Week Two in the battle to confirm Judge Kavanaugh was marked by Democrats’ continued disunity and lack of opposition energy.
July 20, 2018
Week Two #ConfirmKavanaugh – Dem Disunity Cont’d, Facts On Independent Counsel, & Chuck In Charge
Week Two in the battle to confirm Judge Kavanaugh was marked by Democrats’ continued disunity and lack of opposition energy. It was also revealed that, despite their tough talk, red-state Democrats are bowing to Chuck Schumer and are actually waiting for his okay before even meeting with Judge Kavanaugh.
The Daily Beast noted that progressives are not lining up with much fervor to #resist as Democrats had hoped:
“When asked about mobilization efforts against Kavanaugh’s nomination, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a civil-rights umbrella organization with hundreds of affiliated organizations, directed The Daily Beast to a series of sundown vigils to be conducted on Wednesday. Of the more than 100 vigils scheduled—including a “Vigil Against the Beast, Donald Trump” in Indianapolis—only one appeared specific to President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee: a “Handmaids Against Kavanaugh” vigil in front of the Boston State House.
“Ten people have RSVPd so far.”
Newsweek quickly shot down the latest attempt at an attack on Judge Kavanaugh, as Senators Schumer, Durbin, and Booker tried to conflate the independent counsel statute with the special counsel investigations.
“But law experts told Newsweek that Kavanaugh’s view on independent counsels has nothing to do with special counsels or Mueller’s probe and, in fact, the two types of federal investigations are completely different.”
Then the Senate’s #2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, picked up this attack but was quickly demolished by video of his own quite eloquent oppositon to the old independent counsel law in 1999:
Leave it to Senator Orrin Hatch to eloquently mock all of the failed attacks over the past two weeks in his op-ed for The Daily Beast, appropriately titled “Democrats Have Already Jumped the Shark on Judge Kavanaugh”:
“And so, liberals embarrass themselves with paint-by-numbers press releases, hilariously mundane “scandals,” and prose so purple it would make even the most histrionic high schooler blush.
“Judge Kavanaugh is an eminently qualified, widely respected court of appeals judge well within the judicial mainstream. But of course liberals can’t say that.
“They’re stuck screaming he’s evil incarnate. Good luck with that. It’s going well so far.”
The Senate Republican Conference echoed Senator Hatch’s message with an entertaining video highlighting the wild-eyed opposition to Judge Kavanaugh:
As they continue to lose the messaging war, Democrats are turning to tired tactics to try to stall the confirmation process. Last week, red-state Senate Democrats were eager to claim their independence from Chuck Schumer when it came to how they would vote on Judge Kavanaugh:
Manchin: “I’ll be 71 years old in August, you’re going to whip me? Kiss my you know what.”
McCaskill: “I’ll tell him to take a flyin’ leap”.
Donnelly: “My decision won’t have anything to do with Chuck Schumer.”
Heitkamp: “I’m going to vote the way I’m going to vote regardless of what the leader says.”
This week, they are taking their cues from Chuck and waiting until he gives the go-ahead before meeting with Judge Kavanaugh:
“Senate Democrats are deliberately holding off meeting with Kavanaugh, the aide told CNN, until Democrats can strike an agreement with Republicans on how to move forward on document procurement for Kavanaugh’s nomination.”