Confirmation doesn’t end the fight over Kavanaugh

IN her remarkable endorsement of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, lamented these fractured times in which differing groups don’t just have different opinions, but people bear “extreme ill will toward those who disagree with them.”

“In our intense focus on our differences,” Collins said, “we have forgotten the common values that bind us together as Americans.”

As it pertains to Kavanaugh, those divisions aren’t going to be repaired any time soon. Indeed, the opposite may be true, as liberals disappointed with their failed effort to destroy Kavanaugh personally now look for ways to remove him from the highest court in the land.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., plans to use a Freedom of Information Act request to try to get a look at documents related to the FBI’s second investigation of Kavanaugh. That probe came prior to the confirmation vote, following the 11th-hour allegations of sexual misconduct against the nominee.

Senators who viewed the FBI’s report said it showed no corroboration of the allegations. But Pelosi says that, “In purposefully limiting the FBI investigation, it is clear the Republicans were not seeking the truth. They were seeking cover to do what they wanted to do anyway.”

This is a laughable case of the pot calling the kettle black, given that Democrats’ assault on Kavanaugh was designed primarily to delay his confirmation until after the midterm elections when they hope to take control of the Senate and thus keep President Trump from naming anyone else to the court.

Pelosi’s effort is mostly a PR stunt, given that the documents she’s seeking have traditionally been kept confidential — regardless of which party’s in power — and because Congress is exempt from FOIA requirements. But hey, anything to stir the pot, right?

Along those lines, some are looking to perhaps impeach Kavanaugh. An online petition that garnered more than 125,000 signatures shortly after his confirmation Saturday alleges, among other things, that Kavanaugh lied under oath — about not having “legacy” connections to Yale Law School, and about when he learned of a woman’s allegation that he had exposed himself to her at a college party.

This “he lied under oath” narrative began with Kavanaugh’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Lisa Graves, a former attorney on the staff of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote for Slate.com that Kavanaugh had misled the committee about stolen documents she had written for Leahy. Kavanaugh “repeatedly” lied under oath, Graves wrote.

Impeachment proceedings must begin in the House, which Democrats to have a good chance of reclaiming in November. Some Democrats have already mentioned the idea. Jed Shugerman, a law professor at Fordham University, told The Washington Post over the weekend that he would be surprised if Democrats didn’t act on the idea.

In her remarks Friday on the Senate floor, Collins said the nomination process for Supreme Court justices has been sliding downhill steadily for 30 years. “One can only hope that the Kavanaugh nomination is where the process has finally hit rock bottom,” she said. Alas, that seems unlikely.