Man Baby and shaper of the Supreme Court for the next generation Donald "Rump" Trump had his big reveal in prime time last night. Right- wing Republican über- hack Brett Kavanaugh got the rose... wait, wrong show.
Kavanaugh has been involved as a partisan Republican hack in many of the outrages and affronts to our democracy of the past 25 years, such as the Vince Foster suicide conspiracy snipe hunt, the Ken Starr investigation into presidential bj's and the Bush v Gore legal battle, enough to have earned him the sobriquets of the "Forrest Gump of Republican politics" and the "Zelig of young Republican lawyers." This weasel with a legal patina pushes all the reactionary buttons the Trump Republican Party was looking for in a nominee (though his connections with the Bush family have branded him as the "establishment's choice" - as if there's any light between the Republican establishment and their Man Baby leader). He will work to eviscerate Roe v Wade, the Affordable Care Act, voting rights, workers' rights, environmental regulations, same- sex marriage and gun control for starters. Perhaps most significantly for Rump, Kavanaugh has inveighed in favor of far- reaching executive powers (when a Republican is in the Oval Office), and has written of what amounts to a view of an executive who is above the law (h/t No More Mister Nice Blog):
“I believe that the president should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office,” Judge Kavanaugh wrote in 2009 in The Minnesota Law Review. Among those burdens, he said, were responding to civil lawsuits and criminal charges.
“Even the lesser burdens of a criminal investigation — including preparing for questioning by criminal investigators — are time-consuming and distracting,” Judge Kavanaugh wrote. “Like civil suits, criminal investigations take the president’s focus away from his or her responsibilities to the people. And a president who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as president.” (our emphasis)That's music to un- indicted co- conspirator Rump's ears. It's, not coincidentally, a serious danger to our democracy.
But here's something else that's now coming out. According to a report, the nomination of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was a foregone conclusion, thanks to a behind- the- scenes- deal, and contrary to the slobbering praise of Rump by Kavanaugh:
NBC is reporting, that Kavanaugh wasn’t just Trump’s pick from the beginning, he was picked before the beginning. Kavanaugh wasn’t even selected by Trump. He was picked by Anthony Kennedy. As part of the unprecedented talks between Trump and Kennedy to net the justice’s retirement, Kennedy was promised that Trump would name his former law clerk to take his chair. It was that reassurance that pushed Kennedy to announce his retirement. There was never a moment of doubt concerning who was going to be picked.Just one more reason to dispel any notion that Anthony Kennedy was anything other than a party before country Republican.
Oh, did we mention "But her emails!"
(Photo: "Don't worry, I've got your back.")
