It was a volcanic day in Washington. It was all about he said/she said. It didn't have to be. The FBI could have investigated the charges. In fact, the American Bar Association is now demanding that the nomination be put on hold until such an investigation is completed. But that's not going to happen. The Republicans will, in Mitch McConnell's words "plow ahead" with Kavanaugh's confirmation. So who's lying? Jonathan Chait writes that he's come to the conclusion that it's Kavanaugh:
Why do I believe Kavanaugh is lying? The charges are credible, and his accusers are willing to put themselves at risk, with no apparent gain to bring them to the public. Kavanaugh has said too many things that strain credulity for all them to be plausibly true. He almost certainly lied about having had access to files stolen by Senate Republicans back when he was handling judicial nominations in the Bush administration. His explanation that the “Renate Alumni” was not a sexual reference is difficult to square with a fellow Renate Alumnus’s poem ( “You need a date / and it’s getting late / so don’t hesitate / to call Renate”) portraying her as a cheap date. His insistence “boof” and “devil’s triangle” from his yearbook were references to flatulence and a drinking game drew incredulous responses from people his age who have heard these terms. His claim that the “Beach Week Ralph Club” was a reference to a weak stomach seems highly unlikely.
He who is willing to lie about small matters will lie about larger matters. And then there is the matter of Kavanaugh's judicial temperament:
He has, for one thing, all but abandoned the posture of impartiality demanded of a judge. A ranting Kavanaugh launched angry, evidence-free charges against Senate Democrats. “The behavior of several of the Democratic members of this committee at my hearing a few weeks ago was an embarrassment. But at least it was just a good old-fashioned attempt at Borking,” he said, using a partisan term invented by Republicans to complain about ideological scrutiny of an extreme judicial nominee. “This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled by pent-up anger over President Trump in the 2016 election.”
Kavanaugh claimed that this was all about the Clintons exacting their revenge. And, on the subject of judicial temperament, consider Lindsey's Graham's tirade. Graham claims he's been a judge. "This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics," he bellowed.
Regardless of whether or not Kavanaugh is guilty as charged, in the final analysis, it's abundantly clear that the United States is a sinkhole of a country.
Are you paying attention, Justin?
Image: You Tube
10 comments:
If the United States had even a modicum of normalcy left, there would hardly be a rush to confirm Kavanaugh, given the seriousness of the allegations leveled against him, Owen. Of course, it has been a long time since the United States reflected anything approximating normalcy. Riven by extreme partisanship on both sides, it is clearly a country in irrevocable decline.
The "shining city on a hill" has become a cesspool, Lorne.
It's sad that Lindsey Graham's spine was tossed in the coffin when they buried John McCain. There was a time when McCain could persuade Graham to partisan but principled positions on difficult issues. As McCain's health worsened, Graham's connection to principle likewise declined.
We saw how compromised Graham had become last December when the Senate had to deal with "tax reform"
"Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday became the latest Republican to admit the GOP is trying to ram through massive tax cuts for the rich to satisfy its wealthy donors, telling a journalist that if the party’s tax push fails, “the financial contributions will stop.”'
I still wonder how the people of the United States came to accept that their Supreme Court need not be independent, a separate but equal arm of government but rather should be a partisan agency of the sitting government. Of course both parties have chosen justices more akin to their ideology than the other party's but that has always been tempered with choosing moderates, be they conservative or liberal. It is that moderation that ensures they will dispense justice, not ideological rulings.
As far back as Scalia that convention of moderation was shattered. The right began appointing what can only be considered judicial radicals. The decision in Citizens United put that beyond dispute. That was an act of partisan judicial radicalism. The corporate persona was an English creation and, from the outset, was recognized as a "legal fiction" necessary for the sake of corporate commerce and nothing else. A corporation clearly existed on paper but it needed personhood for it to be able to sue and be sued. Like all fictions it was narrowly limited in scope. The radical right on the US Supreme Court ignored that and pronounced corporate personhood to carry political rights. They only stopped short of granting companies the right to vote.
Kavanaugh is a seasoned political operative. He's a party guy, an active Republican hustler. Yet that never is raised in these hearings even though it should be an absolute disqualification.
It's disheartening to say but the United States is no longer a democracy and its top court (like many lower federal and state courts) is no longer a court of law. I don't know about Kavanaugh's accuser, Dr. Ford, but I know that, in the States, Themis has been gang raped.
Your analysis is excellent, Mound. And you're right. In the United States, Blind Justice is led around by those in power.
Here's background opinion on the kind of school Kavanaugh went to, and the attitudes prevalent.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50333.htm
Kind of like Upper Canada College, Eton and Harrow.
BM
Thanks for the link, BM. This battle has been all about rich, white, male privilege. The world has changed. We have witnessed several men -- men like Orin Hatch -- who were asleep as the it changed.
some one should check the water supply because Lindsay Graham and Kav. were both out of control. Now it may be said Graham was elected and can be "un elected", but Kav. was there as part of a job interview. No one who acts as he did at a job interview is qualified for that job. It isn't just any job, its the Supreme Court of the U.S.A. and for that you need to at least be able to fake being of even temperament and good manners. Kav. couldn't even do that. he attacked the female senator and my conclusion is that the boy just doesn't deal well with women he believes are in authority and are challenging him. from the time of the first allegation my sense if it was there would be more. We now know there are at least 4 allegations. Guys like him don't get better with age, the just get better at hiding it. At the Senate hearings he just lost it and there fore has no place on any court at any level any where.
Actually made me wonder what he is like at home when things don't go his way.
Human Resources folks have something in their toolboxes called a "stress interview," e.a.f. They use it to discover what some potential hires are really like. That's what Kavaaugh was involved in yesterday. He flunked the interview.
Guys I know who are now retired went through stress interviews, conducted separately from the rest of the candidate evaluation process by boards manned by senior officers and specialists, as long ago as the '60s when applying for employment as policemen. I know some guys who were very committed to obtaining a job in that profession but walked out or just saved themselves the trouble by applying to the Toronto police service. I often wondered whether applicants who just didn't give a shit would have been better disposed to sail successfully through the stress. When the HR girls came on the scene and took over the personnel racket a few years later there was no doubt that that they would discover this tool and employ it wherever its use could be rationalized.
It might be unfair, or at least unnecessary, to apply the stress toleration factor in this case. In a lifetime appointment as a Justice of the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh will be there for long as he pleases and he won't really have to answer to anyone for anything. Therefore he isn't likely to get too stressed out. And if it should happen, there will always be time for a drink.
Once he's on the court,John, he'll neveer have to apply for another job. And anyone who questions his judicial temperment will simply be ignored.
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