While Mr. Madison weeps

Like a lot of Americans I had the misfortune to watch the travesty that was the hearings on Brett fucking Kavanaugh last week. I really wasn’t inclined to watch them, rather I was more of a mind to wait till I read the transcripts . But the S.O., surprisingly, wanted to watch them – from start to finish. since they did not finish till 1 AM our time, it was out of character for her to say the least. I am assuming it was educational for her also as she got to see the worst of American government, they’re on public display for all to see.

The S.O., wise women that she is, took an immediate dislike to Brett fucking Kavanaugh, noting that he cried more than Dr. Ford did.

There is a lot to unpack from the events of last week. So to shorten things a bit, let me make a few definitive statements upfront.

I believe Dr. Ford, and I believe Brett fucking Kavanaugh was a jerk during his high school and college days. He’s not completely innocent.

Irrespective of the truth or lack of truth of the multiple allegations against him, Thursday’s hearing showed that, without a doubt, Brett fucking Kavanaugh is unfit to sit on the Supreme Court.

Finally, if you think this is a “smear” campaign against Kavanaugh and that he is a victim, you need to be introduced to my old friend:

Before anyone gets the vapors regarding that last point, I think it’s important to examine the context and look at the history of failed Supreme Court nominees.  I am old enough to remember when Lyndon Johnson nominated Abe Fortas to be Chief Justice, and his nomination was shot down and had to be withdrawn. The allegations against Justice Fortas were nothing near the level of those being brought against Brett fucking Kavanaugh, and yet the Senate forcefully made Johnson withdraw his nomination. In a nutshell, Fortas was cashiered for violating judicial ethics concerning money and influence, something that in the present day Clarence Thomas does all the time. That is how far we have fallen as a nation. Look onward at the nominations of Clement Haynesworth,  G. Harrold Carswell,  and Harriet Miers, it’s readily evident that the scrutiny into Brett fucking Kavanaugh is warranted indeed. And of course, let’s not forget the unsuccessful nomination of Rober Bork.

During his testimony, Brett fucking Kavanaugh invoked the name of Robert Bork. ( If you were playing along at home, that would be the signal to chug a beer).  Back when the Senate actually understood its duty to advise and consent, Bork’s nomination was voted down for a good reason. His positions, particularly on civil rights and voting rights,  as well as his cowardly participation in the Saturday Night Massacre, had shown him unworthy to be on the Supreme Court in the late 20th Century. In an ironic twist, Bork’s failure led to the nomination of Anthony Kennedy, whose resignation has created the current sad display of governmental failure. Kennedy also played a key role in seating a President who did not win the popular vote, exactly like the White House’s current occupant. 

Truth in advertising and to the surprise of no one, I am sure, I have been opposed to his nomination from the start. To start with, his endorsement by The Federalist Society should have been disqualifying from the git-go. If you are not familiar with them, you should be as the Federalist Society “has evolved into the de facto gatekeeper for right-of-center lawyers aspiring to government jobs and federal judgeships under Republican presidents.” They are champions of the sham doctrine of “originalism.” As Garrett Epps refers to it, the Justices’ requirement to have “seances with the dead.” Originalists love The Constitution. The problem is, they have not actually read it. 

Then there is work for Ken Starr during the great penis hunt of 1998.  It was Kavanaugh who pushed for the detailed line of sexual questioning and graphic sexual detail that appeared in the Starr report. 

Then, of course, there is work in the Bush White House that we know little about because the Senate did not demand that the records of said service be produced.  There is the mystery of how his house and debts got mysteriously paid, and of course, there is a documented track record of his own decisions and political writings. Of all those things, the last may be the most damning. As Charles Pierce pointed out, all the wrong people trust Brett fucking Kavanaugh.

They treated Kavanaugh like he was made of delicate porcelain, and there was a reason for that, and it’s not that they’re all hacks in thrall to the madman in the White House—though they all are. It’s because they knew Kavanaugh wasn’t as slick or as quick on the draw as Neil Gorsuch was, and they also knew that he was skating on the very thin edge of perjury, just as he was in when he was confirmed to his present seat on the D.C. appeals court. (Pat Leahy, of course, clearly believes Kavanaugh skated over that line 12 years ago and, therefore, did it again when asked about it this past week.) …..

 
He went to all the right schools and the well-greased conservative judicial machine got him the right career path. But Brett Kavanaugh doesn’t belong on the Supreme Court any more than Roger Stone does. He was not smart enough to pull off the cutesy evasions he apparently urged on other judicial nominees when he was working in the White House during the Avignon Presidency.

He slipped and called birth control pills, “abortion-inducing drugs,” which not only is unscientific, but it is the jargon of the extreme anti-choice movement. (Remember, always, that, as important as Roe is, the target ultimately is Griswold and the right to privacy. Conservatives do not believe that right exists and was itself about birth control.) Plus, as Irin Carmon pointed out, Kavanaugh wasn’t even on the short list until he mucked around with the case of a 17-year-old who wanted an abortion and did everything right even under Texas law, while Kavanaugh hemmed and hawed and tried to run out the clock.

We know why he was chosen, and it wasn’t because of his academic pedigree or his clock-management skills late in the fourth quarter. It’s not that anyone with a brain wouldn’t trust this guy as far as they could throw John Marshall. It’s that all the wrong people trust him the way you’d trust any sure thing.

