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.
