10/8/18 “In our view that testimony was partisan, and not judicious, and inconsistent with what we expect from a Justice of the Supreme Court”
Kavanaugh was confirmed.
Congress clearly never intended to consider the FBI investigation results—McConnell promised the nomination hearing before the report was even received, and denied Democrats’ request for a briefing on the investigation from FBI agents.
Yet GOP senators rammed through his confirmation despite that less than 20 percent of Kavanaugh’s records were made available to Democrats for review prior to his nomination hearing, 42,000 of which were released only the day before the hearing.
Despite that the FBI’s investigation was very narrow and rushed, limited in scope by the White House, and neglected to speak to Dr. Blasey Ford herself, Kavanaugh, or the many witnesses and colleagues who stated that they had pertinent information.
Despite that text messages show Kavanaugh lied about not knowing about Deborah Ramirez’s accusations—and that he was trying to silence them before they were made public. Despite two ethics complaints about his behavior as a judge, and more than a dozen judicial misconduct complaints received by the DC circuit court about Kavanaugh in recent weeks. Despite evidence that he was a belligerent drunk from a letter Kavanaugh himself wrote and his documentedinvolvement in bar fights.
Despite the National Council of Churches, the nation’s largest organization of Christian churches representing 38 denominations, 100K churches, and 45 million people across the country, urging the White House to withdraw Kavanaugh’s nomination because of his “extreme partisan bias and disrespect towards certain members of the committee,” his “several misstatements and some outright falsehoods,” and his “troubling” record “with regard to issues of voting rights, racial and gender justice, health care, the rights of people with disabilities, and environmental protections.”
Despite that more than 1,500 law professors signed a letter stating that Kavanaugh is unsuited to preside over any court, let alone the nation’s highest, after his histrionic, biased, partisan testimony and his drinking history.
Despite the American Bar Association, a group of Mormon women, and the dean of Yale Law School (Kavanaugh’s alma mater) all publicly stating that Kavanaugh’s appointment is detrimental to our nation—and the American Bar Association further announcing that they are reevaluating Kavanaugh’s “well qualified” rating.
Despite Kavanaugh’s former college roommate stating that Kavanaugh lied under oath about his drinking and the meaning of his yearbook entries, and that two of Kavanaugh’s former Yale classmates who signed a letter of support for him. “In our view that testimony was partisan, and not judicious, and inconsistent with what we expect from a Justice of the Supreme Court, particularly dealing with a co-equal branch of government,” they wrote.
Despite former Republican Steve Schmidt (veteran of the Bush administration and McCain campaign), in commenting on Donald’s behavior regarding the Kavanaugh trial and toward his accusers, calling the president indecent, contemptible, vulgar, cruel, dishonest, especially after Donald openly mocked Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony at a rally Tuesday night.
Despite that former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens stated that Kavanaugh had demonstrated with his potential political bias and volatile testimony and temperament that he was not fit to serve on the court.
Despite that senators Flake, Collins, and Murkowski expressed concerns over Kavanaugh’s partisan attacks in his hearing, Dr. Ford’s accusations, and the scope of the background check. (Only Lisa Murkowski had the courage and patriotism tovote against Kavanaugh.)
Despite that more than 750 Harvard Law graduates signed a letter for the dean of the school asking that Brett Kavanaugh’s invitation to lecture be rescinded (Kavanaugh dropped out after the allegations of his sexual misconduct).
I wonder how many of these items would disqualify a Democrat judicial nominee for the GOP? It’s hard to know, since the Senate unethically blocked the nomination of the highly qualified, scandal-free Merrick Garland that Mitch McConnell and the Republican-controlled Congress refused to even hear. Yet none of these appalling facts seemed to make any impression on the GOP.
Republicans ignored all of this disqualifying behavior and information to confirm a self-reported belligerent, out-of-control drinker with numerous credible highly disturbing allegations against him and a clearly demonstrated partisan bias and unstable temperament. This will be their legacy.
