Democrats' Kavanaugh Tantrums Are An Embarrassment
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Grandstanding : Any doubt that Democrats are desperate to stall Judge Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court ended Tuesday, when they desperately tried to get the confirmation hearings postponed. This was nothing more than — bad — political theater.
In the first 40 minutes of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination hearing, Democrats interrupted the Senate Judiciary Committee proceedings 44 times. That's to say nothing of the protesters who alternately shrieked and cheered.
It was all well planned.
"Democrats plotted coordinated protest strategy over the holiday weekend and all agreed to disrupt and protest the hearing, sources tell me," NBC News' Kasie Hunt tweeted Tuesday morning.
The current excuse for the Democrats' push to delay the Kavanaugh hearings is the last-minute release of 42,000 pages of documents from former President Bush's lawyer. Keep in mind that those are on top of the 415,000 pages Bush's legal team had already sent over to the committee. And that all of them relate to the two years that Kavanaugh worked in the Bush White House Counsel's Office and three years as staff secretary.
Nevertheless, before Chairman Chuck Grassley could get a sentence out, Senator Kamala Harris demanded that the hearings be postponed.
"We cannot possibly move forward, Mr. Chairman, with this hearing," she said while Grassley politely tried to remind her that the Senate has certain protocols. "We have not been given an opportunity to have a meaningful hearing on this nominee."
Right.
Harris has already said she won't vote for Kavanaugh. Those last remaining documents won't change her mind, or any of the others whose promised to vote no.
Confirmation Hearings Rushed?
Sen. Corey Booker — who's also pledged to oppose Kavanaugh — weighed in as well, complaining about the "rush" to confirmation.
Rushed? It's been 64 days since President Trump nominated Kavanaugh. The average time between nomination and the start of confirmation hearings for the past 10 Supreme Court justices: 41.6 days.
So, what's the point of all this?
Nothing, other than energize the Democratic Party's base in the run-up to the midterm elections. It's also a chance for prospective 2020 presidential candidates to grab attention by grandstanding.
No one seriously questions Kavanaugh's qualification to serve on the Court.
The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which Democrats routinely cite as the arbiter on who is or isn't worthy or being a justice, gave Kavanaugh a "Well Qualified" rating — it's highest.
And while Democrats want to pretend that there is a shortage of documents available to determine how Kavanaugh will perform on the Court, he's served with distinction for 12 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court adopted 13 of his positions and overturned only one.
As Hot Air's Ed Morrissey points out, "Complaining about the late release of barely relevant documents from an entirely different phase of Kavanaugh's career is nothing more than a stunt."
But stunts are all Democrats have left.
Only Themselves To Blame
When Barack Obama was president, Democrats running the Senate at the time decided to jettison the filibuster for presidential nominees, so they could ram through Obama's picks without any ability of the GOP to stop them.
As we and many others noted at the time, this decision would come back to haunt them. And so it has.
When Democrats tried to filibuster Trump's first pick for the court, Judge Neil Gorsuch, the Republican leadership added the Supreme Court nominees to the Democrats' list of those the Senate can't filibuster.
Without the threat of the filibuster, Trump was free to pick a more consistently conservative justice to replace the unreliable Justice Kennedy when Kennedy decided to retire.
In short, Democrats have only themselves to blame for their current predicament. But rather than own up to their shortsightedness, they're having an embarrassing public temper tantrum. So much for the politics of civility.
At the opening of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, Sen. Richard Blumenthal complained that they'd turned into "a charade and a mockery of our norms."
Indeed.
Unfortunately, Blumenthal wasn't pointing the finger of blame at himself and his fellow obstructionist Democrats.
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“But stunts are all Democrats have left.
Only Themselves To Blame
When Barack Obama was president, Democrats running the Senate at the time decided to jettison the filibuster for presidential nominees, so they could ram through Obama's picks without any ability of the GOP to stop them.
As we and many others noted at the time, this decision would come back to haunt them. And so it has.
When Democrats tried to filibuster Trump's first pick for the court, Judge Neil Gorsuch, the Republican leadership added the Supreme Court nominees to the Democrats' list of those the Senate can't filibuster.
Without the threat of the filibuster, Trump was free to pick a more consistently conservative justice to replace the unreliable Justice Kennedy when Kennedy decided to retire.
In short, Democrats have only themselves to blame for their current predicament. But rather than own up to their shortsightedness, they're having an embarrassing public temper tantrum. So much for the politics of civility.”
[deleted] Koch sponsored every-day propagandists get old.
removed for context
You are the one who is posting these partisan screeds on a daily basis. The opinions would be very different if this was a judge who was nominated by Obama, Bernie or Hillary.
President Barack Obama made two successful appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States. The first was Judge Sonia Sotomayor[1] to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice David H. Souter.[2]Sotomayor was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 6, 2009, by a vote of 68–31. The second appointment was that of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to replace the retired John Paul Stevens. Kagan was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 5, 2010, by a vote of 63–37. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_Supreme_Court_candidates
You realize that the Koch brothers and Trump don’t get along and disagree on key issues?
