Consigliere Mitch earns his keep

Mitch McConnell is steamrolling ahead with the Kavanaugh nomination.

Late Wednesday evening, McConnell filed cloture, an action that moves the Senate closer to a confirmation vote, though a final vote would not take place until Saturday at the earliest.

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McConnell repeatedly vowed to hold a vote on the nomination this week and has said the results of the FBI investigation should not be a reason for delay, even as Senate Democrats have questioned the credibility of the investigation and called for more people to be interviewed as part of the probe.

"[T]he results of the FBI investigation should not be a reason for delay."

Really, Mitch? Even if the investigation turns up compelling evidence that Kavanaugh doesn't belong on the Supreme Court, or maybe even in the federal judgeship he currently holds?

Oh, right: Don Trumpone's White House, probably via Don "let's finish this, I gotta split" McGahn, never intended to let the FBI anywhere near anyone who could provide such evidence.

The fix is in. Consigliere Mitch has been completely consistent in signaling this from the beginning. And now, having indulged the three unruly children in his caucus (Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins) in their insistence on at least a token look at the serious allegations of sexual misconduct (including attempted rape) leveled against Kavanaugh, he is signaling that his patience is ended.

The very last obstacle to Kavanaugh's confirmation is his own performance at his session before the Judiciary Committee to rebut the attempted-rape allegations. Whether he committed the abhorrent acts thirty-plus years ago, he definitely displayed poor anger management, political bias and susceptibility to conspiracy theories. All of these things would cause us to doubt his fitness for an ordinary judgeship such as he currently holds, much less a Supreme Court seat.

McConnell and McGahn know this. That's why Republican talking points, including Don Trumpone's, all concentrate exclusively on the lack of evidence that Kavanaugh committed attempted rape. Not one single Republican will touch Kavanaugh's embarrassing performance of just last week. They'd like you to forget it ever happened.

The problem is that his performance during those hearings is just as relevant, if not far more relevant, than the allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford. (Sorry, Dr. Ford. For what it's worth, your credibility is infinitely greater than your attackers'.) That performance shows what Kavanaugh is like right now. And he's anything but judge-like, even by his own standards: see tonight's Rachel Maddow show for an exquisite piece on that score.

But his unfitness to be a judge, much less a Justice, is irrelevant to that old white patriarch McConnell and his old white male cronies. It is, in fact, offensive to them for Kavanaugh to be held accountable for his past actions. They're scared silly that if it happens to him, it might happen to them. As it probably should.

So Consigliere Mitch, seeing the goal of cementing a reactionary, far-right majority on the Court for decades in sight, is damning the torpedoes. And he may even take comfort in his nakedly unethical exercise of power because according to one poll this farce of a confirmation is firing up Republican voters to participate in the midterms. That could be disastrous not just for Democrats but for the country.

If Consigliere Mitch can shepherd Don Trumpone's boy Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court, he will be able to smile that creepy, disingenuous smile of his in the mirror, knowing that even though his Don has been totally useless as a conventional president, he, the consigliere, made everything work for his precious Republicans.

If you hate Don Trumpone and Consigliere Mitch as much as I do, you have one responsibility: vote Democratic in the midterms. No matter the obstacles.