There's no hypocrisy, republicans control both the senate and presidency and Trump isn't a lame duck president. If democrats had controlled the senate then Merrick Garland would have had a vote and been confirmed. Thank God they didn't.
Regarding Garland, why on earth would Trump nominate him? That's crazy! No wonder republicans are constantly outmaneuvered with thinking like that.
I wish the situation was that you simply nominated the most qualified person for the job but that's not reality, you have to nominate someone that can get confirmed. My preference right now is for Amy Barrett because she's female and they can't trot out the old fake sexual harassment stunt like they did with Thomas and Kavanaugh, plus she has two adopted kids from Haiti so they can't pull the racism card which is their first attack always. The dems know this is life or death for them so they're going to throw everything they can to defeat the nominee, right now I think she's got the best chance of denying them attack opportunities. I'm not completely convinced that she's the best candidate, but I think she's got the best chance of confirmation.
I don't believe that Collins will vote against the nominee. She's in a tight race for re-election in Maine and a vote against the supreme court nominee would have the republican base turn against her. She will have guaranteed her defeat if she's responsible for torpedoing the SC nominee. She'll lose far more republican votes than she'll ever gain from dems and independents.
And McConnell has to explain to whom?? Absolutely no one.