I had not intended to post another piece on Brett Kavanaugh, but after watching the entire hearing yesterday I feel compelled to write a final piece. \u00a0The hearing was certainly dramatic, and it was hard to feel empathy for both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh.\u00a0 They are both human beings.\u00a0 We witnessed a broken, dysfunctional Senate, extreme partisanship, and lack of professionalism.\u00a0 After the smoke cleared, it was important for each Senator and the American people watching to make an important judgment.\u00a0 Should Brett Kavanaugh be confirmed to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
The one clear result of the hearing was exactly as most expected \u2013 there was not a definitive answer as to what happened.\u00a0 Dr. Ford was entirely credible about the assault against her. \u00a0Judge Kavanaugh emphatically and passionately denied he was the one who assaulted her.\u00a0 No other witnesses were called to testify.\u00a0 That makes it hard for most fair-minded people.\u00a0 However, in addition to her live testimony about the assault, she had previously discussed the assault in consistent terms.\u00a0 She told her husband about it in 2002 and her therapist about it in 2012.\u00a0 In those revelations, she named Brett Kavanaugh.\u00a0 Both discussions were well before the 2016 election and well before Kavanaugh was ever nominated for the Supreme Court.\u00a0 She has no bias, no improper motivation, and no reason to lie.<\/p>\n
Contrast that with Brett Kavanaugh\u2019s testimony.\u00a0 His opening statement by itself was disqualifying.\u00a0 We could expect emotion, emphatic denial of the allegations, and concern for his family.\u00a0 The latter was rather compelling indeed.\u00a0 He then broke all protocol, professionalism, and dignity by engaging in extreme partisan politics, attacks on Democrats, attacks on the Judiciary Committee, and discussions of wild conspiracy theories.\u00a0 Throughout his testimony he was rude, disrespectful, and combative.\u00a0 He certainly had the right to disagree and respond to questions.\u00a0 However, he refused to answer questions and was extremely antagonistic.\u00a0 Anyone could understand how difficult this has been for he and his family, but that does not excuse the unprecedented vitriol and gross departure of standards.\u00a0 He displayed a temperament unbefitting any judge and certainly not one for the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
There was more evidence available, but the Republicans opted to ignore it and push forward with the race to confirm, despite the serious allegations.\u00a0 The necessary and proper course of action would have been to have the FBI investigate.\u00a0 They could have confirmed the allegations or cleared Judge Kavanaugh.\u00a0 Either result would be critical in moving forward.\u00a0 Republicans misquoted Joe Biden.\u00a0 In 1991, Biden did say that the FBI does not offer conclusions or recommendations.\u00a0 Biden admonished Senators for attempting to cite the FBI report as disproving the allegations of sexual harassment because they did not conclude guilt.<\/p>\n
The truth is Biden supported the practice of FBI conducting background checks and valued the information they collected and provided.\u00a0 While they did not opine on guilt, their reports contained the most complete factual picture available upon which Senators, et al, could rely in making decisions.\u00a0 The FBI can discover, locate, and interview witnesses far better and more efficiently than can Congressional staffers or the Judiciary Committee.\u00a0 Senate Republicans and the White House refused to ask the FBI to investigate these serious allegations, even after additional women came forward.\u00a0 If innocent, the FBI would have reported facts that served to clear Kavanaugh.\u00a0 Yet Kavanaugh and the Republicans feared the results of an FBI investigation.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, the Judiciary Committee has the power to subpoena witnesses to testify in and open or closed session.\u00a0 The Republicans refused to do this as well.\u00a0 They should have subpoenaed Mark Judge, Kavanaugh\u2019s friend alleged to have been a witness\/participant in the assault.\u00a0 They should have subpoenaed Kavanaugh\u2019s freshman roommate, who had extremely relevant testimony about Kavanaugh\u2019s behavior with alcohol and women.\u00a0 There are classmates of Kavanaugh who have made statements to the effect that Kavanaugh has been lying to the Senate.\u00a0 And there are witnesses provided by Dr. Ford that could provide meaningful testimony.\u00a0 Kavanaugh and the Republicans do not want any of the witnesses to testify because they fear the information will hurt the conformation.\u00a0 That tells us all we need to know.<\/p>\n
In the first article on September 8th<\/sup>, I discussed Kavanaugh\u2019s professional record and his ethical and professional lapses that should result in him not being confirmed to the Supreme Court.\u00a0 Briefly restated, as a member of the Ken Starr Independent Counsel team, Kavanaugh leaked sensitive, false information to the media that could not be used in the investigation but would hurt and defame President Clinton. \u00a0He strongly advocated to require President Clinton to answer detailed, salacious, highly inappropriate questions.\u00a0 Kavanaugh lied about the use of stolen information in judicial confirmations.<\/p>\n Kavanaugh refused to discuss the views he had previously publicly expressed concerning Presidential authority and immunity, two very critical issues at the moment.\u00a0 These specific views are the reason President Trump added Kavanagh to his \u201cshort list\u201d of Supreme Court nominees, attempting to ensure support on the Court for when cases arise from the Russia investigation. \u00a0Republicans have withheld 90% of Kavanaugh\u2019s professional work in an unprecedented attempt to conceal a nominee\u2019s record.\u00a0 These and related concerns were sufficient cause to disapprove his confirmation, even without the allegations of sexual assault.<\/p>\n From the information presented, there is a tale of two Brett Kavanaughs.\u00a0 The young man was an excessive drinker who at a minimum had bouts of inappropriate behavior.\u00a0 In all likelihood he committed sexual misconduct.\u00a0 There may not be absolute proof, but there is enough reason to be concerned.\u00a0 As a judge and professor, there does not seem to be an issue with Kavanaugh\u2019s personal and professional behavior.\u00a0 He is married with a family and it is not uncommon for a person to transform their behavior as they mature.\u00a0 The question remains whether the allegations from high school and college are nonetheless of a nature to disqualify him, or at least diminish his nomination.\u00a0 Additionally, there is still some concern about his early professional life regarding ethical and professional lapses.\u00a0 Then that takes us to his professional performance on the bench.\u00a0 While he appears to be widely respected, his views on Presidential authority and immunity have not been tested and it is imperative to understand how he would approach these issues judicially because of the incredible likelihood that he will face an issue concerning Presidential authority and immunity concerning President Trump.<\/p>\n There is far too much information missing from the record to confirm Kavanaugh.\u00a0 From the concealed records, the refusal to discuss Presidential authority and immunity, and the lack of proper investigation of the sexual allegations, the Senate simply should not be voting and certainly not confirming someone to this critical, lifetime appointment with such a profound impact on the nation. \u00a0Senators should vote no.\u00a0 We can do better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had not intended to post another piece on Brett Kavanaugh, but after watching the entire hearing yesterday I feel compelled to write a final piece. \u00a0The hearing was certainly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[44,63,281],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-brett-kavanaugh","tag-confirmation-hearing","tag-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}