The QC Times says confirm Kavanaugh!!
While we have expressed concern over Kavanaugh’s connections to W Bush and especially Justice Kennedy, actually W’s picks on balance were not bad, just not great – of the sitting justices, W picked Alito (great) and, meh Roberts. Dad picked Thomas, but also Souter. Reagan gave us Kennedy, Scalia and O’Connor (he tried to give us Bork).
But now the Quad City Times issues its opinion that Kavanaugh SHOULD be confirmed. The problem we have with the QCT is that they uncharacteristically used sound reasoning about the process, even calling Democrats hypocrites. They actually wrote:
Donald Trump is president. Republicans own the U.S. Senate. And Judge Brett Kavanaugh is qualified.
Kavanaugh will be confirmed, and he should be.
We don’t think they would do that for a more conservative jurist with comparable credentials. It worries us that they probably feel he is the best “they” can get. But then we do want to see a confirmation, but just not any confirmation, not another Kennedy (I lean to thinking Kavanaugh is somewhat to the right of Kennedy, and that Kavanaugh is not all positioning / climbing/ ambition). But as a member of SCOTUS his true head gets to come out. That is the anxiety not alleviated as yet (never to be eliminated).
The thing is all the politics seem headed in Trump’s favor. If not Kavanaugh now, a more actually Scalia like conservative jurist would be possible after the midterms, the way it looks today. No we are not saying wait because Trump being Trump he might just renominate a failed (this time) Kavanaugh after Republican pick-ups from the midterm. If Dems were to win the Senate (increasingly not likely) well that is too painful to think about.
So the concerns should be less who picked him then what he has issued. On that score read this Terry Jeffrey commentary at Townhall
Does Alien Caught at Border Have Right to Bear Arms?
Kavanaugh takes the establishment track, not narrow, more like noncommittal. We don’t have the confidence vibes in him we felt more with others. But others we respect, more studied than we, do have confidence in him. Maybe the QCT thinks he can be rolled, like Kennedy and Roberts and maybe their sources know something we have not been appraised of? Perhaps readers can appreciate our anxiety about Kavanaugh. We anxiously await every confidence building report.
It shouldn’t be this way. The SCOTUS has too much power. But for now it is what it is and the right justices can reset the presumptions about the tribunal.
HENDERSON FOR SCOTUS (read the article)
This article was edited and extended from earlier version
