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Game Over: Sen. Collins Announces She's Voting To Confirm Kavanaugh

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  October 05, 2018 3:35 PM

The wait is over. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), one of the key votes in this fight to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court has made her decision. She had lunch with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell earlier today. McConnell said he was "optimistic" about this vote. Collins took to the Senate floor to announce that she’s voting Brett Kavanaugh.

In a lengthy speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Collins took a thorough review of the Senate’s advise and consent powers, lamented about the dysfunction, the hyper-partisan circus that ensued, and bashed Democrats, albeit underhandedly, on their egregious overreach in this fight. While not naming him, Collins cited the third accusation, that Kavanaugh was part of a gang rape ring, as part of her affirmation that the presumption of innocence must be taken into account when dealing with these issues. 

The process has been engulfed in chaos and bitter partisan fighting, as Christine Blasey Ford lobbed the first of three sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh. All three are lacking in evidence or corroborating witnesses. Ford claims a drunken 17-year-old Kavanaugh tried to rape her at a high school party, though she cannot remember key details. How this gathering was organized, whose house it was held in, how she got there, and how she got home after the alleged attack is unknown; she can’t remember. Ford wrote a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) office during the summer. Feinstein sat on it for weeks, not telling her Senate colleagues until the very last minute when Kavanaugh’s confirmation looked like it was going to be a smooth ride. It was the first salvo of a well-orchestrated left-wing character assassination. It was a political hit job, a desperate Hail Mary to block this nomination at all costs. And it failed.

Michael Avenatti represents the third accuser—and his dabbling in this fight made Democrats concerned for good reason: the claim is outrageous. And like with the other two, is without evidence. Nothing can be confirmed. Collins said that these cases, along with the materials that supposedly back them up, do not meet the benchmarks that would bring her to the conclusion that she cannot back this nomination. Collins also torched the person who leaked the Ford letter that set up this whole circus, calling their actions "unconscionable." That’s a little debatable. Ford retained the legal services of an anti-Trump lawyer and Democratic operative. She also took a polygraph way before her name became known nationwide. These are the actions of someone who was preparing to come forward, but that’s all ancient history. We won. The Democrats lost. That’s what matters.