- Jun 6, 2007
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Republican Party leadership and their allies are trying to paint this week's Supreme Court Confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh as a Circus as political theatrics where the Democrats struggled to make a legitimate case against his confirmation! An accurate characterization is that Senate Democrats gave a textbook performance on how to responsibly vet a Supreme Court nominee in really focusing on his record, Senator Feinstein's and Senator Durbin's performance was really impressive in their focus on some of Judge Kavanaugh's troubling opinions where these Senators shined a huge spotlight on the Judge's bad legal analysis in these cases. The Senate Democrat's on the committee during these hearings made a compelling case that the flawed or bad legal analysis and bias that he has displayed in numerous cases as well as his troubling comments and statements in the balance of his record make him an unsuitable candidate to receive a seat on the Supreme Court!
Much has been spoken about the process for these confirmation hearings and the Democrats are right they were unfair and the Republicans have only themselves to blame. I don't take issue with the Republican leadership using this Senate Classified designation (excuse me the proper label is [Senate] Committee Confidential) to shield documents from the public being able to view them I don't even take issue with the apparent ridiculous standard used for a document to get that protection which seemed to be if the contents would embarrass anyone in the Bush administration they get the designation because there was an appeal process that used a pretty lenient standard in lifting the designation. I think fairness calls for taking issue with the untimely release of the documents you didn't give the Senate Democrats time to read the documents so they could pull out the ones which they should appeal because their relevant to evaluating Judge Kavanaugh's suitability for the Supreme Court. I don't understand why except for the fact that the Republican's weren't bringing good faith to the matter that Republican leadership didn't go to this President Bush designee lawyer Bill Burck who was charged with making the Senate Classified designation and say to him how many lawyers do you need to review these documents to make this determination and get the Senate Judiciary Committee these documents in a timely manner one, two or three dozen lawyers and provide Mr. Burck's with that number, for how many lawyers does the Republican Senate caucus have on staff certainly at least three dozen? This whole issue is a self-inflicted wound by Senate Republicans!
A lot of controversy a better term is smoke screen has come about over Senator Booker's use of an email marked Committee Confidential in the questioning of Judge Kavanaugh. I think Senate Republicans gave Senator Booker an unwarranted and wrongful hard time on this matter certainly the document was relevant it was titled "Racial Profiling". Very few Senators were interrupted when they were questioning the Judge related to their questions and no other Senator was castigated like Senator Lee did to Senator Booker during that interruption. Senator Booker has received much criticism for his rebelious comments the next day when he said he was going to ignore Senate rules and release the documents anyway and that Senator Booker's confrontational comments were unneccessary because the classified designation was being lifted from the document. I find it hard to believe that the Republican leadership wasn't orchestrating the unfolding theatrics Thursday morning to create a diversion to the American public against focusing on Judge Kavanaugh's record which be occurring during that day's questioning. Now one of the biggest if not the biggest subject to come out of the Wednesday hearing was Senator Booker's questioning on this racial profiling e-mail sent to the Judge that was marked Committee Confidential and why was it and the effect of that. It is hard to believe that on thursday morning the Republican Chairman Senator Chuck Grassley who is Mr. On Top Of Everything didn't know and/or his staff in the hearing chamber didn't know that the Bill Burck's team lifted the designation they let Senator Cornyn pound on Senator Booker over the matter and the predictable Senator Booker response and they all kept their mouths shut, come on now the truth is almost certainly the Republicans were up to mischief there!
A lot of controversy a better term is smoke screen has come about over Senator Booker's use of an email marked Committee Confidential in the questioning of Judge Kavanaugh. I think Senate Republicans gave Senator Booker an unwarranted and wrongful hard time on this matter certainly the document was relevant it was titled "Racial Profiling". Very few Senators were interrupted when they were questioning the Judge related to their questions and no other Senator was castigated like Senator Lee did to Senator Booker during that interruption. Senator Booker has received much criticism for his rebelious comments the next day when he said he was going to ignore Senate rules and release the documents anyway and that Senator Booker's confrontational comments were unneccessary because the classified designation was being lifted from the document. I find it hard to believe that the Republican leadership wasn't orchestrating the unfolding theatrics Thursday morning to create a diversion to the American public against focusing on Judge Kavanaugh's record which be occurring during that day's questioning. Now one of the biggest if not the biggest subject to come out of the Wednesday hearing was Senator Booker's questioning on this racial profiling e-mail sent to the Judge that was marked Committee Confidential and why was it and the effect of that. It is hard to believe that on thursday morning the Republican Chairman Senator Chuck Grassley who is Mr. On Top Of Everything didn't know and/or his staff in the hearing chamber didn't know that the Bill Burck's team lifted the designation they let Senator Cornyn pound on Senator Booker over the matter and the predictable Senator Booker response and they all kept their mouths shut, come on now the truth is almost certainly the Republicans were up to mischief there!
