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People who expected Senator Susan Collins, who would be one of the two moderate Republicans in the Senate, to save us from Brett Kavanaugh, did not study his file.
The senator from Maine has reduced the choreography of false legislative heads to a sublime art, in order to preserve his false reputation as an independent centrist. Collins will point out in great detail that she has not yet made her decision. She must study the question carefully. And then, wonderfully, after a very careful and well-advertised study, she almost always votes with Mitch McConnell. It's funny how his research invariably leads to this conclusion.
She is particularly loyal to her party when her vote is essential for bills or important appointments. She voted to confirm almost all of President Donald Trump's candidates. Collins also voted for the Trump tax bill (which was passed 51-49) and for the confirmation last year of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
In the most dramatic drama in which she played a crucial role, Collins joined two other Republicans to claim what turned out to be an FBI rigged investigation. She then voted in favor of Kavanaugh's confirmation in the Supreme Court – not with ambivalence but with almost dazed enthusiasm. In her ground speech on Friday announcing the decision, she did not present her finding as a difficult or difficult issue. To hear Collins say it, Kavanaugh's record in a federal appeals court shows that he is the most impartial and brilliant jurist ever since King Solomon.
In 2017, according to a CNN chartCollins voted with his party 87% of the time. The average Republican supported the GOP caucus position in 96% of the cases.
For the most part, the times when she broke ranks were not decisive. An exception when challenging Republican leaders turned out to be important was his vote (with Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and then, John McCain of Arizona) in 2017 to save the Affordable Care Act.
If anything, however, Collins has become much less of a maverick lately. Under Barack Obama's presidency, she only voted with Republicans about half the time, compared to nearly 90% today.
What is at work? Three things. First, Republicans have become much more united – in the country and in the Senate – as a far-right party. Second, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Is playing seriously to impose caucus discipline. But the biggest influence is Collins' fear of the Tea Party in Maine.
The state has twice elected a ruler of the far right, the thug Paul LePage, who foresaw Trump. LePage, who resigns after this year, won the majority of votes neither in 2010 nor in 2014. But given the unfortunate habit in Maine of spoilers organizing elections for Republicans, LePage has been successful twice in three-way competitions.
Maine as a whole is not a far right state. His other senator is Angus King, a moderately liberal independent who sits on caucuses with the Democrats. But the Tea Party right is a majority of the Republican Party of Maine.
So, according to my sources, Collins felt that she had more to fear when she ran for re-election in 2020 of a GOP main challenger than newly energized democrats.
Both fears may well be exaggerated. She is widely popular as a Maine icon and remains the favorite to win a reelection.
When Collins separates from the Senate leadership of his party, as in his vote to save the Affordable Care Act, it is often because the vote is popular in Maine. Obamacare The expansion of Medicaid, for example, largely supported by the public, despite LePage's efforts to delay it.
To put it in a charitable way, the popular Collins could afford to take more risks in the name of the principles she would still profess. In the Kavanaugh case, the senator was far from brave.
Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect and a professor at Heller School, Brandeis University. His new book is Can democracy survive world capitalism? Follow him on Twitter at @rkuttnerwrites.
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