Sen. Susan Collins is well aware that Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court is being rammed through at breakneck speed and without appropriate review – we’re seeing only 10 percent of his White House work product, hand-picked by an old friend. She knows that there are credible claims that the nominee has committed perjury. She knows he was nominated by a man facing federal questioning in a case of obstruction of justice and conspiracy against the United States, legal woes that may put the president directly in front of his own nominee. And she knows that the nominee, in contravention of Law 101, won’t commit to recusing himself from cases involving the president.

Sen. Collins also knows that Judge Kavanaugh holds novel, outlying views regarding executive power: that sitting presidents should be immune from prosecution, and that Richard Nixon may have been treated unfairly. A sitting Justice Kavanaugh might provide the swing vote allowing the president to pardon himself: a travesty of justice if ever there was one.

So here we have a questionable nominee, appointed by a president under a serious legal cloud, holding views highly convenient to said president, being rammed into office as fast as possible by a Congress that is breaking all previous rules for review and deliberation.

Sen. Collins took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution. Regardless of what she thinks of Judge Kavanaugh’s views on any particular issue, she must put her country above her party and her own re-election concerns. If she cares for the rule of law, she must vote “no” on Kavanaugh.

Kate Josephs

Damariscotta