Brett M. Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination is now seemingly a day away from becoming a reality. To be sure, the drama and opinions swirling around this nomination continue to play out with breathless Tweets, big biz news cable stations are having a field day. But the odds after today’s procedural vote and Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake’s indications that he will vote yes on the nomination suggest barring another thumbs-down John McCain type moment Kavanaugh will be confirmed tomorrow — giving the GOP a solid conservative majority on the court for decades to come and a Supreme Court member who lacks legitimacy in the eyes of a portion of America.
The Senate advanced Brett M. Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination in a key procedural vote Friday morning, putting him one step closer to confirmation and ending a deeply partisan and rancorous fight that has resonated well beyond Washington.
The chamber voted 51 to 49 to advance the nomination after Republican leaders secured the votes of two GOP senators and one Democrat who had not publicly announced their intentions before arriving to vote. A final confirmation vote could come Saturday.
The last of the undecided votes began falling into place after the senators reviewed a highly anticipated report from the FBI investigating allegations of decades-old sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh.
Sens. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Susan Collins (Maine), two of the Republican holdouts, voted to advance President Trump’s nominee, while Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) was the only GOP senator to break with her party. Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), a red-state Democrat up for reelection next month, was the only Democrat to support Kavanaugh.
Flake also indicated that he plans to vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation on Saturday “unless something big changes,” which he said he doesn’t expect…
Judge Brett Kavanaugh took a large step toward getting on the Supreme Court on Friday after clearing a Senate procedural vote, 51-49.
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted no, but Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) joined Republicans to advance the nomination. The vote doesn’t guarantee Kavanaugh’s confirmation as undecided senators have been known to vote to advance a nomination even if their minds aren’t made up. But prospects of a meaningful vote flip remained small. By noon, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), had said he’d support final nomination barring something explosive breaking.
It was Flake whose call for an FBI investigation into sexual-assault allegations against Kavanaugh delayed the procedural vote until today. The Arizona Republican said he was ultimately satisfied with the bureau’s findings.
Murkowski indicated she will not support the nominee on final passage, telling reporters she changed her mind on advancing him on the chamber.
“I believe he is a good man,” she said, but “in my view, he’s not the best man for the court at this time.”
Susan Collins (R-ME), who voted to advance Kavanaugh, said she will announce how she plans to vote on his confirmation at 3 pm.
Manchin has not said how he plans to vote.
I’d be surprised if Manchin and Collins didn’t vote the same way. Neither wants to be the deciding vote.
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) October 5, 2018
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.