We keep learning the same painful lesson over and over again in this country, that if we are waiting for Maine Senator Susan Collins to save our rights and liberties, we wait in vain.
Because as of right now, the Supreme Court is packed with Spectrumy Ideological Suicide Bombers, and somehow despite all her misgivings, lower lip pulling, anguished cries, Senator Collins managed to vote for all of them.
But then, I've been saying for years that "republican moderation" is basically a racket. It allows access to certain fundraising resources that are denied to a grass-eater and it gets plenty of good ink from credulous outfits like the Boston Globe that are eager to pretend that "moderate republicans" are a potent force within the GOP.
In voting for Kavanaugh last week, Senator Collins simply buried for good the notion that "republican moderation" abides and is well positioned to "moderate something". She sat silently as Judge Kavanaugh slipped into a berserker rage and literally blamed his binge drinking on Hillary Clinton when he wasn't pledging allegiance to some notional one party state. Maybe you can make an argument that there is but hearsay evidence as to his drinking and philandering...but the man basically shouted threats at the US Senate, and the lot of them and Susan Goddamn Collins just sat there!
Simple regard for judicial impartiality and sanctity of the US Senate dictated a "No Vote", but McConnell, Grassley & Graham long ago emigrated to a dark foreign place where any conflict between the Constitution and mere Ideology must be won by the One True Faith.
I give Senator Heitkamp her due, she correctly saw the mortal threat posed to an impartial judiciary by Judge Kavanaugh's bestial outburst and voted no accordingly, she at least has a sense of institutional self preservation.
Otherwise the US Senate has officially hit rock bottom, why should they defend any of our rights, when they won't even stand up for their own dignity?
My big takeaway from all this is that threats, belligerence and escalation all work, at least on the US Senate.
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