Susan Collins keeping her head stubbornly buried in the sand on Kavanaugh

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is playing ostrich on the Brett Kavanaugh nomination. All the major national news media outlets are reporting that the FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh will be a sham, with the pussy-grabber-in-chief putting strict limits on the scope of the investigation. But Collins is once again playing dumb.

"I am confident that the FBI will follow up on any leads that result from the interviews," she told Politico Sunday, after belatedly joining Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) in his call for the investigation. Now it looks like she's endorsing the sham, ready to give her vote to Kavanaugh no matter what. It's a redux of her vote last year on the tax giveaway to the rich, when she pretended like she was extracting promises from Mitch McConnell, promises that were transparently bullshit.

If she refuses to pay attention to all the national media stories about the sham, maybe she'll pay attention to what the leading paper back home, the Portland Press-Herald has to say about Kavanaugh: "Brett Kavanaugh has shown he doesn’t belong on the Supreme Court."

"Based on what he demonstrated in his own testimony," the editors write, "Kavanaugh lacks the character and judgment to serve on the Supreme Court." His "explosive temper" and "bullying," his declaring himself "as an enemy of a political party that represents the policy preferences of millions of Americans," and his "lack of credibility" all lead to his lack of fitness for the job. Maybe these editors will be able to break through to Collins. Or maybe her former supporters can. Like Cindy Noyes, a registered Republican in Maine, who went to schools with Collins and says this could be the issue that loses her vote. "It'd be hard for me not to support her," says Noyes, "but I really, really, really encourage her to vote against him." Hopefully Noyes is making her phone calls to the senator.

Hopefully everyone in Maine is: (207) 622-8414, (207) 945-0417, (207) 283-1101, (207) 493-7873, (207) 784-6969, (207) 780-3575, (202) 224-2523.