So, Here’s My Question…
The FBI is now racing to investigate the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh for excessive drinking, sexual assault, and being a general little-rich-boy-elite-asshole. There’s really no reason to investigate the last claim, though, since he put that characteristic on full display Thursday on national television. We also really don’t need to investigate his blatant lying, since, again on national television, Kavanaugh lied about not going to parties that he’d already admitted to, and not to the belligerent behavior after excessive drinking for which he was well known. The investigation will go wherever it will go, as long as Trump’s attack dogs stay back.
The question of Kavanaugh’s character is really not my question, though. My question is, why this guy? Depending on who you ask, there are about 1.2 million lawyers in the US, and about 800,000 lawyer jobs listed by the Department of Labor. In terms of judges, there are just under 900 federal judgeships, and who knows how many state and local judges there are all over the country. There are thousands of law professors and legal scholars. The supply of possible judges for appointment to the bench is HUGE. So, why in the hell would Trump and the invertebrate Republicans nominate and then support this one guy in the face of unrelenting opposition? Did they not vet him AT ALL?
I personally believe that Kavanaugh was selected by Trump simply because he’s the biggest asshole that Trump could identify on the Federalist Society list of approved assholes. Trump LOVES to piss people off, so he characteristically picked the one guy pretty much guaranteed to piss off the most people, as well as invigorating his own base of assholes. However, like everything else Trump does, (like separating families at the border) he didn’t think this one through or allow his staff to actually do any vetting of the potential nominee. His amount of vetting consisted of, “Is he a white man? Did he go to Harvard or Yale? Is he a radical partisan who hates normal people? Is he a flaming asshole? If so, I’m good to go with this guy.”
What Trump didn’t anticipate, though, is that the ground beneath him is shifting. Normal Americans appear to be awakening from a decades-long political coma, waking up to the issues of social justice, equality, racial justice, and the #metoo movement. When Blasey Ford and other assault victims stood up in opposition, motivated supporters leapt to their feet to add volume. Had it not been for Jeff Flake retiring from office, the effort probably would not have been as effective, but the stars aligned, and it was. Kavanaugh’s fast track to the Court is stymied. Let’s not kid ourselves, though; we are still fighting an uphill battle against the GOP populating the Supreme Court with one more asshole, but at least there is a battle.
Time to keep standing.
It’s a mix of ”own the libs” and “keep Trump out of jail” that forms the attraction.
1This article explains a lot.
2https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/9/28/1799871/-MUST-READ-David-Brock-on-Brett-Kavanaugh
I wouldn’t want you to miss this.
https://margaretandhelen.com/2018/10/01/lindsey-graham-sets-his-sights-on-becoming-first-lady/
3A friend decried “limited” investigation she heard on the TV. Well, think of it this way. The FBI is actually a gumshoe operation with holy hell firepower. When questioning someone, if a lead or a link pops up, they have to bloodhound it. Not to do so is tantamount to criminal negligence. Translation: they ain’t gonna let a damn thing slide. Sloppy work can get an agent canned. And I have all my digits crossed that there will be more people popping up with really good info on Kav. As for me, he totally lost the nomination with that little tear jerker act. And speaking of jerking, what was with the nose thing when he walked into the committee room? Had he been snuffing something?
4Wow! M, that article by a former friend and Republican colleague is frightening. It seems he has been groomed as a political smear captain and operative since his graduation from law school. Referred to as the Kavanaugh cabal, his fellow operatives include the likes of Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Matt Drudge, Alex Azar (Sec. of HHS), Mark Paoletta (chief counsel to Pence) and Barbara Comstock (House Rep.).
5He is a full fledged Right Wing Nut Job, trained to attack Democrats. How’s that for judicial impartiality?
It’s a win-win for Trump.
If Kavanaugh gets approved, he gets a Trump-buddy on the Supreme Court who’ll owe him major CYAs for the appointment.
If Kavanaugh doesn’t get approved, the whole mess has sucked attention away from the Mueller investigation.
6If you missed the SNL opening Saturday night, you owe it to yourself to find it on you tube. Matt Damon was Kavanaugh and Kate Mckinnon did Lindsey Graham. It was a perfect lampoon of the absurd Rethuglican umbrage.
