As I write this, Sen. Susan Collins has just announced her support of Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. As I listened to her thoughtful and lengthy statement, I couldn’t quite forget the quote (possibly apocryphal) attributed to Dwight Eisenhower: “I made two mistakes and both of them are sitting on the Supreme Court.” Translation: they surprised me, doggone it.
I’m one who thinks that the principal virtue in Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination is that it wasn’t made by Hillary Clinton. I am not among those who thinks that Judge Kavanaugh will send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap, still less so after hearing Sen. Collins express how reassured she was after discussing the case with him. I would love to discover in him a defender of the right to life, but at this point that’s a hope and not an expectation.
But I do agree with Sen. Collins on this: “We would be ill-served if we abandoned the presumption of innocence.” With the upcoming conformation vote, I’ll see how many Senators agree with her.
Get on with the vote already. Saturday can’t come soon enough.
