ICYMI: Brett Kavanaugh Confirmed as Supreme Court Justice

This is only my opinion and not the representation of Saintel Daily, LLC.

It’s official.  And I mean official.  The United States Senate just voted 50-48 to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. This is among the closest votes on a Supreme Court nominee in the history of the country. What this does is underscore just how divided this process was.  But it also underscores how divided the entire country is at this point.  There were only two party defectors, one of whom was a Democrat – Joe Manchin (West Virginia).  Why he voted in favor isn’t exactly known.  But what does this mean?  A lot of different things.  To start, Brett Kavanaugh is going to be a Supreme Court Justice for life.  It could mean that women’s rights will be set back 50 or more years.  But it might not be the end of the world.

Don’t get me wrong.  I do not think that the Kavanaugh confirmation is a good thing. But maybe we should look at it from a different angle.  What do I mean? Kavanaugh misled lawmakers and may have lied under oath about some things.  If he did lie under oath, is it possible for him to be impeached?  This wouldn’t happen under the current Senate composition, but it might happen if there are more Democrats in the Senate starting in November.

What did he lie about?  Well, it’s hard to say if he was lying or just didn’t remember.  To start he said “I never attended a gathering like the one Dr. Ford describes in her allegation… She and I did not travel in the same social circles”.  Turns out Kavanaugh had a party marked in his calendar on the same date.  This one is a bit misleading, though.  It could go either way.  Whether this will get used in the future is another matter altogether.

A friend of Kavanaugh’s wrote a memoir where he referenced a friend “Bart O’Kavanaugh”.  Kavanaugh sidestepped the question when he was asked if Bart was actually him.  In the memoir, Bart isn’t painted in a great light and even though a pseudonym was given, it seems kind of obvious that Bart might be Brett.  Kavanaugh suggested that “Bart” was a figment of his friends’ imagination. But the New York Times later reported that this was a nickname for Kavanaugh in high school after a teacher botched the name, Brett. A letter obtained by the Times, written by Kavanaugh about planning for renting a house for Beach Week, was signed “Bart.” It’s not clear what Kavanaugh gained by refusing a direct response.

There are many, many other things that he said in his testimony that could be used against him in a few months time.  But what does all this mean for the midterm elections?  Polling is still ongoing about what kind of impact the confirmation could have, but some early results suggest that it’s firing up both Democrat and Republican supporters.  The fact that it’s firing up both parties doesn’t necessarily bode well for the Democratic Party.  What this means for the midterms isn’t known at this point, but we will bring you more on this as it unfolds in the next two months.