Three decades ago, President Ronald Reagan nominated a pre-eminent
legal mind and unabashed constitutionalist Robert C. Bork. A Yale Law School
professor with impeccable credentials, including a seat on the DC Circuit Court
of Appeals, Bork faced an unprecedented buzzsaw of contention and condemnation
not just from Democrats, but the press and Hollywood.
US Senator Ted Kennedy read a smear-filled speech against Bork’s
confirmation, infamously referred to as “Robert Bork’s America.” Ironically,
Kennedy’s tirade against Bork referenced policy decisions implemented by
Democratic politicians, including forced segregation, the retraction of civil
rights, and police abuses against citizens. Reagan’s Republican Party didn’t
handle the media and political onslaught, and Bork’s confirmation failed and
not just along party lines. The stark failure of a pre-eminent jurist to
receive a seat on the Supreme Court demonstrated that Republican measures to
appoint conservative, constitutional originalists to the United States Supreme
Court would face not just a double-standard on extreme vetting, but an unprecedented
assault on their character and their personal lives.
Thirty years later, with President Donald Trump in office, it
looks as if Republicans have learned their lesson. Donald Trump overcame the
steep media harassment which sought to derail his election in 2016. In fact,
the more the media attacked the President, the better his chances grew, it
seemed. Part of his winning campaign included the list of conservative jurists
whom he would consider for nomination to the United States Supreme Court. Trump
knew how to take on the media then, and he put the screws to the media with
this list. He shored up support with worried evangelicals, plus he established
trustworthy credentials with other conservatives worried about his commitment
to Republican principles.
His first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, passed through
unsightly lines of questioning from Democratic US Senators. Their unjust
determination to stonewall a well-qualified jurist fell apart when the
Republican majority nuked the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, simply
following the pattern set by former Senate Majority leader Harry Reid in 2013
with appellate nominees. Gorsuch was one constitutionalist replacing another
constitutional originalist.
For all intents and purposes, Democrats overplayed their hand.
They should not have blocked this nomination, but allowed it to go through and
save their political capital for other nominees. This partisan folly has hurt
their cause in more ways than they will ever know.
The nomination process is now excessively politicized. The
Democrats have destroyed any credibility on this matter. This Democratic
attempt to derail President Trump's duly established role as chief executive,
and the US Senate's role of "Advise and Consent" has turned into a
search-and-destroy circus. Will there be any hope of ending this perverse
disregard for the rule of law?
Perhaps. Justice Kavanaugh has displayed an impress judicial
temperament. He has demonstrated through solid political research and writing
his skill at analyzing law and responding to federal court cases. He has shown
proven integrity as a private citizen and public figure. His family contains a
long legal pedigree. No matter what the Democrats tried to do, they could not
dispute his qualifications.
Now they have resorted to pursuing spurious allegations of sexual
misconduct in order to derail this nominee. It is nothing short of disgusting.
Christine Ford brings forth these purported sexual assault charges from decades
ago, when she and Brett were in high school. The charges have gone from
harrowing to laughable. One accuser stated that Kavanaugh was involved in gang
rape. The attorney in charge of another matter, Michael Avenatti, represented
washed-up porn slut Stormy Daniels. Those attacks against Trump went nowhere. Avenatti
wants in on the corrupt anti-Kavanaugh action, too? Unbelievable.
With the Kavanaugh nomination, a different kind of political
maelstrom is emerging. In the past, Supreme Court nominees were
"borked", that is slandered heinously by the ideological opposites in
hopes of scuttling a terrible nomination. In those days, with Reagan at the
helm of divided government. Robert Bork was slammed inexorably because of his
consistent constitutionalism, and thus his inevitably conservative views. The Roe v. Wade precedent faced possible
overturning with Bork.
That fate awaits that poorly decided decision once again should
Kavanaugh become the next Supreme Court justice. His 307 written opinions
outline a clearly pro-America, sovereign guidance on a number of issues,
including life. Precedents have been respected and rejected in differing number
Borking Kavanaugh didn’t work, in that the Democratic US Senator
minority could not attack his political or judicial philosophy with any
seriousness this time. The Republican Party conference, or at least the phalanx
of conservatives fighting for this latest nomination, now understand the stakes
and the depraved lengths to which the Democratic Party will go to shut down
future nominees.
This nominee has been “Kavanaugh-ed”, in that the ideological
opposition on the US Senate has resorted to every personal, private slander and
allegation of impropriety to stop his nomination or scuttle his confirmation.
This process was played out to a less extent during Judge Douglas Ginsburg’s
nomination hearings. Reagan nominated Ginsburg after Bork, but
he withdrew because he “inhaled”. Let’s not forget the “high-tech
lynching” that
Clarence Thomas endured.
These irreverent, heinous, salacious attacks have hit such a
height, however, that they deserve their own moniker. Because of their
outlandish nature, however, they will backfire spectacularly. This perverse
lawlessness has turned off moderate Democratic voters while engaging
Republicans to get out there and vote. Dianne Feinstein may have saved her
seat, but she cost her party any chance of winning the House or the US Senate. Perhaps in the near future, Supreme Court
nominees should look forward to being “Kavanaugh-ed”. It almost certainly
guarantees the confirmation going forward.
Kavanaugh Coming Through |
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