Say, What If We DON'T Confirm President Unindicted Co-Conspirator's Supreme Court Nominee?

This isn't normal. It'll take decades for the light from normal to reach us.

Hey, Republicans! Whatcha doin? Just moving ahead with your plans to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Suprem Court, huh? Like, even though the "president" of the United States has been named as one of those unindicted co-conspirator dealies in Michael Cohen's guilty plea? And even though Kavanaugh has said presidents may not have to comply with subpoenas, because they're very very busy? (If those presidents are Not Bill Clinton.) Ah -- you want us to change " even though"to"because," and that's our answer? Gotcha.

Republicans in the Senate seem absolutely determined to steamroll right on through with Kavanaugh's nomination, because confirming rightwing judges as fast as they can while the building is falling down around them is the one thing these guys are really committed to. Well, that and trying to hang on to white supremacy as long as possible; it's all of a piece.

To make matters worse, the process is still churning forward despite new evidence that when he was on the staff of independent counsel Kenneth Starr, Kavanaugh may have leaked secret grand jury testimony -- about Vince Foster's suicide, no less! -- to the press. That too might be a good reason to hold off on confirming this weasel. The fucking 1990s will literally never be over.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing should be delayed in light of the events of Stupid Tuesday, particularly since when Schumer met with Kavanaugh, the nominee wouldn't answer the basic question of whether a president must answer a subpoena, even in a national security case.

.@SenSchumer: "In my view, the Senate Judiciary Committee should immediately pause the consideration of the Kavanau… https://t.co/A4pRkyr93J

— CSPAN (@CSPAN) 1534951647.0 

Kavanaugh's refusal to say a President should comply with a duly issued subpoena, and Michael Cohen's implication of the president in a federal crime, makes the danger of Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court abundantly clear. It's a game-changer. Should be.

The president, identified as an unindicted co-conspirator of a federal crime, an accusation made not by a political enemy but by the closest of his own confidants, is on the verge of making a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, a court that may some day soon determine the extent of the president's legal jeopardy. In my view, the Senate Judiciary Committee should immediately pause the consideration of the Kavanaugh nomination [...]

The prospect of the president being implicated in some criminal case is no longer a hypothetical that can be dismissed.

Not surprisingly, the White House dismissed those concerns as mere stalling tactics of the kind you might expect from hyperpartisan opponents who fail to see the necessity of seating a yes-man on the Court in time to rule on whether a criminally implicated president has to comply with what some still quaintly call the law. Spokescretin Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Schumer's call to delay the hearings was "a desperate and pathetic attempt by Democrats to obstruct a very highly qualified nominee."

Hey, you know what's desperate and pathetic? Pretending any of this bullshit is even remotely normal. Rushing through a SCOTUS nomination while a president has been implicated in campaign fraud. Michael Cohen made deals to silence two women, at the direction of Donald Trump, just weeks after the Access Hollywood tapes. If either or both stories had come to light in the month before the election, not even this crew of criminals could have picked up the 80,000 votes in three states that gave Trump the electoral college win.

 No president has ever had a Supreme Court nominee confirmed -- or even appointed one -- while being criminally implicated in high crimes that could result in impeachment. Not one. (And no, Barack Obama having two appointments while suspected by internet loons of being Kenyan doesn't count.)

Ah, but as Dahlia Lithwick notes at Slate, Republicans have only one guiding principle left:

Judges—all judges, any judges—must be seated, quickly and permanently, but only by Republicans. That is the only principle that matters. And in order to achieve that end, any bad acts by Donald Trump, up to and including alleged criminal conduct, will be minimized and swept aside.

Gotta pack the courts at all levels while they have a Senate majority and President Individual 1. They got their tax cut, and now it's just a game of smash and grab while they still hold power -- they can tell their children it was a valiant dying effort to save America from abortion and brown people.

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[ WaPo / New York Post / Slate / Slate / WaPo ]