During the hearings Judge Kavanaugh comported himself in a manner which demonstrated himself as intelligent, well prepared, having endurance and good at maintaining a respectful demeanor. Nevertheless he did not candidly reveal who the Judge Kavanaugh is who is this judge from an entirety of values standpoint from an entirety of what what his judicial analysis entails. The hearing showcased a very defensive, guarded judge. The Judge was doing a lot of spinning I think the record shows. He said that his statement in the Seven Sky Case "Under the Constitution, the President may decline to enforce a stature that regulates private individuals when the President deems the statute unconstitutional, even if a court has held or would hold the statute unconstitutional. Judge Kavanaugh in the hearings said in his defense that he was only referring to the reality that the President has prosecutorial discretion and he referenced the obvious cases of criminal prosecution and on the civil side the reference was to immigration President Obama's use of deferred action for childhood arrivals. Judge Kavanaugh is too much of a studied and "precise with words" guy if his intentions there was a reference to the President's having Prosecutorial discretion he would have put that in his footnote there. A prudent person would conclude that the Judge's statement here indicates that Judge Kavanaugh believes the President has expansive powers if the President thinks that a Congressional mandate and penalty requiring an individual to buy health insurance so that everyone can then buy "affordable" insurance violates an individual rights he does not have to enforce it pursuant to the Consititution. This conclusion goes along with Judge Kavanaugh's other expansive view of a President's power we know he believes. He actually said in the hearings that agencies that Congress creates to enforce laws if they don't have a commission or board authority structure the individual head must be able to be removed by the President at will unfortunately subjecting that agency to a lot of political pressure.
Judge Kavanaugh was not candid and forthcoming in the hearings demonstrated by his responses to Senator Harris questions. She was simply asking the Judge the question Isn't it true that the Supreme Court can overturn any of its prior cases even if it was a precedent case. The answer to that question is an easy yes where Senator Harris was merely trying to establish that the stakes are high for filling this Supreme Court seat we are in times where we have a President that is extremely unconventional and generates negative public opinion at levels the country hasn't seen since the 1960's and the Vietnam War protests and the Supreme Court may face questions that have a profound effect on the country an effect not seen in over forty years. Judge Kavanaugh was evasive when being questioned by Senator Klobuchar and she was asking him where he got this "pricing test" he used in his opinion in one of the anti-trust cases he ruled on; it was another example of his legal reasoning being outside the range of normal or good which is troubling for a person who is going to be entrusted with being on the America's highest appellate court and having the final say on what America's law is!
Much has been spoken about the process for these confirmation hearings and the Democrats are right they were unfair and the Republicans have only themselves to blame. I don't take issue with the Republican leadership using this Senate Classified designation (excuse me the proper label is [Senate] Committee Confidential) to shield documents from the public being able to view them I don't even take issue with the apparent ridiculous standard used for a document to get that protection which seemed to be if the contents would embarrass anyone in the Bush administration they get the designation because there was an appeal process that used a pretty lenient standard in lifting the designation. I think fairness calls for taking issue with the untimely release of the documents you didn't give the Senate Democrats time to read the documents so they could pull out the ones which they should appeal because their relevant to evaluating Judge Kavanaugh's suitability for the Supreme Court. I don't understand why except for the fact that the Republican's weren't bringing good faith to the matter that Republican leadership didn't go to this President Bush designee lawyer Bill Burck who was charged with making the Senate Classified designation and say to him how many lawyers do you need to review these documents to make this determination and get the Senate Judiciary Committee these documents in a timely manner one, two or three dozen lawyers and provide Mr. Burck's with that number, for how many lawyers does the Republican Senate caucus have on staff certainly at least three dozen? This whole issue is a self-inflicted wound by Senate Republicans!
