WOW! BIPARTISANSHIP!

Susan Collins says she plans to vote yes on Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination to the Supreme Court, which surprises me -- I assumed there'd be no Republican votes for Jackson. I think that was a reasonable prediction given the nastiness of the party's attacks on Jackson in the Judiciary Committee hearings -- we were told Republicans would go easy on her because seating her on the Court wouldn't change its ideological makeup, but that turned out not to be the case. I also thought Mitch McConnell would want a unanimous GOP rejection of Jackson because Amy Coney Barrett got no Democratic votes, and Republicans always want to be seen as the angrier party.

But I guess Republicans can read a poll:

A broad majority of Americans say they would vote for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the Supreme Court if they were senators, a new Marquette Law School poll finds....

The poll found 66% of respondents say they would confirm Jackson if in the Senate, while 34% would oppose her.

And in a poll from Quinnipiac that's truly abysmal for President Biden -- he's at 36% approval, 55% disapproval -- Brown has very good numbers, and Republican senators don't.

Americans say 51 - 30 percent that the U.S. Senate should confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, while 19 percent did not offer an opinion.

Americans disapprove 52 - 27 percent of the way Republican Senators are handling the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, while 21 percent did not offer an opinion.

On the other hand, Americans approve 42 - 34 percent of the way Democratic Senators are handling the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, while 23 percent did not offer an opinion.

Republicans want to send the message to their base that they're unyielding partisan warriors, but the base knows Collins is occasionally not in lockstep, so partisan Republicans will just shrug, mutter "RINO," and move on, because Jackson was always expected to have 50 Democratic votes. So Collins's vote doesn't change the outcome.

But this vote will reinforce Collins's image as a non-partisan centrist. And then next year, when (in all likelihood) Republicans control the Senate and begin blocking all of Biden's judicial picks, Collins can go along with her party's blockade without a word of protest, and everyone will still remember this vote and see her as a foe of partisanship.

She won't cast a consequential vote that defies her party; however, she'll cast this one, which is inconsequential but high-profile. That approaches continues to work for her, and her state's voters keep falling for it.