America, we are on our own
Behavior of both parties was a cold and smallminded example of placing party over country.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the appalling final day of testimony on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh was the most “embarrassing scandal for the United States Senate since the McCarthy hearings.” That’s putting it mildly. Patriotic Americans appear to have few remaining representatives in Washington. If the United States’ worst enemies had schemed to design a more divisive episode, they could not have done so. The blame runs in a vast circle. Whoever decided during the summer that the compelling testimony of research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford should be held back — apparently, as a delaying tactic — was no friend of victimized women.
In one of the many moving moments of Ford’s testimony, she explained the anguish she felt in deciding whether to bring her personal pain to the attention of people in authority. She was “wondering whether I would just be jumping in front of a train that was headed to where it was headed anyway, and that I would just be personally annihilated.” If she is not, in fact, annihilated it will be no thanks to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and her staff, in whom Ford placed her trust.
The only plausible explanation for the late leaking of Ford’s name to the press is that Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee hoped to reopen the official background investigation of Kavanaugh. Even if the FBI found nothing new, every fishing expedition takes some time, and the midterms are approaching.
The Democrats justify this by noting that regular order and mutual respect were already dead. If, as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., thundered (in the opening salvo of his next presidential campaign), the delay was a naked power grab, it was no more so than the refusal by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to allow a vote on the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland during the final year of the Obama administration.
This was not the first time the Senate treated the third branch of our constitutional government as a political pawn. But it was a cold and small-minded example of placing party over country.
In Garland, President Barack Obama chose a moderate jurist of relatively advanced age who could be counted on to find the center of a divided court for a relatively short term.
This was a moment for a president to play a unifying role. But then came reports othat President Donald Trump was delighted with Kavanaugh’s shocking transformation from Fox News choirboy to the sneering, lout who appeared Thursday.
I don’t blame Kavanaugh for being angry. Despite his appearance under pressure as a belligerent in a barroom, it remains true that Ford’s allegation is unproven. Clarence Thomas was plenty steamed as he answered Anita Hill’s accusations. But he did so with far more composure and respect for our institutions than bratty Brett.
Finally, the press. The utterly unsubstantiated last-minute allegations peddled by grandstanding lawyer Michael Avenatti should never have seen the light of day with any reputable publication.