Maybe. I think in the final analysis anyone with an ® appended to their title can be depended upon to pick party over ethics, honor and virtue. I must admit McCain’s thumbs down during the ACA fight threw me for a loop, but he was the exceedingly rare exception.
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They had the next best thing in an audio of Trump confessing to sexual assault, and it didn’t matter.
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Here’s my question: Isn’t it better for him to pull Kavanaugh and save these senators a public vote? I would think holding the Senate is more important at this point. Going on record gives opponents lots of ammunition, as we know.
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A smarter, more tactical President would call Mitch up and tell him to pull Kavanaugh and take the heat for it. Trump isn’t that smart. He’s nuts and is barely focused or coherent most of the time. This is why stuff is taking longer than the normal rules of politics would predict to happen.
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Why is all the focus on these three? Deb Fisher, Joni Ernst, Shelley Moore Capito, Cindy Hyde-Smith – they all get a pass?
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But why wouldn’t McConnell do this - i.e., call Trump and tell him to pull him. Trump has not idea what he’s doing - he’d listen to McConnell, I assume.
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In Collins’ case, I think she is a completely disreputable human being. There is nothing that she would not sacrifice for expediency if it means her getting ahead. However, her overwhelming drive is about what is good for her. She wants to be a Senator from Maine in the next decade. She knows how toxic Kavanaugh is in Maine, particularly to the swing voting group of white females (particularly college educated white females) that have supported her and prevented a solid Democratic challenger from emerging. This isn’t a difficult calculation for her. If she votes for Kavanaugh, female voters will shift en masse to a Dem nominee in a state that has been trending back to double digit blue status as evidenced by how well Jared Golden is doing in ME-02. That nominee is going to be extremely well funded. In fact, the eye popping fundraising numbers for Dems are what ends up sinking Kavanaugh in my view. The GOP can’t compete with what we’re throwing at them.
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McConnell is too invested and is not that good a leader to begin with. His holy grail is the court. He also knows he isn’t well loved among the base and always has to prove himself. That’s why he’s never the one to make a compromise. He’ll go down in flames before doing so. People in the GOP caucus are too afraid to tell him that what he is doing hurts the party.
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It’s the same political calculation McConnell made on Merrick Garland, that the damage to the GOP from stonewalling the nomination would be less than going on record to vote against a candidate the GOP had strongly commended when he was put of the Court of Appeals but the background is different here. With Garland, McConnell was denying the interloper in the White House. In this case, he would be breaking the GOP promise to stack the Court before the midterms and runs the risk of his voters staying home.
@khyber900 Same thoughts, but one minute behind 
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Ernst is on record saying, “Oh, I spport the MeToo movement, but you know, corroboration is really important.” That’s her little dance, and I wouldn’t partner with her on it at all.
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Tightrope? In Washington? This is what you need, right here.
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I’m excited to hear what bullshit promise from McConnell Sen. Collins holds up in exchange for her almost certain vote to confirm.
Never, and I mean NEVER pin your hopes on republican moderates. They do not really exist.
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This isn’t a tightrope. It’s razor wire.
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How could you tell the difference?
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This is why Khyber’s analyses are very good: they’re not based on hoping anything but rather cutting down the signal to noise ratio to show political considerations that are at the heart of all of this.
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“If I was running for re-election, I’d support this nominee. As it is, I could give a flying fuck what y’all think of me.”
- Bob “Profiles in Coorage” Corker
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Ummm, 'splain please?
Wondered how long it would take for McConnell to ditch the “plow right through” riff given the two missing senators are women.
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Full speed ahead, McConnell. You don’t know what the FBI will come up with and obviously don’t care.
I am hoping after mid term elections you’ll be in you’re rightful place and we’ll no longer have to hear from you.
By the way, your nominee is fatally flawed and won’t be on the Supreme Court so move on.
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Theory: McConnell doesn’t care if Kavanaugh is approved or not. Or rather, his primary concern is the timeline. If you hold the vote this week, and it’s a yes, of course that’s great. But if you hold the vote this week and it’s no, with only Flake and Collin/Murkowski dissenting, 1) that’s not bad politics esp for Collins 2) you have enough time to push through a different conservative judge, which is the most important thing 3) you can blame it all on the democrats and the media throughout the election.
There is no person who has done more to destroy this country than Mitch McConnell (including Donald Trump), with the possible exception of Newt Gingrich. But while Newt was a pioneer, he was really a rank amateur compared to the Turtle as far as execution.
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