KAVANAUGH: Purely partisan politics? |
As
in listening to a radio broadcast of the confirmation hearings for Supreme
Court Justice Clarence Thomas, when his former colleague Anita Hill recalled a
moment of the two of them together when Thomas made his little quip to her.
MY
COLLEAGUES AND I couldn’t quite believe anybody could be that lame in thinking
such a line would be humorous. Or that Thomas could actually think that such
talk would make him appealing to women.
But
it really happened, the Senate eventually confirmed Thomas to his appointment
that he still holds nearly 30 years later, and I’m sure there are political people
out there who think the lesson learned from the whole “Thomas affair” is that
such allegations are outlandish and best ignored.
Because,
hey, we’ve had a misogynistic sort on the Supreme Court for all these years
now, and it hasn’t brought an end to the Republic. Similar to how I’m sure they’re
also thinking that it doesn’t matter what President Donald Trump (the man who
supposedly thinks the way to appeal to women is to “grab ‘em by the pussy”) may
have done in his life.
It
only matters when Bill Clinton does it, because he has partisan leanings they
are directly opposed to. Taking him down politically is the whole purpose,
along with destroying anybody who might be remotely like him in any way.
GORSUCH: Does he need Trump allies on ct? |
ALL
THESE THOUGHTS have been popping into my head a lot with the hearings taking
place concerning the political fate of Brett Kavanaugh. He’s the man whom Trump
wants to put on the Supreme Court of the United States – in large part because
of a belief he’ll shift the partisan leanings of the court sufficiently enough
that the ideologues can start making good on their more-than-four-decade-old
desire to do away with the 1973 ruling that made abortion a legitimate medical
procedure.
So
to try to take him down, we’ve learned about the woman who says that back when
she was 17 (and Kavanaugh also was a teenager), he tried to molest her. She had
to fight him off.
As
if that isn’t sufficient, we’re now learning of another woman who remembers
back to her freshman year of college in the mid-1980s when she says fellow
student Kavanaugh used a college party to expose himself and try to get her to
touch his genitals.
GARLAND: Some still bitter he's not on ct? |
We
actually have some people making the claim of, “How many women have to come
forth before we see Trump’s appointee as unfit for such a position?”
ALTHOUGH
I ALSO don’t doubt that Trump-types will never make such an concession – and not
only because they just don’t care what these women say Kavanaugh did to them.
It’s
all about the fact that Trump himself wants to be able to reform the Supreme
Court in his own image, and needs as many people of his partisan persuasion to
be appointed to the high court.
He
has the one appointment he got because the Senate successfully managed to keep
former President Barack Obama from filling the vacancy caused by the death of
Antonin Scalia – an act that some find disgraceful. Although I’m sure the
ideologues think the real disgrace is that Obama got to make two other
appointments – and we now have Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in life-time
legal posts.
Now,
the conservative strategy is to ensure that Sotomayor and Kagan ultimately
become isolated – and we get a whole slew of Supreme Court rulings of the
future that come down to 7-2 votes. Which could happen if Trump is the one who
gets to pick a replacement someday for 85-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
WHILE
THE OPPOSITION will do what it can to thwart Kavanaugh – and theoretically any
other opening there might be on the Supreme Court. Perhaps some think they can
literally take back the high court seat they want to believe should be held by
Merrick Garland (the man Obama tried to pick for the court, but couldn’t).
THOMAS: Does he need companion? |
The
shame of all this is that the women themselves become a sideshow. The reality
of what happened to them all those years ago becomes irrelevant – to the point
where back in 2010, Virginia Thomas (Clarence’s spouse) had the nerve to publicly
demand that Hill apologize for letting the world know about his awkward-bordering-on-tacky
sense of humor
Are
we going to get similar demands in the future of the women who now are coming
forth to tell their stories of back when they knew Brett Kavanaugh?
While
it may be true that his behavior as a young man wasn’t much different from
other males, it really doesn’t excuse him. And the fact that we already have
Thomas on the high court doesn’t mean we need to have another boor to keep him
company!
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