And they haven't read a single one. Their Schumer "Crib Notes" all say the same thing (Lemmings).
I keep wondering when the day will come where "Democrats" will be allowed to think for themselves again.
That is 7% of the documents that should be available to the Senate concerning Kavanaugh. What are the Republicans and, Trump trying to hide from the American people?
[Deleted]
You don't get to call out one side and ignore the side you like.
In that case, they would really be biased and partisan.
You can remember when they did so before?
The Kennedy years ?
"It's not what your country can do for you, It's what you can do for your Country" !
It's been 2 1/2 years since Obama nominated Merrick Garland.
Obama is no longer president.
Isn't that what the left says when anyone brings up anything Obama or Clinton did wrong? Think that applies here as well. When Obama stopped being POTUS Garland's nomination turned to dust.
Legitimate questions are not tantrums.
The real embarrassment here is an 'alleged' legitimate judge within the American Judicial System that may hold a belief that, "Some are excluded from being equal under the law." ( my quote. )
Nothing that the protesters or democrat senators said or did was legitimate at a senate confirmation committee session.
The protestors have every right to be there. The senators have every right to see every document concerning the nominee. To purposely withhold information concerning a nominee in itself makes the confirmation session illegitimate.
Of course the protesters have a right to be there. They did not have the right to disrespect and disrupt the proceedings. As for records, they got more records regarding Kavanaugh than they did for the last 5 Supreme Court nominees combined.
"The senators have every right to see every document concerning the nominee."
No they don't. I suggest researching executive privilege.
And how does he do that?
The best was claiming the Jewish/Mexican Aide sitting behind Kavanaugh was making a supposed ”white power” sign. That the imagined sign itself is an Internet hoax with no actual connection to the white power movement makes its even more funny.
Where pray tell did the 'white power' allegation come from? SVR or the FSB?
How about the moron from RI claiming that 5 members of the Roberts Court were "in the bag" for "big corporations"?
I know that Gorsucks is in the bag for big corporations - every time.
So is Kavanaugh.
It is the democrats that are in bed with wall st. Bankers, tech, and media corporations.
How about proving such a charge?
[Deleted]
The Senator from Vermont uses the same MO, charging perjury today based on documents he hasn't seen
That would be a first.... I’m not holding my breath.
OH MY GOSH! I had a "friend" on FB who went into a tirade about that and I could picture him frothing at the mouth as he typed. Even several people had told him that even CNN had said it was ridiculous he still didn't care, and continued on. Even after he learned that she was a granddaughter of Polish holocaust survivors, he still didn't care.
I wonder how many adults who were going to vote Democrat decided to stay home after seeing these antics.
They will join the walk away movement
There is no such movement.
Yes, there is.
I believe the overall objection, is that Mr. Kavanaugh has been nominated by an unindicted criminal and the nomination should be in question. As to the whining and carrying on, I would say that the Dems are only tearing a page from the GOP playbook.
We managed to survive eight years of GOP obstructionism, I am sure we can survive two more from the Dems, then perhaps the voting public will have smartened up and we might return to some form of normalcy. But in truth I myself have little to no use for either party, find us some politicians that are interested in the Country rather than their respective parties (oops, sorry I had forgotten, that is an extinct species)
It all began when Congress became a full time job instead of a duty you fulfilled a couple times a year. I realize that the country is much more complicated and populated and requires a bit more "attention" but, if you look at all of the ridiculousness they "legislate" on (which the majority of people don't know 1% of the content) it is beyond comprehension. It almost seems like make work to justify their existence................JMHO
How can somebody be an "unindicted criminal"? That's as ridiculous an expression as "undocumented migrant". The left do love their little phrases, meaningless as they are.
You might want to ask those involved in the Watergate investigation and, the impeachment proceedings that were brought against Nixon, he was classified as an unindicted co-conspirator.
You mean the Watergate scandal where there was a real crime instead of minor league stuff that Trump is accused of? Those crimes that aren't real crimes?
Soooo, what needs to happen for you to accept that Trump is a REAL criminal? Murder, rape, bank robbery, terrorism? What is it that needs to be shown for you to accept that Trump is a real criminal?
It seems to me that the current president has at least two of these crimes hanging over his head at this time like Damocles Sword waiting for them to drop.
It's just a "Kneejerk" word.
An unindicted co-conspirator , or unindicted conspirator , is a person or entity that is alleged in an indictment to have engaged in conspiracy , but who is not charged in the same indictment. Prosecutors choose to name persons as unindicted co-conspirators for a variety of reasons including grants of immunity, pragmatic considerations, and evidentiary concerns.
Ok, since I didn't mention "un-indicted criminal" but, did mention "un-indicted Co-conspirator" here's the definition for what I did mention,
Um, post #5 specifically states "unindicted criminal".
And, who wrote post number 5? Try to keep up.
