Dirty Pool<\/p>\n
President Trump\u2019s candidate for the United States Supreme Court spent three days as a witness in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.\u00a0 Judge Kavanaugh skillfully did the modern \u201cdance\u201d we now expect of a current nominee for the Court; successfully avoiding taking a stand on any issue, using the terms \u201clong standing precedent,\u201d\u00a0 \u201chistoric decision,\u201d and a new one (at least to me) a \u201cdouble precedent\u201d to cover for his own views.\u00a0 He never let on how he would decide as a Justice on the Court, following the \u201cdouble precedent\u201d and more of recent appointees.<\/p>\n
And, with only a scratch or two, he made it through.\u00a0 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 \u201cshow\u201d for the base, we didn\u2019t know.\u00a0\u00a0 Kavanaugh was on his way to a lifetime appointment by a narrow confirmation vote, perhaps fifty-four in favor to forty-six opposed.<\/p>\n
Then came \u201cthe letter.\u201d\u00a0Senator Feinstein had a letter accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault as a teenager; a drunken attack on a girl in a bedroom.\u00a0 The accuser asked that the letter be kept confidential, but wanted the Senator to know.\u00a0Feinstein kept it secret for months, not even letting her Democratic colleagues see it.\u00a0 But, after the hearings, the word somehow leaked out, and Democrats demanded to see.\u00a0 Soon there was a public \u201cwhiff\u201d of scandal, the reporters went to work, and the accuser realized that she could come forward herself, or be \u201coutted\u201d by the ravenous media.\u00a0 She chose to control her destiny, and entered the public spotlight.<\/p>\n
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor of Psychology at Palo Alto University, has now publicly told her story.\u00a0 She has offered to testify to the Senate about what happened, and has even \u201cvetted\u201d her own report, taking a lie detector test and offering the notes of her therapist from 2012.<\/p>\n
It won\u2019t take long for the smear campaign to begin.\u00a0 We will soon hear every negative aspect of Dr. Ford\u2019s life; we will know every mistake, misplaced comma in her doctoral thesis, and donation to a political cause.\u00a0She stands in the shoes of Anita Hill, the law professor that accused then Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.\u00a0 In 1991 the Democrats, led by then Senator Joe Biden, ultimately abandoned her testimony and proceeded to confirm Thomas. \u00a0Now twenty-seven years later in the \u201c#MeToo\u201d era, both they and the majority Republicans are faced with a similar problem.<\/p>\n
The Republicans face a \u201close-lose\u201d situation.\u00a0 Mitch McConnell seems determined to proceed with the vote, knowing that a Kavanaugh confirmation would create the Federalist Society\u2019s \u201cDream Court.\u201d\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Win the Court, \u00a0but lose the House and Senate as well, may be the ultimate result.<\/p>\n
But to allow hearings, and more, to withdraw or lose the Kavanaugh nomination, means to lose the Court, perhaps forever.\u00a0 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.\u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n
Republicans claim the Democrats are playing \u201cdirty pool.\u201d\u00a0 They have a point, as Democrats, at least Senator Feinstein, held the letter through the entire vetting process without bringing it out.\u00a0 While Feinstein says she was respecting Dr. Ford\u2019s privacy, in the end it does look like a last minute ambush attack.<\/p>\n
And Democrats will soon be claiming \u201cdirty pool\u201d as well, when the smear campaign against Dr. Ford begins.\u00a0 The Republicans have already found sixty-five women who knew Kavanaugh in high school and vouch for his \u201csterling\u201d reputation.\u00a0 Hard to imagine how they remember so well back from the early 1980\u2019s; even harder to imagine that the Republicans found them over the weekend.\u00a0They must have known about the Feinstein letter, and prepped a response.<\/p>\n
So we are now at the ultimate battle for the control of the Supreme Court.\u00a0 Unlike the historic debates of the Senate that decided the great issues of their time, this one won\u2019t end with flowery speeches and careful compromises.\u00a0 This will be determined by all the pressures of modern politics, from dark money donors to demanding interest groups.\u00a0 It\u2019s a \u201cstreet fight\u201d with no rules and we can expect even more \u201cdirty pool\u201d to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"