What we've lost sight of in the Kavanaugh mess

Rich Lowry in Politico and Bret Stephens in the New York Times have penned pieces defending Brett Kavanaugh. Lowry's piece takes issue with the portrayal of Kavanaugh as a liar — but specifically and only about Kavanaugh's purported lies about his alcohol abuse as a young man and about his controversial remarks in his high-school yearbook. Stephens takes on the "bullying" by liberals, focusing heavily on the devastating effects an attempted-rape allegation can have on a man's reputation. Both pundits portray Kavanaugh's accusers and their accusations — and whatever testimony they have been permitted to give — as not credible.

Stephens' outrage prompts him to wonder:

Will a full-bore investigation of adolescent behavior now become a standard part of the “job interview” for all senior office holders? I’m for it — provided we can start with your adolescent behavior, as it relates to your next job.

Without ever saying so, Stephens accuses everyone who opposes Kavanaugh of bad faith. That's essentially the same argument every Kavanaugh supporter has made since Lindsey Graham went on his querulous rant last Thursday. The accusations have no shred of supporting evidence, the witnesses are inconsistent, the accusers are inconsistent, etc., etc.

In all this, the body politic has lost sight of a couple of things.

First, in attempting to defend himself, Kavanaugh went on his own querulous tirade last Thursday. In doing so he manifested a volatile, angry temperament I wouldn't want in a DMV clerk, much less a man who wants to be on the Supreme Court. He also ranted about the accusations of sexual assault against him being a political hit by the left and went so far as to accuse supporters of Bill Clinton of being behind the accusations. How could anyone who isn't manifestly conservative or right-wing possibly expect a fair hearing from a man with such unabashedly partisan bias?

This is something that Kavanaugh himself has had to address in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece today. I haven't read it but it's worth noting that his most partisan remarks were contained in his written statement, prepared prior to the hearing. He didn't blurt out anything spontaneously. He planned his worst remarks!

Second, we seem to have forgotten that Kavanaugh was nominated by Don Trumpone because of the judge's fringe belief that the president of the United States must not be compelled to respond to lawsuits or other judicial proceedings while in office. Kavanaugh is ready to defend our domestic Dear Leader by shielding him from any subpoenas, including but not limited to any that Robert Mueller might serve. Again, this is a fringe view that Kavanaugh has never disavowed, and he shows no discomfort about having been nominated for the Court precisely because he holds this fringe view. He has demonstrated full willingness to be Don Trumpone's lap dog on the Court, having not just met with the president nominating him (every nominee does that, of course) but having huddled in the Oval Office to strategize his confirmation.

Neither Lowry nor Stephens goes within a hundred miles of either of these fundamentally disqualifying points. Both of them know they have no answers to these weighty objections. So both of them, like every other Kavanaugh supporter, is hoping we won't remember them.

None of this is to suggest that we shouldn't perform a real investigation of the sexual-assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh himself would benefit if the allegations can be disproved.

However, whether the allegations can be proved is irrelevant to his fitness to serve on the Court. He has already demonstrated that he is not fit.

His supporters are crossing their fingers that we in the body politic have lost sight of why.

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.

...

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.