467

Sadly, it just keeps getting worse. There have been warnings that the mere presence of a GOP partisan hack like Kavanaugh undermines the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. 

UPDATE: I wrote these words back on October 9, 2018. Today is July 17, 2019-7 months into a Democratic House-and they have not had Kavanaugh impeachment hearings-real or less so-or any Kavanaugh investigations whatsoever. True they have a very large plate of legitimate investigative targets-though pressure continues to grow for Dems to investigate Kavanaugh. But they aren’t doing much on any investigations until now-Richard Neal is not only slow-walking Trump’s tax returns but refusing to ask for Trump’s NY state returns-offered very helpfully by the NY Democrats who passed a law just so the House Democrats could have them. 

Neal claims that he worries taking the NY returns could hurt their case in a federal court but even if they-finally-win their federal case it won’t be worth much if it’s after the 2020 election. Again the lack of urgency is a major worry.

There’s a piece about the Dems slow motion oversight in Politico this morning.

https://twitter.com/Budz442Bud/status/1151449932773175297

If anything I trust Nadler a little more than Pelosi-Nadler is already for an inquiry though he’s muted his public call for it-which is unfortunate as it just gives Pelosi more room to run out the clock. The 87 House Democrats who currently support impeachment

have to push Pelosi. It’s not going to happen if the leadership is totally comfortable-like Al Green did last night.

End of UPDATE

UPDATE 2.0:

Indeed-in fact what it does is make us remember that four of the five GOP Justices were chosen by illegitimate GOP ‘President’s-W and Trump. The fifth GOP Justice is: Clarence Thomas, credibly accused of gross sexual misconduct. Indeed, it’s been clear-or should have been clear-for a long time that the GOP Supreme Court is just another partisan GOP body like the GOP House. But before Kavanaugh no one came out and just said it.

David Frum rightly says:

Indeed, we’re at a point of total minority rule nowTrump ‘won’ with 46% of the vote and nominated Kavanaugh who only has 41% public support-51% disapprove which is unprecedented disapproval for a confirmed nominee.  Then he was ‘plowed through’ by a GOP Senate with that only got 44% of the popular vote in 2016.

So when you say that both Trump and Kavanaugh are illegitimate you also have to add-so is Mitch McConnell, the Senate ‘Majority Leader’ though his party got a minority of the vote.

Yet last night Trump held what Hillary Clinton rightly calls a political rally for Kavanaugh. 

Remember a big concern for Kavanaugh right from the outset was the very reasonable concern that he was chosen to protect Trump from the Russia probe. Between that concern and his partisan rant at the hearings-‘resentment over President Trump in the 2016 election, revenge on behalf of the Clintons’ you think they’d do what they could to reassure people-at least attempt to be a little conciliatory or dial things back. But Trump and friends instead are gloating, doing everything to make the majority of the country eat excrement.

Certainly they did nothing yesterday to reassure that Kavanaugh-appearances to the contrary really is independent and impartial. Instead Trump and Kavanaugh hung out at the Russia House yesterday basking in their illegitimate coup.

FN: While as noted above there are no such Kavanaugh hearings-serious or even less so-this remains a very good and crucial question.

Then last night at the staged political rally Trump had the audacity to apologize to Kavanaugh on our behalf. We are the majority of the country who didn’t vote for Trump, didn’t vote for Mitch McConnell, and despise Brett Kavanaugh and Trump had the nerve to lyingly put words in our mouth that we want an apology for Kavanaugh? 

There is so much for which Trump owes this country an apology for including the way Kavanaugh was rammed through without a real vetting process. But for him to now put these lying words in our mouths is gaslighting in the extreme. It’s on us to make him rue the day.

President Donald Trump on Monday claimed Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination was “caught up in a hoax set up by the Democrats.”

As Josh Marshall says the GOP narrative on Christine Ford was very strange. They claimed on the one hand that they believed her-something had happened to her but not by Kavanaugh and maybe in a totally different point in her life. This counter theory is absurd of course-it’d be more plausible to simply call her a liar but they couldn’t do this politically, seeing as how credible she was.

But Trump here is simply calling her a liar.

“The things they said about him, I don’t even think he ever heard of the words. It was all made up. It was fabricated and it’s a disgrace and I think it’s gonna really show you something come November 6th,” Trump said as he left the White House for an event in Orlando.”

“When Trump hosted Kavanaugh and his family at a ceremonial swearing-in at the White House on Monday night, he apologized to the newly minted justice for the difficult confirmation process.”

“On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure,” the President said. “Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation. Not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency and due process.”

Right it’s so unfair to think that someone who wants to sit on the highest Court in the land should actually be vetted properly. What a tragedy. As for threats against Kavanaugh’s family, what about the compassion for what’s happened to Dr. Ford’s life? She’s under ‘unending threats’ and is unable to go home. 

Big picture is you have someone credibly accused of sexual assault by 20 women in Trump[1] appointing a phony ‘Justice’ credibly accused of assault by multiple woman in Kavanaugh. I’m sure survivors of sexual assault can be confident of a fair hearing before Kav and Clarence  Thomas-who also self righteously claims his life was ruined as he’s sat on the Court for the last 27 years.

And so you have the minority of the country staging a victory tour and daring to pretend to speak for the majority. This is not what democracy looks like.

 

 

 

  1. And counting https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-trump-accused-raping-talk-host-manhattan-store-20190621-sefeijj2srblxihbt6xzxsjiba-story.html ↵

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