This is most disappointing.
White House aide [tag]Brett Kavanaugh[/tag] won [tag]Senate[/tag] confirmation as an appeals judge Friday after a wait of nearly three years, yet another victory in President [tag]Bush[/tag]’s drive to place a more conservative stamp on the nation’s [tag]courts[/tag].
Kavanaugh was confirmed on a vote of 57-36, warmly praised by Republicans but widely opposed by Democrats who said he is ill-suited to sit on the U.S. [tag]Court of Appeals[/tag] for the District of Columbia. […]
Ralph Neas, president of the liberal-oriented lobbying group People for the American Way, said that Bush and Senate Republicans “have succeeded today in putting a partisan lapdog into a powerful, lifetime position on the federal bench. Brett [tag]Kavanaugh[/tag] has spent his career as a partisan operative, carrying out the will of the Bush administration and twisting legal arguments to benefit his political ideology.”
This was supposed to be a big fight. Senate Dems were, just a few weeks ago, prepared to filibuster Kavanaugh — and with good reason.
Kavanaugh was a key member of [tag]Ken Starr[/tag]’s impeachment team and helped lead the investigation of [tag]Vince Foster[/tag]’s suicide. Indeed, Kavanaugh personally wrote the portion of the Starr report that outlined Starr’s reasons for Congress to impeach Clinton in 1998. As Roll Call reported way back in April 2004: “From Starr to Monica [tag]Lewinsky[/tag] to Manuel [tag]Miranda[/tag] — the former GOP staffer at the center of the improperly accessed Democratic memos — Kavanaugh has connections directly or indirectly to a host of scandal figures who have irked Democrats in recent years.”
For that matter, Kavanaugh has no judicial experience, received a sub-par rating from the American Bar Association, has a limited legal background outside partisan political work (his trial work is practically non-existent), and is now one of the youngest judges in the history of the [tag]DC Circuit[/tag]. He’s also spent the last few years helping pick Bush’s other far-right judicial nominees.
Apparently, at some point in recent weeks, Dems decided that a fight over Kavanaugh would ultimately fail. Instead of trying, Dems concerns were rolled over like speed bumps.
The final vote was 57 to 36, with four Dems (Byrd, Carper, Landrieu, and Ben Nelson) voting for confirmation and five Dems not voting. It sends a dangerous signal — Dems are hesitant to block efforts from Bush and [tag]Frist[/tag] to stack the courts with ideologues this year.