The pseudonym "Philo Vaihinger" has been abandoned. All posts have been and are written by me, Joseph Auclair.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Sue Collins will vote for Brett . . .

. . . and so will Lisa Murkowski.


Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has received 3,000 coat hangers in the mail. 

Women dressed as handmaids in red robes and bonnets have shown up at her home in Maine to protest. 

Activists have raised over $1 million for her 2020 challenger should she vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh. 

And the pressure continues to mount on Collins and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the Senate’s two potential swing votes, in the final days before a decision on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick ― a conservative judge who could potentially gut abortion rights in the United States. 

Planned Parenthood launched a six-figure cable and digital ad campaign in Maine on Wednesday that features a focus group of independent female voters who strongly want Collins to oppose Kavanaugh. 

NARAL Pro-Choice America put an additional $500,000 into its $260,000 ad campaign in Maine this week, which will run on TV and online in Maine until the vote. 

Planned Parenthood and NARAL have also spent over $1 million in Alaska, with the latter taking out ads in the Anchorage Daily News as well as on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google. 

Polls commissioned by Planned Parenthood in both states show that a strong majority of voters would like to see Roe v. Wade upheld. 

Kavanaugh has indicated hostility toward the landmark 1973 abortion rights decision.

Collins and Murkowski both claim to support abortion rights, and have bucked their party before to protect federal funding grants to Planned Parenthood. Both senators claim to be undecided on Kavanaugh. Collins has said she’s impervious to outside political pressure. 

“Attempts at bribery or extortion will not influence my vote at all,” she said Tuesday, referring to the crowdfunding campaign for her potential opponent. 

“Sen. Collins will make up her mind based on the merits of the nomination,” spokeswoman Annie Clark said in a statement. 

“Threats or other attempts to bully her will not play a factor in her decision-making whatsoever.”

Murkowski has been more tight-lipped about her decision-making process, and she is now facing additional pressure from Alaska natives, who are flooding her offices to urge her to oppose Kavanaugh over his views on fishing rights and environmental protections. 

Tribal communities were crucial to Murkowski’s re-election as an independent in 2010, after she lost the GOP primary to a tea party challenger. 


Alaska's largest Native organization said Wednesday it "strongly" opposes the appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, calling his views on Indian policy erroneous and a threat to unique policies and laws governing Alaska Native institutions.

The Alaska Federation of Natives announcement potentially adds pressure to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who has not said whether she supports the appointment and who in 2010 benefited from the group's endorsement in her uphill write-in victory against Joe Miller. 

Groups opposed to Kavanaugh's appointment have pressed Murkowski to vote against him.

"AFN strongly urges the U.S. Senate to vote against Judge Kavanaugh," the organization said. 

"The documents that have been released so far in relation to his nomination demonstrate how troubling his confirmation would be for Native peoples, particularly Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians."

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