Really just upper-middle class. Mom going from history teacher to attorney to judge and dad heading up a trade association.
But a swamp creature through and through. Ambition pouring out of his pores. The ultimate technocrat who is capable of writing clearly and impressing with his legal arguments, but sometimes falters when going for the political result.
His wife was W’s personal secretary in TX and DC for a decade and they are indeed the ultimate swamp creature couple. But we can hope he does indeed have constitutionalist principles underneath it all and will stick to them once on the high bench.
A judge who is apolitical and an “ultimate technocrat who is capable of writing clearly and impressing with his legal arguments” is another way of saying that Kavanaugh fits the Scalia model that a judge should be like an umpire whose role is limited to calling balls and strikes. Moreover, two judges whom I know quite well and much respect dislike and shun the frequent discussion of politics by their colleagues, as did another judge I knew who is now deceased. That three fine judges of disparate background who did not know each other all disliked mixing politics into the work of judging tells me that Scalia was right both philosophically and at an essential level of what makes for a good judge.