The fight over Judge Brett Kavanaugh was the worst Washington has seen since Robert Bork or Clarence Thomas. Maybe it was even worse than that. It was a vicious knife fight. It started out smooth. The confirmation hearings were intense at times, with protesters interrupting the proceedings, but Kavanaugh seemed poised for a smooth confirmation. Then, three sexual misconduct allegations were dredged up—all three didn’t have corroborating witnesses or evidence. The smear campaign against Kavanaugh by the Left had begun. It was brutal. It was merciless. Judge Kavanaugh gave a robust and emotional defense of his character and reputation after one of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, gave her account, which lacked key details. Again, there was nothing there to verify this serious claim. The vote was delayed a week so that the FBI could do another supplemental investigation into the claims.
Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick were the two other women who alleged sexual misconnect. Ramirez says Kavanaugh exposed himself at a party at Yale. Swetnick alleges Kavanaugh was part of a gang rape ring in high school. Again, there were no witnesses or evidence. In fact, these allegations were so thin that The New York Timesdidn’t run stories of their own on these women because they couldn’t confirm anything. The GOP fought back. Kavanaugh fought back. We beat the Left. That’s what’s important. And at the end of the day, we scored a sweet victory—a solid conservative majority on the Supreme Court for the next generation.
Both Democratic and Republicans voters are now jacked for the midterms, Republicans especially; this fight animated the base like no other with a mere 29 days until the ballots are cast. For Independent voters, they were not approving of how Democrats orchestrate this blitz. The allegations were dropped at the last minute. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) knew about the allegations for weeks and didn’t say anything unit the 11thhour. It had all the makings of a political hit job. And yet, Independents didn’t support Kavanaugh’s confirmation. If anything, the latest poll that shows independents souring on how Democrats behaved in this battle only adds more uncertainty into how the 2018 midterms will go (via Washington Examiner):
After a blistering confirmation battle, Justice Brett Kavanaugh will take his seat for oral arguments on the U.S. Supreme Court with a skeptical public, a majority of which opposed his nomination. However, Democrats may not be able to exploit this fact in the upcoming elections as much as they hope, because the independent voters overwhelmingly disapprove of their own handling of the nomination by a 28-point margin, a new CNN/SSRS poll finds.
Overall, just 41 percent of those polled said they wanted to see Kavanaugh confirmed, compared to 51 percent who said they opposed his confirmation. In previous CNN polls dating back to Robert Bork in 1987, no nominee has been more deeply underwater.
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…it's clear that the nomination energized both sides, and that the tactics pursued by the parties turned off independent voters in a way that makes it much harder to predict how this will end up affecting election outcomes.
Kavanaugh was eventually confirmed by a 50-48 vote on Saturday. Thanks for playing, Chuck Schumer.
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