(Politico)
BURGESS EVERETT 02/05/2019 05:04 AM
Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins chatted quietly on the Senate floor before one of the biggest votes of their lives. Too quietly, it turns out.
As the pair prepared to vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s contentious nomination, Murkowski delivered the news that she would vote against the Supreme Court confirmation. But her Maine colleague didn’t quite hear her.
“I told her that I was not going to be there with her. And she actually misunderstood me. She thought I said ‘yes.’ And she said: ‘Well, good,’” Murkowski said in a 40-minute interview in her Capitol Hill office.
“I broke into a big smile,” Collins recalled. “Such a relief. ‘I have to do what I have to do regardless but it will be so great to have you with me.’ And she said: ‘No, you misunderstood me. I can’t get to yes.’”
The Alaska Republican's vote against Kavanaugh — the only GOP dissent — cemented her status as the most unpredictable Republican senator and sparked one of her most high-profile splits with Collins, with whom she has long shared the Senate’s middle lane.
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