Things that should offend NBC News: Republicans' commitment to tax cuts by taking access to health care away from millions of Americans, their rush to pack the Supreme Court with extremists who will leave ordinary people with nothing and corporations with everything, and their utter and extreme disregard for women's individual rights to control their own bodies.

Those are obscene.

If you're NBC News, you'd rather focus on the angry callers to Susan Collins' office, framing them as "vulgar."

One caller on Friday, September 7 at 6:11 p.m., left a message saying, in part: "If you care at all about women's choice, vote 'no' on Kavanaugh. Don't be a dumb bitch. F*** you also."

In a second voice mail, the caller calls Collins "a feckless, feckless, feckless woman standing there letting Trump and his appointees steal the right to choose what women do with their bodies. And you stood by, 'Oh, I don't know. I'm so naive.' F*** you. F*** you."

And in a letter sent to her Portland, Maine office, the writer on August 9 says that "EVERY waitress who serves you is going to spit in your food, and that's if you're lucky, you f***ing c***! Think of that every meal."

In a life-and-death struggle, NBC News reporters choose to focus on the use of the word "fuck?" Really? Because the obscenity -- the VULGARITY -- is death in back alleys with coat hangers or worse. That's obscene and vulgar. And it will happen if Kavanaugh is confirmed.

If you're NBC News, you'd rather focus on the tens of thousands of small donors who have committed to funding her opponent if she does not consider their rights and feelings over those of the corporations who have kept her in office this long. Never mind that Ady Barkan, an activist suffering from ALS has worked for a month to raise money in opposition to Kavanaugh and Collins at an average of $20.08 per donor.

“Bribery will not work on Senator Collins. Extortion will not work on Senator Collins. And anybody who thinks these tactics would work on Senator Collins obviously doesn’t know her,” spokeswoman Annie Clark said in a statement. “Senator Collins will make up her mind based on the merits of the nomination. Threats or other attempts to bully her will not play a factor in her decision making whatsoever.”

Cleta Mitchell, a Republican campaign finance attorney at Foley & Lardner, agrees with Collins's office, saying the effort is “legally problematic.” While not directly affiliated with Collins, Mitchell says she intends to send a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Maine, asking for an investigation into the fund.

“If they walked into her office and said we’ll give you a million dollars to vote against Kavanaugh, well, that’s a bribe,” Mitchell said. “It certainly seems to me that it is a thing of value for an official action and it’s a quid-pro-quo. It is tied to a specific vote.”

Cleta Mitchell is an extreme right-wing lawyer whose entire career centers on creating dark money vehicles for billionaires to fund in order to buy off their politicians. She was instrumental in ginning up the IRS "scandal" in order to get tax-exempt status for a slew of dark money organizations that should not exist. So please, NBC News, spare us her determination of what tens of thousands of small donors are doing to participate in their democracy.

If you're NBC News, those donors are "questionable," but the Kochs, Mercers, DeVoses, et al buying off Republicans is nothing at all to blink about. Not only does NBC News not blink, they QUOTE the buyers. Good lord.

Twitter reacted predictably:

Shame on NBC News. Let's shame them more by supporting Barkan's campaign to raise the people's voices against Kavanaugh.

And shame on Susan Collins for calling ordinary people participating in democracy "bribery." I look forward to helping her future opponent, should she choose to sell the country to the billionaires.