Reminder: Kavanaugh Derangement Syndrome is still a thing

Reminder: Kavanaugh Derangement Syndrome is still a thing

Before the Trump-Putin summit, the media and Democrat frenzy focused on Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to fill the seat being vacated by Anthony Kennedy.

It was Kavanaugh Derangement Syndrome:

• Yale Law School Students and Alums: “People Will Die” if Kavanaugh is Confirmed
• Kavanaugh Derangement Syndrome Exploits Civics Ignorance
• Democrats Don’t Know Anything About Judge Kavanaugh, They Just Know They Don’t Like Him

It was, even before Kavanaugh was formally nominated, The Godfather Part SCOTUS: Preparing for Democrats to “go to the mattresses” over Trump pick:

There is unhinged.

And then there is NY Times Editorial Board unhinged.

The Editorial Board issued a call for Democrats to go all Godfather in fighting whomever Trump picks to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy:

With Republicans controlling the Senate and the judicial filibuster dead, the Democrats’ odds of denying President Trump a second Supreme Court appointment are slim. Barring some unforeseen development, the president will lock in a 5-to-4 conservative majority, shifting the court solidly to the right for a generation.

This is all the more reason for Democrats and progressives to take a page from “The Godfather” and go to the mattresses on this issue. Because this battle is about more than a single seat on the nation’s highest court. With public attention focused on all that is at stake with this alignment, this is the moment for Democrats to drive home to voters the crucial role that the judiciary plays in shaping this nation, and why the courts should be a key voting concern in Every. Single. Election.

This call to arms may sound overly dramatic. It’s not….

The Godfather reference of “going to the mattresses” refers to a total war between the crime families.

This Kavanaugh Derangement Syndrome was interrupted by Trump Derangement Syndrome focused on the Trump-Putin summit:

… on Journalist and Resistance Twitter, on CNN and MSNBC, and among many Democrat politicians, the same people who called Trump a traitor since the day he was elected, and in some cases before he was elected, were still calling him a traitor, but even more loudly. A congressman called for the military to intervene. There were demands that all senior officials in the administration resign, and that Trump himself resign….

Understand that, while there are some people fairly concerned that Trump’s press conference performance did damage, the overwhelming chorus of treason-accusers and meltdown-instigators is simply a continuation of the slow coup against the election result we have witnessed continuously since the election.

My advice: Carry on.

While Trump-Putin Summit Derangement Syndrome will continue, this is a reminder that Kavanaugh Derangement Syndrome is still a thing. Democrats continue to try to figure out how to stop the nomination.

Expansive document demands, meant to slow down the Senate process, is one of the main mechanisms. But Mitch McConnell has already signalled he’s not going to allow that to happen without Democrats playing a political price. Politico reports, McConnell issues Supreme Court ultimatum:

Mitch McConnell has a warning for Democrats demanding copious documents on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh: Be careful what you wish for.

The Senate majority leader privately told senior Republicans on Wednesday that if Democrats keep pushing for access to upwards of a million pages in records from President Donald Trump’s high court pick, he’s prepared to let Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote slip until just before November’s midterm elections, according to multiple sources.

Delaying the vote past September would serve a dual purpose for McConnell, keeping vulnerable red-state Democrats off the campaign trail while potentially forcing anti-Kavanaugh liberals to swallow a demoralizing defeat just ahead of the midterms. Senators said McConnell believes the Democratic base will be “deflated” if they raise hopes of defeating Kavanaugh only to lose just days before the election.

The hunt of something Kavanaugh might have said, no matter how long ago, that could derail the nomination is the main focus because Kavanaugh’s legal credentials leave little room for attack, Democrats are on the hunt for Brett Kavanaugh’s paper trail. That hunt took on more urgency in recent days after a college-era writings derailed the nomination of Ryan Bounds to the 9th Circuit.

Michael McGough writes in The Los Angeles Times, Democrats are on the hunt for Brett Kavanaugh’s paper trail:

Almost 13 years later, it’s Judge Brett Kavanaugh who is up for confirmation to the high court, and Senate Democrats are insisting on spelunking through records of his time in the Bush White House.

From 2001 to 2003 Kavanaugh served in the White House counsel’s office. From 2003 to 2006, when he became a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, he served as assistant to the president and staff secretary.

But how many documents should be made available? Democrats, the vast majority of whom are poised to oppose the nomination, are taking a maximalist position. Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware has said that members of the Judiciary Committee would demand the release of “every single record that might be relevant.”

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, noted on Thursday that the administration withdrew the nomination of Ryan Bounds, a candidate for an appeals court judgeship, after concerns were raised about his writings as a college student.

Feinstein asked: “If Republicans agreed that Bounds is not qualified because of what he wrote in college, how could they possibly argue that material from Brett Kavanaugh’s time in the White House and as a political operative [isn’t] relevant?”

Axios reports How the left is mobilizing against Brett Kavanaugh, led by Clinton operative Brian Fallon:

More than 100 organizations have signed a letter demanding that no hearing date is scheduled for Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh until all of his records from his time in the George W. Bush administration are turned over to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Why it matters: The letter underscores the left’s aggressive efforts to put pressure on lawmakers to stall Kavanaugh’s confirmation and ensure that his past is properly vetted before putting him on the bench.

“Brett Kavanaugh likely has the longest paper trail of any Supreme Court nominee in history … The Senate has a right to see the more than 1 million pages of records from his time in the White House before any hearing is scheduled.”
— Brian Fallon, former press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and head of Demand Justice, tells Axios

The anti-Kavanaugh coalition is a who’s who of leftist activist groups:

Kavanaugh is someone who is particularly hated by Clintonworld because of his involvement in the Kenneth Starr investigation of Bill Clinton in the 1990s, ‘Brett was involved’: Inside Supreme Court nominee’s work for Bill Clinton probe:

President Donald Trump has waged war on leakers — but in nominating Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, the president has picked someone well-versed in the swampy art of off-the-record briefings and anonymous quotes.

Kavanaugh spent nearly four years working for Kenneth Starr’s independent counsel probe of President Bill Clinton two decades ago. A sampling of the Starr office’s internal files available at the National Archives indicate Kavanaugh helped craft aspects of Starr’s communications strategy and interacted directly with the news media himself….

The questionnaire Kavanaugh submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday acknowledges his exchanges with the media during his time on Starr’s staff. The submission also appears to acknowledge that he has sometimes spoken to reporters on a not-for-attribution basis.

In the questionnaire, Kavanaugh notes interviews for seven books — six of which focused at least in part on the independent counsel probe.

“In addition to the interviews listed above, I have also spoken to reporters on background as appropriate or as directed,” the nominee adds.

The judge also notes that he helped Starr prepare his own memoir.

How long before Clintonworld and others in the anti-Kavanaugh coalition revists James Carville’s infamous line about Paula Jones: “Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find”?

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