The Grand Finale to the "Inter-Galactic Freak Show"

27 years ago, Former Chariman of the Equal Opportunity Commission and DC Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Clarence Thomas underwent confirmation hearings to serve on the Supreme Court.  Control of the Court truly hanged in the balance, Thomas’s judicial philosophy differed sharply from that of the man he would replace, Justice Thurgood Marshall.  At the time of Thomas’s confirmation hearings, the other eight justices on the Court besides Marshall consisted of conservative/originalist Republican-appointed Justices William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia, socially conservative Democrat appointee Byron White, Republican appointees and major disappointments to conservatives Harry Blackmun and John Paul Stevens, and relatively new Republican-appointed justices Sandra Day O’Connor, David Souter and Anthony Kennedy. Marshall developed a reputation as a liberal judicial activist while Thomas indicated that he would take a more originalist approach on the bench; an idea that terrified Democrats.  Confirmation hearings concluded in late September 1991.

Shockwaves went through Washington, D.C. when the so-called “Queen of the Leaks” Nina Totenberg leaked the contents of a confidential FBI report where Anita Hill, one of Thomas’s former colleagues, accused him of sexual harassment.  The Judiciary Committee reopened the confirmation hearings and gave both Hill and Thomas the opportunity to testify.  Thomas described his experience as a “high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you.” At the time of Thomas’s confirmation hearings, the Democrats had a majority in the Senate.  In spite of this, the full Senate confirmed Thomas; with far more Democrats voting in favor of Thomas than any Republican Supreme Court nominee today could even dream of.    

27 years later, history repeats itself.  Confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh wrapped up two weeks ago.  Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Louisiana Senator John Kennedy described them as an “intergalactic freak show.”  The Judiciary Committee had scheduled a vote for today.  It looked like Kavanaugh would sail through on a party-line vote with all eleven Republicans voting in favor and all ten Democrats, all but one of whom represent states Hillary Clinton carried by double digits, voting against him.  Everything changed when Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has to face re-election against a candidate from her left, informed the FBI of a letter containing an anonymous sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh dating back to his high school days.  Feinstein had sat on this information for two months, taking a page out of The Washington Post’s playbook by releasing damaging (or potentially damaging) information at the most politically inconvenient time.  For more information,  google “Access Hollywood tape.”

The accuser finally came forward in a Washington Post piece on Sunday as Christine Blasey Ford, a Palo Alto University Professor of Psychology.  Ford (and her lawyer) have tethered themselves to the #Resistance, not surprising at all considering their location (Silicon Valley) and their professions.  Kavanaugh can proclaim his innocence all he wants but the mainstream media and the Democrats will never give him the benefit of the doubt.  The Democrats have calculated that the allegation put Republicans in an impossible position.  Asking Kavanaugh to withdraw would make Republicans look weak to the base while standing by him would no doubt give the Democrats extra ammunition (that they certainly don’t need) to attack Republicans as misogynists dismissive of sexual assault victims as the midterms approach.

In an effort to paint themselves as sympathetic to Ford, the Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing for this Monday where they would give both Kavanaugh and Ford the opportunity to tell their sides of the story.  At the same time, they gave Kavanaugh the opportunity to tell his side of the story on a conference call, which not one Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee bothered to show up for.  That really goes against the supposedly sacrosanct left-wing principle of “open-mindedness.”  The left-wing principle of political expediency always takes precedent over traditional principles of liberalism such as skepticism of government intelligence agencies and respect for civil liberties. 

The Democrats have made it clear they have absolutely no interest in hearing Kavanaugh’s side of the story.  The same applies to the media; CNN spent hardly any airtime covering evidence that might exonerate Kavanaugh, such as the denials of his friends Mark Judge and Patrick Smyth that the event Ford speaks of took place. Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said that “men need to shut up and step up” and “do the right thing for a change,” presumably her definition of “the right thing” involves voting against Kavanaugh.  Democratic Senators also demanded that the FBI conduct a thorough investigation of Ford’s allegations; which makes absolutely no sense considering the fact that the FBI has no jurisdiction over the type of crime Ford alleges took place.  Considering the fact that Ford cannot even remember the precise year or location where the alleged encounter took place, the FBI would certainly have its work cut out for them.  On second thought, the Democrats’ demands of an FBI investigation make perfect sense when taking into account the fact that they have all opposed the nomination of Kavanaugh from the very beginning.  Their whole strategy involves delaying the nomination until after the midterms, when they hope to retake control of the Senate, or making Kavanaugh’s life so unbearable that he will just end up withdrawing rather than putting up with the circus.  Senator Hirono admitted the Democrats’ long game, admitting that she would like to delay a vote on any of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominees until after the 2020 Presidential election.    

