Posted on 10/05/2018 5:38:59 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Friday evening that she opposed Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, becoming the only Republican senator to come out against President Trump's nominee.
"I will be a no tomorrow," Murkowski said in a speech on the Senate floor after describing how she had come to lean against voting to confirm Trump's second nominee to the high court in a final vote on Saturday.
But Murkowski said that in the final tally she would ask that her vote be recorded as "present," saying she was doing it as a courtesy to Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who is slated to attend his daughter's wedding back home on Saturday.
"I do this because a friend, a colleague of ours is in Montana this evening and ... he's going to be walking his daughter down the aisle and he won't be present to vote," Murkowski said. "I have extended this as a courtesy to my friend. It will not change the outcome of the vote."
Murkowski, who voted against ending debate on Kavanaugh earlier in the day Friday, said during her speech on the Senate floor that she "was leaning toward supporting Judge Kavanaugh in his nomination."
"But we know that in our role of advice and consent, it is not just the record itself. There is more that is attached to it," she added, mentioning "matters of temperament" and "demeanor."
Murkowski announced her decision hours after it became clear that Kavanaugh had enough votes to be confirmed.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced during her own speech on the Senate floor earlier Friday that she would back his nomination ahead of a final vote set for Saturday afternoon.
Collins's support gave Republicans the necessary 50 votes to allow Vice President Pence to cast a tie-breaking vote if necessary. Collins was soon joined by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who said he would vote for Kavanaugh, giving him the support of 51 senators.
Murkowski said Friday night that she agreed with many of Collins's comments defending Kavanaugh, saying she didn't think he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade or represented a threat to protections for people with preexisting conditions.
But she indicated that her confidence in his nomination was not high enough to bring herself to voting for him, given controversy swirling around allegations of sexual assault leveled against the nominee.
The Alaska senator acknowledged that it appeared that Kavanaugh would be seated on the Supreme Court "without my vote."
Murkowski pointed to Kavanaugh's combative testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, saying "that appearance of impropriety has become unavoidable."
She called the bitter nomination process for Kavanaugh "horrible" and "gut-wrenching," saying it had left "good people ... needlessly hurt."
Yeah, I got carried away (optics! optics!)
The quorum requirement is the key to her pairing instead of voting nay.
On the other hand Manchin should be generously thanked by McConnell & Trump working out a deal with him:
- Trump will stay out of WV till after the election;
- In January Manchin will change parties
- And he will be given Murcowski's chairperson position on the Senate Energy Committee - which will either kill her politically in Energy dependent Alaska or force her to quit the GOP sooner and go the way of Arlen Spector & Charlie Crist.
BOVINE EXCREMENT; Daines is a stinking selfish POS and is accepting payment for a job he now has refused to do.
Thank you for explaining that.
I, too, am somewhat taken aback at the number of FReepers who are on his case cause he’ll be walking his daughter down the aisle.
Come on, now.
It’s not just *Going to a “party”*
It’s his daughter’s wedding and he had no control over the date the vote was set for.
I also wish he had been able tobe there to vote, but life happens sometimes.
No, not “ahead”; BEHIND. But the rest of your post is correct.
I believe Daines said a friend of his was lending him a plane to make both events.
“A paired vote, if it ended with a 50-49 tally would not require Pence to vote.”
Actually, my math may be off on the 50-49 scenario. With 1 senator absent and 1 voting “present” it would be 49-49 with Pence being the tie breaking vote. But suppose there was another senator who is absent. We could have a scenario with a 49-48 win, but the paired vote means 1 of those 49 is not actually present. The Dems would wait for an opportune time to challenge the vote because Pence did not break what should have been a tie. Just my 2 cents.
“A paired vote, if it ended with a 50-49 tally would not require Pence to vote.”
Actually, my math may be off on the 50-49 scenario. With 1 senator absent and 1 voting “present” it would be 49-49 with Pence being the tie breaking vote. But suppose there was another senator who is absent. We could have a scenario with a 49-48 win, but the paired vote means 1 of those 49 is not actually present. The Dems would wait for an opportune time to challenge the vote because Pence did not break what should have been a tie. Just my 2 cents.
NEW- Daines:“My good friend and colleague, Greg Gianforte, has come to save the day. If I need to be in two places at once to walk my daughter down the aisle on her wedding day and to be the final vote to put Judge Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, he’s offered me use of his plane”
His daughter's wedding is NOT more important than this nation!
I'm shocked and appalled by you and your ilk, who are posting like lefties...all soppy FEELINGS and emotion and no brains/intellect/sense of duty!
