Here's where things stand. Susan Collins insisted that she wouldn't vote for any Supreme Court nominee who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Donald Trump nominated... someone. He's like, a Republican nominee, or something. Federalist Society credentials, the whole shebang. The bind for Collins is that while she occasionally votes against Republican bills, this dude ain't named "Bill." "Brett" and "Bill" start with the same letter, but they're different names. I know! I've spent a long time studying them! Oh, and Collins would never have the spine to vote against a Republican SCOTUS nominee. That, in and of itself, is fine. She says she's pro-choice, and OK. If she set all policy, abortion would be legal in at least some circumstances, but she doesn't set policy. She's just a Senator. That entails making choices. Two in particular. She votes for the guy who runs the Senate, and she votes on SCOTUS nominees. By voting for Mitch McConnell, she effectively votes pro-life, and relatedly, by voting for nominees like Neil Plagiarist-Gorsuch rather than working with Democrats to force a vote on Merrick Garland, she votes pro-life. That, too, is fine. Lisa Murkowski describes herself the same way, but all votes have tradeoffs. Murkowski can legitimately say that she simply thinks that she will get policies she likes more often from McConnell than from Schumer, and from Plagiarist-Gorsuch than from Garland. Plausibly true! That means she'd sacrifice her position on abortion, but abortion isn't the only issue. Why am I not criticizing Murkowski? Because Murkowski never dug herself into a hole by saying she'd never vote for someone who'd vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Murkowski is smarter than Collins. She understands that there are tradeoffs, accepts that, and gets what policies she can in her constrained position.
Collins? Not so much. She made a promise that anyone with a brain knew she wouldn't keep. Kavanaugh is clearly hostile to Roe. He seriously digs Rehnquist's dissent in Roe, and has given plenty of other answers demonstrating that he doesn't like that ruling. "Settled law" is a bullshit phrase. Collins let herself get duped because she wanted to get duped.
Now, though, she is complaining about money being raised against her if/when she votes for Kavanaugh. Bribery! Money! Icky! Evil!
Why is she doing this? Here is the problem with getting duped. It makes you a laughingstock at best. There is this weird thing in politics where people worship "moderates." I don't get it, but it's there. Susan Collins is a "moderate." What does that mean? A subject for another time, but there are many varieties of moderates, including people who are indecisive on many issues, and people who are extremists in opposing directions on many issues. And wishy-washy twits like Susan Collins. What kind of moderate is she? The kind that is a useful idiot to the right, and a useless idiot to the left. She loudly protested that she would vote against the kind of nominee that Kavanaugh almost certainly is, even though she lacks the courage to do so. Her best attempt at salvaging any dignity is to pretend that she is being victimized by...
MONEY!!!
Why? The left hates money. If it is the left that is going after her for her impending betrayal of a vote, turn that into her being victimized by money. Does it make any sense? No, especially given the "crowdfunding" structure of the financial campaign, but this is the best she can manage, given the trap she set for herself.
Collins never had any intention of voting against any Trump nominee. She just needed to force that nominee to jump through the usual rhetorical hoops to give her cover, so that once that nominee does vote to overturn Roe, she can plead ignorance. The beauty part of stupidity is the plausibility of the ignorance defense. Will Roe be overturned? I'd put the odds at greater than 50% at this point. Thomas and Alito? Yeah, they'll overturn. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh? Very likely. The biggest question mark is whether or not Roberts would demand that they uphold whatever the abortion restriction in question is under narrower grounds because of some Roberts-y weaseliness. However, the probability of any abortion restriction being struck down bythis Court is exact, mathematical zero.
My new term: "dupeshit." I use the term, "dipshit," a lot for Trump, so perhaps a new one is in order for Collins. A dupeshit is a particular variety of dipshit whose stupidity is of a specialized form: getting duped. Collins intentionally lets herself get duped. By Trump, by McConnell, by Kavanaugh, by anyone with an R after their names, even if that R is implicit. Because she enjoys getting duped.
Susan Collins. Dupeshit.
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