The hearing on Thursday confirmed all of those fears about Mr. Brent fucking Kavanaugh.  Ironically he displayed many of the same characteristics that they have complained about with Hillary Clinton, the notion that they were “entitled to the job”. Kavanaugh made that painfully clear in his testimony of how he went to Yale. 

At one point, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pursued a line of questioning about the “Beach Week Ralph Club,” a phrase that appeared in Kavanaugh’s yearbook next to his senior photo. Kavanaugh told Whitehouse that “Ralph” probably referred to vomiting, something that Kavanaugh attributed to his “weak stomach, whether it’s with beer or with spicy food or anything.” Whitehouse asked if the “Ralph Club” reference had to do specifically with alcohol, and Kavanaugh responded:

Senator, I was at the top of my class academically, busted my butt in school. Captain of the varsity basketball team. Got in Yale College. When I got into Yale College, got into Yale Law School. Worked my tail off.

It was a deflection, but the particular shield he raised was telling. His response seems to suggest a belief that a prestigious education stands as evidence of moral rightness.

Of course, it doesn’t, and if you think Kavanaugh got into Yale solely on his own merit, I have some waterfront property to sell you.

Taken all together and taken in the circumstance of an already damaged American Constitutional Democracy,  with a President who already has a 
consistent and serious commitment to the destruction of free expression, as well as a desire to use the countries judicial system as his own personal revenge squad, the nomination of Kavanaugh, like the election of Trump is perilous for the country. After all, he could perpetuate the sickness that is Trumpism for decades.

Given Brett fucking Kavanaugh’s flawed personage for the court, it strikes me as odd what a crazy hill Kavanaugh is to die on for conservatives. There is no shortage of hack J.D’s in teabagger America, and I am quite certain they could have found one who is not an entitled prick, and a borderline alcoholic with anger issues. If anything, Brett fucking Kavanaugh was exposed as lacking the temperament and balance needed from a Supreme Court Justice.  As I said earlier, I don’t think he is completely innocent and, therefore, he should have had his nomination withdrawn. The dark money that funds the Federalist Society has plenty of other evil men waiting in the wings. Or they could have picked a neutral judge with a genuine record of judicial scholarship – and without the taint of having assisted in torture or the Starr investigation. Someone like Merrick Garland.

I can promise you that 30 years from now, no law clerk will be up late at night looking up his historic dissents because there will not be any. Like Clarence Thomas, he will be a do-nothing judge, an empty suit in a black robe who can be reliably counted upon to vote no on any issue of compassion and decency. All while violating the norms of ethics expected of a Supreme Court Justice. Thurgood Marshall he’s not, and never will be.

So they stick with him becausefor Trump, a worthless hack judge with a dictatorial view of presidential powers is exactly what he wants on the court. The reason, besides the perpetuation of an authoritarian agenda, has to do with the case of Gamble vs  The United States a case currently working its way up to the Supreme Court:

 
The Utah lawmaker Orrin Hatch, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, filed a 44-page amicus brief earlier this month in Gamble v. States, a case that will consider whether the dual-sovereignty doctrine should be put to rest. The 150-year-old exception to the Fifth Amendment’s double-jeopardy clause allows state and federal courts to prosecute the same person for the same criminal offense. According to the brief he filed on September 11, Hatch believes the doctrine should be overturned. “The extensive federalization of criminal law has rendered ineffective the federalist underpinnings of the dual sovereignty doctrine,” his brief reads. “And its persistence impairs full realization of the Double Jeopardy Clause’s liberty protections.” 

Within the context of the Mueller probe, legal observers have seen the dual-sovereignty doctrine as a check on President Donald Trump’s power: It could discourage him from trying to shut down the Mueller investigation or pardon anyone caught up in the probe because the pardon wouldn’t be applied to state charges. Under settled law, if Trump were to pardon his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, for example—he was convicted last month in federal court on eight counts of tax and bank fraud—both New York and Virginia state prosecutors could still charge him for any crimes that violated their respective laws. (Both states have a double-jeopardy law that bars secondary state prosecutions for committing “the same act,” but there are important exceptions, as the Fordham University School of Law professor Jed Shugerman has noted.) If the dual-sovereignty doctrine were tossed, as Hatch wants, then Trump’s pardon could theoretically protect Manafort from state action.

A result overturning 200 years of dual sovereignty would very much muddy the waters for any potential prosecution of Trump himself for his now well-documented misdeeds. With a Judge on the Supreme Court who favors dictatorial powers for the President, Trump could get away with pardoning himself. Conservatives do not want a judge who is independently minded like Souter was. They want a reliable soldier who is part of the movement that they spent years building.  They want to impose an apartheid-style minority government on the United States,  where a minority will rule in perpetuity over a liberal democratic majority. They can’t segregate people by color so that they will use income and allegiance to certain political beliefs. If you don’t believe that, you are kidding yourself.   When clear majorities oppose virtually everything the party in power is doing but can’t do anything about it – the backers of Trump and his minions will have won the day.

And that is why I will remain in opposition to Brett fucking Kavanaugh. This “movement” has to be stopped and crushed.