Milbank: Kavanaugh hearing is a spectacle, with good reason
Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing is scheduled to last all week. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley lost control after just 13 words.
“Good morning,” he said. “I welcome everyone to this confirmation hearing on the nomination of …”
“Mr. Chairman?” interrupted Sen. Kamala Harris of California, a junior Democrat on the committee and prospective presidential candidate.
She protested that the administration had dumped 42,000 pages of Kavanaugh’s writings the night before, leaving no time to review them.
“You’re out of order,” Grassley informed her.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, another prospective presidential contender, jumped in. “This hearing should be postponed,” she said.
Grassley, ignoring her, welcomed the nominee’s friends and family.
This time, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, interrupted, saying the lack of documents “turns this hearing into a charade and a mockery of our norms. … I therefore move to adjourn.”
Demonstrators in the audience shouted echoes:
“This is a mockery and a travesty!”
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There has never been a disruptive spectacle like this at a Supreme Court confirmation hearing. But then there has never been a Supreme Court nomination like this.
Kavanaugh may not become the most conservative member of the court, but his background suggests he would be the most partisan. Working for Kenneth Starr in the 1990s, he was involved in the Vincent Foster and Monica Lewinsky probes, proposing an explicit line of questioning for President Bill Clinton with graphic queries about genitalia, masturbation, phone sex and oral sex. And as a young lawyer under George W. Bush, Kavanaugh was involved in Bush v. Gore, the probe of Clinton’s pardons and legal decisions about torture.
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