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The U.S. Senate this week gave a thumbs up to yet another anti-abortion, election-denying acolyte of President Trump’s. Matthew Byrne will serve as a federal judge in Ohio.

Unfortunately, votes like this have become routine. Our supine Senate long ago decided that it would rather give Trump whatever he wants than confront the hardship of defending democracy.

Maine’s Susan Collins likes to portray herself as something better: an independent-minded Republican who puts Maine first and hauls home boatloads of federal cash.

But sometimes, despite her best efforts, the truth shines through.

On Monday, senators voted on whether to close debate on Trump’s nomination of Byrne to serve on the federal bench. A yes vote cleared the way for a lifetime appointment.

The outcome of that vote wasn’t looking good. Republicans then pulled out all the stops, rousing Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky from his sickbed for the first time in months so he could cast a ballot. 

Even with McConnell, though, the GOP majority couldn’t shut down debate and approve Byrne. For that, they needed one more vote. Guess where they found it.

Collins’ yea tipped the majority to move the nomination along, opening the door for Byrne to bring his right-wing activism to the bench in southern Ohio.

Byrne’s anti-abortion credentials are clear. He’s been part of everything from Cincinnati Right to Life to the Center for Christian Virtue.

Six years ago, Byrne said he was opposed to abortion except to protect the life of the mother — and then, worried he may have sounded too reasonable, he added, “I believe the ‘life of the mother’ should be strictly defined so as to avoid creating loopholes.”

Why did Collins, who claims to support abortion rights, opt to put another anti-abortion activist on the bench?

Collins told reporters in June that when she looks at judicial nominations, she considers a nominee’s “qualifications, their integrity, their background and their experience in reaching a decision.” At the same time, she said she didn’t regret putting Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, where he soon helped toss Roe v. Wade into the garbage dump.

Mainers can forgive a senator for making a mistake. But Collins has doubled down, here.

Maine’s other senator, independent Angus King, voted against Byrne, as any senator from Maine should have.

A Connecticut senator, Richard Blumenthal, put it directly to Byrne at his confirmation hearing after the nominee refused to say Biden won the 2020 election.

“If you’re going to be a lap dog to Donald Trump … we can’t approve you as a judge. That’s one of our most solemn responsibilities — to make sure that our federal judiciary is independent, above politics, and independent of Donald Trump and his fixation on the 2020 election, denying that Joe Biden won it.”

“… You lack that essential backbone that is necessary to be a federal judge,” Blumenthal told the would-be judge.

United States senators, too, need that backbone. It’s no longer clear to me that Collins has it.