As a resident of a bordering state widely ridiculed on Maine bumper stickers, I have not followed Sen. Susan Collins’ career closely or had an opportunity to vote for or against her. Her Senate speech on Oct. 5 explaining her vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court showed that she clearly takes her job seriously. She filled 43 minutes with more than 4,000 words that strongly reinforced her desire to be liked and respected as a free and independent thinker, as opposed to her rubber-stamping Republican colleagues.
From my point of view, she cast a brave and honorable vote against gutting public health care through the Affordable Care Act, but helped the rich gain billions at the expense of average Americans with her vote for the giveaway Republicans called “tax reform.” She has been the senator most likely to vote against her party’s positions in her nearly 20 years of service (about 41 percent of the time) but decreased that percentage markedly since Trump has been in office, siding with the Trump agenda 87 percent of the time in 2017.
Her position as a “swing vote” singles her out for extraordinary praise and criticism, even though her single vote carries exactly the same weight as her 99 peers. Democratic Senator Manchin also voted for Kavanaugh’s appointment but has drawn a fraction of the criticism directed at Collins, while Republican Senator Murkowski finessed her views by voting “present” rather than “yes” or “no.” After Collins’ announcement, both of their votes became inconsequential on any but a symbolic level. They submitted to the ugly process of political sausage-making: no one wants to witness the process, but appreciate the result – or at least generally support the machinery established by the Constitution.
Like most of us, Collins cherry-picked facts and ideas that supported her decision while ignoring or overruling those that point in the other direction: Kavanaugh’s support for women in the judiciary vs. compelling but (understandably) uncorroborated testimony of sexual assault; the American Bar Association’s highest rating for Kavanaugh’s qualifications vs. its later call for a pause in the process and a full FBI investigation (not the limited one accepted by the Judiciary Committee); particular court decisions that showed judicial independence vs. Kavanaugh’s angry, partisan attacks on Democrats and super-partisan work for the last Republican administration; Kavanaugh’s reputation for integrity vs. his misleading testimony to Congress in previous confirmation hearings about his work for radical-right judges. (His clarifications brought memories of Bill Clinton’s slippery performance under oath in debating the meaning of the word “is,” a rightful hallmark of conservative scorn.)
But her greatest sin of omission is her condemnation of the confirmation process as more “a caricature of a gutter-level political campaign than a solemn occasion.” Her hope that the process has “finally hit rock bottom” ignores the fact that Republican actions of two years ago destroyed the process as effectively as a ground-zero missile strike, actions she strongly opposed at the time. When Republicans refused to hold hearings on President Obama’s nominee in March 2016 on pretexts as flimsy and transparent as gossamer, it was the height (or depth) of Machiavellian tactics which view the Constitution as an inconvenience rather than a commanding foundation.
In her speech, she heaped criticism on the efforts of Democrats and “special-interest groups” to derail Kavanaugh’s appointment, while conveniently forgetting the previous Republican crime committed in broad daylight. Their deeds brought the confirmation process far below a “gutter-level political campaign” by utilizing a power play more typical of a banana republic. Republicans disregarded centuries of precedent and custom to achieve power they couldn’t gain in any historically or morally acceptable way. Horrifically, it brought Senate President Mitch McConnell to what he described as one of his “proudest moments . . when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, ‘Mr. President, you won’t fill this Supreme Court vacancy.’”
Senator Collins has stood against some Republican positions and actions, but her speech supporting the Kavanaugh confirmation sidestepped the certain retribution by President Trump and other Republican leaders. Her analysis of the hearings did not mention her own opposition to the most consequential and successful congressional attack on the Constitution in history. Regardless of her previous positions on Republican and Democratic nominees, her Kavanaugh speech and vote validated the results of the grand theft perpetrated by Republicans in 2016. She stood by her principles in many instances over the years, but it now appears that she too has been overwhelmed by the “end justifies the means” political tactics of recent years.
Allen Woods is a freelance writer and author living in Greenfield. Comments are welcome here or at his book’s web site, www.theswordandscabbard.com or awoods2846@gmail.com.