the questions raised about Judge Kavanaugh in his first hearing will be submerged by the onrushing tide of scandal, as they were for Justice Thomas.
.. I do think it’s unfortunate that the cynicism and racial politics that infused the nomination of the underqualified 43-year-old Judge Thomas to a lifetime position in the seat once held by Thurgood Marshall has been erased from public memory.
.. It matters that the man President Bush called “the best man for the job on the merits” was unwilling or unable under the senators’ questioning to deviate an inch from his prepared talking points; that although he was a sitting federal appeals court judge (albeit for only 18 months) his knowledge of recent Supreme Court decisions was shaky at best; or that he made the implausible claim that he had never expressed a view, even in conversation, about Roe v. Wade, a precedent that he then voted, in dissent, to repudiate when the opportunity arose during his first year on the Supreme Court bench.
.. who would turn the constitutional clock back to the 18th century if he ever found four colleagues to agree with him, distanced himself during his confirmation hearing from the extreme conservative views he had spent years espousing in speeches. Those were, he claimed, nothing more than the musings of a “part-time political theorist.” Pressed to explain his position that there was a “natural law” higher than the Constitution, he uttered perhaps the most candid line of the entire proceeding: “I certainly never thought I’d be having this discussion.”
.. What were those earlier vulnerabilities? His work for the George W. Bush White House, many details of which have never been fully disclosed. His willingness last year, as a judge, to delay an undocumented teenager’s access to an abortion to which she was legally entitled, along with the not inconsiderable prospect that he would provide the long-awaited fifth vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. More fundamentally, there is the weighty argument that a president who may not have been legitimately elected, and who had already filled a Supreme Court seat that everyone knows was President Barack Obama’s to fill, had not earned the right to project onto the court a minority constitutional vision and lock it in place, probably for decades.
Brett Kavanaugh was a model youngster. Bart O’Kavanaugh was not.
It is too bad that his live-in doppelganger, Bart O’Kavanaugh, was not. But perhaps that was the only way things could have been. Brett was so complete in his purity that he once healed a junior’s hangover with merely a touch of his hand. On the single occasion he attended a party, Brett turned the keg to water and gave everyone fish-and-loaf snacks.
.. Bart never said much. He mainly communicated by downing kegs. One keg meant yes; three kegs could mean anything. Brett was half in awe and half terrified of him.
Career prosecutor brings wild-card element to Kavanaugh hearing
Rachel Mitchell, who was tapped to question Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford about her allegations that Kavanaugh assaulted her in high school, has never been involved in such a high-profile case or faced the glare of the national media.
One aspect of her background that could be key: Mitchell, who runs the special victims division of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, championed a manual for local prosecutors that recommends questioning victims of sexual assault with a “neutral, fact finding attitude,” placing the “best interest of the victim” first.
.. But by choosing an unknown for the task, Republicans have taken a risk — gambling that Mitchell finds a way, in her first turn on the national stage, to successfully deliver tough but empathetic questions.
If Mitchell turns out to be the fair and evenhanded questioner that Republicans said they want, there could be dangers for the embattled nominee: What if Ford appears credible in the face of such questioning? What if Kavanaugh struggles?
“There’s no telling what’s going to happen here,” said Nick Ackerman, who served as an assistant special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. “If she does what she normally does and she’s legitimate and is good at this because she’s been doing this for a long time, [Republicans] could find themselves in a major pickle.”
.. The hearing also carries risks for the committee’s 10 Democrats, a group that includes several aspiring presidential candidates. Any political showboating could contrast poorly with the calm delivery of a professional prosecutor, experts said.
.. Colleagues who have faced her in court praised Mitchell as having an empathetic, professional questioning style.
.. “She was prepared. She was thorough. She definitely knew how to do the questions to elicit information that was needed,”
.. Warner said she had never seen Mitchell badger witnesses or treat them with disrespect.
.. Each senator will be given five minutes to ask questions of both Ford and Kavanaugh. But most — if not all — Republican senators are expected to delegate their time to Mitchell.
.. A senior Republican aide said the committee hopes Mitchell will press Ford on the details she has said she cannot remember, including the timeline of events around her allegations about Kavanaugh. They also hope Mitchell will push Ford about when and how she decided to come forward and her interactions with Democratic staffers.
.. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, predicted the outcome of Thursday’s hearing will “largely turn on what sort of tone and approach she takes.”
.. Reaves predicted that neither Republicans nor Democrats would ultimately be pleased with Mitchell.
“She’s going to be so good,” he said, “that both sides are going to have problems with her.”
What Teenagers Think About the Allegations Against Brett Kavanaugh
Leyla Fern King, a high school sophomore in St. Louis, Mo., was asked by her mother this week what she thinks about Brett M. Kavanaugh: If he was guilty at 17 of sexually assaulting a girl at a party decades ago, should he still be held accountable?
“He should,” said Ms. King, who is 15, “because you’re definitely supposed to know right from wrong by my age.”
.. teenagers across the country said in interviews that they were disturbed to see so many adults dismissing the accusations against Mr. Kavanaugh
.. They recognized the scenario outlined in Dr. Blasey’s allegation — a drunk teenage boy taking advantage of a girl at a house party. And in the backlash against Dr. Blasey, a research psychologist in California, the teens saw the way girls are often criticized for calling out mistreatment.
.. she worried that if the Senate does not take Dr. Blasey’s allegations seriously, it will reaffirm the idea that “boys will be boys,” and teach a dangerous lesson to teenagers today.
“Boys will learn that what you do in high school won’t affect your future at all, so go do the damage you need to do now,” she said.