Acerbic Politics: September 2018

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Posters

BRETT KAVANAUGH CROSSED A PARTISAN LINE AND THE SUPREME COURT MAY NEVER RECOVER

By Carter Sherman Sep 30, 2018

It was Sen. Lindsey Graham who said the one thing Friday everyone can agree with. “There’s the process before Kavanaugh,” the South Carolina Republican told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “And the process after Kavanaugh.”

After three women accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct and eight-plus hours of testimony from both Kavanaugh and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford, and one shocking last-minute flip from Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, the Trump White House agreed Friday to launch a limited FBI investigation into the matter.

But regardless of what the FBI investigation ultimately uncovers, Kavanaugh’s decision to engage in overt partisan brawling — to berate Democrats and declare himself the victim of political revenge plot that dates back Bill Clinton — struck many experts as crossing a line from which the Supreme Court, should Kavanaugh be appointed, may not be able to recover.

“With Kavanaugh’s decision to kind of fight back on explicit partisan grounds, one consequence of that is it just drags the Supreme Court right into the center of a bitter partisan feud,” said Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean and law professor at Cornell Law School. “And that’s not going to be good for the Supreme Court at all.”

Read more...
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/nemdjq/kavanaugh-crossed-a-partisan-line-and-the-supreme-court-may-never-recover

Make no mistake:

Robert Reich

The drama on Capitol Hill today was about power: On one side, the power of men who harass or abuse women and get away with it, the power of privileged white men to entrench their power even more on the Supreme Court, the power of men to take away a woman’s right to choose what she does with her body.

On the other side of today's drama was the power of women with the courage to tell what has happened to them, to demand an end to white male privilege, and to preserve and enlarge their constitutional rights. Dr. Ford was poised, articulate, clear and convincing. No one who witnessed her testimony and her responses today can conclude that she failed to tell the truth. More than that: She radiated self-assured power.

Brett Kavanaugh showed himself to be a vicious partisan – a Trump-like figure who suspects leftwing plots against him, who refuses to take responsibility for his actions, who uses emotional bullying and intimidation to get his way.

Kavanaugh may still get on the Supreme Court, but after today there can be no doubt about his temperament or character, or his politics. A large share of the public will never trust him to be impartial. Many will never believe his denials of sexual harassment. Most will continue to see him as the privileged, arrogant, self-righteous person he has revealed himself to be.

I hope today’s performance convinces a critical mass of American women to do what must be done November 6, to give themselves a firm and clear voice in the Senate and in the rest of American government -- to empower themselves at a time when the President, the majority of Congress, and a majority in the Supreme Court intend to disempower them.

Source...
https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/?__tn__=kC-R&eid=ARBUgagzITY7NJasWUx83EhHVxfrzanf9ffvIw9NfvYgywQT7wLz51G1u_RkyltD2qh_ct8pzZ7JZPDc&hc_ref=ARQs7AXyWUnh-yt6Q5FuIAJASsXPKMZ4F8kVG4qdjfnNpvShCmpun5sRfoW3dKEuABg&fref=nf&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARAJc5dDwP0B8p0Dt8oWSvzZ6rTfVVF4kYqx1M9Ldq2he8a6jVr9YSb4olXzljggw9UkQPuQnyWQ1btf38nBAA6G_y1uBpYU9zhPAb2BL2kYHj-S6nO-rsRNNR2XWcaK6HUO5pOUgx6RgqsKQoCDKHiHpsaDWHK3MKESLRHoH0AaX07wTCzD9wW8KDvnPhXArszN8-hXGEcMfSjLbMyrlWa5AYB7cI5A4jnsuawX