Disgusted

Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court today, and I am so angry I could just spit. Of course it was inevitable, especially after the speech by Susan Collins last night, in which she baffled the sane part of America with her reasoning for supporting Kavanaugh. Jeff Flake also voted for him, after he was briefly a hero of the left for making sure an FBI investigation was done. I saw right through this ruse, though. The investigation was a sham (many key witnesses, including Dr. Ford, weren't even interviewed) and Flake went ahead and voted yes anyway, the political way of having your cake and eating it, too.

These are the times I wish I was one of those people who couldn't name a Supreme Court justice or a senator--and there are many people like that, who go through their lives unaware of the all the nefarious things that are going on in Washington. I can name all 50 senators and all the justices going back to the Kennedy administration, but I certainly don't know all of what goes on, all the shady deals that are hatched in that nest of vipers that serve only the self-interests of those involved. Does anyone really think Mitch McConnell cares about people?

Collins, who has been the focus this week as one of a few Republicans who might vote against Kavanaugh, made herself look foolish. As one meme pointed out, she's the kind of person who hold up everyone at a restaurant by taking 20 minutes to decide what to order, but then orders the same thing she always does. She is no moderate--she takes marching orders from the White House just like every other sniveling Republican. She's a coward--she is supposedly pro-choice, but had the gall to say the Kavanaugh would not overturn Roe v. Wade, or grant the executive branch more power. Flake is just as guilty. He made a big show about being influenced by sexual abuse victims, but then turned right around and sold them down the river. What I don't understand is why Flake had anything invested in Kavanaugh, as he's a lame duck who has never agreed with Trump on many issues. Is it because he is contemplating a primary challenge to Trump, and doesn't want to be seen as too liberal? You got me.

But Collins and Flake and Lisa Murkowski, another coward who voted against cloture on the nomination but then took the easy way out by voting "present" for the actual confirmation, shouldn't be the only focus. Except for Murkowski and Montana senator Steve Daines, who was at his daughter's wedding, every Republican voted for Kavanaugh. Two are up for re-election in a few weeks: Dean Heller of my home state of Nevada, and Ted Cruz of Texas. Both are in the fight of their lives, and it would be sweet if they both went down. But what of the many women Republicans in the Senate that betrayed their own sex? Joni Ernst of Iowa. Deb Fischer of Nebraska. Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi. I would love to watch these women explain to their daughters, or sisters, how they justify putting a scumbag like Brett Kavanaugh on the highest court of the land.

Most loathsome of all, as I wrote last week, are the Mount Rushmore of hypocrisy--Charles Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Lindsey Graham, and John Cornyn, the four horsemen of the women's rights apocalypse, who showed no sympathy whatsoever for Dr. Ford, thanking her for her testimony but not acting on a word of it. It's not they didn't believe her, they just didn't care.

The entire Republican senate are about the worst fifty people this side of Boko Haram. All they care about is power, mostly their own. Anyone with a pulse should be able to see Kavanaugh for what he is--a sample of white privilege who is a tip-top prevaricator and has a drinking problem and can't keep his hands off women when he's drunk. In his hysterical testimony, he indicated he was partisan, and added "What goes around comes around." What does that mean--he'll vote Trump's way on everything out of spite?

The interesting question is why the nomination, once it hit the rocks, wasn't pulled. Surely there are hundreds of other equally qualified, equally conservative justices. I think it may be that Trump made a deal with Anthony Kennedy and Kavanaugh--Kennedy retires, Kavanaugh replaces him, and the latter makes judgments that benefit Trump's troubles with impeachment (and Kennedy's son is left alone out of any Russia investigation). There's a case coming that would expand the power of pardon, which Trump would dearly love to get. Kavanaugh, who basically has said that a president is too busy to be indicted, will surely vote yes on that one.

The last few weeks I've felt out of sorts, as if a sword were hanging over me. I realize now that this whole thing has left my stomach in knots. This is the worst result of Trump's presidency--all his executive orders can be reversed. But unless the Democrats could somehow impeach Kavanaugh (for perjury, or if Dr. Ford files a criminal complaint against him, which would necessitate a real investigation), Kavanagh could be there for thirty years or more, long after Trump has moldered in his grave. leaving only a pool of spray-tan.