• Collins, a centrist Republican, had the power to kill the Kavanaugh nomination but decided to stick with her party, virtually guaranteeing her party leadership’s success
• ‘I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh,’ Collins said, adding: ‘My fervent hope is that Brett Kavanaugh will work to lessen the divisions in the Supreme Court’
• Saying she planned to vote ‘no’ would have practically killed Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination
• Confirmation was not guaranteed until Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he would also back Kavanaugh
• ‘We feel good about where we are,’ President Trump’s Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters outside the White House hours earlier
• After Collins spoke, Sanders thanked her on Twitter ‘for standing by your convictions and doing the right thing’
• Democrats argued Brett Kavanaugh is unfit to be a Supreme Court justice because of a sexual assault allegation that dates back to 1982
• He denied it flatly and the hearings didn’t establish any corroboration to the claim
• Same is true of FBI report demanded by Dems last week and delivered Thursday 
• Friday’s ‘cloture’ vote passed by a simple majority, something that was unthinkable just a few years ago
• Until Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid changed the rules, invoking ‘the nuclear option,’ judicial nominees needed 60 votes at this stage in the process
• Reid took his precedent-setting action to help then-president Barack Obama; Republicans expanded it stepwise to include Supreme Court nominees
• A key test vote Friday morning ended in Republicans’ favor with 51 ‘yes’ votes, a number that will hold
• Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia crossed the aisle, but so did Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska 
• When the morning vote was over, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans ate with Collins in the Senate dining room to hear what she planned to do and say

By DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR  and GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

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