A month ago I gave a former GOP State Committee chairman a $2,000 check to take to the Collins headquarter. My original motive was to repay her for the two thousand dollars she contributed to my congressional campaign. I didn’t feel free to criticize the woman while I was in her debt. Susan’s vote supporting Trump’s nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, gave me a more satisfying reason to contribute, and her careful explanation for that decision made it still more satisfying.
I don’t regret that donation. I’m pleased that it freed me to criticize the senator. The Collins campaign has been sending e-mail appeals for additional donations in a steady stream. They’ll get no satisfaction on that score. Her evasive maneuvers around the new supreme court nominee are disgraceful.
Here’s an excerpt from a request to become a founding donor her Fight Back Fund: “There is no question about it: I am the Far Left’s #1 target this fall. They are trying to remove me from office and ensure that Maine’s Senator is a guaranteed vote for Chuck Schumer’s Far Left agenda. That is why I created the Fight Back Fund. From here on out, we can no longer accept being outraised and viciously attacked by Senator Schumer and my opponent.”
Here’s an excerpt from another appeal: “John, we are being severely outraised and need your help. Undecided Maine voters deserve to know the TRUTH about Susan and her opponent. They deserve to know more than just what Chuck Schumer wants to tell them.” And another: “ John, Do you want Chuck Schumer to be in control of the agenda for the United States Senate? If you don’t, then please help me meet my End of Quarter fund-raising deadline.”
Clear enough, Collins accuses a New York City Democrat of going after her. Nothing novel or exciting here. Schumer has been helping to fund Sara Gideon. He hopes her victory will help create a Democrat Senate majority which will make him its leader. Schumer is not as far left as the Collins e-mails make him out to be. The far-far left regard him with distaste and suspicion because he has excellent Wall Street connections, connections which actually help him finance attacks on Maine’s Republican senator. At the present time his hostility to the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett makes him an ally of the noisiest far-far leftist in the House of Representatives, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The two showed up at James Madison High School in Brooklyn recently to issue a “fervent plea” that Ruth Bader Ginsburg seat on the Supreme Court remain vacant until after the November presidential election. “We need to make sure we mobilize on an unprecedented scale to ensure this vacancy is reserved for the next president.” They are asking Mainers to call Collins and pressure her into holding off on a vote. (Their actual wording was a call to “Americans” to call “their senators” but I’ve taken the liberty of adapting their fervent plea to local conditions)
There’ no information on how many Mainers, if any, responded to their fervency but “our senator” has announced that she is taking the same position as her “far left” nemesis. She will refuse to vote for Judge Barrett until after the election because it would be “unfair.” Romney and Murkowski had already decided to vote for the nomination. The other Republican doubtfuls have resolved their doubts about the proceeding. So Susan Collins has decided that being bi-partisan means voting the same way as the man who she has been consistently denouncing as far left. And for the same reason! She wants to be fair. Best of all her up-to-date version of bi-partisanship is voting contrary to every other Republican in her caucus. Will their be a final culmination of her bi-partisanship? With no aisle to reach across she may decide to go into the voting booth on November 3 and vote against herself.
Our Susan hasn’t babbled Schumer-AOC fashion about rights being endangered, about turning the clock back a hundred years, about the evil machinations of powerful special interests, or about blah-blah-blah. No she’s just trying to be fair. For me that is worse than the Democrats’ hysterical fear-mongering. The United States Supreme Court has become an arena of for political combat. It’s nothing like a spelling bee with hard rules and disinterested judges.
“We’re not close to an election, we’re in an election,”
Schumer tells us, “and to try to and decide this at this late moment is despicable and wrong and against democracy.” He cites a Reuters poll which found that 62% of Americans, including many Republicans, believe November’s winner should get to nominate a justice to fill the vacancy. “It’s shoving the wishes of the hard-right and Republicans who go along with them down Americans’ throats.”
Chuck is not above an appeal to the sacred principles of fairness/ “It is only right and only fair,” he sobs “ for us to abide by RBG’s last wish.” AOC again: “We need to tell him [Mitch McConnell} that he is playing with fire,” she threatens. “We need to make sure that this vacancy is protected, that our election continues and that the American people have their say.” Readers who are not paying attention may be a little confused here. The American People and Republicans are sometimes confused. I must leave it to the liberals to explain the distinction.
It may be useful to point out that none of this talk has anything to do with interpreting the Constitution. Our foundational document has nothing to say about fairness in politics. In this connection let’s take note of the fact that Republican and Democratic politicians and propagandists are accusing each other of hypocrisy on Supreme Court issues.. They are both right.
John Frary of Farmington, the GOP candidate for U.S. Congress in 2008, is a retired history professor, an emeritus Board Member of Maine Taxpayers United, a Maine Citizen’s Coalition Board member, and publisher of FraryHomeCompanion.com. He can be reached at jfrary8070@aol.com.
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