Dirty Pool
President Trump’s candidate for the United States Supreme Court spent three days as a witness in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Judge Kavanaugh skillfully did the modern “dance” we now expect of a current nominee for the Court; successfully avoiding taking a stand on any issue, using the terms “long standing precedent,” “historic decision,” and a new one (at least to me) a “double precedent” to cover for his own views. He never let on how he would decide as a Justice on the Court, following the “double precedent” and more of recent appointees.
And, with only a scratch or two, he made it through. Maybe Senator Harris tripped him up a bit with the question about his private conversations on Presidential privilege, and Senator Hirono revealed his views about Native Americans; but they were only pinpricks. Democrats made a valiant stand, giving stirring speeches about Republicans hiding information, and violating Senate rules by releasing some of it deemed confidential by the majority. Whether the Democrats really thought they could de-rail the nomination, or whether it was more of a “show” for the base, we didn’t know. Kavanaugh was on his way to a lifetime appointment by a narrow confirmation vote, perhaps fifty-four in favor to forty-six opposed.
Then came “the letter.” Senator Feinstein had a letter accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault as a teenager; a drunken attack on a girl in a bedroom. The accuser asked that the letter be kept confidential, but wanted the Senator to know. Feinstein kept it secret for months, not even letting her Democratic colleagues see it. But, after the hearings, the word somehow leaked out, and Democrats demanded to see. Soon there was a public “whiff” of scandal, the reporters went to work, and the accuser realized that she could come forward herself, or be “outted” by the ravenous media. She chose to control her destiny, and entered the public spotlight.
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor of Psychology at Palo Alto University, has now publicly told her story. She has offered to testify to the Senate about what happened, and has even “vetted” her own report, taking a lie detector test and offering the notes of her therapist from 2012.
It won’t take long for the smear campaign to begin. We will soon hear every negative aspect of Dr. Ford’s life; we will know every mistake, misplaced comma in her doctoral thesis, and donation to a political cause. She stands in the shoes of Anita Hill, the law professor that accused then Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. In 1991 the Democrats, led by then Senator Joe Biden, ultimately abandoned her testimony and proceeded to confirm Thomas. Now twenty-seven years later in the “#MeToo” era, both they and the majority Republicans are faced with a similar problem.
The Republicans face a “lose-lose” situation. Mitch McConnell seems determined to proceed with the vote, knowing that a Kavanaugh confirmation would create the Federalist Society’s “Dream Court.” But the process, particularly if there are no hearings, or if the smear gets too ugly, will turn off the suburban white women vote that the Republican Party candidates desperately need to survive the upcoming midterm elections. Win the Court, but lose the House and Senate as well, may be the ultimate result.
But to allow hearings, and more, to withdraw or lose the Kavanaugh nomination, means to lose the Court, perhaps forever. Regardless of the nomination outcome, the Republicans are now looking at possibly losing the Senate, and with it their opportunity to control the appointment process. The traditional Republican base, and more particularly the traditional Republican financers, are more than willing to give up the legislature today for decades of conservative majority on the Court.
Republicans claim the Democrats are playing “dirty pool.” They have a point, as Democrats, at least Senator Feinstein, held the letter through the entire vetting process without bringing it out. While Feinstein says she was respecting Dr. Ford’s privacy, in the end it does look like a last minute ambush attack.
And Democrats will soon be claiming “dirty pool” as well, when the smear campaign against Dr. Ford begins. The Republicans have already found sixty-five women who knew Kavanaugh in high school and vouch for his “sterling” reputation. Hard to imagine how they remember so well back from the early 1980’s; even harder to imagine that the Republicans found them over the weekend. They must have known about the Feinstein letter, and prepped a response.
So we are now at the ultimate battle for the control of the Supreme Court. Unlike the historic debates of the Senate that decided the great issues of their time, this one won’t end with flowery speeches and careful compromises. This will be determined by all the pressures of modern politics, from dark money donors to demanding interest groups. It’s a “street fight” with no rules and we can expect even more “dirty pool” to come.
