Heidi Alexander: “it is sometimes said that today's Senate does not measure up to the Senate's previous years because we have no eloquent…”

“it is sometimes said that today's Senate does not measure up to the Senate's previous years because we have no eloquent Senators who make compelling speeches. I think Senator Collins has just disproved that today. Whether or not one agrees with her, she was eloquent. Her speech was compelling, and she has presented her case in the tradition of another Senator from Maine who was serving here when I first came many years ago as a young Senate aide, Senator Margaret Chase Smith. It is that tradition of independence and diligence which is so valuable and so important, especially in times of stress like this. I had thought of following Senator Collins with some remarks of my own about what I found when I read the background checks today. I went to the section where we read classified documents. I saw that over 25 years, 150 people had been interviewed about Judge Kavanaugh. They had specifically been asked a question about whether they saw any evidence of alcohol abuse, and every single one said no and that there was no evidence of sexual impropriety. I want to thank Senator Collins for her insistence on an extra week so that we could have a seventh FBI investigation. I took the time to review that as well. I saw that no matter how credible Dr. Ford seemed--and she did seem credible to me--no one except Dr. Ford remembers that alleged incident. And the other four, as Senator Collins said, who Dr.…”