generalspeaking

Saturday, October 06, 2018

Finally, Reason Prevails

"My heart goes out to anyone who has experienced any type of sexual assault in their life. However, based on all of the information I have available to me, including the recently completed FBI report, I have found Judge [Brett] Kavanaugh to be a qualified jurist who will follow the Constitution and determine cases based on the legal findings before him."
Democrat Joe Manchin, West Virginia

"I believe that Brett Kavanaugh is a good man. It just may be that in my view he's not the right man for the court at this time."
"I also think that we're at a place where we need to think about the credibility and integrity of our institutions."
"This has truly been the most difficult evaluation of a decision that I've ever had to make, and I've made some interesting ones in my political career."
Republican Lisa Murkowski, Alaska

"We will be ill-served in the long run if we abandon the presumption of innocence and fairness, tempting though it may be."
"We must always remember that it is when passions are most inflamed that fairness is most in jeopardy."
"I do not believe that those charges [of sexual molestation] can fairly prevent Judge Kavanaugh from serving on the [U.S. Supreme] court."
Republican Senator Susan Collins, Maine

Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate judiciary committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Sept. 27 in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

There, it is done. A confirmation vote of 50 to 48 out of 100. Not that the news field day will be over. It may just be starting, in a conflagration of volatile, abrasive and ruinous partisan conflict that will see no end in years to come. In this entire, insane episode in American politics the Democrats have been leading a no-holds-barred 'resistance' against anything they deem to be tainted by the touch of President Donald Trump. In this latest and most egregious instance, the nomination of a leading jurist to the U.S. Supreme Court, to represent the interests of Republicans.

This is by no means the only event of its kind, there have been previous high-profile nominations with attendant accusations of sexual impropriety. This one, however, was unmatched by the level of covert planning that went into the accusations to achieve a victory of damning denial, one that took its traction from the #MeToo movement and the wretched friction between the left and right on the American political scene where the front-and-centre issue of Populism has propelled an unfit leader to the throne of American politics.

That aside, the performance of the Democrats in conspiring to smear a man destined for the highest court of the land, is shameful. From delegating a lawyer to represent Brett Kavanaugh's initial accuser, dredging up a 37-year-old memory of painful experience, to calling upon the services of a left-leaning press to go into full accusatory-action mode, the public responded, with women seeking to make a signal example of one man of integrity and universal respect in the administration of law and justice who just happened to be caught in the cross-fire.

"If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us. What you want to do is destroy this guy's life and hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020 ... This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics. If you really wanted to know the truth, you sure wouldn't have done what you did to this guy", railed Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Well, they almost succeeded, in desperation at the last possible moment launching their seek-and-destroy rocket of accusation.

They may have failed to stop Brett Kavanaugh from assuming his place with dignity on the Supreme Court, but they have made the history books. And the further removed from the event, the more distastefully history will look back on their shameless and harmful partisanship. The man they ultimately sought to harm, Donald Trump, has prevailed, after all. Having publicly sullied a hitherto-unblemished name, Kavanaugh will nonetheless take his seat with pride and dignity though he will never forget the assault and the torment of his family.