Protesters against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
If there was any pretense left that the Republicans would treat Donald Trump‘s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court in a fair and reasonable way, that pretense is now gone. As we indicated previously:
Democrats pressured the Republicans running the Judiciary Committee to hold a new hearing on the [Dr. Christine Blasey] Ford allegations, and the Republicans caved, scheduling such hearing …. However, that is not how the Republicans operate…. It now appears that Monday’s hearing, if it even takes place, will likely be a sham.
A “sham” is exactly what happened at the Kavanaugh hearing, which took place yesterday. First, the Republicans rigged the game by limiting the hearing to Ford, when there were at least two other accusers — Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick — who had already come forward to say that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted them or others in their presence. Indeed, reports indicate that there was at least a fourth accuser. Second, Mark Judge, whom Ford says was an eyewitness in the room when Kavanaugh attacked her, was hiding out in a Delaware beach house, and Republicans refused to subpoena him for the hearing. Republicans thus limited the hearing to what they could frame as a “he said/she said” between Kavanaugh and Ford so that they could later claim the results were inconclusive. Third, the Republicans, in particular Donald Trump, refused to direct the FBI to investigate the claims of Ford or any other accuser, even though that is standard follow-up practice as part of its background checks for Supreme Court nominees, and there was direct precedent to do so in the case of Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas.
In addition to rigging the game, the Republicans featured Kavanaugh as the chief victim in his hearing, an age-old GOP tactic. They even hired a female prosecutor (the only woman on the Republican side of the dais) to question Ford, as if Ford were the one on trial. Kavanaugh spent the hearing making angry, belligerent attacks against the Democrats, even bringing up “the Clintons” as if they had a thing to do with this nomination. One Republican Senator after another apologized during or at the end of the hearing — to Kavanaugh.
Today, the Republicans have scheduled the Senate vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination, even though calls to delay it pending further FBI investigation have come from at least four Republican Governors, the American Bar Association and even the Dean of Yale Law School (Kavanaugh’s alma mater). Editors at the Jesuit magazine America called for Kavanaugh’s nomination to be withdrawn. It now appears that the Republicans are poised to rush through Kavanaugh’s confirmation, and if any Democrats still expect some sense of reasonable behavior by Republican Senators, clearly that ship has sailed.
Photo by Fibonacci Blue, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/LVgZuW
