Looking For An Excuse, Any Excuse

Yesterday's QOTD quoted a CBS News report that a confidant of crime family boss Donald "The Dumb Don" Trump had warned Republican Senators that their heads "would be on a pike" if they voted against him in the impeachment trial.  Then, in Rep. Adam Schiff's masterful closing argument last night asking Republicans to show moral courage, he mentioned the quote, after saying he didn't know if it was true or not.

Well, wouldn't you know Senate Republicans would latch onto this, the tiniest excuse, to fall in line with Moscow Mitch McConnell's coverup, especially these two empty pantsuits:

“That’s not true,” Susan Collins said several times on the floor, shaking her head when Schiff cited a news report saying WH warned senators that a vote against Trump means “your head will be on a pike.” Risch also said aloud: “That’s not true.” Cotton laughed when Schiff said it

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 25, 2020

“He was doing fine with moral courage until he got to the head on the pike. That's where he lost me,” Murkowksi said, per @jeffzeleny. “He’s a good orator you got to give him that ... He was moving right along ...and then he got to a couple places and it was just unnecessary.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 25, 2020

Some selected responses:

It is a beloved bad-faith move by GOP senators to feign outrage over some perceived slight to justify falling in line. But even assuming story is entirely false, how on earth would Schiff saying this bear on decision about whether to call witnesses or vote to convict president? https://t.co/vU1fhx5Uqs

— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) January 25, 2020

No one in media should fall for this. @lisamurkowski et al. are just looking for any excuse not call witnesses or hold a fair trial. It’s indefensible that @RepAdamSchiff’s innocuous comment offends the @SenateGOP more than Trump’s illegal behavior & abuse of power. #HeadOnAPike https://t.co/HwPKXKCLA3

— Maya Contreras (@mayatcontreras) January 25, 2020

On the same day that audio is released of President Trump telling Lev Parnas "to get rid of her" regarding an American Ambassador, @lisamurkowski is finding it hard to believe that Trump (or his aides) could've threatened someone?

Give me a break.

— Nick Vucic (@npv708) January 25, 2020

A question about the fake GOP outrage about @RepAdamSchiff citing CBS's "head on a pike" reporting.

Why aren't the Sens directing their outrage at CBS? Why aren't reporters who are pretending the GOP outrage is real asking Sens why they're raging at Schiff, and not at CBS?

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 25, 2020

"I was about to convict and then the manager said 'head-on-a-pike,' and, well, he lost me.”

That’s really not going to work.

— Michelangelo Signorile (@MSignorile) January 25, 2020

"We were truly persuaded by Schiff's compelling oratory, and we were finally ready to approach this vote with an open mind--maybe even call witnesses. But now we're outraged because he mentioned a major news outlet's story. Got that? Be sure you write 'outraged' is what we said." https://t.co/EUPnifvQO2

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 25, 2020

And, finally,

Adam Schiff did not lose any Republican senators tonight. They were never going to change their minds, and he knew it. His goal was to expose them as cowards, and he succeeded.

— Jack Pitney (@jpitney) January 25, 2020

So, the moral cowards are who we always knew them to be, and they're just going through the motions now until they can acquit the most dangerous, incompetent, un- American person ever to hold the office of president.

(Murkowski isn't running for re-election this year, but of course Collins is.  You can contribute to her most likely opponent, Sara Gideon, here.)

Tweets Of The Day -- An Un-precedented Fraud

It's really cute that Susan Collins hasn't noticed that the Republican judges she has confirmed don't give a shit about precedent. https://t.co/sI8KtRNSKE

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) May 16, 2019

Robert Mercer and his wife both gave the legal maximum to Collins-the $10,800 total contribution is more than the $9,200 in itemized contributions received from all Maine residents this quarter, combined.

Looks like she just got paid back for Kavanaugh. https://t.co/NQ42SHoBr7

— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) May 16, 2019

Maine voters -- do your job in 2020 and rid us of this spineless charlatan!

Collins' "Legacy" Tied To Kavanaugh Vote

After her oddly full-throated endorsement of preppy drunk assaulter and rageaholic Brett "KavaNut" Kavanaugh's elevation to the Supreme Court -- an endorsement that could have been written by despicable human-turtle hybrid Mitch "Missy" McConnell -- Maine's faux "moderate" Rethuglican Susan Collins will face some angry Mainers when she returns for the Columbus Day weekend and beyond. After pretending to be "undecided" for weeks, it was clear from the strong endorsement that it was just a veneer to preserve her undeserved image of a "moderate" conservative, while voting with neo-fascist fraudster Donald "Rump" Trump nearly 80% of the time. The Portland Press Herald, one of Maine's major papers opposing KavaNut's confirmation, had this to say in an editorial last night:

"Only Collins appears to believe that Kavanaugh considered Roe v. Wade “settled law” or that he was deeply committed to preserving precedent, something legal scholars say is inconsistent with the way the Supreme Court works. It makes precedent when it wants to, and it takes only five votes to do it.

