Susan Collins: Kavanaugh confirmation process looks ‘like a caricature of a gutter-level political campaign’

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, yesterday decried the confirmation process of Brett Kavanaugh as “so dysfunctional it looks more like a caricature of a gutter-level political campaign than a solemn occasion.”

The liberal Republican, whose vote was unclear until yesterday, said during a floor speech:

The President nominated Brett Kavanaugh on July 9th.  Within moments of that announcement, special interest groups raced to be the first to oppose him, including one organization that didn’t even bother to fill in the Judge’s name on its pre-written press release – they simply wrote that they opposed “Donald Trump’s nomination of XX to the Supreme Court of the United States.” A number of Senators joined the race to announce their opposition, but they were beaten to the punch by one of our colleagues who actually announced opposition before the nominee’s identity was even known.

Since that time, we have seen special interest groups whip their followers into a frenzy by spreading misrepresentations and outright falsehoods about Judge Kavanaugh’s judicial record.  Over-the-top rhetoric and distortions of his record and testimony at his first hearing produced short-lived headlines which, although debunked hours later, continue to live on and be spread through social media.  Interest groups have also spent an unprecedented amount of dark money opposing this nomination.

Our Supreme Court confirmation process has been in steady decline for more than thirty years.  One can only hope that the Kavanaugh nomination is where the process has finally hit rock bottom.

Senators are expected to vote today on whether to confirm Kavanaugh. It appears Republicans have enough votes to confirm him to the highest court.