Susan Collins portrays herself and Brett Kavanaugh as victims. Yes, she is victim of a corrupt campaign finance system. If the fund set up to defeat her is bribery, then so are the dark money contributions she readily accepted. As my mother often said, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

Yes, she and Kavanaugh were victims of a partisan confirmation process. But she and fellow Republicans should look in the mirror. They didn’t even have the decency over eight months to give Merrick Garland a hearing, let alone a vote.

Yes, she is the victim of her own poor judgment. Kavanaugh’s test was a public interview for very high office, not a criminal trial. The proper standard of judgment was not presumption of innocence, but qualification for the job. Thanks to the railroaded vetting process we’ll probably never know whether Kavanaugh assaulted Dr. Christine Ford. But we do know that he left a trail of lies about his younger days, his drinking and his work for the Bush administration. We know that his partisanship was so blatant and his demeanor so unsuitable for a judge that an unprecedented 2,400-plus law professors opposed his nomination.

Yes, she is the victim of her own state of denial. How could anyone conclude from Kavanaugh’s record that he has any regard for women’s reproductive rights?

Yes, she is the victim of her own lack of courage. Notwithstanding her carefully crafted image as a moderate, Collins consistently votes with the right wing ideologues of her party, ignoring the needs of her constituents–whether on tax cuts or on Kavanaugh.

Collins is as poorly qualified to be Maine’s senator as Kavanaugh is to be Supreme Court justice. As Harry Truman said, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Paul Lawn

Waterville