A lot of controversy a better term is smoke screen has come about over Senator Booker's use of an email marked Committee Confidential in the questioning of Judge Kavanaugh. I think Senate Republicans gave Senator Booker an unwarranted and wrongful hard time on this matter certainly the document was relevant it was titled "Racial Profiling". Very few Senators were interrupted when they were questioning the Judge related to their questions and no other Senator was castigated like Senator Lee did to Senator Booker during that interruption. Senator Booker has received much criticism for his rebelious comments the next day when he said he was going to ignore Senate rules and release the documents anyway and that Senator Booker's confrontational comments were unneccessary because the classified designation was being lifted from the document. I find it hard to believe that the Republican leadership wasn't orchestrating the unfolding theatrics Thursday morning to create a diversion to the American public against focusing on Judge Kavanaugh's record which be occurring during that day's questioning. Now one of the biggest if not the biggest subject to come out of the Wednesday hearing was Senator Booker's questioning on this racial profiling e-mail sent to the Judge that was marked Committee Confidential and why was it and the effect of that. It is hard to believe that on thursday morning the Republican Chairman Senator Chuck Grassley who is Mr. On Top Of Everything didn't know and/or his staff in the hearing chamber didn't know that the Bill Burck's team lifted the designation they let Senator Cornyn pound on Senator Booker over the matter and the predictable Senator Booker response and they all kept their mouths shut, come on now the truth is almost certainly the Republicans were up to mischief there!
A lot of controversy a better term is smoke screen has come about over Senator Booker's use of an email marked Committee Confidential in the questioning of Judge Kavanaugh. I think Senate Republicans gave Senator Booker an unwarranted and wrongful hard time on this matter certainly the document was relevant it was titled "Racial Profiling". Very few Senators were interrupted when they were questioning the Judge related to their questions and no other Senator was castigated like Senator Lee did to Senator Booker during that interruption. Senator Booker has received much criticism for his rebelious comments the next day when he said he was going to ignore Senate rules and release the documents anyway and that Senator Booker's confrontational comments were unneccessary because the classified designation was being lifted from the document. I find it hard to believe that the Republican leadership wasn't orchestrating the unfolding theatrics Thursday morning to create a diversion to the American public against focusing on Judge Kavanaugh's record which be occurring during that day's questioning. Now one of the biggest if not the biggest subject to come out of the Wednesday hearing was Senator Booker's questioning on this racial profiling e-mail sent to the Judge that was marked Committee Confidential and why was it and the effect of that. It is hard to believe that on thursday morning the Republican Chairman Senator Chuck Grassley who is Mr. On Top Of Everything didn't know and/or his staff in the hearing chamber didn't know that the Bill Burck's team lifted the designation they let Senator Cornyn pound on Senator Booker over the matter and the predictable Senator Booker response and they all kept their mouths shut, come on now the truth is almost certainly the Republicans were up to mischief there!
During the hearings Judge Kavanaugh comported himself in a manner which demonstrated himself as intelligent, well prepared, having endurance and good at maintaining a respectful demeanor. Nevertheless he did not candidly reveal who the Judge Kavanaugh is who is this judge from an entirety of values standpoint from an entirety of what what his judicial analysis entails. The hearing showcased a very defensive, guarded judge. The Judge was doing a lot of spinning I think the record shows. He said that his statement in the Seven Sky Case "Under the Constitution, the President may decline to enforce a stature that regulates private individuals when the President deems the statute unconstitutional, even if a court has held or would hold the statute unconstitutional. Judge Kavanaugh in the hearings said in his defense that he was only referring to the reality that the President has prosecutorial discretion and he referenced the obvious cases of criminal prosecution and on the civil side the reference was to immigration President Obama's use of deferred action for childhood arrivals. Judge Kavanaugh is too much of a studied and "precise with words" guy if his intentions there was a reference to the President's having Prosecutorial discretion he would have put that in his footnote there. A prudent person would conclude that the Judge's statement here indicates that Judge Kavanaugh believes the President has expansive powers if the President thinks that a Congressional mandate and penalty requiring an individual to buy health insurance so that everyone can then buy "affordable" insurance violates an individual rights he does not have to enforce it pursuant to the Consititution. This conclusion goes along with Judge Kavanaugh's other expansive view of a President's power we know he believes. He actually said in the hearings that agencies that Congress creates to enforce laws if they don't have a commission or board authority structure the individual head must be able to be removed by the President at will unfortunately subjecting that agency to a lot of political pressure.
Judge Kavanaugh was not candid and forthcoming in the hearings demonstrated by his responses to Senator Harris questions. She was simply asking the Judge the question Isn't it true that the Supreme Court can overturn any of its prior cases even if it was a precedent case. The answer to that question is an easy yes where Senator Harris was merely trying to establish that the stakes are high for filling this Supreme Court seat we are in times where we have a President that is extremely unconventional and generates negative public opinion at levels the country hasn't seen since the 1960's and the Vietnam War protests and the Supreme Court may face questions that have a profound effect on the country an effect not seen in over forty years. Judge Kavanaugh was evasive when being questioned by Senator Klobuchar and she was asking him where he got this "pricing test" he used in his opinion in one of the anti-trust cases he ruled on; it was another example of his legal reasoning being outside the range of normal or good which is troubling for a person who is going to be entrusted with being on the America's highest appellate court and having the final say on what America's law is!
