U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland meets with Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Good on Maine’s senior senator, Susan Collins, for not just meeting with President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, but disagreeing publicly with Republican Senate leadership and urging her colleagues to hold hearings on his appointment.

That said, let’s all take a moment to recognize how supremely ridiculous it is that Collins has garnered so much national attention just for speaking in measured tones about doing one of the most basic, constitutionally-mandated aspects of her job.

Nothing illustrates how far the Republican Party has fallen and how extreme it has become than the fact that her actions (which she has couched in terms of avoiding a more liberal nominee should a Democrat win the November presidential election) are considered out of the ordinary or praiseworthy.