Maybe Collins will be proven right. Maybe Kavanaugh will defy the experts and not join a series of 5-4 decisions like Citizens United, the 2008 case that eliminated the spending limits for electioneering by corporations, or last year’s Janus decision, which overturned a 40-year “settled law” precedent governing public-sector unions’ ability to collect fees.

Maybe no more witnesses will corroborate the accounts of the three women who have come forward so far with stories about their mistreatment at Kavanaugh’s hands. Maybe he will never again show the angry, intemperate and partisan face he revealed to a national TV audience on Sept. 27, calling into question his capacity to be an impartial and dispassionate judge.

Maybe none of those things will happen. But if they do, Collins’ vote should be remembered for a long time." (our emphasis)

It's not that long before she faces voters in November 2020. They should remember and Vote. Her. Out.

BONUS:  Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent on Collins' "bad faith" performance --

It was obvious from the moment Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) began her speech Friday that she’d announce her support for the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. And so she did — in a performance that was saturated in misdirection and bad faith, making it the perfect capstone to the Republican treatment of this whole affair. 

Collins condemned Democrats for having their minds made up before Kavanaugh was nominated (as if Republicans did not), expressed dismay at misrepresentations of his record (though not his flood of deceptions), and decried the “dark money” mobilized to oppose him (the dark money mobilized to back him didn’t seem to annoy her). 

Meanwhile, her treatment of the Christine Blasey Ford affair was so shamelessly disingenuous that it is hard to avoid the conclusion that her call for an FBI inquiry was really about gaining the cover to do what she intended to do all along. Hearing her speak, it seemed she regarded the biggest injustice in the whole saga to be the fact that Ford’s charges were leaked, putting Republicans through the inconvenience of having to deal with them. (our emphasis)

She's as conscience- free as everyone else in her rotted out party.

Cloture Vote Allows Kavanaugh Nomination To Proceed (UPDATED)

By a vote of 51 - 49, the Senate voted to limit debate on the nomination of rage monkey and lying, boozing sexual assaulter Brett "KavaNut" Kavanaugh, assuring there will be a final confirmation vote tomorrow. A sole Rethuglican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted "no" on moving his nomination forward, a fearful Sen. Joe Manchin voted "yes" -- the only Dem to do so -- obviously fearing for his political life in red West Virginny. Sad he's put his own skin ahead of the nation's wellbeing and women's rights. Poseur Rethuglican Sen. Jeff Flake said he'd vote for KavaNut tomorrow, abandoning his supposed "concerns" about his honesty, fitness and temperament.

Whether enough pressure can be placed on Sen. Susan Collins, who will speak to the Senate in a few minutes, and Manchin to vote "no" tomorrow is doubtful. Collins in particular has been weaseling her way around this nomination, trying to have it both ways and using the rigged FBI "investigation" as a fig leaf to vote the way she was going to anyway. She's up for reelection in November 2020, and needs to be defeated. Manchin probably sees a "yes" vote as the way to ensure his election, but at what cost? He's going to have to look over his shoulder for the next 4 weeks at angry West Virginian Dems, who may decide to sit this one out in protest. He's already being warned that funding from a Dem super PAC will be withheld if he votes "yes" tomorrow.

UPDATE:  Weasel is as weasel does -- joining sad excuse for a man Jeff Flake, phony Collins rambled on echoing the Trump line before saying she will vote yes on KavaNut, dismissing Dr. Blasey Ford and the other witnesses (40 of whom were never interviewed by the FBI) while praising KavaNut's record and criticizing Democrats.  This awful, awful woman needs to be reminded every day of her soulless hackery, then defeated in 2 years. She's a world- class phony inside and out. (Here's where you can contribute to funding her opponent in 2020. Be patient, though -- the site has had so many hits, it's crashed.)

UPDATE II:  Add chickenshit "Democrat" Joe Manchin to the list of shame; MSNBC is reporting he's voting yes, too. Of course, he waited until Collins said she'd vote yes, making it inevitable. Fuck him.

UPDATE III:  Steve Benen caps it off --

Fifty-one senators heard Kavanaugh lie repeatedly. They heard him peddle partisan conspiracy theories. They confronted credible allegations against him. They reviewed his highly controversial views about shielding presidents from legal scrutiny. And they nevertheless concluded to give him the powerful job anyway. 

History will not be kind.