Talking Points
October 5, 2018
Extra Edition - The Kavanaugh Vote
At the end of this note, I will tell you how you can register your revulsion at the Senate's approval of Brett Kavanaugh.
In an amazing public display of hubris and manipulative disregard for the Supreme Court of the United States and for the victims of sexual and violent abuse, the Senate Republicans appear to have achieved a bare majority necessary to confirm the worst person designated for that Court, in our lifetime.
In doing so, they wrongfully twisted the criminal rule of presumption of innocence into a shield against the proper standard that is applicable to Supreme Court appointees. There is NO presumption that a nominated person is fit for the job. Indeed, if credible evidence comes forward, as it did here, that, if true, would make the nominee unfit, then the burden is upon the nominee to prove otherwise.
So, we will now have a Supreme Court judge, appointed by a totally political process, to be a political operative on the Supreme Court of the United States. It is no wonder that over 2,400 law professors have signed a petition against that appointment.
Three out of five swing votes were the determining factors in this appointment. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota have declared they will vote against the appointment.
Gutless Republican Senator Jeff Flake, of Arizona, who is retiring from office, was, once again, true to form. He makes speeches calculated to demonstrate objectivity, and then almost always votes the ultra-right party line. The extremists ought to give him a special reward, since his ploy last week probably gave his fellow Republicans a pseudo-cover for the claim that a "full investigation' had been done, when, in fact, it appears to have been a sham.
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, is the ONLY Democrat who is voting for the nomination. He is voting for what he believes to be self-preservation, rather than the exercise of sound judgment for the benefit of the Country and of his constituents.
And then, there is Main Republican Senator Susan Collins, In the end, she voted the ulta-right party line, and spoke a lot of nonsense about the standard and the "investigation" and about Christine Blasey Ford, being truthful, but mistaken.
There is a way in which a united grassroots (aside from the ballot box) can demonstrate their revulsion at what the Republicans have done. For the past few weeks, there has been crowd raising fund (Crowdpac) established with a novel idea. If Collins voted against the nomination, the fund would be returned to the contributors. However, if she voted for the nomination, the fund would be given to whoever is her opponent in her next election! In a short time, the fund has received 78,984 pledges on Crowdpac, totaling $2,273,733. The push will be on to double that amount to five million dollars. It is unique way for "the rest of us" to show our reaction to the travesty that has been perpetrated by the reactionary Republican majority.
Visit the Crowdpac website and cast your vote: https://www.crowdpac.com/campaigns/387413/either-sen-collins-votes-no-on-kavanaugh-or-we-fund-her-future-opponent
HJB
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[Opinions expressed in Talking Points and in reader comments to Talking Points are the opinions of their authors and not necessarily of the Rockville Centre Democratic Club or its officers and directors]
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