Democrats quickly fight Kavanaugh nomination
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats, facing an uphill struggle to reject the nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, opened a broad attack Tuesday. They painted him as an archconservative who would roll back abortion rights, undo health-care protections, ease gun restrictions and protect President Donald Trump against the threat of impeachment.
But the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, excoriated Democrats for engaging in what he called “cheap political fear-mongering,” and for declaring their opposition to Kavanaugh before his nomination was announced.
“They wrote statements of opposition only to fill in the name later,” the ordinarily staid McConnell said, increasingly angry as he delivered his customary morning remarks on the Senate floor. “Senate Democrats were on record opposing him before he’d even been named! Just fill in the name! ‘Whoever it is, we’re against.’”
As Kavanaugh arrived at the Capitol to meet with the Republican leader and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the committee’s Democrats and Democratic leader took to the Supreme Court steps to deliver a direct appeal to Americans to rise up in opposition to his nomination.
“If you are a young woman in America or care about a young woman in America, pay attention to this,” said Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. “It will affect your life.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut issued a specific plea to the survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida: “If you care about common-sense gun violence protections, Judge Kavanaugh is your worst nightmare.”
Before Kavanaugh’s nomination Monday night, Democrats had centered their strategy on abortion rights and health care. But the judge has given them a new line of attack: a 1998 law review article that he wrote casting doubt on whether a president could be indicted — a theory that goes to the heart of the special counsel’s investigation of Trump.
“Whether the Constitution allows indictment of a sitting president is debatable,” the judge wrote then. Vice President Mike Pence accompanies U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh as he arrivess Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, said Democrats would use confirmation hearings to drill down on those views.
“We knew with any of the 25 nominees that health care and women’s health, right to choose would be important,” Schumer said, referring to the list of potential candidates drawn up for Trump by conservative groups during the 2016 campaign. “But Kavanaugh brings a new prominence to the issue of executive power, because he is almost certainly the most hard right of all of the 25. He is almost certainly the one who would most yield to presidential power.”
Democrats are well aware that they will have a difficult time persuading the Senate to reject Kavanaugh. The judge is widely respected in Washington and legal circles, and has an Ivy League pedigree, much like Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee. Gorsuch received the backing of three red-state Democrats — Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
All three are facing tough re-election battles this year in states Trump won handily. They haven’t given a hint of how they will vote on Kavanaugh, but they face an exceedingly difficult choice and will undoubtedly be under intense pressure at home.
Fresh off Trump’s announcement Monday night, Kavanaugh came to the Capitol on Tuesday to begin visiting with senators. Joined by Vice President Mike Pence, he met with McConnell, who praised his selection.
Supporters of Kavanaugh were mobilizing as well. Leading socially conservative political groups, such as the Family Research Council, the Susan B. Anthony List, and Concerned Women for America, praised Kavanaugh as a qualified pick and are rallying the anti-abortion grass-roots to support his confirmation with ads, rallies and online campaigns.
Unlike when Gorsuch was announced, top antiabortion evangelical and Catholic leaders were not invited to the White House on Monday evening.
Any unease among the base is not likely to have any real operational effect. Conservative efforts to support the nominee generally remain the same no matter the pick, and attacks by Democrats on abortion are likely to make it easier to energize the conservative grass-roots.