Kavanaugh deserves hearing before Senate
Every day, it seems, Democrats and their left-wing supporters throughout the land come up with new reasons to stall the U.S. Senate confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. It’s not going to work. And it shouldn’t. It’s an affront to the constitutional process.
On Tuesday, when Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws, Democrats demanded that Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing be postponed. They were quick to call Trump an “unindicted co-conspirator,” and promote a conflict of interest thread that Kavanaugh, if elevated to the high court, might have to someday rule on a case involving the president. What poppycock.
On the same day, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight counts of bank and tax fraud, a case where the violations happened years ago but surfaced as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s RussiaTrump “collusion” probe. Of course, Manafort’s conviction reinforced Democratic cackles to delay Kavanaugh’s hearings.
Then on Wednesday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the state of Alabama’s “Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Act” as unconstitutional. The state law prohibited women in the third trimester of pregnancy (15 weeks or beyond) from undergoing a certain, destructive abortion procedure.
Once again, Democrats seized upon the ruling — which went in their favor to cut out from the womb a live fetus — to call for a delay in Kavanaugh’s hearings. They railed that appointing another conservative justice to the Supreme Court — Kavanaugh — would lead to rolling back Roe vs. Wade and, in the process, override the federal court’s ruling in Alabama.
When will it end? Democrats are unwilling to give Kavanaugh a public hearing on two counts: First, they know he’s competent and, second, they fear that when he gets before the Senate and the public in televised hearings, Americans will witness a brilliant legal mind and trustworthy jurist who will uphold the U.S. Constitution. Americans, by and large, will be convinced that Kavanaugh should be approved.
What Democrats are doing, however, is leading a public campaign to muddy the issue by tying the legal troubles of President Trump’s former associates to Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Hey, their thinking goes, if Trump picked Cohen and Manafort — and looked what happened to them — how good can his judgment be on Kavanaugh? So they’re out to tarnish Kavanaugh personally, a falsified guilt-byassociation campaign, and delay his hearing until after the midterm elections in November.
Democrats are hoping the congressional election goes their way, leaving them in control of the House and Senate and, ultimately, the high court nomination process. It’s apples and oranges.
Kavanaugh, 53, has a legal track record going back more than a decade. U.S. senators should question the nominee vigorously, and then make the decision whether he is fit to sit on the Supreme Court. The Democrats’ charade to delay — and possibly scuttle — Kavanaugh’s nomination based on unconnected events swirling around the White House must not be allowed to succeed. That’s why Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell must stick to the original schedule and launch Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings in two weeks.
Give Brett Kavanaugh the due process he deserves.