Kavanaugh trove sets up Senate fight

WASHINGTON — A Senate battle was brewing Tuesday over Democrats’ requests for documents from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s career, with his time in President George W. Bush’s White House emerging as a potential focal point of that fight.

No. 2 Senate Republican leader John Cornyn told reporters about “rumblings” that Democrats want “every scrap of paper” from Kavanaugh’s career.

“We’re not going to sit idly by and allow our Democratic colleagues to draw this out by making unreasonable document demands which would delay this hearing until well past the election,” the Texan told reporters.

GOP leaders have talked about hoping to confirm Kavanaugh by the Oct. 1 start of the next Supreme Court term. Most Democrats are expected to oppose the nomination.

Cornyn said his “suggestion” was that Democrats should concentrate on Kavanaugh’s dozen years as judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a post he assumed in 2006. He said Democrats have issued “no requests” for records from his three-year stint as staff secretary in Bush’s White House, when Cornyn said Kavanaugh was “basically managing the paper flow for the administration.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Democrats were not making unreasonable requests for documents.

“We should have access to all of his writings. And I think that’s not an unusual request,” he said in a brief interview. He said papers from Kavanaugh’s time as Bush’s staff secretary were “an essential element to this.”