The carnival side show is finally over. Judge Brett Kavanaugh 53, was confirmed as the 114th Supreme Court justice in a 50-48 vote on Saturday October 6, 2018. The confirmation of Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s second Supreme Court appointment, is an example of why Washington is called the swamp. Kavanaugh, a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School who has had a distinguished record as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for over 12 years and has also served as White House Staff Secretary under President George W. Bush, has been figuratively dragged through the mud ever since his nomination was announced on July 8.
First, Kavanaugh was treated to a confirmation process which was more reminiscent of a circus than a coordinated, comprehensive interview for the highest court in the land with 1278 written questions, incessant interruptions from Democrat senators, costumed protesters, over 70 arrests, and Spartacus moments. When this calculated attempt to delay and derail his nomination until after the mid-term elections failed, the left got their hands even dirtier.
Out of the woodworks came Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, 51, a Palo Alto University professor who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party in Maryland when she was fifteen and he was seventeen. Ford’s accusation was swiftly followed by one from Deborah Ramirez, who claimed that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her while they were freshman at Yale, and an accusation from Julie Swetnick, who graduated from a Maryland public school three years before Kavanaugh graduated from Georgetown Prep, who claimed that Kavanaugh was spiking drinks into order to gangbang women at parties back in the 1980s.
While none of these allegations could be corroborated, the Senate Judiciary Committee still agreed to conduct a hearing where both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh provided testimonies. And while Dr. Ford expressed herself well and her emotional fragility and pain were clearly palpable, her testimony failed to substantiate her accusations.
Although, Kavanaugh delivered a passionate denial of the allegations and a defense of his record and his character, the Senate Judiciary Committee caved into the pressure of some of its politically motivated members, the #MeToo movement and the left stream media and agreed to a thorough FBI investigation of the accusation.
The 45-page FBI report ultimately had no smoking gun. In fact, nothing surfaced in the FBI investigation (Kavanaugh’s seventh one) to disqualify him from serving on the Supreme Court. On Friday October 5, the Senate agreed to a cloture vote on the nomination and received enough votes to progress to the final vote on Saturday where Kavanaugh was confirmed 50-48 largely on partisan lines. Republican Susan Collins cast the deciding vote with her passionate speech where she spoke of the importance of the presumption of innocence. “In evaluating any given claim of misconduct, we will be ill-served in the long republic if we abandon the presumption of innocence and fairness, tempting though it may be.” Collins added, “We must always remember that it is when passions are most inflamed that fairness if most in jeopardy.”
Yet, disregarding the presumption of innocence is exactly what some members of the Senate from both the left and the right, the media and the #MeToo movement did.
Mitch McConnell summed up the situation well in his speech which proceeded the official vote:
“A vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh today is a vote to end this brief, dark chapter in the Senate’s history and turn the page toward a brighter tomorrow,”
Hopefully McConnell’s Senate colleagues will take his words as the rebuke for which it was intended and exhibit better behavior going forward so that no other nominee is ever subjected to such a witch hunt and public disrespect and disparagement. Even when the confirmation vote was taking place, the galley protesters refused to be silent despite multiple requests from the chamber officials.
We also have other examples of non-acceptance from prominent Democrats such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has asked for a public release of the FBI report. In addition, former Attorney General Eric Holder questioned the impact of the Kavanaugh appointment on the Supreme Court’s legitimacy in a tweet.
“With the confirmation of Kavanaugh and the process which led to it, (and the treatment of Merrick Garland), the legitimacy of the Supreme Court can justifiably be questioned. The Court must now prove — through its work — that it is worthy of the nation’s trust.”
Seriously? Judge Brett Kavanaugh who was sworn in Saturday by both Chief Justice John Roberts and his mentor former Justice Anthony Kennedy, the justice he is replacing, demonstrated that he has not only the judicial temperament but also the stamina to serve on the Supreme Court.
On Tuesday October 9, Judge Kavanagh will officially take his place as the 9th justice on the Supreme Court. Hopefully, the left can move past questioning the legitimacy of his confirmation so that the Court can focus its efforts on the important cases which await them. But then again, wouldn’t it be nice if the left and the never-Trumpers would also use this occasion to accept the results of the November 2016 presidential election and stop trying to undermine the legitimacy of President Trump? After all, isn’t that what the attack on Kavanaugh was all along, just another attack on Trump?
Image: CCO Creative Commons; Excerpted from: https://pixabay.com/en/crying-baby-baby-face-expression-2708380/
