I don't understand a thing, maybe it's just because I'am a fool...Collins and Murkoswski are both in the Committee competent about Education...this Committee is 12-11 Republican...so, not even both, but just the vote of one of them would have blocked DeVos in the preliminary fase, without the need of a full floor Senate vote...if they weren't willing to vote for her, why did they vote for advancing her nomination in Committee?
It looks pretty clear now that McConnell let these two vote no to placate their constituents who were going hard at them on DeVos. But he wasn't going to let them actually block the process. So just like the 50 other R senators had no choice but to vote "Yay", Collins and Murkoswki had no choice but to vote "Yay" on the Committee. We, critics of DeVos, should really not hold them up as Moderate Heroes...