Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., center, wraps up a news conference with, from right, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., after discussing the energy reform bill and other issues, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Just minutes ago, in the middle of a rambling and semi-incoherent self-justification on the Senate floor, Lisa Murkowski announced that she was Montana Senator Steve Daines’s Plan B.

Daines, as I posted earlier today, was scheduled to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding tomorrow. I have to admit I respect a man who has his priorities straight. In the comments we’d speculated on who might step aside on the No side of the equation. My guess was Jon Tester would do it as he’s in a tough race, he’s a no vote on Kavanaugh, and stepping aside could let him keep his no vote while building some goodwill with Montana voters.

As it turns out, Lisa Murkowski will fill that slot.

Breaking: Murkowski will cast a present vote in the final tally as a courtesy to Senator Daines, who will not be present due to his to daughter’s wedding. “It will not change the outcome of the vote,” she says. “I hope it reminds us we can take very small steps to be gracious.” — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) October 6, 2018

One can hope.

The ties that bind us as a nation have become dangerously frayed and the desperate attempt by Senate Democrats to scuttle Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination burned down a lot of trust on the Judiciary Committee where trust is all important. Hopefully, despite Murkowski’s preening, her collegiality and decency on this small issue will take root. But I’m not betting on it.

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