While one of Ford’s lawyers, Debra Katz, who described Trump supporters as “miscreants,” initially indicated that her client would have had no qualms about testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee; another one of her lawyers said that Ford will not testify until an FBI investigation takes place.  Hopefully by now, Republicans will realize that all of their good faith efforts to make Dr. Ford “comfortable” discussing the details of her allegation, including their offer to send a Judiciary Committee staffer to her house in California (or anywhere in the United States) so she doesn’t have to travel all the way to the Swamp, will never satisfy the left.  They can still hold the hearing on Monday, as Kavanaugh has made his desire to clear his name perfectly clear.  The Senate Judiciary Committee has given Ford a deadline of 10 a.m. tomorrow to decide whether or not she wants to testify on Monday.  As of this afternoon, one of her lawyers indicated that she would testify next week if senators offer “terms that are fair and that ensure her safety.”

Since it looks like they have already decided to abandon their promise of passing a budget that their voters would actually approve of, the least Senate Republicans could do hold a vote next week; allowing Kavanaugh to take his seat on the bench by October 1; when the Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments for cases that it will decide on next spring.  As Tucker Carlson pointed out, “if Republicans allow   Kavanaugh’s nomination to be derailed over an unprovable allegation he can’t rebut, it’s over. They will never put a justice on the Court again. It will be too easy to stop them, a single charge from 35 years ago will be enough. That’s the precedent they would set.”





   



If Feinstein had brought this information up sooner, we could have had the whole Anita Hill 2.0 spectacle over by now and Kavanaugh could find himself on a fast track to confirmation by the Senate. But she had to signal to California that she remains committed to the #Resistance despite her ripe old age of 85.  Tucker Carlson brilliantly pointed out why the Democrats decided to wait so long before making these allegations public:    

 

Well, they are all very, very deeply concerned. What’s telling is that Democrats have known about this allegation for weeks. They could have asked Kavanaugh about it any time during his hearings; he was sitting right in front of them. And that’s of course what you would do if you cared about the answer to the question but they didn’t, instead they waited and the point, of course, was to derail his nomination.

 

 

As Isaac Newton taught us, every action brings an equal and opposite reaction.  65 women who knew Kavanaugh in high school signed a letter saying this allegation does not represent the character of the man they knew.  Many of these women still remain friends with Kavanaugh to this day.  While most men who have found themselves caught up in the #MeToo movement have established a pattern of behavior of sexual misconduct, Ford remains the sole woman to ever accuse Kavanaugh of any impropriety. 

   

Hopefully, the circus surrounding the Kavanaugh nomination will come to an end soon.  As Ann Coulter pointed out, “Ringling Bros. Circus has closed.  They just couldn’t compete with the Democrats since the election.”  Remarkably, she forgot to mention the media.  More than a year and a half after she made that statement, it sadly remains painstakingly accurate; which probably explains why she wrote a book called Resistance is Futile: How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind.  The book came out just last month, otherwise, it would surely include a tidbit related to the circus surrounding the Kavanaugh nomination.

 

 

I would like to conclude with a message to all Trump supporters, or, as Joe Biden would say, “the dregs of society.”  If you enjoy watching the character assassination of Brett Kavanaugh, feel free to vote for the Democrats, vote for a third party candidate or stay home on Election Day.  If you care about one or all of the following issues, voting for Republican candidates on Election Day remains your only option: putting originalists on the Supreme Court and the Federal Courts as a whole, passing budgets that fund the border wall and defund Planned Parenthood, repealing and replacing Obamacare, and “draining the swamp.”  Letting the Democrats gain control of either House of Congress, especially the Senate, will have devastating consequences for the “Make America Great Again” agenda.  The “intergalactic freak show” on Capitol Hill would continue for at least two years, with no “grand finale” in sight.  Curiosity may have killed the cat; don’t let complacency kill the Make America Great Again agenda.