“Game Over” Signals Susan Collins After Seeing FBI’s Brett Kavanaugh Probe Report
Republican Sen. Susan Collins told reporters she now has the cover she needs to vote in favor of seating Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, saying the nominee’s controversial FBI speed-probe “appears very thorough.”
“Me too” GOP Sen. Jeff Flake told reporters in so many words, signaling it’s game-over time and Kavanaugh will get his lifetime appointment.
Collins, Flake, and GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski held the keys to the kingdom for Kavanaugh, being three yes-vote holdouts on the Senate Judiciary Committee who might have blocked appointment for the judge accused of lying under oath during his confirmation process, and of sexually assaulting Christine Ford in high school.
Neither Collins nor Flake would actually say they would vote for Kavanaugh’s appointment tomorrow morning, though Flake had said a “yes” vote was his intention before the FBI probe had been initiated. But their thumbs up on the FBI probe results report today left no doubt.
Even so, Republican and Democrat Senate bigwigs raced to TV cameras to weigh in on the results of the FBI’s four-day probe, a photo op being a terrible thing to waste in Washington.
Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed the report, blaming Trump’s White House and Senate Republicans from allowing the FBI to interview Kavanaugh, Ford, or corroborating witnesses whose names had been provided to the bureau by another Kavanaugh accuser who had been interviewed.
Deborah Ramirez, said through her lawyer the bureau had not interviewed any of the witnesses whose names she had provided.
“We had many fears this was a very limited process that would constrain the FBI from getting the facts; those fears have been realized,” Schumer savaged.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell chewed the most scenery, calling the process a “shameful spectacle that has embarrassed the senate.”
“It’s the senate that is on trial here,” he intoned. “What kind of image will we convey to the public? Can we be scared by all these people rampaging through the halls, accosting members at airports, coming to their homes, trying to intimidate the senate into defeating a good man? Will we allow this to happen in this country?”
“We will not be hoodwinked by those who have tried hard to smear this good man,” McConnell boasted.
“So let us reclaim this moment for what it should be: the chance to elevate the stunningly talented and impressive jurist to the important office for which he so well qualified…a golden opportunity to give our great nation precisely the kind of brilliant, fair-minded and collegial Supreme Court justice that the court deserves.”
“We have the chance to do good here and to underscore the basic tenet of fairness in our country.”
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