Indiana’s Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly is one of a handful of fake “conservative Democrats” still in the U.S. Congress.
We say Donnelly is a fake conservative because, while he talks a good game during his campaigns, when it comes time to vote – especially on the important issues – he votes with Far-Left Liberals like New York’s 
Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth “Fauxahantas” Warren.
The latest example of Donnelly’s fake conservatism is his little ballet around the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Donnelly said he would take the same approach as he has previously followed for Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination, “I will take the same approach as I have previously for a Supreme Court vacancy. Following the president’s announcement, I will carefully review and consider the record and qualifications of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.” (NBC News, 07/18/18 [13])
The influential Ft. Wayne (Indiana) Journal Gazette summarized Donnelly’s situation this way:
Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly has been engaged in an intense game of Whac-A-Mole – trying to knock down all the threats to a successful re-election bid. The latest, and perhaps one of the most difficult moles to whack, will be his vote on President Donald Trump's nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Donnelly's official statement indicates he will ‘carefully review and consider (Kavanaugh's) record and qualifications.’ It then mentions a recent meeting with Trump at the White House where they discussed the Supreme Court opening prior to Trump's announcement.
This is Donnelly's attempt to have it both ways – not committing support, but indicating he and Trump are in close consultation. It's also a media relations tactic Donnelly has perfected over the years. …
Following Trump's announcement, high-profile Democrats and liberal groups held a rally on the steps of the Supreme Court vilifying the nominee, saying he poses a threat to abortion rights and health care protections.
Donnelly's response was another attempt to have it both ways in a tweet saying that “more than 1.5 million Hoosiers have pre-existing conditions – a fancy term for asthma, pregnancy, cancer, or arthritis. We will not go back to the days where people who suffer from them can't get health insurance.” This is a tactical nod to concerns about health care but devoid of any mention of abortion. (Journal Gazette, 07/16/18 [14])
Of course, only Democrats and liberals consider abortion to the “health care,” while conservatives and most Republicans consider it to be the taking of a human life, if not outright murder.
Donnelly’s Kavanaugh problem is made worse by the fact that his opponent, conservative outsider businessman Mike Braun, has got him caught between his carefully cultivated image as a “conservative Democrat” and the ascendant Far-Left wing of the Democratic Party.
Braun is pounding Donnelly with daily news releases demanding that Donnelly meet with Kavanaugh and commit to voting for him.
And the numbers would seem to be on the side of confirmation: As the Washington Times reported, “A plurality of voters supports the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, including nearly one in five Democrats, according to a poll released Wednesday. The new Morning Consult/POLITICO survey found that 40 percent of voters want the Senate to confirm Judge Kavanaugh, while 28 percent don’t want him confirmed.”
Mike Braun is going to continue to hold Joe Donnelly’s feet to the fire on the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation and his attacks have left Donnelly’s carefully cultivated image as a “conservative Democrat” in shambles, because not only was it a fraud to begin with, but it is now a position that is decidedly out of favor among the Democratic Party’s most motivated voters.
Donnelly, who has thus far refused to meet with Kavanaugh, seems to be wilting under the pressure and has wussed out, going with the 28 percent of “woke” liberals who would probably oppose Ruth Bader Ginsberg if she were nominated by Donald Trump.
To learn more about conservative outsider businessman Mike Braun’s insurgent Republican campaign for Senate go to Mike Braun for Indiana. [15]
CHQ Editor George Rasley is a seventh generation Hoosier. He served on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle, as assistant to the late Indiana state Rep. Phillip T. Warner, as a member of the staff of Lt. Governor (later Governor) Robert D. Orr, as an Elkhart County Republican Precinct Committeeman, Chairman of the Goshen, Indiana, City Republican Committee, and Chairman of the Elkhart County Young Republicans, Chairman of the Third District Young Republicans and as Executive Director of the Indiana Young Republican Federation.
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