Obviously, no one who works at this site or gets their news and commentary here is naive enough to place any faith in Susan Collins’ “concern” or word on anything. This is the person who said she believed that Trump had “learned a lesson” through impeachment which would curb his behavior. Well before then, she had become notorious for expressing her “concerns” about various batshit insane GOP ideas or behaviors, only to then follow in lockstep, such as vote for Justice Kavanaugh who all but promised to put the final nail in the coffin of Roe v. Wade.

So no one is counting upon Susan Collins standing up for what is right regarding attempting to fill a vacancy on the supreme court in direct contrast to the Republican party’s entire M.O. in 2016 when the black man held the office. But Collins did at least start out by saying the right thing:

“President Trump has the constitutional authority to make a nomination to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, and I would have no objection to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s beginning the process of reviewing his nominee’s credentials,”

Given the proximity of the presidential election, however, I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election. In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the president or selecting a new one, the decision a lifetime appointment should be made by the president who is elected on November 3rd,

Now, the lawyer in us sees just a shitload of wiggle room in that statement. If the new president should pick the nominee than why does it matter that Trump has the legal authority and why does it matter that the judiciary should begin the process of reviewing the nominee?

It is not like the Senate has nothing else to do right now, what with COVID killing people, kids out of school, and the economy in shambles.

But for now, we’re not concentrating on the fact that Susan Collins issued a statement that seems wishy-washy from the beginning. We will look at how Trump responded. Trump could have ignored her, Collins is about to be gone anyway. It’s not like her vote is all that important (she is only one of four needed) and she’s going to be out of a job on January 3rd. Trump could have left it alone. But he didn’t, he fired his shot right at her and it’s one that seems to promise many more.

“I totally disagree with her. We won,” Trump said.

You “won” a lot less than Barack Obama did, jackass. You’re also getting your ass-kicked in the polls by Biden. “We won” did Barack Obama no good when McConnell and all the Repubs were going around talking about “the American people should pick the next president to …”

Trump definitely wants a confirmation vote prior to the election so that whomever he selects is ready to do his bidding should he need [her] that justice to vote his way in an election challenge. We say “her” because the current odds are on him picking a woman which he thinks will help defray Kamala Harris’ selection. Except when he picks a woman is rabidly anti-choice, that’s not going to help Trump with “women.”

WATCH:

Trump dismisses Susan Collins saying she thinks the next president should pick RBG's replacement: "We won and we have an obligation as the winners to pick who we want … we're here right. Right now, we're here." pic.twitter.com/q4Y7mDXfaN

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 19, 2020

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom