Susan Collins has decided what hill she’s going to die on…
…and it’s the hill of betraying the right.
I suppose she thinks this might get her re-elected. I doubt it. I think it seals her fate with Republicans in Maine, whom she needs in order to win. I could be wrong, but that’s what I think.
So I think what she has done in saying she won’t vote for a Trump nominee is to stab the right in the back while not helping herself at all, and therefore perhaps helping them lose the majority in the Senate as well.
Collins held firm during the Kavanaugh hearings, but unless she changes her mind again (which I don’t think she will) she’s folding on this. Maybe she’s tired of politics. Maybe she wants to retire and continue to live in Maine, and she doesn’t want any more death threats.
I have contempt for her. And her reasoning doesn’t even make sense, because there’s no rule about not taking a vote so close to the election. The rule is that the party controlling the Senate can vote or not vote, as it wishes. She knows that, and she knows that the Democrats would seize the opportunity to do whatever it took, if that opportunity ever came their way. With Garland, Democrats lacked that opportunity for the simple reason that they did not control the Senate, and the Republicans did control it. And yet what she’s doing now makes it more likely that Democrats will control the Senate come next January.
It’s not totally clear how all the other RINOs will vote, but I am very concerned that they will follow Collins. It’s up to McConnell to do his best to make sure they don’t. The situation is complicated by the fact that there are two votes on this. The first is whether to bring the nominee up for a vote, and the second is the vote on confirming the nominee. I believe that Collins is the only one of the RINOs who has already said she will vote “no” on both.
[ADDENDUM: I will add that I think Republicans in Maine should vote for Collins nevertheless. This is absolutely not the time to take some sort of vengeful/purist stand. It’s Collins or the Democrat, and this is the Senate. I will add that, if Collins does win and chooses to run again and some other Republican to the right of her decides to primary her and gets the nomination, that Republican will lose to the Democrat.
Maine is a very purple or even blue state, and conservatism is not popular there. Convservative LePage won the governorship by a fluke, because of a five-party race for his first term and a three-party race for his second. He never had a majority and he was quite unpopular. See this. I believe that Collins is the most conservative Republican that Maine would be willing to elect to the Senate, and she may lose this time anyway.]
Time for Collins to miss casting her vote because Covid. Probably strike Biden at about the same time.
The behavior of Collins (who made a very fine speech during the hearings on Kavanaugh) is truly baffling, but the Republicans can afford to lose the votes of three spineless members of the GOP (with Pence thereby casting the deciding vote); it seems unlikely that any more than three would risk alienating their constituents so egregiously on a matter of such importance. The antics of the hysterical RBG mourners alone should be sufficient reason for all rational citizens (and their representatives) to wish that a vote be taken as soon as possible.
Sen Collins’ fund raisers emailed me numerous times. I managed to hold myself back.
Now I’m glad.
It’s just not worth it to support someone like her.
I would much prefer to remember Susan Collins for her heroism—there’s no other word for it—in forcibly and eloquently countering and ultimately defeating the Kavanaugh obscenity foisted upon the judge, his family and the nation by a deranged, demented Democratic Party, whose destructive, vitriolic lunacy has since metastasized to even greater, far more disturbing and once unimaginable depths.
Yes, having then helped defeat the barbaric hooligans, her current decision may well be disappointing; but nothing can take away from her her previous heroic achievement.
Certainly, OMMV.
(And who knows? Maybe, just maybe, when push comes to shove, she’ll change her mind… Actually, though, what worries me is that Romney will change HIS….)
As they say, “It ain’t over til it’s over”….
If Susan Collins is truly representative of Maine, then my image of “Downeasters” was completely false. I thought they were supposed to be hearty, militantly independent to the point of recalcitrance, souls.
Instead, it would seem that they are simply Statists, with accents, who prefer to rely on government to (hopefully) solve all of their problems. In other words a bed room community for Massachusetts.
I suppose if there was a breath of independence and conservatism in Maine, the GOP would have primaried Collins hard.
Well, I doubt that anyone is surprised.
At least Romney did surprise a few folk. For the moment.
The ball is now in your court Murkowski.
