Sen. Susan Collins’ long, careful speech Friday on the Brett Kavanaugh nomination ended with a lament that the Founders’ “vision of a more perfect union…
Sen. Susan Collins’ long, careful speech Friday on the Brett Kavanaugh nomination ended with a lament that the Founders’ “vision of a more perfect union does not exist today. And if anything, we appear to be moving farther away from it.” With Kavanaugh now on the Supreme Court, is there any road back?
More particularly, what will it take for the left to realize it’s been utterly unhinged?
Point by point, Collins eviscerated every anti-Kavanaugh myth, starting with the “misrepresentations and outright falsehoods” about his judicial record. He’s not a vote to overturn Roe V. Wade, the Obergefell gay-marriage ruling or even the ObamaCare law. The idea that he’d distort the law to protect President Trump, or to do the bidding of outside interest groups, is just absurd.
And she explained why Christine Blasey Ford’s “allegations fail to meet the ‘more likely than not’ standard” and simply didn’t justify a vote against the nominee. And it’s not just the lack of corroboration: Aspects of her story just don’t add up.
Collins showed great sympathy to Ford, and emphasized that sexual assault is a huge and under-addressed issue. Indeed, “If any good at all has come from this ugly confirmation process, it has been to create an awareness that we have underestimated the pervasiveness of this terrible problem.”
Yet, she pointed out that the leak of Ford’s letter “was unconscionable.” Addressing the leaker, she noted: “You have taken a survivor who was not only entitled to your respect but also trusted you to protect her and you have sacrificed her well-being in a misguided attempt to win whatever political crusade you think you are fighting.”
In response to Collins’ speech, the official Twitter account of the Women’s March tweeted a photo of her labeled, “SENATOR SUSAN COLLINS / RAPE APOLOGIST.” Along the same lines was the tweet from a writer for Steven Colbert’s show: “Whatever happens, I’m just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life.”
We’ve lost track of the posts we’ve seen calling him “the rapist” and even “gang rapist.” But it’s not just social-media bile: As Jay Cost notes, the gangs of protesters in Washington were “rude, crude and abusive. They got in the faces of members of Congress and disrupted the business of the national assembly. Thank goodness there was no violence. Were it not for the superlative work of the Capitol Police, there probably would have been.”
One mob actually tried to storm the Supreme Court to interrupt Kavanaugh’s swearing-in, making it as far the building’s doors.
This is simply madness, and it’s not remotely over. Nancy Pelosi is now talking about impeaching Kavanaugh if Democrats regain the House, and the left has made it perfectly clear that it will now start attacking the Supreme Court as an institution. Were Justice Antonin Scalia still alive, they’d soon be harassing him on his way to the opera with his good friend Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Collins closed with a hope that Kavanaugh will prove a centrist, healing member of the high court. Which is entirely likely: Every indication is that he’ll be a natural ally of Chief Justice John Roberts, who’s worked tirelessly to forge unity on the court — and especially to avoid 5-4 rulings on the most divisive issues.
But that’s going to take time, and would require the demonizers to actually pay attention and think. Right now, all signs are the left is headed even farther off the deep end.
