Senator Susan Collins "Yes" Speech

If you missed Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) speech in which she lays out the reasons for her decision to vote "yes" to confirm Judge Kavanaugh it's really worth the time it takes to review. If you're a reader, like me, the transcript can be found here. If you would prefer to watch the video, which is roughly an hour long, here it is on YouTube.

Senator Collins did a masterful job laying out her reasoning for her decision to vote "yes". However she didn't stop there. Senator Collins also talked about how the confirmation process got turned into the circus it became, how the Senate's role of "advice and consent" was turned into what Judge Kavanaugh referred to as "a national disgrace". In fact according to a Harris Poll, 69% of those polled agree with Judge Kavanaugh's description of his confirmation hearings.

In the excerpt from her speech below, Senator Collins points out that Dr. Ford did not seek out out the public hearings to testify against Judge Kavanaugh. She points out that Dr. Ford was a victim of those that did not care about Dr. Ford's desires of confidentiality and acted only on their own interest of derailing Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation.

Christine Ford never sought the spotlight. She indicated that she was terrified to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and she has shunned attention since then. She seemed completely unaware of Chairman Grassley’s offer to allow her to testify confidentially in California. Watching her, Mr. President, I could not help but feel that some people who wanted to engineer the defeat of this nomination cared little, if at all, for her well-being.

Prof. Ford testified that a very limited of number people had access to her letter, yet that letter found its way into the public domain. She testified that she never gave permission for that very private letter to be released, and yet here we are. We are in the middle of a fight that she never sought, arguing about claims that she wanted to raise confidentially.

With the limited number of people that had access to Dr. Ford's letter, it shouldn't be that hard to determine who it was that leaked Dr. Ford's identity. Senator Collins goes on in the speech to point out the person that leaked the information took advantage of Dr. Ford's trust with a "callous act" showing an "appalling lack of compassion". The fact that Dr. Ford seemed unaware of the offers to testify confidentially point to how little compassion her lawyers had for her. It should also make for an interesting investigation into the ethics of the lawyers involved by the American Bar Association (ABA).

But the fact remains, Mr. President, someone leaked this letter against professor Ford’s expressed wishes. I suspect regrettably that we will never know for certain who did it. To that leaker who I hope is listening now, let me say that what you did was unconscionable. You have taken a survivor who was not only entitled to your respect but who also trusted you to protect her, and you have sacrificed her well-being in a misguided attempt to win whatever political crusade you think you are fighting.

My only hope is that your callous act has turned this process into such a dysfunctional circus that it will cause the Senate and indeed all Americans to reconsider how we evaluate Supreme Court if that happens, then the appalling lack of compassion you afforded Prof. Ford will at least have some unintended positive consequences.

Senator Collins puts forward the idea that hopefully the circus we have witnessed is rock bottom. After all, from rock bottom there is no where to go but up. Hopefully the "unintended positive consequences" of this confirmation process is an end to personal attacks of the nominee based more on ideology than the rights of a victim to be heard and the right of the accused to defend themselves.

Someone over the last few days made the point that while the confirmation process is not a trial and proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not required is not required, there has to be some level of proof to generate the belief that the actions alleged "probably happened". To have simply accepted Dr. Ford's allegations and terminated Judge Kavanaugh's nomination process would have been unfair, just as unfair as to have completely ignored the accusation by Dr. Ford. The concept of "fairness" was a key part of Senator Collins speech with one of the comments being:

We must always remember that it is when passions are most inflamed that fairness is most in jeopardy.

Passions over Dr. Ford's accusation and Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation have been running at a fevered pitch and fairness to both parties has been running extremely low. We should all thank Senator Collins for this speech and trying to put a bottom in this pit that we have been digging.