Collins’ dilemma I can understand, Maine is weird state that teeters between red and blue. Murkowski is simply an entitled female dog.
I don’t respect this decision. She did so much better in the Kavanaugh mess. The Republican Senate and President were elected, and serve until January. She should fulfill the expectations of people who elected her.
It was an unnecessary statement, on the face of it. The Republicans would have gladly agreed with her privately that she should abstain from voting, because it’s more important that they retain the Senate seat through the election. The majority in the Senate is the prize above all else for Trump’s second term. An Arizona seat is in play in a special election, with the winner being seated at the end of November 2020, and it’s a close race. Is Collins implying that the vote would have to be held between election day and the end of November – assuming the worst? Maybe I’m missing something, but she shouldn’t have said anything – unless she thinks she’ll rope in more independent votes than the Republican votes she loses (and that’s possible in Maine).
Collins has always been weirdly principled in a way that outsiders would conclude is quirky and Yankee-ish: stubborn, contrary. I admired her for her courage on the Kavanaugh confirmation, and there have been other times, too. I think there is more to the story.
I think that Mitt Romney committing to vote on the confirmation was more newsworthy. I’m much more optimistic.
Given the repugnant , disgusting Borking of Kavanaugh by demonkrats, it is F’n unbelievable that any normal human would give a flying F what the demokrats say or desire in regards to nominating a Supreme court justice.
Recall that Joe Biden was the leader of the snake scum when he and his fellow demokrat vermin borked Clarence Thomas; basically accusing him of sexual assault. Biden at that time was the chair of the judiciary committee.
And Biden, when Senator, was one of the pieces of sheet (along with the murderer and total scum, Ted Kennedy) that borked Robert Bork. Biden bragged how he was instrumental in blocking Bork’s nomination.
If the situation were reversed – a demokrat president up for reelection , a demokrat majority senate, and the republicans demanding delaying until after the election the nomination for the court – the demokrats would tell the republicans to F off (but they always do this anyway).
But here we have this dumb POS Sue Collins who, for some inexplicable reason , is bending over for the demonkrats.
Does she think her decision will meet with reciprocity some time in the future?
Is she really that F’n stupid??
The stupidity of some (many?) republicans is incredible; they insist in following “rules” of some sort – real or imagined – while the dems play by their own rules, legal or otherwise.
Recall what Obama said: “if they bring a knife to the fight, we will bring a gun.”
When one side does not play by any semblance of the “rules” (or follow precedent) the side that insists on following rules (or make believe rules) is committing suicide for all those who believe the US Constitution should be followed.
Got to give credit where credit is due; the dems never break rank, they never give up, they play hardball, they bring guns to every fight. And they never ever compromise unless they have no choice
“Casting” the “deciding” vote is kind of redundant: the “casting” vote is the power to resolve a deadlocked vote. At some point in the 19th century I think “casting” became a verb for any kind of vote.
neo,
“I suppose she thinks this might get her re-elected.”
What other possible motivation might she have?
“unless she changes her mind again (which I don’t think she will) she’s folding on this.”
There is the perhaps slim possibility that the democrats will change her mind. Besides the increase in rioting, Senate democrat desperation is likely to make the Kavenaugh’s hearings appear civil and she may have the same reaction to it as led to Graham’s change of mind.
JohnTyler,
Recall what Obama said: “if they bring a knife to the fight, we will bring a gun.”
Won’t they be surprised when we show up with ‘assault’ rifles…
Democrats are appallingly stupid as well. They’re willfully blind to what waits for them upon the path they tread.
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:12 KJV
And here you have the crux of the matter: Their side threatens her with ostracism, physical abuse, death. Our side does not.
Do I need to draw us a picture?
I am minded of a cartoon I once saw. It was the aftermath of a duel. One unarmed man lying on the ground, bled out dead. Similarly attired gentleman standing above him holding a still smoking dueling pistol. His face covered in cream pie. Title of the cartoon: ‘A Moral Victory’.
