Sen. Susan Collins has stood up to the mob and our republic will be the better for it. From her speech on the Senate floor:
Some argue that, because this is a lifetime appointment to our highest courts, public interest requires that doubts be resolved against the nominee. Others see the public interest as abiding to our longest tradition of affording to those accused of misconduct a presumption of innocence. In cases in which the facts are unclear, they would argue that the question should be resolved in favor of the nominee. Mr. President, I understand both viewpoints. This debate is complicated further by the fact that the Senate confirmation process is not a trial. But certain fundamental legal principles about due process, the presumption of innocence and fairness do bear on my thinking and I cannot abandon them. In evaluating any given claim of misconduct, we will be ill-served in the long run if we abandon the presumption of innocence and fairness, tempting though it may be. We must always remember that it is when passions are most inflamed that fairness is most in jeopardy. The presumption of innocence is relevant to the advice and consent function when an accusation departs from a nominee’s otherwise exemplary record.
The Human Rights Campaign, which believes women (except for Juanita Broaddrick…Paula Jones…Kathleen Willey…et al) responded predictably.
And here:
And the Women’s March weighed in:
This is who @SenatorCollins is: pic.twitter.com/U9klDNzeWr
— Women's March (@womensmarch) October 5, 2018
Versus:
Susan Collins just saved the women’s movement and its progress on rape prosecutions https://t.co/XGpvVo10gS
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 6, 2018
More, you say:
Imagine reading this headline and thinking it makes sense ? pic.twitter.com/TzEF3V0E8V
— The Safest Space (@TheSafestSpace) October 8, 2018
This is what left-wing "feminism" often looks like, folks. https://t.co/CcyYxbeQ3Y
— Brad Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) October 8, 2018
Let’s remember what’s driving the hysteria. Other than reflexive Trump hatred, it’s the demand for a Supreme Court that will oppose state restrictions on abortion, including limits on late-term abortion on demand, preferably done at taxpayer expense. (I agree with more-knowledgeable court-watchers that the likelihood of a whole-scale overturning of Roe by the conservatives on the court, especially under an incrementalist like Chief Justice Roberts, is virtually none.)
I know, I am not entitled to an opinion about terminating the lives of unborn babies.
Ok, so lately liberals at my college have been telling me that I am not allowed to have an opinion on abortion because I'm gay.
How do I even respond to that? Throw a civics book at them or something? Democracy 101?
— Brad Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) October 8, 2018
Flashback
I wrote in September 2011 about Collins’ pivotal actions in overturning the military ban against openly gay service members:
Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, it should be noted, never pushed for repeal or any other pro-gay equality legislation, but his role with “don’t ask, don’t tell” was particularly egregious. In late 2010, he insisted that the repeal bill be combined with an appropriations measure that the GOP was determined to block, and did with its filibuster. Reid then declared it was the GOP’s fault that the repeal failed. An incensed Sen. Collins and Sen. Lieberman demanded that a separate, stand-alone “don’t ask” repeal bill be brought forward, and the media glare [they generated] forced Sen. Reid to capitulate. The stand-alone repeal was brought up for a vote and easily passed with the support of many senators, including Sen. Brown, who had voted against the combined appropriations/repeal bill. …
…Sen. Collins shared that she simply couldn’t, at first, believe what Sen. Reid was doing (and then charged to the podium to protest the maneuver and its foregone conclusion—to no avail).
Keeping “don’t ask, don’t tell” in place as a campaign and fundraising issue while blaming the GOP for blocking repeal was the strategy all along. For the same reasons, when Democrats had a big majority in the House and a filibuster-proof Senate majority for nearly two years (2009-10), and with a “progressive” president in the White House, they choose not to pass comprehensive immigration reform (or vote on a federal LGBT anti-discrimination measure, for that matter).