Collins And Murkowsky Must Say No To Trump On The Mad Dash To Confirm Kavanaugh

Brett Kavanaugh-- Partisan Supreme Court Nominee by Nancy Ohanian

With all the problems America is facing today, somehow McConnell thought sneaking a ban on funding Planned Parenthood into the must-pass Department of Defense Appropriations Act would be a smart way for the Senate to spend its time. Thursday afternoon a vote was called while three major Planned Parenthood supporters, Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Patty Murray (D-WA) were out of town. With all Democrats sticking together ro beat back the effort being joined by Republicans Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowsky (R-AK), the amendment was defeated 48-45.

And the Senate Republicans are now on the verge of rushing through a Trump Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh, picked by a clearly self-serving (to put it mildly) and obviously illegitimate "president" who was chose strictly because He doesn't believe a sitting president can be indicted or even questioned. Yesterday at NBC's First Read, Chuck Todd pointed out that Trump "praises and pardons friends/allies who have committed crimes (Manafort, Joe Arpaio, Dinesh D’Souza), but calls for the prosecution of enemies who haven’t been charged at all (Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Peter Strzok, Christopher Steele)... continues to use mob-boss language: Manafort "refused to break" … White House counsel Don McGahn must be a John Dean type 'RAT' ... 'Flipping' ought to be outlawed. This is the president of the United States of America. This is also the guy demanding Kavanaugh be confirmed immediately.

People for the American Way is one of the public advocacy organization working to communicate inside and outside the Beltway the dangers inherent in Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice. Yesterday, the organization sent members and supporters a reminder that "Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort being found guilty of eight counts of bank and tax fraud amazingly was just the tip of the iceberg in yesterday’s news about the rampant corruption and criminality overflowing from Trump World. Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter of California was also indicted on unrelated charges, meaning that along with Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY), the first two members of Congress to endorse Trump in 2016 are now both under federal indictment! And, most importantly, Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight charges, including two for engineering or making illegal “hush money” payments to women who alleged affairs with then candidate Donald Trump-- and Cohen said he made those payments at the Trump’s behest." OK, but what does this have to do with Kavanaugh? Glad you asked.

Trump is now directly implicated in a conspiracy to violate anti-corruption laws at the very same time that Senate Republicans are trying to steamroll the confirmation of his hand-picked Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh-- a nominee who has argued that the president should be above the law-- and burying Kavanaugh’s record with an unprecedented cover up to keep important insights into his work and legal thinking from ever seeing the light of day.

It’s now crystal clear that for the Senate to confirm Brett Kavanaugh would be a brazen assault on our democracy, checks and balances, and the rule of law itself. Talk about enabling corruption and obstructing accountability-- any senator who now supports Brett Kavanaugh will be complicit in helping the president essentially choose the judge who will decide his own legal fate (perhaps on matters far exceeding the charges in which he was implicated by Michael Cohen).

Trump the other day asserted that he has total authority over the Mueller investigation, saying, “I could run it if I want.” We know from Brett Kavanaugh’s writings and statements that Trump’s Supreme Court nominee agrees, which is radical and, frankly, should scare the hell out of all of us.

We cannot let the Senate confirm this lawless, corrupt president’s hand-picked rubber stamp to the Supreme Court.

Our path to victory is getting every Democratic senator to oppose this nominee and at least ONE Republican senator to break from their president and put their country and what’s right above party.

The fact that Collins and Murkowsky voted on Thursday against all the other Republicans seeking to screw with Planned Parenthood-- and in effect-- a woman's right to choose, gives some hope that these two will oppose an extremist SCOTUS nominee who will move quickly to overturn Roe v Wade... as well as an extremist nominee who will do all he can to prevent the legal process from moving forward regarding the serial criminal behavior of an illegitimate "president." Don't forget, Brett Kavanaugh is now the most unpopular SCOTUS nominee in contemporary history. Yesterday, one of their Senate colleagues, Elizabeth Warren, wrote that "The Trump Administration is the most corrupt in modern history. That’s not an exaggeration. Corruption oozes out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue-- the name 'Trump' is basically synonymous with the concept itself. It’s in your face, everywhere-- like the big gold letters on his flashy hotels." Should this man and his enablers in Congress get to rush through the confirmation of another rubber stamp, this one a life-time appointee to the Supreme Court?