The time for bowties and good manners is past for a season or two. They will come back for our grandchildren if we are very lucky.
if the appointee is so charming, Collins will vote for her. otherwise she is Ayotte
She’s a chronic temporizer and has been so her entire time in Congress. This is unsurprising. She’s also in a challenging re-election campaign. No clue why she wants a fifth term. She’s 68 years old and has been employed by the United States Congress for 35 of the last 45 years. She has one of those husband thingys retired in Bangor. Evidently she wants to ration the time she spends with him.
otherwise she is Ayotte
No, she is who she is and always has been. She’s David Gergen with a prodigious work ethic and poor work-life balance.
Ayotte is the janus-faced girl you knew in junior high.
Some folks, trying to understand Chief Justice Roberts’ decisions, wonder if somebody has something on him.
Or worse.
Now, now, Richard Aubrey… Don’t be making them bow ties spin like propellers.
As for Bath House Frequenter Physiognomy Chief Justices, I try to keep an open mind.
Watching this dog fight shaping up and wondering why Collins would play her hand so early reminds me of the crap going on four years ago.
Trying to figure all of this stuff out reminds me of a conversation I had with a good friend four years ago about this time. He was in a cancer support group with me, the same age now mid 70’s for me, and he said that the election in 2016 was one of the most fascinating things he had ever seen and he hoped he would live to see who one. He did live long enough for early voting but did not make the election and once more this is a most fascinating election and I am glad I am a cancer survivor unlike the other three men in our group.
We are a strong nation and us older folks might not see how this all balances out but there are a lot of people who have benefited from our wonderful system of government, lots from other countries, and in the end we will prevail and move on forward. My goodness we have had a good ride except for that 1860’s thing when we decided to fix the black problem and in the 1960’s when we went ahead and cleaned things up.
She is taking for granted the votes of the Republicans in the state, and pandering for Democrat votes. This behavior will not succeed. She should take a principled stand for the rule of law and the Constitution. That will lock in her Republican supporters. She won’t win tried and true Democrats either way. Stand on principle and win or lose, at least she could look herself in the mirror and say she did the right thing.
I’m a Maine voter, as of June 2020, will not vote for Gideon, but I may not vote for Collins based on this.
It’s possible that Collins has reached the point where she just wants Mommy and Daddy to stop fighting. There are a lot of different breeds of denial spawning out of the ongoing societal realignment.
You’ve got people like Jonah Goldberg, David French, and most of the folks at MSNBC finding out they’re not really the ideological warriors they thought they were.
You’ve got upper-middle class white folks in big cities people learning that, yes, other people exist in other places in America.
You’ve got Leftists acting like America 2020 is Russia 1917.
And you’ve got people who just want to close their eyes and wish it all away and pretend they haven’t been part of royally screwing their fellow Americans and the world at large.
Mike
Please, Maine voters, AZ voters, everywhere else voters, please vote Republican up and down the ballot. The Senate needs not to fall into Democratic hands. And the House needs to flip. We cannot reward Democrats with either abstaining from voting or voting Democrat. If you vote Republican, change towards a more just and free society will be slow. But if you abstain from voting or vote Democrat, the change toward socialism will be swift and very difficult in the future to turn around.
I think to Collins, doing anything she can do to protect abortion is paramount.
@Chases Eagles:
There’s something about infanticidal female ideologues makes me want to reach for my Riding Crop, err Browning.
Seriously, what is it with them?
The Republicans will thwart Trump in this last potential victory, and then he will get destroyed in the election by vote fraud through hundreds of thousands of fake ballots produced after Election Day. Get ready for Chief Justice Obama (or someone equally repellant), and the jailing/execution of any of you still registered as Republicans. I hope quisling Collins gets hanged by the Harris administration before my execution is scheduled.
As a Maine republican, I am horrified to have to choose between Collins and Gideon. Maine has a high percentage of liberals, mostly in southern Maine. I fear not voting for Collins is casting a vote for Sarah Gideon. Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Maybe she’s tired of politics. Maybe she wants to retire and continue to live in Maine, and she doesn’t want any more death threats.
*********
Maybe those that own the blackmail on her have given her marching orders.
It just dawned on me, if Trump gets a third one in the net he has a “Hat Trick” !
Just saying.
There is a reason the Republican Party is known as the “Stupid Party”.
