Brett Kavanaugh

Did They All Lie?

September 5, 2021 By John DeProspo 8 Comments

Did you think this would turn out any other way?

“As a general proposition I understand the importance of the precedent set forth in Roe v. Wade.” – Brett Kavanaugh at his Senate confirmation hearing.

Did you really think there was another David Souter among the Three “Trump-appointed” Stooges?

“The Supreme Court of the United States has held in Roe v. Wade that a fetus is not a person for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment. That’s the law of the land. I accept the law of the land, senator, yes.” – Neil Gorsuch at his Senate confirmation hearing.

Did you actually believe the “moderate” John Roberts would be able to convince at least one Trump jurist to honor the Constitution he or she swore to uphold?

“I can’t pre-commit or say, yes, I’m going in with some agenda, because I’m not, I don’t have any agenda. I have an agenda to stick to the rule of law and decide cases as they come.” – Amy Coney Barrett at her Senate confirmation hearing.

Today’s ultra-right-wing Court was never going to issue an injunction against the radical anti-abortion law passed in Texas just like the three Trump nominees where never going to reveal their true feelings about Roe v. Wade and protecting a woman’s right to choose.

I like to believe that Sen. Susan Collins was duped by Kavanaugh’s reassurance that he did not pose a threat to Roe v. Wade’s protections for women and families. But that would be giving Collins too much credit. She had to know what Kavanaugh was all about … and he, along with the other two Trump-appointed ideologues, Gorsuch and Coney Barrett, did not disappoint the anti-abortion forces.

My only hope is now that this so-called “supreme court” has shown its hand (at least on the abortion issue), the backlash will be fierce and unrelenting.

A majority of Americans support a women’s right to choose. Let’s pray that the Republicans up for reelection in the 2022 midterms, those who support the Court’s recent action, all suffer defeat. Let’s hope the Democrats hold their majority in the House and increase their majority in the Senate … and that “Supreme Court reform” (i.e., increasing the number of justices to blunt the Court’s extreme conservative tilt) is at the top of any new legislative agenda.

Photo | cnn.com

Something Even The Writers Of “Animal House” Could Not Have Imagined

October 6, 2018 By John DeProspo Leave a Comment

During the final scenes of perhaps the greatest frat movie ever made, the audience of National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978) is treated to a glimpse of what becomes of some of the wild boys of Delta Tau Chi. Ladies’ man Eric Stratton (“Otter”) goes on to become a Beverly Hills gynecologist. Eternal loser Kent Dorfman (“Flounder”) finds his calling as a sensitivity trainer and obnoxious boozer John Blutarsky (“Bluto”) becomes a U.S. senator.

It now appears the movie’s comedy writers were too timid in their satire. They needed to think bigger, especially for John Belushi’s “Bluto” character. But back then, even satire had its limits. To be fair, how could the writers have ever imagined that in the year 2018, an actual hard-drinking frat boy could be appointed Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court?

Without a doubt, in the Age of Trump, satire is dead.

Photo | theconservativetreehouse.com

Brett Kavanaugh Set To Star In New Beer Ad

October 2, 2018 By John DeProspo Leave a Comment

From moronmajority.com

Brett Kavanaugh may have hurt his image as a judge while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But he certainly enhanced his reputation as a beer lover. By repeating, “I like beer,” Kavanaugh caught the ear of some very savvy beer execs.

Photo | washingtonian.com

The Only Bench Kavanaugh Deserves To Sit On Is The One In The Park

September 29, 2018 By John DeProspo 4 Comments

Something unusual happened this Thursday during Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearing. The man who would sit on the nation’s highest court took off his mask.

Supreme Court nominees normally look to portray themselves as cool, fair-minded, neutral arbiters of the law. As John Roberts said during his confirmation hearing, “Judges are not politicians who can promise to do certain things in exchange for votes.” A judge’s job, said Roberts, “is to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat.”

Starting with his opening statement, Brett Kavanaugh, currently a D.C. Circuit Judge, came out with a bat in his hand. He attacked the Democrats on the committee saying, “This confirmation process has become a national disgrace. The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process, but you have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy.

Calling the confirmation hearing “a circus,” Kavanaugh even went “Fox News” by bringing in the Clintons.

“This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record,” Kavanaugh said. “Revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups.”

Kavanaugh’s rant on Thursday revealed him to be the right wing, conspiracy-theory- loving, political hack that he is.

He clearly showed he does not have the judicial temperament to sit on the Supreme Court, or any other court for that matter.

By denying provable facts about his past, he showed himself to be a liar in the mold of the man who nominated him to the position.

What is truly amazing is that all the Republican members on the committee voted to send his nomination to the full senate for a vote!

Now that one Republican senator, Jeff Flake, has done the honorable thing by calling for an FBI investigation into the serious, and credible, sexual assault allegations levied against him by a number of women, accepting Trump’s offer for a seat on the Supreme Court could be one of the worst decisions in his life.

Almost as bad as the decision he made 36 years ago when he attacked a 15-year-old girl at a house party.

Photo | hearstapps.com

Kavanaugh Channels His Inner Thomas

September 20, 2018 By John DeProspo Leave a Comment

Reprint from moronmajority.com

Looking to counter the accusation he attempted to rape a girl in high school, Brett Kavanaugh takes a page from the successfully disingenuous “socio-economic” outrage employed by Clarence Thomas at his own Senate confirmation hearing.

Photo | theccut.com

Forget The “McConnell Rule”… Dems Need To Push The “Booker Rule”

July 10, 2018 By John DeProspo 6 Comments

Many Congressional Democrats are asking Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, to follow his own rule concerning a president’s ability to nominate a new Supreme Court justice. McConnell prevented Barack Obama from nominating a justice to fill the seat of the late Antonin Scalia on the theory that a president should not be able to appoint a new Supreme Court justice during an election year.

Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, has asked McConnell to put off consideration for a new justice to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy until after this year’s midterm elections. But trying to shame McConnell into abiding by his own rule seems like a complete waste of time. The man is incapable of self-reproach.

A better rule for Democrats to use in their effort to stop the consideration of the newly nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Court is the “Booker Rule.” Namely, there should be no Supreme Court pick while a president remains under criminal investigation.

Here is how Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) explained his position:

“President Trump is currently a subject of an ongoing criminal investigation, and any nomination of a Supreme Court justice while that investigation continues is unacceptable because of the clear conflict of interest inherent in the President installing someone who could be the deciding vote on a number of potential issues from that investigation that could come before the Court.”

Democrats need to keep repeating the “Booker Rule” until they’re blue in the face (no pun intended).

It is common sense that no person under criminal investigation should be able to literally pick his own judge. And on that matter, Kavanaugh has written, in a 2009 article for the Minnesota Law Review, that presidents should be immune while in office from “time-consuming and distracting” criminal investigations. “Like civil suits, criminal investigations take the President’s focus away from his or her responsibilities to the people. And a President who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as President.”

No, Democrats should not be playing the “shame” or “hypocrisy” card but the “conflict of interest” card. It is difficult to defend the idea that Trump should be able to choose a justice who may soon decide his legal fate. The “Booker Rule.”

Granted Dems don’t have the votes to block Kavanaugh’s nomination but if enough pressure is placed on a few moderate Republicans, and those Blue Dog Democrats, the day may yet be won.

Photo | Jack Gruber/USA Today