Will Susan Collins Get Snookered Again?

[babylonsister]

Will Susan Collins Get Snookered Again?
Here’s how Maine’s most gullible senator can flex her muscle on the Supreme Court — and prove her critics wrong.
By BILL SCHER
July 06, 2018


Senator Susan Collins of Maine really wants you know that she’s not going to rubber stamp just anyone President Donald Trump nominates for the Supreme Court. In recent days she has embarked on a mini-media tour, telling viewers of CNN, ABC and listeners of the New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast that a nominee “who would overturn Roe v. Wade would not be acceptable to me.” Also disqualifying would be an “activist judge” who “demonstrated a disrespect for the vital principle of stare decisis,” meaning deference to past Supreme Court precedents.

Her problem? Nobody believes her.

Her hedge on CNN, that she wouldn’t support a nominee with “demonstrated hostility” to Roe, leaves the door wide open to a savvy anti-abortion conservative who didn’t put too much down on paper. Her assurances that Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch met her criteria and would never scrap Roe sent thousands of eyeballs rolling to the heavens. Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum wondered aloud, “Is Susan Collins the most gullible person on the planet?” New York Times columnist David Leonhardt was less charitable: “She is willing to neglect substance and put the highest priority on appearing centrist.”

Surely, Collins doesn’t love the political vice she’s in, the increasingly lonely centrist representing a polarized yet blue-hued state forced to take sides in the never-ending culture war. “The judicial branch is supposed to be above raw partisan politics,” a wistful Collins said on “The Daily,” lamenting that many of her fellow senators are “already lining up, either in opposition or in strong support, for a nominee who has not yet been chosen.”

Yet with her media appearances, she is elevating herself as a voice for the dwindling centrist bloc. If that isn’t just for show, as Leonhardt and others believe, she’s going to have to prove it. Fortunately for Collins, in a Senate effectively divided 50-49, she can do exactly that: Prove that she wants Trump to pick a moderate justice, if she is willing to use her clout to make that happen.

Why is Collins’ centrist reputation so sullied among Democrats in the first place? Because during last December’s tax reform debate she cut a deal with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, trading away her opposition to repealing the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate provision, in exchange for legislation that would financially stabilize the remaining health insurance program. But after Collins voted for the tax reform package, McConnell reneged and never brought the stabilization bill up for a vote. Collins blamed “hyperpartisanship,” not her own partisan loyalties and misplaced faith, for the failed deal. Pundits on the left called her as hopelessly naive, or worse — disingenuous.

more...

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/06/will-susan-collins-get-snookered-again-218951

[moose65]

1. That's a rhetorical question, right??

[RestoreAmerica2020]

14. I stopped reading at..'Her problem? Nobody believes her.'

..yet, in reality and for some unknown reason our side [democratic congressional mrmbers] almost always gives republicans the benefit of the doubt, then....are shocked when fake kristian racist repubs do what repubs do--LIE!

[lark]

2. Title is wrong.

Collins isn't getting snookered, she's being offered a lying excuse for coverup and says she believes it. Lies!! She 100% knows what she's being promised will never materialize but it gives her cover to vote for the $$ party so she goes for it. The nominee will refuse to discuss abortion or abortion laws and despite the fact that they've written about "heinous baby killing abortions" will vote for them because there's no proof they'll overturn Roe v Wade, that's her total M.O.

[TDale313]

13. Bingo.

Snookered would imply she was being fooled and not in on the con.

[pangaia]

3. Sp is she stupid and gullible, or just a lying self-protecting old shit?

I have no idea...

[Demsrule86]

5. I do. Collins is a liar and just as much as a Trumper as any of them.

Hope we get rid of her once and for all in 20.

[FBaggins]

4. No

She’s in on the game... not the victim of it.

[SamKnause]

6. She is a Republican.

Republicans are EVIL FUCKING LIARS.

They aid, abet, and enable other EVIL FUCKING LIARS.

They are tools for religious freaks.

They are tools for Wall Street.

They are tools for corporations.

They don't give a damn about 'We The People'.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. LOL!

Is the bear Catholic? Does Susan Collins shit in the woods? Or whatever. Yes, of course; she'll fold like a cheap lawn chair like she always does.

[GoCubsGo]

8. Actually, she is the one doing the snookering.

She said she won't vote for a candidate who will overturn Roe vs. Wade. Except that she already voted in Gorsuch--who will vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade the first chance he gets. She knew he was anti-choice when she voted for him. She is so full of shit, she clogs up the local sewer lines every time she takes her morning constitutional.

[Bleacher Creature]

9. Will tomorrow be Sunday? NT

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Willfully ignorant.

[dalton99a]

11. Collins is not gullible. She is conniving and complicit.

[The Genealogist]

12. I don't think Collins is wishy-washy or moderate

I don't know what she is trying to portray with her act. Does she play moderate to the people of Maine so they will keep her hitched up to the gravy train? Does she think it makes her look all mavericky? Is it because she just wants attention? Her "moderation" is a farce. At the end of the day, she is just another deplorable.

[dalton99a]

15. +1. There is a long pattern

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. Remember she has done this on several important issues.

Sort of a Republican Münchhausen's by Proxy behavior. Gets all the attention for claiming to be a hold out vote,
lots of tv coverage, attention, etc.

She tells her voters that she is gonna vote one way, then votes for the Republicans , then claims she was "tricked" or lied to., won't even take responsibility for the damn turncoat vote.

[Snotcicles]

17. No! But she'll play the part. nt

[Solly Mack]

18. That's her whole spiel.

[SoCalDem]

19. She's never "snookered".. she's deceptively complicit

and then pretends to be offended when people figure things out..

[rickford66]

20. Her and Rand Paul

"Please don't throw me in the briar patch."

[uponit7771]

21. That's her MO ... GOP Congress lied to meet!!!!

[backscatter712]

22. This presumes the assumption that Collins is the one being snookered.

More likely, she's in on the snookering.