7I suspect Kavanaugh was given preppie vetting, in that through circles of acquaintances he was known to members of the current president’s administration. I’ve noticed that in nacilbupeR administrations the Federalist Society is far more influential than the ABA in getting its members on benches. Of course a vetting along the line of “Prep School”? Check. “Yale, Harvard, or Princeton?” Check. “Conservative true believer?” Check. “Right clubs?” Check. “Right neighborhoods?” Check. “Sperry Topsiders and Nantucket Reds?”
So Kavanaugh is a waspy preppie good ole boy who will do the wealthy evangelical conservative’s bidding as a Supreme. And he’s been lead to believe that he has both earned it and deserves it.
I’d like to see a youngish liberal leaning POTUS have a judicial impeachment task force within the WH to review judicial holdings made by the intermediate Federal courts. And when they have ultra-con evangelical wealthy leanings, begin the process to remove them. All of them. As a general rule I firmly believe judges should lean slightly in the liberal direction, at all levels, from JPs to Supremes. While stern unsympathetic a$$holes have a role in the world, adjudication is not it. They should be line judges and home plate umpires. (And for the most part, are.)
8Not to mention he thinks a president should be king.
9This whole thing has been carefully planned and replanned RW conspiracy from the beginning.
10This literal cultural and political WAR has been in progress for decades.
While it’s nice that a lot of liberals, progressives, and Democrats are now “finally” beginning to realize the existence of this outright take-no-quarter war, I fear they have begun to react far, far too late to survive it.
There is a slight chance of counteracting the RW’s ‘final push’ to replace our semi-representative government with a theocratic and absolute authoritarian oligarchy/plutocracy and kleptocracy/kakistocracy, in the November elections. After that, if they have won, there will be only one way left to restore our nation…
@Sandridge:
You said – “After that, if they have won, there will be only one way left to restore our nation…”
When people lose everything, they will have nothing to lose. It wll not be pretty…
11Mistake #1 was allowing a proven liar, Clarence Thomas, to remain on the SCOTUS bench. Mistakes will happen, but not remediating them is a travesty. Nominating Kavanaugh was a mistake, as he is a known partisan political operative with no judicial bones in his jacket. Donnie never admits mistakes and the entitled Kavanaugh will not withdraw, so the first opportunity to correct the current mistake lies with the Senate. If the Senate fails to do its due diligence in their advise & consent role, it will be left to the House to impeach both Thomas and Kavanaugh. Vote 2018!
As Micr stated in comment #8: “While stern unsympathetic a$$holes have a role in the world, adjudication is not it.” Judicial review of all life time appointments should lead to the impeachment of those who violate their sworn duties for the reasons Micr described.
12Preppie Kavanaugh has always felt entitled, witness his high school and college daze.
On graduating law school and working for the Starr investigation, and since he is obviously smarter than the ordinary creature, he placed himself on the fast track to the Supreme Court when he started writing, speaking and glorifying the presidency, knowing there’d come along a blithering idiot like Trump who wants to be immune from investigation and prosecution, and by the way, that’s the guy who appoints the Supremes.
A person who would keep a 36 year-old calendar is also very likely to plan his future.
13There’s a whole lot more at stake than smearing our faces with shit worldwide by putting this jerk on the bench. Start with Roe V Wade, and then the nitty gritty of stopping district courts from certain kinds of trials, and clearing the field for Trump to pardon anyone he wants to. This is the long picture that the republican establishment, starting with Rove, and maybe before, have been working for for a very long time. I wouldn’t be surprised if they hadn’t been grooming this little dick since, perhaps, high school.
14On next month’s SCOTUS docket is Gamble vs US. No 17-646. This is what the rush is about. Yes, they want him to overturn Roe, yes they want him to drag us all back, but they need him seated for October to rule on that specific case.
At stake is the “separate sovereigns” exception to double jeopardy. If he (and the other 4 conservative judges) vote to overrule it, people given presidential pardons for federal crimes cannot be tried for that crime at the state level.
Bam. Trump can pardon the lot of them and they have nothing to fear from state’s attorneys. We’re all looking at the shiny coin and not seeing the bigger picture.
15P.S. That explains the GOP acquiescence about Trump: they know darn well he is nuts and ignorant but he makes a perfect cats paw while they do their deeds.
16Jane and PKM, AMEN! Sadly, Papa and Sandrich are correct as well. If AK Lynn and her buddies Margaret and Helen are correct maybe we can put a dent in this this November!
