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."
Does anyone trust her to keep her word.....I would NOT......the wedding can be delayed a few hours...what’s the problem? We need that ‘yes’ vote!
There were all kinds of things on TWITTER, last night, posted here and yet, now we have this new garbage from Lisa M.
None of us are going to know WHAT'S WHAT, for sure and certain, until tomorrow and the vote is taken.
Last night, I posted the same thing about our FFs and yet, some morons, here, trashed me, insulted me, and worse.
Daines has abrogated his duty to this nation for SELFISH reasons. If he doesn't show up to vote, he should be fined, his salary docked, and he should be removed from every committee he's on; at the least!
It is YOU who don't understand/know anything and have NO sense of patriotism nor duty! And yet, you imagine that you are a Conservative?
I think some people criticizing may be too young or have otherwise never been directly involved in planning a wedding. I was a best man once and, even though it was a small wedding, the logistics required were monumental.
I’ve seen some people here suggest for the president to fly the whole party in to one of his hotels and move the venue. This is the kind of Disney-like magical thinking that leads to defeat. Life does not work that way. Everything about such an idea is completely juvenile and demonstrates complete ignorance of how even the smallest aspects of such an event work.
Accommodating this wedding is exactly what every reasonable senator would do. It is certainly what a pro-life, pro-family party should do. Too bad the naysayers here don’t even have the common sense to keep their mouths shut about something they obviously know very little about.
Daines will vote, but he may be late. They may need to hold the vote open for him until he returns.
Why not go Full Specter and vote “Not proven.”
If they have to do that, they have to.
The reception is not as critical as the wedding ceremony itself.
Pro-life? Pro-family? And just how important is it to have a constitutional judge on the Supreme Court for those very decisions?
I am totally pro-life, totally pro-family. But I want every Senator there present to vote for Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation. That is their duty to their country in the office they hold.
Vote first for confirmation. Then fly home for a wedding.
This appears to be a non-issue, but some insist on relentlessly beating a dead horse.
We’ll keep praying, then, that GOD works out the details so that both can happen.
And we can sleep well tonight.
_____________________
LMAO! (Nice talking with you today during the Collins thread. It was quite a day. One to remember.)
Present in body, absent in mind, devoid of logic, but always the politician.
A woman as dumb as Shelia Jackson Lee. I would not have thought it possible.
Consider that Daines is absent *SO THAT* Murk can pair instead of voting nay.
It’s the kind of thing politicians do all the time. Kabuki. Everybody wins.
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