When he was first nominated, I saw Kavanagh much as I saw Gorsuch: an establishment figure who leans conservative, and thought that's what you're going to get because clueless establishment Democrats allowed Donald Trump to win the election. But better someone like him than someone like Harriet Myers or Clarence Thomas, or someone else who's crazy or ignorant, in other words more like Trump. I was disturbed later to hear of his role in the Starr investigations, and of his role as a Republican operative in the early part of his career. He's different from Gorsuch in that respect. But it seemed kind of stupid for Democrats, except for the political optics, to fight his nomination. He appeared until recently to be as good as we were going to get.
When the Blasey Ford accusation first came to light, my first reaction, as I'm sure was the reaction of many if not most Americans was–"Really, we're going back to high school now to find ways to stop these nominations?" I realize that politics is blood sport, and that the Dems are really angry at Mitch McConnell and the way he treated Merritt Garland, but this and the timing and all the things that Republicans complained about seemed pretty pretty low. Nevertheless, it became clear fairly quickly that the accusation was very likely true and was supported by other circumstantial facts. And let's not kid ourselves–every Republican who supports Brett Kavanagh knows that he's lying and that Blasey Ford is telling the truth.
I don't believe for a minute that Kavanagh didn't do the things that he's accused of doing, but there's a reasonable case to be made that stuff that happened in high school and college should not be determinative of the possibilities for people thirty years later, especially if their lives and careers have been exemplary since then. But very quickly it became clear that it wasn't about what happened, but about Kavanagh's fundamental truthfulness and ability to own up and move past stupid, drunken stuff he did as a kid.
And that's where in my view he failed completely. He unequivocally denied what every honest person sees plainly is the truth, and this alone is disqualifying. Yesterday's statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee further aggravated his credibility and questions about his fitness. At this moment it remains to be seen whether there are two or three swing votes among the Republicans that will block his nomination.
For the rest of the Republicans the issue is not what's true or not, but whether they can get away with ramming his nomination through. The Republicans see this as a purely tactical problem–regular order, norms, etc. be damned. The Dems have played their best cards and now it's up to them to do the same. Their strategy is to complain about the politics of personal destruction, and that has some traction. I can see how making public at the last minute a woman's accusation about events that happened over thirty years ago seems unfair. But politics is blood sport, and it came out, and then the question becomes how does Kavanagh and his supporters deal with it. And from my pov it's hard to imagine how they could have handled it worse.
I think that any reasonable person would have preferred that Blasey Ford's accusations to have been taken care of behind closed doors so that Kavanagh could have made a considered decision about whether he wanted to put his family through the ugliness that was sure to follow should he choose to fight. I can understand why they suspect Feinstein of gamesmanship on this. So what? The Republicans are finally on the receiving end of tactics that they would have used themselves if the positions were reversed. But once the accusations were public, he reacted in the worst possible way by denying what would become clear to everyone is undeniable, and so this compounded his problems and boxed him into a corner. Now, not only does his behavior as a teenager and young adult raise questions about his fitness, but so does his fundamental honesty and capacity to own up to what he did. It's a pretty ugly picture.
Kavanagh, after having been confronted with Blasey Ford's accusations, should have withdrawn or if he chose to fight it, should have fought through it with a different strategy. He should have admitted the stupidity and awfulness of his behavior as a non-adult, showed contrition for whatever harm he caused, and then focused on his productivity and accomplishments as a adult and public figure since then. He would then argue it's on that basis, not the basis of what he did as a seventeen-year-old or college kid that should determine whether he's fit to serve on the supreme court. This may or may not have worked, but at least it would have been an attempt to be honest, and it would have told us something positive about his character, his humanity, his ability to be honest with himself and the public, that whatever he did as a kid is not who he is now. And at the very least would have provided a much easier path for the Republicans and even some Democrats to vote for him.
But that's not what he did. Instead, he presented himself in court yesterday in such a way that it's easier for me to believe that the nasty, belligerent drunk he has been portrayed as is still there lurking under the surface and will come out if provoked. He presented himself as a right-wing tribalist following Trump's dictum to deny, deny, deny. It should be clear to everyone that while clearly he's more sophisticated, as a matter of fundamental character, he is no better or more fit for office than the man who nominated him.
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