A reader called Democracy is troubled by Kavanaugh’s record as a judge, whose ideology trumps facts and evidence. Yesterday Trump told a political rally that Democrats are interested only in “power and control,” and “we’re not going to let them get it.” I think this is called “projection,” especially from a President whose party controls two of the three branches of government and is now seeking to control the third branch, thus eliminating the checks and balances envisioned by the Founding Fathers to prevent tyranny.

Democracy writes:

Kavanaugh has lied about sooo many things. He lied about his drinking. About blacking out. About “Devil’s Triangle” and “boofing.” About being a Renate alumnus. About the geographic locations of the houses where he and Dr. Ford lived.

But he also lied about being a neutral arbiter of the law. As Steve Pearlstein noted in The Post six years go in a case that involved EPA pollution regulations.

“But in reading the 60-page opinion by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, you’d have no clue of this historical, political, economic or health context…You’d have no idea that hundreds of dedicated, highly trained scientists, analysts and statisticians at the EPA might have spent more than a decade devoted to the extremely complex task of figuring out how much of the ozone or sulfur dioxide in the air in Rhode Island originated in Indiana.

“You’d have no idea that legions of government lawyers and economists might have spent a decade listening to, and negotiating with, state officials, industry groups and environmental advocates on an equitable formula for reducing pollution in the least costly way….You’d have no idea that, in earlier decisions, the same court had found it a reasonable formula resulting in reasonable compliance costs, but sent an earlier version back to be reworked because it didn’t make the air clean enough.”

Instead, what you get is 60 pages of legal sophistry, procedural hair-splitting and scientific conjecture….You find a judge without a shred of technical training formulating his own policy solution to an incredibly complex problem and substituting it for the solution proposed by experienced experts…You find an appeals court judge so dismissive of the most fundamental rules of judicial restraint that he dares to throw out regulations on the basis of concerns never raised during the rule-making process or in the initial court appeal.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-judicial-jihad-against-the-regulatory-state/2012/10/12/d9eb080c-13ca-11e2-bf18-a8a596df4bee_story.html?utm_term=.f29b265feb33

This is what judicial “restraint” looks like to conservatives like Kavanaugh. Just make things up. The same thing Scalia did in DC v Heller, when he basically rewrote the Second Amendment.

Kavanaugh also lied about his knowledge of the sexual proclivities of Alex Kozinski, ousted form the federal courts for sexual harassment and prolific use of pornography on federal court property. In fact, Kavanaugh hired Kozindki’s son as a lwa clerk, even though he didn’t have the kind of academic record that usually accompanies such a hiring.
As The Guardian reported,

“The decision to hire Clayton Kozinski, son of the now disgraced judge Alex Kozinski, smacked of the kind of cronyism that is rife in federal courts. It was especially common for Kavanaugh, who not only had a reputation for hiring ‘model-like’ female clerks, but also the children of powerful friends and allies…The move also marked the culmination of a decades-long professional and personal relationship with Alex Kozinski – the first high-profile judge to be forced to resign in the #MeToo era – that had helped launch Kavanaugh’s career…serious concerns about whether Kavanaugh lied under oath have also been raised – publicly and privately – on a topic that has received far less attention in the national spotlight: his insistence that he was shocked when he discovered last year that Kozinski, his mentor and friend, sexually harassed more than a dozen clerks in decades on the bench.”

“People who knew Kozinski have privately – and in some cases, publicly – challenged that statement, saying Kozinski’s abusive behavior, which ranged from kissing clerks to showing them pornography at work to making sexist remarks, was known throughout the judiciary. There were also public signs of his inappropriate use of pornography at work…Individuals who knew Kozinski and spoke to the Guardian on the condition that their names be withheld, for fear of retribution, described Kavanaugh’s testimony as ‘ridiculous’ and ‘unbelievable’.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/01/kavanaugh-clerk-hire-casts-light-on-link-to-judge-forced-to-resign-in-metoo-era

What the nation saw with Brett Kavanaugh’s arrogant, aggressive, abrasive, lie-filled Judiciary Committee statement, was what Kavanaugh truly is, especially when he’s alcohol-fueled.

Republicans don’t care about truth, or the Constitution, or women’s rights or voting rights, or the environment. They care about raw power and money, and they will subvert all – every one – of the republic’s core democratic values to get and keep them, even if it means using Russian intelligence agencies to do so.

Republicans are – in fact – a clear and present national security danger.