Month: July 2018

Supreme Court confirmation battles of late bring out the worst in whichever political party is playing defense. The process becomes more debased with each succeeding nomination. Continuing this sad trend, early signs indicate that the Kavanaugh nomination could be the ugliest yet. Kavanaugh is obviously well qualified by intellect, experience, and judicial temperament. While a solid conservative, he is clearly within the legal mainstream and his positions frequently have been adopted by the Supreme Court. It also appears, at least as of now, that he presents no ethical concerns. The only character flaw identified thus far is the scandalous fact, breathlessly reported by the Washington Post’s investigative staff, that he once “piled up credit card debt” to buy baseball tickets for himself and his friends and to finance home improvements. (Apparently the debt was paid off.)

Nevertheless, almost all Democrats are poised to vote against Kavanaugh even before the confirmation process gets into full swing. They are led by Chuck Schumer, who vows to “oppose him with everything I’ve got.” The Post reports that Schumer joined all of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee outside the Supreme Court on the day following the nomination “to deliver a direct appeal to Americans to rise up in opposition to Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination.” Schumer and most Democrats are refusing even to meet with Kavanaugh until a deal is reached on their demand for a massive trove of documents Kavanaugh processed during his White House service, many of which seem irrelevant to his confirmation.

Hyperbolic rhetoric and distortions of Kavanaugh’s record are flooding the media. (See, for example, here and here.) The most extreme instance of this (so far) is a petition  opposing Kavanaugh that describes him as “an intellectually and morally bankrupt ideologue” and—wait for it–a threat to human life. The petition concludes with an ominous warning that “people will die if he is confirmed.” This petition was not produced by the Onion, late night TV comics, or grandstanding Hollywood lefties. Rather, it comes from alumni and faculty of Yale Law School and other branches of that university who are, presumably, otherwise rational. Republican Senator Ben Sasse aptly observed on the day after the nomination: “We’re less than 24 hours into this, and folks are already declaring that if you can’t see that Brett Kavanaugh is a cross between Lex Luthor and Darth Vader, then you apparently aren’t paying enough attention.”

With the ink barely dry on the nomination papers, we’ve already descended into “Kavanaugh Derangement Syndrome” territory. Unfortunately, it’s likely to get worse as the confirmation process moves forward.

 

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out who’s worse: Trump or his critics. Trump clearly hit a new low with his disgraceful Helsinki press conference in which he took the word of Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies concerning Russian interference in the 2016 election. His performance was rightly greeted with almost universal scorn across the political spectrum. (Faced with overwhelming criticism, Trump now claims, no doubt disingenuously, that he “misspoke.”) Repeating a familiar pattern, however, some Trump critics couldn’t resist going beyond the merits and descending to his level with their own outrageous hyperbole.

The most egregious excess was the accusation that Trump’s statements at the press conference somehow amounted to “treason.” One might expect this kind of nonsense from late night TV comics and hopelessly biased politicians and pundits. However, respected columnist Thomas Friedman joined in as did former CIA Director John Brennan. Brennan’s version takes the cake. He tweeted:

“Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???”

These charges are baseless. Article III, section 3 of the Constitution states that “[t]reason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.” Treason is the only crime specifically defined in the Constitution. It is well established that the definition can be met only when the United States is engaged in declared or open warfare with such “enemies.” One expert observed that the framers saw the need to define  treason so narrowly and to place it in the Constitution in order to ensure that this concept was not weaponized for use against political opponents.

Of course, that is exactly what Trump’s critics are doing here. Such empty rhetorical excess plays into Trump’s hands by undermining the credibility of those who voice it—particularly Brennan, a central player in the intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference. It also serves to further politicize this already thoroughly politicized subject. The threat of continuing efforts by Russia to undermine the integrity of our elections is undoubtedly real, and it could become critical if the Russians (or other bad actors) are able to exploit our cyber vulnerabilities and penetrate state election machinery. Continuing to treat this subject as a political football and using it to bait Trump impedes the vital mission of investigating these threats thoroughly and objectively so we can adopt the necessary countermeasures.

 

When it comes to Supreme Court confirmations, the hypocrisy by both political parties is as transparent as it is breathtaking. Recall the (legitimate) outrage voiced by Democrats not long ago when Republican Leader McConnell refused to accord the slightest good faith consideration to former President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland, a highly qualified candidate for the Court. Fast forward to President Trump’s nomination yesterday of Brett Kavanaugh, another highly qualified candidate. As soon as the Kavanaugh nomination was announced and before the confirmation process began, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to “oppose him with everything I’ve got.”  A number of other Democratic Senators echoed this pledge. At least one Democratic Senator announced his refusal to consider Trump’s nominee even before the nomination was announced. The substantive difference between McConnell’s stance on Garland and the Democrats’ stance on Kavanaugh is?