After her speech, Chuck Grassley approached Collins with tears in his eyes and gave her a hug. That had never happened before, and she was touched by the gesture from a senator whose composure and fairness had never failed through all the partisan hostility.
Later that afternoon, Senator Murkowski gave a rambling twenty-six-minute speech in which she praised Kavanaugh but announced that she would vote against him. It was a disappointment for the Kavanaugh team, which had bent over backwards to satisfy her requests that week. She asked for confirmation that “devil’s triangle” was a drinking game. So the team scrambled to find people who confirmed it. Then she asked for clarification on “boofing.”
“Literally, in the Congressional Record of the Republic of the United States of America, there is a letter describing how boofing means farting because of Lisa Murkowski and her need to feel as though this [allegation] were true,” said one person working on the Kavanaugh effort. The team felt she was looking for a reason to vote no, never got it, and voted no anyway.
Murkowski did not think Kavanaugh would vote to overturn Roe v Wade or undermine the constitutional status of Alaska Natives, she said, but his presence on the Court would give an unavoidable appearance of impropriety. She did not seem to believe he was the sexual predator he had been made out to be, but that apparently was not enough: “I believe that Judge Kavanaugh is a good man. He’s a good man. He’s clearly a learned judge, but in my conscience, because that’s how I have to vote at the end of the day, with my conscience, I could not conclude that he is the right person for the Court at this time.”19 The media’s attack on Kavanaugh’s temperament had hit at least one of its marks.
There was one important hurdle still to overcome. Senator Steve Daines of Montana had recently informed the leadership that he couldn’t make the vote on Saturday. His daughter was getting married that day. He offered to fly back as soon as the ceremony was over. A fellow Montanan, Congressman Greg Gianforte, had offered him the use of his private plane if he needed it.
By the time Murkowski announced her decision, it was not a surprise. The conservative columnist Quin Hillyer now proposed how she could redeem her disappointing decision to vote against Kavanaugh. She should “restore a once-common Senate tradition that has fallen out of use,” which would show “courtesy, decency, and mutual respect.” It used to be common for a senator who could not be present for a vote to cooperate with a senator on the opposing side. That senator would “pair no” with the absent senator, who would “pair yes” (or vice versa), and neither of them would vote. To “pair no” is not the same as to vote “present,” which affects the number of votes needed for a simple majority.
Hillyer wrote, “Memo to Senator Murkowski: If you won’t vote for Brett Kavanaugh, at least demonstrate this collegiality so Senator Daines can act wholly as a dad on Saturday.”20 She took Hillyer’s suggestion, softening the blow of her decision.
Protesters were camped out as Collins left her house to head to her office on Saturday. They started singing and chanting early that morning. As she locked up, she apologized to a neighbor for the noise. He told her the protesters’ songs and chants were beautiful, but living next to a “rape apologist” was what troubled him.
On Saturday afternoon, October 6, just before four o’clock, the Senate began to vote, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding. A group from Concerned Women for America, having promised their support every step of the way, was there to pray. The vote was punctuated by the screams of protestors removed for violating the rule against “expressions of approval or disapproval.” Months of emotional outbursts like this had backfired, pushing some undecided votes away. The behavior of the conservatives who worked hard and kept their heads down—sometimes quite literally, as when they prayed—was a stark and appreciated contrast for these senators.
Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as an associate justice of the Supreme Court by a margin of fifty to forty-eight. When the vote was over, many senators headed for the hills. Lee and Flake shared a car to the airport. It was unusual for a vote to take place on Saturday, and Senator Daines was not the only one with other plans.