Kavanaugh’s Alleged Crimes are Very Serious
This situation is unbelievably absurd. That is why I think I must write about it. A seventeen year old is alleged to have committed several felonies, which would have had him charged as an adult, and landed him in jail for decades. There are undoubtedly some serving sentences in jail for similar crimes.
On the other side, this same person is about to be confirmed to be not only be a Justice of the Supreme Court, but one who has been politically and legally raised to upset all precedents, in favor of extreme conservative and religious policies. Millions of women can be charged with abortion and some degree of murder when Justice Kavanaugh overthrows Roe vs. Wade. They may also face the dangers of non-medical abortion, if they can’t afford to travel to states that still allow abortion, and if they do not have money to pay for the abortion.
It is rare in history when such a contrast lies before us. Furthermore, the alleged criminal behavior may be overridden in a week, without any investigation, by the same Republican Senate which stole Obama’s Supreme Court nomination, by holding it up for 293 days.
I am not a lawyer or a prosecutor, but you learn as cases arise in news or dramas. Every teenager in my day knew the phrase “jail bait”. Kavanaugh was never so naive, that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong. His mother was a lawyer and a judge. This was not a statutory rape case of two involved 17 year olds. He is alleged to have attempted rape on only a 15 year old. But that is not all. There may be at least five charges of kidnapping, arising from not letting the victim leaving the room. There could be charges of aiding and abetting by the other teenager present. Even if subpoenaed, he could take the fifth. The fact that Kavanaugh could have been so drunk that he had no moral restraint, is not an excuse. He was a minor, so even drinking was a crime. Drinking to excess so that you have no moral control, does not make you not punishable for your crimes.
As an educator, I looked up Georgetown Prepatory School. It is the nation’s oldest Catholic School, and only Jesuit boarding school. It was founded 230 years ago in 1789, and has a “sacred mission of forming men of competence, conscience, committment, and compassion; men of faith, men for others.” Justice Neil Gorsuch also graduated from Georgetown Prep.
As an aside, Justice Steven G. Breyer is from San Francisco, California, and went to Stanford and Harvard Law. The other California Justice is Anthony M. Kennedy, from Sacramento, who also went to Stanford and Harvard Law. Justice Kennedy just retired, and Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to replace him.
Trump’s defense of Kavanaugh is familiar as defenses for Trump’s own harassment crimes. His appeal to the suffering of Kavanaugh’s family is so hypocritical to Trump’s own shame that his family has to live with. It is even more embarrassing that Kavanaugh may have risen to the top of the list because he believes that a sitting President cannot be charged with a crime.
Finally, twice today, Trump called Sen. Feinstein “Feinsteen”. That had to be a Trump hidden insult. Sen. Feinstein is the senior senator from the largest state in the union, California. She is the ranking member or minority leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee, through which all of Trump’s judicial appointments have to go. Feinstein’s name has been correctly pronounced hundreds of times on every news channel today. This embarrasses Trump more than it does Sen. Feinstein.
Remember when the FBI had to reopen the Hillary Clinton email investigation just 11 days before a Presidential Election? In Maryland, where the prep school is located, there is no time limit on sexual assault.
What goes around, comes around: Kavanaugh worked for Ken Starr, and the Bill Clinton impeachment. He wanted the explicit sexual acts between Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton made public. The difference with now is that the Lewinsky-Clinton sex was consensual, and between adults.
Trump had an approved Federalist Society list of some 20 conservative Supreme Court candidates. He could easily dump Kavanaugh for an untarnished, respectable candidate. He could also allow an FBI investigation to clear Kavanaugh for the rest of his life, and restore the honor of the Republican Senate, and also the Supreme Court. That would be a sensible course of action. Smarter still, would be for Trump to abandon his list, and nominate an excellent non-partisan judge, who gets approved by a unanimous Senate vote, and serves honorably throughout his career. That could get Trump reelected by independent voters, and secure his place in history.
After two years of “you can’t make this stuff up” governance, this Kavanaugh situation is by far the worst, and with complicity by the Republican Congress and Donald Trump.
