From the Politics Desk

Accused attempted rapist Brett Kavanaugh should not be appointed to the Supreme Court.  Frankly, he shouldn't even be given a vote.  

Allegations of attempted rape aside, at least at this point (we'll get to that later), it's obvious that there are two separate reasons why Congressional Republicans and our so-called President want him on the Supreme Court so badly:

1. The Republicans are confident that given the opportunity, Kavanaugh will overturn Roe v. Wade and take the right to abortion away from American women, putting the United States into the same category with certain (but by all means not all) third world African countries and certain small island nations. Even Ireland will have more access to legal abortion that post-Kavanaugh America.   


2. Our so-called President wants Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court because of the positions he's taken on executive privilege and the unimpeachability of the the President.  Since it appears more and more likely with each passing day that Pumpernickel is going to face criminal charges, if he's going to get the chance to hand-pick the judges who'll hear his case, of course he's going to want the guy most likely to rule in his favor. 

Republicans have accused Democrats of trying to stall the selection process until after the mid-term election, when they're likely to at least take control of the House, and you know what?  They're right. Of course they are.  But the reverse is also true - the Republicans are trying to rush through the process before the midterms, as they're not likely to get their anti-choice, pro-President candidate through a Democratic congress after Election Day.

But here's our problem:  the Republican position is fundamentally anti- lower-case-D democratic. The Republicans know the public is against them and they know that recent (July 2018) Gallup polling shows that 64% of Americans believe Roe v. Wade should stand. They are trying, before they get tossed out of office, to subvert the will of the people and implement their own, unpopular policies. It's a last-ditch, 11th-hour attempt to install a radical judge badly out of touch with American values before the People have a chance to speak.

Republican Mitch McConnell famously refused to even allow a vote for Merrick Garland, President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court, because it was his "last year in office" and the people should get a fresh chance to vote for the person who nominates a candidate to the Supreme Court.  By that logic, the people should get a fresh chance to vote for the persons who hold the hearings on the nominee and eventually vote for or against that nominee. Especially with the election only some six weeks away.  Especially when it's already clear that the mood of the electorate has changed.

But, no, the Republicans know that installing an anti-choice zealot onto the bench will fire up their base and keep the Evangelicals in their camp for years to come, and are willing to face the consequences of rushing an unpopular candidate onto the Court.  The so-called President wants to pack the bench with fans of unlimited and unchecked executive power in the hope that it might save him from the impeachment that now seems all but inevitable.

We call on Congress to allow the People to first elect the representatives they want to decide on a matter of the importance of a life-long appointment to the Supreme Court.  We don't apologize if the current Congress is unhappy with what the results of that democratic process are likely to be.

Now on to the charges of attempted rape.  We've heard people wonder why, if the victim were so traumatized by the attempted rape, she didn't report it to her parents or the police those 35 or 36 years ago.  Gee, we wonder, why wouldn't a 15-year-old girl want to tell the parents she was at a party she probably wasn't allowed to go to, where there was drinking going on and she may have been drunk herself, and that she got in over her head with some older boys?  She probably would have been grounded for life, literally, to this very day.  She was probably intimidated at the thought of somehow being blamed herself for what happened (even though she was herself blameless).  She was probably reluctant to come forward for all the reasons so many other victims of rape and abuse have been reluctant to come forward. 

We've heard people say that Kavanaugh, even if the charges were true, has changed since then, and that a grown man shouldn't have to be held accountable for mistakes he made as a juvenile.  Really?  That's the conservative position now? First, let us just leave this here:

And then let us remind you that these same conservatives are calling for the deportation of children, the so-called "Dreamers," who arrived here through no fault of their own as the children of immigrants. So unlike the Central Park Five (every one of whom, by the way, was later found to be not guilty before Pumpernickel got his wish to have them executed) or the so-called "Dreamers" (who did nothing wrong as children and are only guilty of the "crime" of being children of the "wrong" parents), white persons of wealth and privilege can get a free pass on the actions of their youth?  Especially if they appear willing to overturn abortion rights and acquit a guilty president?  Is that the conservative position now?  Or is that just how tortured their logic is in their blind allegiance and loyalty to their tribe?

We've heard people way that there's something "suspicious" about the victim's request for an FBI investigation before she's willing to testify before Congress, that it's really just a stall tactic to delay the confirmation.  Considering that lying to the FBI is a crime punishable by prison, and that she's willing to talk to the FBI but Kavanaugh's supporters don't want the FBI involved, who is more likely to be telling the truth? 

Even if Congress does rush the nomination through before the election, next year's Democratic Congress is likely to impeach Cavanaugh as soon as the rape charges are affirmed, and replace him with a more qualified candidate.  May I suggest they consider Judge Merrick Garland?

Accused attempted rapist Brett Cavanaugh has no business being nominated to the Supreme Court, the current Congress has no business in choosing a judge, and the sitting (duck) president has no business cherry-picking his own jurors. Stop it, all of you, immediately.