Thnak God 'seems to you' is not enforcable as anythign more than an emotional response you made. If there are crimes, why has there been no charges placed against the president? Just trying to do the 'death from a thousand cuts' as the left can't find any real crimes.
So, since you are engaging in a conspiracy to unseat the duly elected president of the United States, but haven't been charged with a crime, you are an unindicted co-conspirator?
Gotcha.
Can you list and define all those "high crimes and misdemeanors"?
Luther did, and he used unindicted criminal.
When someone asked about that term, you jumped in with some crap about unindicted co-conspirator.
You keep up and please, stop playing your pathetic little kid word games.
And, now we have our "Why can't Mueller hurry up?" meme from the Right, yet, they all forget the one thing that they did that lasted for ALMOST EIGHT FUCKING YEARS, investigating Hillary with no results except to use up tax payer dollars for no reason at all. So, what I say to you and, every other Right Winger, Trump supporter, is this, you tried for eight years to get something, anything on Hillary and, failed and, the whole time none of you said, "Why can't we just end this?" no, it was "We'll get her with the next investigation....LOCK HER UP, LOCK HER UP" and, ya got nothing so, let this investigation play out like you did ALL EIGHT OF THE BENGHAZI INVESTIGATIONS and, all of the email investigations on Hillary, it shouldn't take much longer now, I think we'll get an early Christmas present from Mueller.
All I have to do is list one because, one is all Mueller needs to ask Congress to impeach Trump,
It's called Obstruction of Justice.
You were looking for something in a legal definition so, I provided what was used during the Watergate hearing and, then told you to ask those involved in it. Smug doesn't look good on anyone but, what you got here is something to hang your hat on when thinking about this, the legal wonks out there say that Mueller can list Trump as a un-indicted co-conspirator just like Nixon was and, so, this is where we are at today.
If you only knew what you were talking about.
I'd have to be illegally conspiring to unseat that criminal outside the parameters of the law that would unseat him.
Besides, too much fun watching his groupies flail in the wind as the walls are closing in.
The "gotcha" is going to be watching heads explode when he cuts a deal to save himself and the kids from prison by resigning in disgrace.
No?
Watch what happens in the NY courts regarding the trust.
Or...we can wait until Mueller wjeels out his report that Ghouliani has already said they will try and suppress.
Why would an innocent man try that?
Bottom line is that Kavanaugh is not a Trump issue. He would have been the first or second choice of virtually every one of of the Republican Presidential Primary contestants in 2016. He is totally mainstream.
Does that include Merrick Garland?
If it does than that stretches out the number of days longer than it would have been. That means without Garland the average number of days is actually a lot less. Didn't think that one through, did you?
Why yes I did...I also noticed you did not even try...or we wouldn't have seen this:
let them have their fun...
they are just making sure the last of the sane democrats leave the party before midterms.
sane democrats= oxymoron.
Just like "Intelligent Right wingers" Cheering on an Income Tax reduction and then cheering on a Tariff tax that takes it back and then some.
Easy.
Who ultimately pays the tariff?
The end user, regardless of who sends the check.
One of your fellow idiots tried to tell me that the Kia they desire won't be subject to tariffs because it was made here.
In turn I had to explain very slowly that there is a difference between "made here" and "assembled here" and what the law constitutes "American made".
The idiots that cheered on the tafiffs really think they're sticking it to other countries as they pay the tariff themselves.
The manufacturer doesn't pay anything
The tariff tax makes up for the income tax you thought he did for you.
Tried to buy an appliance yet? Think there's any American manufacturers left?
Think he's bringing jobs back home? Offshoring jobs have tripled during this administration.
You got used ...again.
Will an economist from Cato help?
Tariffs Will Wipe Out the Benefits of Tax Reform
Will another article quoting Republicans and economists help?
Trump's tariffs on US allies will shrink the savings Americans gained from tax cuts
Paul Ryan??
Ryan calls tariffs ‘basically taxes’ amid Trump’s Harley-Davidson feud
Heck, I am still waiting for that "leading" economist Krugman's predictions of a crash to come true!
They show their sanity when they walk away. I did the same 40 years ago.
Yes I'm sure that the Jeffersonians exhibit that sanity every day.
A lot of progressives are still hoping for that recession. They can’t wait as America has to be collectively punished for daring to vote for our great President. The 201,000 Jobs today announced wont help their cause any.
We're counting on it.
2018: Democrats lead GOP by 12 million registered voters
"And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those damn pesky facts!"...
Scooby doobie doo!!
With most of the difference in number coming from the leftist coasts.
Of course convincing all of those registered Democrats to actually vote is the next issue.
Keep ignoring/disparaging fly over country- I am sure the Democrats will get better election results.
So am I
Maybe Pelosi getting 85% of the vote in her SF Marin district will help the democrat running in my rural Ca. district....
I doubt, too much difference in their campaigns. Pelosi doesn't have to use crayon to communicate.