Opinion: The Kavanaugh Confirmation Circus proves system needs to be changed

Sep 24, 2018 at 09:30 am by clervin

Brett Kavanaugh

This opinion piece concerns the Brett Kavanaugh nomination to the Supreme Court, but before anyone loses their mind in pre-judgement of me, I’m not attacking accuser Christine Blasey Ford or the #metoo movement per se.

I am criticizing the process by which the Senate “advises and consents” on the President’s nomination, its constitutionally mandated responsibility.

I ask, could this advice and consent process return to a less contentious debate on the Constitution and the law from the grandstanding circus it has become?

What we have with the Kavanaugh nomination is nothing short of exaggeration, grandstanding, calumny, and perhaps the fastest rush to judgment I’ve ever witnessed, to say nothing of Machiavellian calculation and preening self-regard.

Politics, not the law, maybe a dirty business, but this is prurient reality TV, a sleazy blend of contemptible characters, backstabbing, and power-hungry melodrama. It really is abnormal for a Supreme Court nomination; the exception being the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas drama in 1991.

Nominees are usually confirmed without much fanfare, even those who are ideologically out of the mainstream, such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was confirmed 96-3. Barack Obama’s two nominees, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor were both confirmed by wide margins by Republican Senates.

This isn’t “advice and consent” but naked power politics, shocking partly for its breathtaking mendacity and bad faith but mostly alarming because of what it signals about the place of “the least dangerous branch” in the metabolism of political life.

Why are Senate Democrats so desperate to prevent Kavanaugh’s nomination?

Historically, the left relies on the judiciary. They have successfully transformed American culture through the courts, never by electoral victory.  Roe v. Wade, same-sex marriage -- all the social issues victories of the left have been court-mandated.

What progressives cannot achieve through elections, they have managed to achieve via the courts.

This clown show is a naked attempt to influence wishy-washy Republicans like Susan Collins into opposing Kavanaugh or delaying a vote until the Dems (potentially) re-take the Senate in November.

After Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed, I hope that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his colleagues will take the opportunity to revise the way the confirmation process proceeds.

Henceforth, the candidate should meet in private with senators over the course of a few weeks. Then the Judiciary Committee should vote on whether the candidate should be put forward for a vote of the Senate.

Then the Senate should vote.

No public hearings.

“Advice and consent” does not mean “attempted public execution.”

In this sense, if the public revulsion against the intended destruction of Brett Kavanaugh fails, Dianne Feinstein and Dr. Ford may have done an inadvertent public service. I am not sure that they would then deserve our thanks, though (should this reform come about) the consequences of their actions would certainly merit our gratitude.

Changes can take place because the Constitution lays out the process in just a few words, saying the president shall nominate Supreme Court justices “by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.” Senate rules and tradition dictate the rest.

Just as an aside, this is a “he said, she said” case with no evidence or even witnesses. I don’t believe Kavanaugh ever did anything wrong, but perhaps I’m biased. Even if he is guilty of this accusation, it occurred in high school for God’s sake and has no bearing on his legal career since then. I certainly hope never to be judged on what I did in high school.

The #metoo movement has been weaponized against Kavanaugh, who isn’t exactly Harvey Weinstein. He’s an honorable man and judge who doesn’t deserve to be lynched, and Ford is the “Mayella Ewell” of 2018 (literary allusion).

If Senate Republicans capitulate on Judge Kavanaugh, we are finished as a constitutional republic. The idiots will run the asylum, and the character of the nation will be forever altered.

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