After the initial hubbub over the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, things have quieted down this week. Opposing forces are dug in and waiting for the real offensive to start on September 4th, when the nomination hearing begins before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Kavanaugh met with Democratic Senators Heidi Heitkamp (ND) and Joe Donnelly (IN) this week, bringing the total number of Democratic Senators who’ve decided to meet with him to a walloping three. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill from Missouri will reportedly meet with Kavanaugh next Tuesday. As the Kavanaugh Column reported last week, Democratic Senate leaders Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Chuck Schumer (NY) are also open to meeting with Kavanaugh, although potentially in an effort to push their demand for release of documents relating to the time Kavanaugh served as Staff Secretary to President George W. Bush.
Expect questioning in the Judiciary Committee hearing to focus on executive power and the Russia investigation, Kavanaugh’s views on Roe (though don’t expect any specific answers), the Second Amendment and possibly election regulations and the Voting Rights Amendment. These issues all have to do with Kavanaugh’s public record, such as the decisions he’s authored in twelve years on the D.C. Court of Appeals. Next week, we’ll ask the musical question, “How low can you go?”, as we take a look back at the gutter-level personal attacks and vitriol nominees have endured in modern times. These have more to do with the nominee’s heretofore private record, as Judge Kavanaugh’s supporters and friends wait anxiously to see whether the hearing will be conducted largely above-board, as the hearing for Justice Neil Gorsuch was, or if his opponents will come out swinging below the belt – as they did for Justice Clarence Thomas.
