Brett Kavanaugh: ready to do conservative battle

President Trump’s announcement on Monday evening of his nominee to fill the empty slot on the United States Supreme Court, with D.C. Appellate Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh, brought some surprise to those outside the administration, who were expecting that Amy Coney Barrett might have been the choice, yet as many have said, he felt simpatico with him, and that the confirmation process would be less contentious with Kavanaugh, than with her.

The 53 year old, in his initial remarks made it clear that he, above all, was a loyalist ,and in that all-too-familiar tone that gives obsequious a new twist he said, ““No president has ever consulted more widely, or talked with more people from more backgrounds, to seek input about a Supreme Court nomination.”

As others have pointed out, how could he have known this? Ruling out time travel, it’s easy to see why many groaned when they heard those words as they bounced off the gilt and cream walls of the East Room, with George Washington, looking down, from his gilded frame, or was that aghast, at what was said?

Naked partisanship aside, the rightward turn to the Court is now becoming reality, and maybe another opportunity with Judge Ginsburg, well into her 80s. But, this is a road that has been long prepared, by conservatives, with the intent of revoking Roe v. Wade.

NBC News has portrayed Trump as the water carrier for conservatives on Court nominations and in fact, this was used, as a way to carry undecided voters in the 2016 election. As they noted: “Polls have shown that power over the Supreme Court nominees was critical to getting Republicans who had misgivings about Trump’s fitness for office to the polls — he issued two lists of conservative judges pleasing to activists over the course of the 2016 campaign — and they’ve also been an important reason for Republican members of Congress to refuse to provide meaningful oversight on an unprecedentedly corrupt president. Trump’s selection of orthodox conservatives to the courts reflects his understanding of this dynamic.”

While there has been some scuttle butt that retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy's resignation was engineered, and that there were supportive business dealings between both the Trump and Kennedy families, what proves to be more reliable is that Kavanaugh is the man for the job in the eyes of many.

As has been noted:  “He is not only of a very conservative legal bent, he has taken a view of executive power that Trump is sure to find pleasing. In a 2012 law review article, he suggested that Congress should consider a law forbidding the president not merely from prosecution but even from being investigated while in office. “Criminal investigations take the President’s focus away from his or her responsibilities to the people,” Kavanaugh argued. “And a President who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as President.”

For the Democrats the knowledge that they,, due to their slim minority in the Senate,  can get nowhere without help from across the aisle, gives support to two senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who have said, especially, the latter that they could not support a candidate that wants to revoke Roe.

Collins has remained her ladylike self and said that she is impressed by Kavanaugh's credentials, as they are, but not gone further beyond that. Yet some of her liberal detractors have said that in the past she has voted along party lines for confirmation to the Court, 99 percent of the time.

It’s very important to remember that these two lawmakers were able to stop the Affordable Care Act from total destruction

For the Democrats, their way to try to win is to trash talk the GOP, and the candidate, on lack of support for healthcare, with the specter of millions without health care; an issue that is of special concern for women voters, and lawmakers, who we have noted earlier, are in important voting bloc, in the upcoming midterm elections.

"Democrats believe the No. 1 issue in America is health care, and the ability of people to get good health care at prices they can afford," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The Kavanaugh nomination, he added, "would put a dagger" through the heart of that belief.

As National Public Radio noted, “Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., on the Senate floor Tuesday. Chief Justice Roberts was the decisive fifth vote to uphold the ACA in a key case in 2012. "[Republicans'] new strategy is to use the court system to invalidate the protections in the law for people with pre-existing conditions, Murphy said.

Murphy — and many of his Democratic colleagues — are referring to a case filed in Texas in February by 20 Republican state attorneys general. The AGs from these states charge that because the tax bill passed by Congress last year eliminated the tax penalty for not having health insurance, it rendered the entire federal health law void.

Their reasoning was that Roberts based his opinion upholding the ACA on Congress' taxing power. Without the tax, the AGs argue, the law should be held unconstitutional,” they concluded.

On the chopping block is the refusal to insure those with pre-existing conditions.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has told everyone that he wants Kavanaugh confirmed and installed before the midterms; a statement that rankles the Democrats as they watched Republican leaders delay, and further delay the confirmation of Merrick Garland, President Obama’s choice to replace Antonin Scalia, citing historical precedent, but not accurately.

Once again this is base politics, so that Trump can give a laundry list no matter how short of his success: Neil Gorsuch, as first on the Court, the Muslim Travel Ban, the Tax Plan, U.S. withdrawal from the Iran Treaty, and maybe NAFTA.

Adding Kavanaugh, and then a repeal of Roe would give him street cred as a true Republican conservative, something that many doubted during the election.

A little known fact is that “The most important player is the conservative legal movement is the Federalist Society, created in 1982 to counter the perceived liberal bias of law schools. It has become a well-funded and hugely influential organization, transforming itself into the go-to group that conservative would-be judges need by their side. Important scholarly books by political scientists Amanda Hollis-Brusky and Steven Teles have shown how the organization influenced a generation of conservative judges and legal scholars, and provides the information Republican presidents now rely on to pick federal judges.”

Perception aside McConnell might want to take a step back as some people do not want to rush this confirmation --- as was said, by New York Magazine: “That James Bopp, one of the conservative legal architects behind the anti-Roe campaign was opposed to Kavanaugh is an interesting twist in a nominating process that has been beset by indecision. And don’t think for a moment that Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will rush the confirmation process. A stickler for process with an abiding respect for Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat in the committee, he won’t hold a vote until every senator is satisfied and every piece of paper in Kavanaugh’s voluminous record has been turned over and examined.”

“It’s all over but for the fighting,” is an old Southern expression and it seems to ring here, quietly but insistently.

Other groups wary of Kavanaugh, are LGBT groups and Planned Parenthood, the bête noire of conservatives.

In a statement, Equality Illinois, the state’s civil rights organization for LGBTQ people, said, among others, that “We at Equality Illinois will work with our state and national partners to analyze Judge Kavanaugh’s record and call our community to action in the coming days. We will fight and resist an anti-LGBTQ nominee who would try to turn back the clock on our civil rights. The history of LGBTQ people demonstrates that we know how to show up, speak up, and fight back.”

In another statement from Jennifer Welch, President and CEO Planned Parenthood of Illinois, she said:  “Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) believes that no one should be denied care based on where they live; unfortunately Illinois is surrounded by states with unnecessary barriers and restrictions on reproductive health care. While House Bill 40 eliminated the immediate threat to abortion rights in Illinois, it doesn’t remove the long-term threat of rolling back rights if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned, and PPIL will continue to work alongside our partners to educate the public, and our senators, about the dangerous implications of Brett Kavanaugh being appointed to the United States Supreme Court. We are encouraged by Senators Duckworth and Durbin’s vocal statements about advocating and protecting the rights of all Illinoisans.”

It should be noted that Kavanagh is a practicing Roman Catholic, and by all accounts is the consummate Washington insider having been born and raised in the nation's capital and attending its elite schools, including Georgetown Prep.

While the GOP and the conservative elite are looking forward to a long sought desire, especially since the days of the liberal Warren Court, it’s also interesting to see that while they profess to be strict constructionists, it's equally interesting to see that the independence of the tripartite of the federal, the judiciary and the executive have become blurred in a desire to move their agenda along.

Once again, it’s all over but for the fighting.