Not according to Lisa.
I’ll believe it when I see it and NOT until the vote is taken and OVER!
I’ve explained this before, but here I go again....
Maine, like Nebraska, splits it’s electoral votes.
The First Congressional District, in southeastern Maine, covers 20% of the state and is a liberal district. It includes Portland and surrounding areas. Some people in the rest of Maine call this area “North Massachusetts.”
The Second Congressional District covers 80% of Maine and is 27,000 square miles in area. In size, the Second Congressional District is the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi.
Candidate Donald Trump made a number of trips to the Second Congressional District during the 2016 campaign, as did his sons Don Jr., Eric, Eric’s wife Lara, etc.
Donald Trump won the Second Congressional District by 10 points, earning one electoral vote.
Hillary Rotten Criminal won the more liberal First Congressional District and received one electoral vote for doing so.
Madame Hillary won the statewide popular vote by 2.9% and won two additional electoral college votes. If Donald Trump had run more ads, he could have taken the entire state. Hillary ran a lot more ads than candidate Trump.
The characterization of Maine as a liberal state is inaccurate. It WAS a blue state, is now purple but is trending red.
Our Governor, Paul LePage, is the most conservative governor in the country. Unfortunately he is term-limited this year, but could run again in 2022 if he wants to.
The First District has a dem congress critter, the Second District has a Republican.
The Maine House is dem controlled, the Maine Senate is Republican controlled.
Constitutional Carry was passed into law three years ago, passed by both the dem controlled Maine House and the GOP controlled Maine Senate, and signed into law by the governor. The same law legalized switch blades. Maine has had Open Carry for years.
In November 2016, Mikey Bloomberg and his gun grabbing cohorts managed to place on the Maine statewide ballot a proposed law which would ban the private sale of firearms in Maine. Bloomberg outspent the “No on 3” forces, but in spite of Bloomberg’s money, the people of Maine said NO! to ending the private sale of firearms in Maine.
Sorry for the long winded response.
EVERY GOP Senator should be there to vote for the confirmation. No excuses.
Vote. Then leave for your personal business or pleasure. But vote. You represent the citizens of your state voting for a SUPREME COURT JUDGE!
You sure tell it like it is!
I keep thinking of the Founding Fathers during the American Revolution.
Some of them stuck with the cause in spite of having their sons killed, their homes burned, and they themselves being imprisoned or killed.
That’s what I call patriotism.
If this is true, Daines is making himself look very bad. This kind of stuff turns people off. It’s the behavior of a selfish elitist. He should be too embarrassed and ashamed not to be there for a vote like this. Delaying a wedding to be part of something as important as this isn’t a real sacrifice. Hopefully he gets the message about how bad this looks for him and goes to work tomorrow.
Don’t you understand they can keep the vote open for as long as it takes for Maines to get back if he’s needed.
“Daines is a stinking selfish POS and is accepting payment for a job he now has refused to do.”
Do you realize what you are saying?
A daughter’s wedding is an extremely important event. Daines made absolutely certain that his absence would not change the outcome. He was even willing to split his day between both events.
Do you have any idea of the logistics of planning a wedding? Cost? The human capital?
Sure, a lot of people have small weddings or even elope. I have no objection. But Jesus Himself honored a wedding with a famous miracle which was simultaneously symbolic and met a practical need in which He honored the importance of such a life event. If it was good enough for the Song of God to go out of His way to help, I think a private jet ride or a gentleman/gentlewoman’s agreement is quite reasonable.
I don’t know how lavish this wedding is, but a father who raises a daughter has every right to expect, and the daughter has every right to expect, that he will be there to give her away. Sometimes men are unable to do this for various reasons, but it is very reasonable to try to make every accommodation for this situation.
Republicans are the pro-life and pro-family party. This is important enough that if necessary the senate should delay voting rather than demand for him to miss his daughter’s wedding.
Weddings like this sometimes cost six figures and involve a multitude of out-of-town guests. The venues are booked months or sometimes years in advance. Photographers, bakeries, hotel accommodations of hundreds of people are impacted, and rescheduling is often impossible at any expense.
The Republicans accommodating this event makes perfect sense. The important thing is for the president’s nominee to be confirmed, not for supporters to self-flagellate with a symbolic vote that does not change the result.
The Democrats already ripped an innocent man’s life to pieces along with his innocent wife and children. But you are advocating that another man’s daughter, family, friends, and others should undergo a complete upheaval for something purely symbolic. That symbolism would be bad.
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