Collins and Murkowski are shocked—SHOCKED!—that Supreme Court nominees lied to them
This post was originally published on this site
“Pro-choice Republican” senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins would have you believe that they didn’t see the immediate end of abortion rights coming. That they had absolutely no clue the Trump justices they were trading votes on (both voted yes on Gorsuch; Murkowski was “present” on Kavanaugh, yes on Barrett; Collins was yes on Kavanaugh, no on Barrett) would do something so radical. Never mind that the guy who nominated them promised as a Republican hopeful that the best way to end abortion in the U.S. was “by electing me president.”
Trump repeated that as the Republicans’ nominee. He promised in a debate that overturning abortion rights would “happen, automatically in my opinion” because of the Supreme Court candidates he would nominate.
There weren’t any secrets here about what he was doing, and what the people he was promising a very cushy job for the rest of their lives would do for him in return. (By the way, Collins refuses to say, even now, that she won’t support him in 2024.)
Nonetheless, both Collins and Murkowski are playing disingenuous today, following the leak of Alito’s draft opinion in the Mississippi case that will end national abortion rights. Collins released a statement expressing her total surprise. “If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office,” Collins said.
Never mind that Kavanaugh had already shown his stripes on overturning precedent on abortion and lots else—two full years ago! “Obviously,” Collins added, “we won’t know each justice’s decision and reasoning until the Supreme Court officially announces its opinion in this case.” Right. We’re totally in the dark about what the extremists on the court really intend to do, never mind that Alito put it all out there on paper.
Murkowski was little better. The leaked decision draft “rocks my confidence in the court right now,” she told reporters. Again, she and Collins are possibly the only two people in the abortion-rights community who did not see this coming. Or, that’s what she’d have us believe, anyway.
“Roe is still the law of the land,” she added, which is a good point. “We don’t know the direction that this decision may ultimately take,” Murkowski also said, resorting to remarkably obtuse again. “Sen. Collins and I in February introduced a bill that would codify Roe v. Wade. I thought it made sense then and I think it makes perhaps more sense now.”
About that bill. Yes, it’s better than what the Supreme Court is going to do, but it most certainly doesn’t not compare to the Women’s Health Protection Act, which they say “goes too far.” See, as far as these two “pro-choice” Republicans are concerned, pregnant people shouldn’t have a choice if someone in power decides that their abortion would infringe on someone else’s “religious liberty.”
They don’t believe a pregnant person should be able to get an abortion without being subject to laws forcing them to see anti-abortion propaganda before their procedure. They don’t believe pregnant minors should be able to conceal their abortions from parents or guardians, despite the potential risk to their personal safety at home.
That’s the substance of their supposed effort to preserve abortion rights. Swiss cheese. The context of this is that they know they can’t break a Republican filibuster on it. Their favorite partners in obstruction, Democrats Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, have already made that clear. Their statements in response to the leaked decision reiterate how important the filibuster is to “protect” reproductive health rights. Uh, huh.
None of this is to say that the extremist five who will overturn Roe and who knows what else in the coming months aren’t flat out liars. Because they are. But that character trait runs in Republicans, because Collins and Murkowski lied just as fervently when they said they believed this:
Which takes us back to this: the Supreme Court as it stands is illegitimate. It is full of liars, people who lied to the Senate under oath. Not to mention insurrectionists. It needs to be dealt with. It needs to be expanded.
And Collins and Murkowski either need to wake up to reality, or stop lying to their constituents.