As Trump would say, “everyone knows” and “everyone says” that the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings are rigged, they are a Democratic “witch hunt” and a Republican partisan political show produced by all white, old-men Senators who are no longer virile enough to compete in ego with Donald Trump or with Brett Kavanaugh.
If Kavanaugh were truly worthy of elevation to the Supreme Court he would refuse to get confirmed through such a tawdry spectacle as this pathetic charade of a hearing. Rather he would behave like a real Federal judge and demand from the Judiciary Committee “a fair process” where “both sides can be heard” as he said in his Fox TV interview at least eleven times. No matter how much time that fair process might take.
Since Kavanaugh expects to be on the High Court for 30 years pushing a “Republican” agenda and has nothing to hide, he should immediately demand from the Judiciary Committee thirty days for full disclosure of all of his documents, an investigation by the FBI of the current bevy of sexual abuse allegations, and a full hearing where all witnesses are heard and where he can present a full throated defense to whatever allegations and writings any Senator or former date might lob in his direction.
No Federal Judge would tolerate or permit a case to go forward with the lack of disclosure orchestrated by the Republicans in control of the Judiciary Committee. No Appellate Federal Judge would confirm a lower court’s decision before all the evidence has been presented. Since Republicans have announced that they will vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation Friday morning at 9:30 regardless of what transpires between now and then, Kavanaugh’s continued participation in these hearings violates his professional and ethical obligations as a judge and proves his unfitness for elevation to the Supreme Court.
Do these so-called Republicans think the voters are dumb enough not to see that “the fix” is in? Of course not. But they know the base believes the bile they spew even when it is ultimately going to undermine and destroy that base. Indeed, these Republicans, by pre-ordaining Kavanaugh’s confirmation, seem to be competing with the Catholic Church’s unsavory current issue of allowing a massive sexual abuse conspiracy among its clergy over the past 40 years to be hidden from the masses, just as Kavanaugh’s track record is being hidden from the American people. It is time for our true American Republicans to take back their party from these self-serving, anti-representative partisans.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing is an outright abortion of the rule of law, leaving the reputations of his alleged victims, Senators and even bits of Brett’s supposed dignity, strewn about the hearing room floor and across the airwaves. Such carnage assures that even when he is confirmed to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh and the name he pretends to want to protect, will be dead on arrival
No matter how long Kavanaugh serves, his confirmation through such a corrupt and cynical process will assure that his name and legacy forever bear the stain of his embrace, not just of Dr. Ford, but his embrace of the debasement of the rule of law he so emotionally pretends to cherish. Ultimately Kavanaugh’s obituary, and reports of every decision he authors, will start and end with the fact that he was nominated to the Supreme Court by an undignified, misogynistic apprentice of a President, and confirmed to the Court by spineless Republicans more concerned with their own re-election than preserving and advancing the needs of the American people and upholding the true rule of law.
Trump and his enablers, including Judge Kavanaugh, through this charade of a hearing are attacking the Constitution and our democracy. Why should they receive more due process than they are meeting out?
Because we are still a nation of laws, as citizens we need to maintain our own integrity and dignity. Voters of all stripes should demand a full and fair process in these hearings – the same fair process Kavanaugh claims all sides deserve. And then voters of all stripes need to take back this Republic we cherish by voting out of office just six weeks from now all elected representatives who participated in, endorsed or condoned this national abortion of a confirmation hearing.
© Eliot Clauss, SCN Politics, September 2018