17I do not understand how the President can dictate anything to the FBI. If anyone saw the movie ‘Mark Felt’ or read the book upon which it was based, the FBI is supposed to be an independent body. Would the Watergate conspiracy have been uncovered if Nixon had been calling all of the shots? I don’t think so. Christopher Wray needs to stand up for the FBI and the country.
18Justice Kennedy was being manipulated to resign for 18-months by the Trump admin. His resignation was part of the deal to protect his son, Justin Kennedy, from “Russian Collusion” charges – He was the previous big boss of Deutsche Bank’s real estate mortgage loans – the bank that loaned $1 billion to highest risk borrower, bankrupt Trump…It’s the very bank that was fined hundreds of millions for Russian money laundering not long ago.
Justin Kennedy is currently CEO of LNR Property – whom recently rescued the $1.2 billion balloon payment that Jared Kushner could not pay on the Park Avenue property debacle.
Kavanaugh was one of the few Trump promised Kennedy to replace him to “preserve his legacy”….those who were on the list: all were Kennedy’s clerks at one time or the other. Flattery gets you everything!
19FYI!!
This is really disturbing. Full transcript of a Senate staffer interview with Kavanaugh details SIX total sexual assault allegations, including a drunken rape in a car that (as far as I know) hasn’t been previously reported https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/09.26.18%20BMK%20Interview%20Transcript%20(Redacted).pdf
Flake, on 60 Minutes last night: Admitted that if he was not resigning, he would not have done the right thing to protect America: demand an FBI investigation.
20Welcome to the Dotard45 “Age of Rank and Vile.” Kavanaugh is just the most recent in a long list of Donnie’s dumpster of disqualified nominees, a symptom of the depth of the corruption and ineptitude of this maladministration. The entire scheme is an interlocked web from Kellyanne Conway to Kavanaugh. Then there’s Don McGann the professed ‘good’ guy who sat at the Senate hearing like Kav’s twin separated at birth. Same 80s era blown dry coif, florid complexion of hard drinking excesses and sense of white privilege entitlement.
Many have speculated as to who wrote the NY Times piece about those protecting us from Donnie. My now current leading suspect would be McGann as a venture into future plausible deniability.
For fun, if Kav had a soul or conscience (he doesn’t) this article is good list of reasons Kav should withdraw (he won’t) his nomination. https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/01/kavanaugh-agonistes/
21Susan OTLC–Where exactly did you see that about the six sexual assault allegations? I followed the link and then went to the page about Judicial Nominations and a whole bunch of articles came up. Which one(s) refer to what you mentioned? Thanks!
22Jo…the link opened up directly to the legal document as a pdf. for me seconds ago to test it for you. I’ll use “tiny url” which may help, as well as post the url link again, too. Tiny url: https://tinyurl.com/ybae4u24
The original link: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/09.26.18%20BMK%20Interview%20Transcript%20(Redacted).pdf
23Thanks Susan OTLC. The tinyurl worked. There are some horrible allegations.
24One name sums up my disgust for Kennedy, the RATS, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and other conservative justices with whom I may be as yet unacquainted: Henry Friendly.
If you too know of Justice Friendly, then you understand the contempt I hold for Kennedy, the RATS, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and other (neo-)conservative justices. Even as a group, they are unfit to carry even Judge Friendly’s water bottle.
Kavanaugh is neither sufficiently experienced nor sufficiently thoughtful in a big picture way to sit as a Supreme. He and Thomas would operate at about the same level. Maybe even carpool to sex offender counseling together.
25It has long been my suspicion that the Young Republicans was the farm system for the elite rwnj leadership, much as the Hitler Youth recruits bolstered the Nazi regime. They were rich, white and entitled.
26I heard that Kavanaugh was a political hack among other things. I also heard that he was groomed for this position for a LOT of years and he, and only he, could fill the position.
27What I want to hear, and it’s bound to be connected, is that he had a huge mountain of debt which mysteriously disappeared before the hearing. Someone also mysteriously made the down payment on his house. Have yall heard any of that?
@Marjorie Wood – you’re exactly right. Why THIS guy? Because he’s corrupt af. Who paid off his debt and down payment? The Russians? One or more of our own homegrown oligarchs? Who knows? If I had to bet, I’d bet the Gang of Putin-putas knows, and THAT’S why this guy, and not one of the other Federalist Society clones.
GOTV! The Rape-Public-Con RICO conspiracy must be stopped.
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