Do the Right Thing, Jeff Flake!

I’m a strong admirer of Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ).  I’ve been proud of him for his criticisms of Donald Trump.  He is a principled, libertarian-leaning conservative and a courageous voice of political morality.  I regret that he’s leaving the Senate after this year.

I’m even fine with his recent successful call for a one-week FBI investigation of the charges against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.  The report of that investigation is now in, and it has evidently (and unsurprisingly) failed to find any corroborating evidence for Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation.  (The charges leveled by Deborah Ramirez and especially Julie Sweatnick were extremely flimsy to begin with.)  That fact probably provides some cover for wavering senators to vote to confirm him, invoking the now-rather-quaint principle that we presume innocence until an accused person is proven guilty.  (As opposed to the principle apparently espoused by at least some Democrats that, as one of my readers puts it, a Supreme Court nominee is guilty until proven liberal.)

Moreover, the extra week has also made the brazen Democrat machinations against Judge Kavanaugh even more transparently obvious than they were before.  Literally within minutes of the announcement of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed to “oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination with everything I have.”  He had very likely prepared his statement in advance, simply waiting to fill in the name of the nominee.

But it’s definitely now time for Senator Flake to do his duty, in what will surely be the last and perhaps most important act of his career in the Senate:

“Do the Right Thing, Jeff Flake”

I expect that Brother Flake will do the right thing.  And, increasingly, I expect that, although his reputation has been grievously damaged and will never recover during his lifetime, Judge Kavanaugh will be confirmed as a member of the United States Supreme Court.

I hope that Judge Kavanaugh accepts the confirmation.  I’m confident that he will, but, in some ways, I wouldn’t blame him if, at the moment, he were to tell the Senate and the nation to go to Hell.

Having gone through the ordeal of much milder accusations of sexual misbehavior from Anita Hill (during a much less irregular Senate process), Clarence Thomas apparently took little pleasure in his confirmation to the Supreme Court when it finally came.  Instead of watching the Senate roll call vote, he drew himself a bath. His wife came to tell him he had been confirmed, 52 to 48.  His reaction?  “Whoop-dee-damn-doo.”

But things are still up in the air, so here are some worthwhile links:

“Democrats’ High-School-Hijinks Standard Flunks Redemption Test: Where would we all be if we were judged for life based on our 18-year-old selves?”

“Ford’s Friend Felt Pressured to Revise Her Initial Statement Denying Knowledge of Assault”

“Dr. Ford Continues to Keep Her ‘Evidence’ Secret”

“No, Kavanaugh Didn’t Lie: He never denied drinking to excess in high school.”

“A Modest Compromise on Judge Kavanaugh’s ‘Temperament’”

“It’s Wrong to Assume Kavanaugh Would Be a Partisan Justice: Conservatives such as Kavanaugh believe the Court belongs to no faction save the Constitution itself.”

“Not All Women: Understanding Female Support for Brett Kavanaugh”

Moreover, if you have the time, you might enjoy recent comments by Judge Jeanine Pirro regard the Kavanaugh matter, kindly brought to my attention by Anne Palmieri.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that Donald J. Trump appalls me.  The current administration has actually done a number of good things, which please me — the nominations of Justice Gorsuch and Judge Kavanaugh prominent among them — but I’m ashamed that Donald Trump is the president of my country and a successor to Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan.  I left the Republican Party on the night that he accepted its presidential nomination.

I’ll be frank, though:  The behavior of the Senate Democrats and of other liberals in the matter of Brett Kavanaugh has radicalized me.  I despise that they’ve done.  I’m repulsed and horrified by their cavalier dismissal of the essential presumption of innocence.  I’m disgusted by the depths to which they’ve taken our political process.

It’s this sort of thing that gave us Trumpism, and it may yet save the Republicans in the November midterm elections.  (We’ll soon know.)

In any event — I realize that it makes little difference in Utah, and especially in my congressional district — I will happily cast my vote in a few weeks to support continuing Republican control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and I hope that many millions across the country will join me in doing so.

The current group of congressional Democrats doesn’t deserve power and shouldn’t be entrusted with it.