The Brett Kavanaughwill be confirmed by a narrow margin to join the US Supreme Court….
Democrats gave their all…
But in the end?
They just didn’t have the votes….
It all came down to that….
A sitting justice has questioned out loud the fears of many, will the addition of Kavanaugh move the court from a jury that is balanced , or will it become a weapon of the political Right?….
With Washington still reeling from the most fractious Supreme Court confirmation battle in decades, Justice Elena Kagan warned Friday that the high court’s credibility is at risk because it now appears to lack a justice whose swing vote made the court seem more unpredictable and less partisan.
Speaking at a Princeton University conference for women, neither Kagan nor fellow Justice Sonia Sotomayor commented directly on the fight over President Donald Trump’s nominee Brett Kavanaugh or the sexual assault allegations that triggered protests and a re-opening of his confirmation hearings.
However, Kagan said the departure of the man Kavanaugh would replace — Justice Anthony Kennedy — leaves the court in danger of being perceived as a political institution rather than a neutral arbiter of disputes.
“It’s been an extremely important thing for the court that in the last 40 years, starting with Justice [Sandra Day] O’Connor and continuing with Justice Kennedy, there has been a person who found the center, where people couldn’t predict in that sort of way,” Kagan said. “That’s enabled the court to look so it was not all by one side or another and it was indeed impartial and neutral and fair. And it’s not so clear that I think going forward that sort of middle position — it’s not so clear whether we’ll have it.”
“All of us need to be aware of that — every single one of us — and to realize how precious the court’s legitimacy is,” Kagan declared, with her warning drawing protracted applause from the Princeton crowd. “It’s an incredibly important thing for the court to guard is this reputation of being impartial, being neutral and not being simply extension of a terribly polarizing process.”
Sotomayor said she “agreed wholly” with Kagan’s statement. Sotomayor said some of the perceived polarization of the court is related to the two major political parties aligning themselves for or against particular legal theories like originalism.
“When the political parties adopted that language as their own, they superimposed that on the court,” she said. “I think that that, institutionally, has hurt the court a lot and may continue to do so.”
Sotomayor said she tries to build bonds with other justices on the court, including some she rarely aligns with on cases, like Justice Clarence Thomas….
image…NYPost
CNN reports that the Senate vote for or against confirming Brett Kavanaugh as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court will be held at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time today.
Brett Kavanough confirmed,,,,
Insofar as I can figure it out after the fact (turning on the Internet & TV just after the vote), the roll call broke down like this:
50 Aye — 49 R + 1 D (Joe Manchin, W. Va)
48 Nay — 46 D + 2 Ind (Bernie Sanders, Vt & Angus King, Maine)
1 Present — 1 R (Lisa Murkowski, Alaska)
1 Not Voting — 1 R (Steve Daines, Montana)
Had Joe Manchin and Lisa Murkowski voted against (bringing the total to 49 R to 50 = 47 D + 2 I + 1 R), Steve Daines would, there is little doubt, have been ready to hop into that aeroplane to fly back from his daughter’s wedding and tie the vote at 50-50, with the casting vote in Mike Pence’s hands.
See: (for example)
https://turnto10.com/news/nation-world/brett-kavanaugh-is-confirmed
The Chief Magistrate seems to confirm my suppositions on Twitter:
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump
35 minutes ago
I applaud and congratulate the U.S. Senate for confirming our GREAT NOMINEE, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the United States Supreme Court. Later today, I will sign his Commission of Appointment, and he will be officially sworn in. Very exciting!
12,284 replies 24,755 retweets 80,925 likes
Reply 12K Retweet 25K Like 81K
44 minutes ago
I have asked Steve Daines, our great Republican Senator from Montana, to attend his daughter Annie’s wedding rather than coming to today’s vote. Steve was ready to do whatever he had to, but we had the necessary number. To the Daines Family, congratulations-have a wonderful day!
