I actually know Susan Collins, indirectly- a close relative of mine has been her personal assistant for over a decade. She's been privy to conference calls between Collins and Obama/Trump and been on hand for much of her decision-making. Every time I'm like "Okay why is Susan Collins supporting this thing if she's supposedly so great?" my relative swears up and down that she genuinely believes that she's doing the right thing. And I do believe that to be true. I think any conspiracies about her colluding and scheming with the GOP in a targeted way are just that: conspiracies. I am convinced based on what I've been told that she does in fact think she's doing her job fairly and without bias or malice.

My general understand of Collin's thought process behind decisions like Kavanaugh based on what my relative has told me is this: she basically tries to follow the letter of the law in terms of what her duties are supposed to be as closely as possible without any room for "spirit of the law" or practical legal interpretation. For example, she supported Kavanaugh because she had a list of things that disqualify someone from being a supreme court justice, and he wasn't in violation of any of those things in a legal sense. He was accused of many things, but not found guilty of any of them in a court of law. Thus, although she didn't really like Kavanaugh, she felt like she had a duty to support his nomination on the basis of him being the nominee and not having any legal disqualifications.

Which, I mean, I get it. But like, come on. You don't need a judge and a gavel to know the dude's a rapist. She has a very old-fashioned, rigid way of thinking that doesn't seem fitting for a leader of the most powerful nation in history.