FULL COURT MESS
MICHAEL GOODWIN: Kavanaugh hearing turned into a Supreme farce
Dem senators don’t care whether Brett Kavanaugh woul d make a good justice, they just want to relitigate the 2016 election, Michael Goodwin writes.
MANY media descriptions of Tuesday’s hearing on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court called the event “a circus.” It is a reasonable choice of words, given that the first portion resembled an episode of Jerry Springer, minus the chair throwing.
There was real tension as raucous audience members took turns trying to drown out the Senate Judiciary Committee with angry shouts and screams. It’s a safe guess that none was shrieking in support of the nominee, who sat stoically through the rain of insults, though his young daughters reportedly were escorted out to spare them the ordeal.
The tension peaked as Democrats on the panel rolled out their own form of disruption, a coordinated attack on the hearing itself. They even interrupted each other to demand a recess so they could vote on whether to go forward.
They, too, were angry as they claimed to want more time to read more documents about Kavanaugh’s career, thousands of which had just been released Monday night. Yet their professed desire to be diligent about their duties seemed less than honest given that all of them already had vowed to oppose him, including three considering a presidential run in 2020.
One of the three, Kamala Harris of California, interrupted Chairman Chuck Grassley before he could finish a single opening sentence of welcome. That makes her the frontrunner!
Because the actual hearing eventually got underway and Republicans look to have the votes for confirmation, it’s easy to dismiss the theatrical hijacking as nothing more than politics as usual. But that would be a mistake because, with apologies to Shakespeare, in this case the sound and fury signify something.
It marked the moment when there was no longer a meaningful difference between the aim of elected Democrats and their unelected supporters in the audience. They were united in their determination to shut down the process because they both believe that if