She probably has permission from
McConnell. He can count.
leavingliberty:
Sorry, but “not voting for Collins is casting a vote for Sarah Gideon.” That’s pretty much it. Think of a vote for Collins as a vote for Republican control of the Senate, which is very very important.
I am guessing Collins was given permission to issue this statement by McConnell who clearly knows exactly how many votes he has in hand for both votes (Manchin may be a vote for moving the nomination to a confirmation vote, by the way, if not a confirmation itself).
I take Romney at his word, and it is likely that Romney made this announcement today precisely so Collins could make the opposition announcement.
With that out of the way, Collins is now toast in her election. Whoever is giving her advice to do this is someone not the be trusted with anything. She will lose at least 10,000 votes from people who would have otherwise supported her, and it won’t gain her more than a couple of hundred of votes from true independents. Really, would you vote for a traitor even if they hadn’t betrayed you? I wouldn’t.
She needs to be re-elected because owning the Senate for Rs matters most.
But she needs to be primaried next time & heckled every time she is out in public post-election.
How many swing/light blue votes would she otherwise lose if she supports the nomination? She is betting on the republican voters to understand the gravitation of situation and how important it is that she gets elected in order for republicans to remain control of senate so they would stay with her while she makes this hard decision so she could keep the swing/light blue votes in an election she needs every vote to win. If she loses and republicans lose control of both houses and possibly presidency too It is not Collins who is stupid but republican voters in her state choosing this dire straits time not to vote for her as some sort of principle grandstanding gesture.
She came up courageously in the Kavanaugh vote.
But she’s always been a pain in the ass – no doubt of that.
And yet – better her than Gideon.
Agree.
I would not contribute.
I would not support her in a primary.
I would not respect her.
But I would vote for her in the general.
It’s possible that Collins has reached the point where she just wants Mommy and Daddy to stop fighting.
I have a friend I value greatly who is on her staff. That person hardly talks shop outside the office, so I know nothing about her actual thinking that’s not in the papers in black letters. That person is loyal to the boss. NB, she has people working for her whose social and cultural viewpoint is far more traditionalist than her’s (whether or not that translates into policy perspectives). One thing I can tell you: my friend is frigging miserable about the whole cultural atmosphere on Capitol Hill today. “You walk down the hall, and on either side of you, you feel the hate”. The disposition you posit is certainly to be found in her office, and I would wager it’s hers as well.
But she needs to be primaried next time & heckled every time she is out in public post-election.
She’s 68. If she wins this year, the smart money says its her last term.
Speaking of moral high ground – see Zaphod’s comments above.
Not sure when the term “moral high ground” became a common phrase (Jimmy Carter??) but it really is a euphemism for suicide.
Those folks shot in the back and left to die on the barbed wire as they attempted to flee East Germany had the “moral high ground.”
Those 12 million souls herded into the gas chambers had the moral high ground.
Stalin’s 20 to 50 million victims had the moral high ground.
The many hundreds (thousands?) trying to escape from Cuba on makeshift rafts /boats who drowned during their efforts, had the moral high ground.
Those who utter that phrase must be totally ignorant of history.
Not sure when the term “moral high ground” became a common phrase (Jimmy Carter??) but it really is a euphemism for suicide.
Around about 1983, or a tad earlier. I think Charles Krauthammer wrote a brief article around that time about how tiresome the trope was. Title of the article was something like “Hanging out in MOHGRO Land”. Sort of reminds you that liberal politics and discourse has been about status games and striking poses for a very long time.
And here I’d been wondering if I should contribute to her campaign. Answers that question. I did contribute to Cory Gardner’s.
“She’s 68. If she wins this year, the smart money says its her last term.”
OTOH…Smart money said RBG would’ve retired etc…
A relative in Maine somehow thinks this is a good move for Collins as he says she’s lagging in polls behind her challenger. He’s not a fan of either candidate.
Meanwhile, police apprehended a female who has been cycling around Maine stuffing dog crap into the mailboxes of homes displaying Trump signs. https://heavy.com/news/2020/09/photo-maine-girl-put-poop-trump-supporters-mailboxes/
Whoever is giving her advice to do this is someone not the be trusted with anything.