Reply 3.8K Retweet 12K Like 59K
But the questions still linger….
Is Donald Trump a “ secret Democrat?”
Is the Republican Party his “ adopted” party?
What are his “ Democratic tendencies?”
So many questions, so few answers!
Give it up Jack
He’s been shown ‘the way’….
I want to see what he does with Pelosi leading the House…
It would REAL interesting if the Dem’s got the Senate also
What would Trump do to make deals?
He once was lost but now is found,
Was blind and now he sees….
Of course Trump is not a secret Democrat. He is a conservative Republican. Just like our friend from Illiinois. There is no difference. None.
I don’t know what point is being attempted by trying to say that CG is identical to or the same as Trump.
Many of the policies they favor (e.g. deregulation, lower taxes, abortion restrictions, Iran) are indeed very similar, but others are very different (on, e.g., immigration, tariffs, budget deficits or isolationism).
Sometimes they both get into contradiction.
For example I think that like most of us here, CG favours maintaining and strengthening international institutions and the alliances of liberal-democratic nations, but then because I can’t see much difference between his views and Trump’s on Iran or Israel, he’s drawn —no doubt unwillingly — into the John Bolton American-supremacist tear-everything-up-&-go-it-alone vortex (a.k.a. MAGA).
¶ Saying that CG’s unwillingness to support nearly any Democrat means tht he is (as Joe Stalin was wont to say) “objectively” allying with the Forces of Darkness, is really a rather different thing.
It’s crudely equivalent to asserting that the Sanders-leaners among us who supported Hillary Clinton after the 2016 Democratic Convention were “objectively” aiding the Clintons’ slightly-shady Wall Street Third Way liberalism. That’s very different from saying that we are the same thing.
Fair enough points Dave.
But as CG often points out no one knows where Trump “really” stands on the issuses as he is all about himself. So whose to say if on the policies where CG and Trump disagree the latter actually agrees with CG’s establishment Republican views.
Thank you DSD for your successful demonstration of intellectual honesty.
Yup DSD….
I’ve been saying….
‘People aren’t just one thing’….
Some people have a difficult time with that…
They see things in for one…
In for ALL….
Human beings REALLY aren’t that way….
Democrats don’t agree with everything and everyone in the party….
So no one should be surprised that Republicans are the same way…
In fact more American voters ARE calling themselves Independent’s in an effort to move away from party affiliation’s…
No one should vote just lock step for what the ‘party’ wants….
THAT should apply to lawmakers also….
After all?
It IS YOUR Vote…
It shouldn’t belong to the party….
(Some people on line want ‘REVENGE’ against Republicans which is asinine )
Oh, and that DID include Trump….
But NOT anymore…
I always feel better when James tells us what “human beings are..”
It’s corny idiocy like this that illustrates why I don’t post as much anymore and why I feel better about that decision.
Here’s another way of looking at it.
What policy that the Trump Administration has put forward is Democratic? Or, what have they done that isn’t straight out of the Republican playbook.
During the 2016 campaign and in the early 2017 breaking-in period (100 Days) while he was still hiring his first White House and Executive Branch staff, Trump said many things that sounded as Democratic as they did Republican.
But there are almost no significant policies or programmes that his Administration has advocated or executed (or Congressional ones at which the Administration has connived, e.g. Paul Ryan’s replacement of Medicare< Medicaid and Social Security) that are NOT clearly far more Republican (or at least some flavour of Republican) than they are anything else.
The clearest examples of this were a couple of Tuesdays when the President met with and seemed to reach some sort of consensus with Democratic congressional leaders on issues such as DACA and school safety, only to reverse himself a full 180 degrees by Thursday when faced with backlash from right-wing, corporate or religious-right ideologues and donors.
Yup DSD
They continually took Trump aside and told him he YA CAN’T do shit like this when you hang with us….
Trump got the message after a while
You have your point Jack
But I also have mine
Thanks DSD as usual!