. but in the meanwhile the circus attacks call into question whether any Republican is prudent to accept a nomination to SCOTUS.
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Holy Cow, ANOTHER Perfumed Prince who insists REPUBLICANS must quit because getting down and dirty in a battle for the future of the country is unseemly!This country was built on battles and nothing is going to change just because you ask for it nice and polite.
Samuel Adams
“Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say ‘what should be the reward of such sacrifices?’ Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!” — Samuel Adams
Things have only gotten worse. The lesson of this travesty is that the reputation of the Senate Judiciary Committee - and hence of the Senate itself - has been compromised. The Senate Judiciary Committee is not now serviceable in vetting a nominee for SCOTUS, since anyone whom POTUS Trump would consider nominating knows better than to submit his/her reputation to its process. And the Senate as a body is no more trustworthy in that role.This means that any future Trump nominee for SCOTUS - for the Kennedy seat or any other - will insist that Mr. Trump accept the advice of the Senate Majority Leader in selecting his nominee. And have the Majority Leader’s commitment that the full senate will expeditiously - read, before the Democrats have time to mount a campaign of calumny on the nominee - vote on confirmation of the nomination. And will enforce that commitment by withdrawing his name for consideration if he feels it is necessary.
If the current nomination fails of confirmation, Judge Kavenaugh will have no recourse other than to sue for libel, slander, and defamation. And he should not rely only on the obvious actual malice in the case, but should also claim that a judge or judicial nominee is presumptively not a “public figure” who even needs to prove “actual malice.” And that Times v. Sullivan should be overturned.