She’s been up to her hips in Maine politics (bar some brief sojourns elsewhere) since 1975. She’s the expert. Not all the expert’s decisions pan out, of course.
This doesn’t make sense. It’s one thing to not agree to bring the nominee up for a vote, but what’s the point of not voting once the nominee is up for a vote? How does that have anything to do with principles or the moral high ground?
Can’t say I have my finger on the pulse of Maine voters.
Aside from Collins, the only other Maine resident I’m aware of is Stephen King and we all know what a liberal whackjob he is.
I’ve added an addendum to the post, indicating that I think Republicans in Maine should vote for Collins nevertheless, and why.
68 is barely mid age in politics
68 is barely mid age in politics
I agree with you a number of these characters are like Dianne Feinstein and insist on staying until they’re approaching 90. In re Maine:
Olympia Snowe: left Congress at age 65
John Baldacci: left Congress at age 48; left public office at age 55
Wm Cohen: left Congress at age 56, left public office at age 60
George Mitchell: left Congress at age 61; last turn at public office at age 77
Joseph Brennan: left Congress at age 56; last turn at public office at age 78
John McKiernan: left Congress at age 38; left public office at age 46.
Edmund Muskie: left Congress at age 66, last turn at public office at age 73
These are the voluntary retirements. Others were bounced out by voters (as may happen to Collins).
Maine is becoming !diverse! with POCs moving into Portland, where public schools distribute condoms to eight-graders, where 3 of 13 school board members are high-schoolers, and where cannabis has been legal since 2013.
It is not and for a long time has not been a state of hardy, self-sufficient people living off sea and land.
Maine’s other Senator, of whom no one ever hears anything, is an ex-gov., King by name, who like Bernie is not a Democrat but of course caucuses and votes with them.
Maine is not a state for political inspiration. It is a part of New England, the land of illiberal libs. Where Neo is surrounded, nay, inundated.
Can anyone name any good thing Collins has done as Senator other than her objection to Kavanaugh’s treatment? Which startled many because it was so un-Collins. Is she truly a functional member of the GOP?
Neo and Readers take note: Both Collins and Murkowski are now issuing qualifications to their declarations. There is more to come, I think……
Cicero:
The main thing Collins has done is contribute to the number of GOP senators going to make up a Senate majority and therefore to allow the GOP to control the Senate at times. Ordinarily, that helps to get judges through even when the House is Democrat, such as for the entire Trump administration. And I really think that without Collins, Maine would have elected a Democrat senator in her place long ago. Until now, she’s been a shoo-in in Maine.
Collins is the only New England Republican in the current Congress. She definitely has often voted with the Democrats, although apparently according to her Wiki page during the Trump administration she’s voted with the Republicans more often than previously.
Yes Neo, that is exactly why I will vote for her and hope fervently that she wins while wishing we had a better candidate.
“Both Collins and Murkowski are now issuing qualifications to their declarations.” – Aggie
That was the first thing I noticed. A little ambiguity in the phrasing to slip things by the unwary.
“I think to Collins, doing anything she can do to protect abortion is paramount.” – Chases Eagles
Ambiguity reigns.
https://www.salon.com/2019/06/06/pro-choice-susan-collins-has-voted-to-confirm-32-anti-abortion-trump-judges/
So does hypocrisy.
https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/23/both-are-in-the-same-church-but-media-love-joe-bidens-faith-and-hate-amy-coney-barretts/
The Deep State has leverage over many individuals. McCain included.
She isn’t all that special.
Your country, America, was never what you thought it was. Because the people in it did not serve the people. You served the government, as slaves.,
Collins is the only New England Republican in the current Congress. She definitely has often voted with the Democrats, although apparently according to her Wiki page during the Trump administration she’s voted with the Republicans more often than previously.
Collins in re her years as a Senator has a lifetime score of 43% from the American Conservative Union, the lowest of any Republican Senator. At the time she landed her first staff job on Capitol Hill (1975), about 1/3 of the Senate Republican caucus had been given the same rating or a lower rating by the American Conservative Union (on the basis of their votes recorded over the four calendar years running from the beginning of 1972 to the end of 1975). That bloc included Hugh Scott, who led the Senate Republican caucus.
Yammer has to yammer.