliberative senator approaches the serious role of advice and consent with respect to Supreme Court justices, and how this contrasts starkly with the close-minded, childish bias displayed by nearly every Democrat. She did an admirable job of taking Democrats to task and showing well-deserved disgust for the way they’ve behaved, including righteous outrage towards the evil person who leaked Christine Ford’s letter. But keep in mind she also bragged about voting for Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
In the process of painstakingly explaining her decision process, however, the world may have learned that Kavanaugh is not the dependable conservative he’s been sold as, because she gave example after example of instances in which his writings or decisions favored the more liberal side. Her remarks were very concerning to me and gives credibility to the concerns voiced by people like Mark Levin early on in this process. This nasty confirmation may have served to make a conservative martyr of Kavanaugh when he really isn’t that conservative. Time will tell.
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Thanks, CW. Personally, I hope they rip Dianne Feinstein and her staff from stem to stern over 1) sitting on the letter for so long and 2) to investigate who leaked it. I doubt we’ll see or hear much about it though, because few have the gumption to fully pursue it.
It’s well known that Susan Collins would be one of the pivotal votes, and her staff have been on the receiving end of more threats than most of the Senators, so her stance is admirable. It won’t change her stance on future issues and votes, so while she could be right in pointing out that Kavanaugh may not be the staunch conservative we thought him to be, it’s a little like the pot calling the kettle black.
It’s possible his not-so-conservative decisions would have been pointed out and discussed before the cloture vote, had the Dems not turned him into a martyr with their Salem witch trials-part two.
Collins, along with Lindsey Graham, have pointed out their votes for Kagan and Sotomayor to show off their fair-mindedness to the Dems, but their efforts likely went right over their narrow-minded heads.
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