Stakes high as Kavanaugh seeks Senate OK
Conservative jurist settles in for fight in Supreme Court bid
WASHINGTON — Conservative Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh plunged into his confirmation battle Tuesday, meeting face-to-face with Senate leaders in what promises to be an intense debate over abortion rights, presidential power and other legal disputes that could reshape the court and roil this fall’s elections.
Kavanaugh is a favorite of the GOP legal establishment, and his arrival as President Donald Trump’s nominee was greeted on Capitol Hill with praise from Republicans and skepticism from Democrats. There were also pledges of open minds by key senators whose votes will most likely determine the outcome.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called Kavanagh “one of the most thoughtful jurists” in the country but warned of an onslaught of “fear mongering” from liberal groups trying to derail the nomination. He said it was clear that many Democrats “didn’t care who the nominee was at all. Whoever President Trump put up they were opposed to.”
Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic leader, said his party’s lawmakers did indeed care who the nominee was — and what his views were on such thorny issues as abortion and Trump himself.
Trump “did exactly what he said he would do on the campaign trail — nominate someone who will overturn women’s reproductive rights,” the New York senator said.
He also argued that the president chose the man he thought would best protect him from the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Kavanaugh has written about a need to free the executive branch from intrusive criminal investigations.
“Not only did Mr. Kavanaugh say that a president should not be subpoenaed, he said a president shouldn’t be investigated,” Schumer said.
The confirmation marathon is expected to drag on for months, and no date has yet been set for hearings. GOP leaders, with a slim majority in the Senate, are anxious to have Kavanaugh in place for the start of the court’s session in October — and before the November congressional elections.
But that may be a tall order. His confirmation is complicated by an unusually long record as an appellate judge and as a George W. Bush administration official — and also his role as part of the Kenneth Starr investigation of President Bill Clinton.
Kavanaugh, just 53, could serve on the high court for decades.
As he arrived on Capitol Hill Tuesday, he huddled with McConnell, Vice President Mike Pence and former Sen. Jon Kyl. He also met with Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which will determine whether to recommend him to the full Senate.
McConnell, who has been influential in shaping Trump’s remaking of the judiciary, said, “What we’d like to see is a few open minds about this extraordinary talent.”
Grassley said a speedy confirmation wasn’t necessarily the goal. The vetting process, he said, is “going to be thorough and going to be done right.” Pence told reporters that Kavanaugh was a “good man.”
So far, Democrats are uniting behind a strategy to turn the confirmation fight into a referendum on conservatives’ efforts to undo abortion access, chip away at health care protections under the Affordable Care Act and protect Trump from Mueller.
The Democrats are trying to pressure two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, to oppose any nominee who threatens the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. The two have supported access to abortion services, and activists have already begun sending wire coat hangers, as a symbol of an era when abortion was illegal, to Collins’ office.