in the supreme court and the big elections this fall and the chances that we have to really turn the tide. many women were enraged last fall at how anita hill was treated by an all-male senate committee after accusing supreme court nominee clarence thomas of sexual harassment. within days, this ad placed by a woman s group posed the question, what if? what if women had sat on the committee instead? for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. as republicans crow tonight over their apparent victory with kavanaugh s nomination, as democrats plan to hold the floor of the senate through the night and even overnight and into tomorrow, even as more witnesses are still coming forward tonight saying they have information about kavanaugh for the committee or for the fbi that may corroborate sexual assault allegations against kavanaugh, and as nbc news reports tonight, witnesses are coming forward with information that may
president of the united states making george h.w. bush a one-term president. today maine republican senator susan collins appears to have sealed the confirmation prospects for brett kavanaugh for the u.s. supreme court after he faced more serious sexual misconduct allegations than even clarence thomas faced as a nominee. unless things change between now and tomorrow afternoon when the final vote is expected, the vote on kavanaugh looks like it will be 51-49. actually, technically, it will be 50-48-1 because senator murkowski is going to vote president instead of no because senator danes is at his daughter s wedding. basically, it s going to be 51-49, which would put it even closer than the thomas vote, which is 52-48. in our time this year, this vote on kavanaugh is happening right before the midterm elections. the midterms will be held on november 6th, exactly one month after tomorrow s vote.
court, if he goes up there for revenge, some of the republican commentators today are crowing about the fact that they believe kavanaugh has been radicalized by this experience, and they hope he behaves as an anti-democratic vengeful radicalized judge on the bench. what should we look to in history in terms of understanding how the public may view the court in that context? because it s still our supreme court, even if it does change with his elevation. yeah. the court loses respect for itself, it loses legitimacy. oftentimes that happens when the court comes up with a ruling like plessy versus ferguson saying that you can have separate and equal and segregation in american life is fine. and the other thing that i think lowers respect for the court, rachel, is the fact that kavanaugh goes to the court with much more serious allegations
he was a democrat, but he was a moderate, go along to get along. al the pal. he very happily made friends across the aisle. he was friendly with president reagan, who of course is a republican. he was known to go golfing with dan quayle. meanwhile, his fellow democrats, they all loved him. they chose to elevate him into leadership. by the end of just his second term in the senate, he was the number three democrat in the whole senate. everybody liked him, got along with everybody, al the pal. in 1991, when president george bush nominated clarence thomas to the supreme court, this democratic senator from illinois, alan dixon, he made a personal promise to president bush that he would vote yes. that he would vote for that supreme court nominee. it s interesting. senator dixon didn t make that promise public at the time. years later he would explain that when the nomination was initially made, he had made that promise to the president, but his constituents didn t know that at the time. and
watched the clarence thomas/hill hearings, and i watched how a woman shared a very difficult story with an all-male panel of the judiciary committee at the time, and she was disbelieved. she was swept aside. and i was angry. and i went to a gathering that night, and i told some of my friends back in 1991, the night of the hearing, i m going to have to run for u.s. senate because i need to be inside that to speak up for these women. that s what motivated me to run. that was senator patty murray speaking today. the vote on brett kavanaugh is tomorrow. election day is one month from tomorrow. joining us now is senator murray from washington. she ran and won her seat in 1992. senator murray, it s nice to have you with us tonight. i know this is a big night. thanks for being here. thanks very much. i haven t had the chance to talk with you during the course of this nomination. we re now at the very home stretch. i just want to get your overall reaction to what this experience