If there’s a “Gang” formed in the Senate, Collins is on it. If there’s a bipartisan huddle to be had, Collins is in it. If there is a “small group of undecided senators who could make all the difference,” Collins is part of it.
That status as the center of the center of the Senate has been remarkably beneficial to Collins’ political life. Elected first in 1996, she spent years in the shadow of her fellow Mainer Olympia Snowe. But since Snowe’s retirement from the Senate in 2012, Collins has emerged as a major political force in both Washington and Maine.
Reading between the lines, what Collins was saying was this: I’m in a position — the middle — of real power in a closely divided Senate. Being one of the few senators who don’t automatically line up with their respective political tribe gives me influence and sway well beyond just a single senator from a Northeastern states.
Which, again, has generally been true. Collins has been a critical linchpin in deals on everything from then President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package to helping make a deal on long-term unemployment benefits. Her role in these situations — and lots of others like them — has generally followed a very clear blueprint: She makes clear she is unhappy with the current state of the proposal, suggests she would be open to compromise and works to gather a group of like-minded folks to improve her power via numbers.
All of that brings us to the current moment in which Collins as well as Republican Sens. Jeff Flake (Arizona) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) are seen as the three people who can and will make or break Kavanaugh’s chance at the nation’s highest court. And the very clear reality that Collins isn’t having all that much fun at the moment.
All of that mishigas points to a simple reality for Collins: This Kavanaugh vote — and she finds herself on it — is very, very different than your run-of-the-mill centrists-strike-compromise thing. The truth is that most of the times the Senate forms a working group or a “Gang” of some sort, a deal gets worked out an accepted by the party leadership long before there is a floor vote. Politicians don’t like to see blood on the floor — especially when it’s their own. So they tend to handle these things behind the scenes. The likes of Collins and Murkowski can take credit for making the deal happen without having to cast a deciding vote on much of anything.
And while Collins, Flake and Murkowski have bought themselves some time by forcing the White House (and McConnell) to delay a final vote on Kavanaugh until the FBI can complete a supplementary background investigation into the nominee, it is VERY likely that the eventual report will be something well short of conclusive about the allegations.
Which will put Collins in a very tight spot. There will be no brokered compromise here. McConnell and the White House are dead-set on holding the confirmation vote before the week is over. Democrats are dead-set on keeping Kavanaugh off the bench. This is coming to a head — quickly — and with zero good political options.
This is not the crucial center that Collins envisioned holding when she decided to pass on a run for governor. This is a vise, that is squeezing ever tighter by the moment, and Collins is caught in it with no easy way out.
Source : CNN