Protesters against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
Donald Trump‘s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court should be the final nail in the coffin for Democratic innocence about how the power game is now played in Washington, D.C. Republicans threw out Robert’s Rules and any shred of decency or fair play decades ago. The Republicans know that politics is a numbers game — numbers of votes to get elected, number of Supreme Court votes to get a majority decision, number of Senate votes to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. For the Republicans, it’s not about character, lying, past statements or even past crimes. It’s only about winning. For some remaining Democrats, that light switch hopefully has been flipped on in the face of the Kavanaugh nomination hearings.
During Kavanaugh’s nomination hearings two weeks ago, numerous issues about Kavanaugh emerged, including, for example:
— Republicans hiding hundreds of thousands of pages of Kavanaugh’s records as a Bush White House official;
— Multiple counts of possible perjury by Kavanaugh in lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee;
— Financial issues, including large debts and a possible gambling problem
Then, after the hearings concluded, a letter from an anonymous woman was forwarded to the FBI, accusing Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her years ago in high school. The woman then came forward and identified herself as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University in California.
Democrats pressured the Republicans running the Judiciary Committee to hold a new hearing on the Ford allegations, and the Republicans caved, scheduling such hearing for next Monday. For a moment, many Democrats were celebrating, some expressing confidence that Kavanaugh would withdraw his nomination rather than face new tough questions. That’s certainly how things work in the Democrats’ world. For example, when allegations of misconduct towards women were leveled at Democratic U.S. Senator Al Franken, his Democratic colleagues such as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand pressured Franken quickly to resign without a hearing. However, that is not how the Republicans operate. Instead, the Trump White House has made clear that Donald Trump would not withdraw Kavanaugh’s name, and Trump and Republican Senators indeed have felt comfortable renewing their backing for Kavanaugh and casting doubt on Ford.
It now appears that Monday’s hearing, if it even takes place, will likely be a sham. Republicans and Kavanaugh know that all they have to do is get through a few more tough days, and then they’ll have the votes to confirm him. Kavanaugh has even been coming to the White House for practice sessions, as if telling the truth required such training.
A few Democrats still seem to be struggling with the way Republicans are operating. For example, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz tweeted just this morning about the Republicans:
They aren’t even bothering to make an argument anymore. It’s we got the votes and what are you gonna do about it.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) September 19, 2018
However, that has been Republican standard operating procedure for years now, certainly as far back as President Barack Obama‘s inauguration night. Let’s hope that Schatz and other Democrats, including the voters, have finally lost their innocence about the Republicans, and will act accordingly in the future.
Photo by Becker1999, used under Creative Commons. https://is.gd/eIq0tX