Our job is to make sure voters remember which path they chose come November—history will remember it in perpetuity.
More Republican Rot
An internal review on Donald’s ill-conceived and ill-executed separation of children from their families and imprisoning of children uncovered a series of lies and incompetencies. The Inspector General’s report about the Trump administration’s separating children from their families at the border revealed that the administration deliberately instigated this as a policy—despite its lies to the contrary—lied about how long these children were detained; failed to adequately track them; and had inadequate plans for housing them.
Republicans Against the Law
Four reputed members of a militant white-supremacist society were arrested on charges of instigating violence at the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017, and each faces 10 years in prison if convicted.
A federal judge temporarily blocked Donald’s White House from terminating the legal status of 300,000 refugees, questioning whether there was “a discriminatory factor” in the White House’s attempted action.
A federal judge ruled that 200 Democrats suing Donald for violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause have legal standing to pursue the suit.
Did you get your creepy Presidential Alert on Wednesday, the direct line Donald now has to every cell phone user in America? A lawsuit in New York is challenging the constitutionality of the messaging system as “a violation of First and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from Government-compelled listening, as well as warrantless, non-consensual trespass into and seizure of their cellular devices.”
Power of the Free Press
The New York Times conducted an exhaustive investigation of Donald’s fiscal history and his family’s fortune and found that Donald inherited more than $400 million of his “self-made” money beginning when he was a toddler, which he augmented through dubious tax schemes and fraud, and his family bequeathed this fortune on Donald and his siblings with a tax evasion in the amount of more than $550 million. Much of the information was gleaned from the financial disclosures of Donald’s older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, upon her confirmation as a federal judge (appointed by Bill Clinton). New York State tax officials are reviewing the fraud evidence to see about recouping the lost tax income from the family.
An in-depth investigation by Esquire magazine discovered that Trump toady Devin Nunes’s long-vaunted family dairy in California actually secretly relocated to Iowa, where it employs a large number of undocumented workers.
Your Feel-good Stories of the Week
(We need some)
Texas Senate candidate Steve Kling‘s mother is personally calling and thanking donors to his campaign.
Taylor Swift joined the Resistance.
Within an hour of Maine senator Susan Collins finishing her speech in which she announced her holdout confirmation vote for Kavanaugh (with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s) that tipped him over the confirmation threshold, a group of Maine voters raised (through crowdfunding) $2 million for whatever Democrat runs against her. (That total is now up to $3 million.)
Travis County is on track to achieve 93 percent voter registration—a modern record. Now we just need to work to make sure as many of those as possible actually get out to vote. Check the Indivisible page to find opportunities to phone bank, block walk, and other ways to help get out the vote. And this is important—no later than Tuesday, check your own voter registration; it’s online, quick, and easy. Some people have discovered that they’ve been removed from the rolls, or are told at the polls that they aren’t registered or there’s a problem with their registration.
I feel this is a week where we’re entitled to be a little bit petty, at least privately. Enjoy.
This was a hard week, warriors—as hard as any we’ve had so far. I found a great deal of comfort and inspiration in Dan Rather’s post (as I so often do) the day Collins announced her intended vote for Kavanaugh. I leave you with his closing words in that post, where he reminds us to adopt an attitude of “we can be beaten but never defeated”: “Adopt it, cling to it and live it as a credo. Be relentless. When things are bad, when the going is tough, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and carry forward. Also, maybe take as a goal what an old man once said to me: ‘Keep trying, keep fighting, keep smiling every minute you’re alive; you’re going to be dead a long time.’ And recognize that you are not alone. Far from it. Look to your left and right, before you and behind you, at the millions who will support you on this journey for justice. Fill your lungs with the determined air of action. I find myself humming that old but powerful anthem of the Civil Rights Era. ‘We’ll walk hand in hand!’ ‘We are not afraid!’ ‘We shall overcome!’”