After Confirmation, My Take on Brett Kavanaugh

For a while after President Trump had nominated federal appeals judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring associate justice Anthony Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court, I would from time to time weigh in here on this blog about Kavanaugh, usually expressing my approval...in spite of me being generally of a more liberal political orientation.  To me, it was obvious that we were going to get a conservative justice from this conservative administration: this nominee struck me as conscientious and scrupulous in his view of the law, most likely better than others Trump might have selected.  When I watched and listened to the confirmation hearings, I was dismayed at the numerous heckling disruptions, the unwarranted interruptions by Democratic senators, and the generally rude and cold line of questioning they imposed on Kavanaugh...I thought the nominee acquitted himself very well and weathered this storm of opposition.  And then came the allegation from an anonymous source, a woman claiming that Kavanaugh had attempted sexual assault on her back in the early 1980s when they were both in their teens while attending a party.  The accuser stepped forward as a California college professor, Christine Ford, and she ended up testifying before an extended meeting of the Judiciary Committee.  After a very limited FBI investigation of her claims and those of others, the Senate ended up confirming Kavanaugh to the Court, with the final vote being 50-48, Joe Manchin of West Virginia being the only Democrat voting for him.  Friday the confirmation hung in the balance until "moderate" Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine announced her support of Kavanaugh...Manchin closely followed her, saying that he believed Ford's testimony in spite of his support for the nominee.  I said that I would wait until I could compare the testimonies of Ford and Kavanaugh before I would say where I stood on the nomination.  Now it's over...at least the part leading to Kavanaugh's seating on the high bench...so I'll say it: I believe Christine Ford's account, I think Kavanaugh lied about his past, and I would have consequently voted "no" had the honor been accorded me...

I have recently been on jury duty, something that you probably already know if you've read this blog any amount of time.  There was the defendant, who was charged with attempted sexual battery, and the prosecution presented a very detailed case involving witness testimony and physical evidence of the crime.  The Kavanaugh confirmation process was by its intended nature a political one, and the same criteria for making decisions as a jurist did not apply here.  After all, they were considering someone for a very powerful, lifetime seat that could affect the lives of untold numbers of people in this country for decades to come.  Given the fact that, had Kavanaugh's nomination gone down to defeat, Trump would have picked another equally-or-more conservative person as the new nominee, it makes no sense for any senator who, after stating that they believed the accuser...meaning by direct implication that Kavanaugh did attempt to rape her...to vote Kavanaugh into such a high position of honor, responsibility, and trust.  And had he been voted down, he still would have retained his lifetime position as a federal appeals court judge...something I'm not so keen on either.  So for Senator Manchin to state that he believed Ford while voting for Kavanaugh is cynical politics at its worst: he's running for reelection next month as a Democratic senator in staunchly pro-Trump West Virginia...I'm now hoping that he gets his ass kicked...

So what do I think now about Brett Kavanaugh?  Well, there's a small sliver of hope that I hold out for our latest Supreme Court justice...let me explain.  In looking over this individual's life-span, two personality traits have come out about him as I see it.  One, whatever he happened to be involved in, be it studying hard in school, assisting an independent prosecutor in trying to take down a sitting president, assisting another sitting president in his various policy matters, marrying and raising a family, serving as an appeals court judge...and, yes, as a youth partaking in the rowdy, drunken party scene...involving the degradation of women...with his fellow rich, privileged classmates, Brett Kavanaugh has jumped into it with focused enthusiasm while at the same time compartmentalizing each area, acting fuzzy with his memory whenever it suits his interests.  The other is that he has insisted on being the "Alpha Dog", the "head-honcho" in all of these, quite content with being the leader.  Now that he's going to be on the Supreme Court, will he fully commit himself to this institution, trying to excel to his best while assuming the role of a consensus-forming leader?  Who knows, I'd like to hope this will happen, but I have serious doubts.  Oh, by the way: this morning Stephen King tweeted, "When Al Franken was accused of sexual impropriety, Susan Collins demanded he resign. Without a hearing." What a difference political expediency makes with one's so-called "principles"...

One footnote to all this is the extensive protesting that I'm seeing about Kavanaugh.  I wonder how utterly misguided people can be when all they have to do is get off their collective butts and vote in each and every election...but instead seem to believe that demonstrating like this defines their democratic experience!  You can stomp around with your signs and yell to your hearts' content: it won't throw out a single bum...but voting will...