Rep. Ken Buck: To get Brett Kavanaugh confirmed, conservatives have to fight the Democrats' playbook

Rep. Ken Buck: To get Brett Kavanaugh confirmed, conservatives have to fight the Democrats' playbook

by Rep. Ken Buck

| July 19, 2018 12:00 AM

Democrats have turned judicial nominations into a battleground over the future of the Constitution. For them, victory involves the seating of activist judges who will fundamentally change our founding document rather than simply interpret it. If conservatives hope to defend and maintain our nation’s Constitution, then we need to understand the Democrat’s playbook. And we need to fight back.
Because they rely on the courts to advance a policy agenda, Democrats consistently cudgel Republican judicial nominees who have strong legal experience and a desire to accurately interpret the Constitution.
[Opinion: The Left's dismally weak case against Brett Kavanaugh]

In 1988, this practice proved successful and ugly. Democrats executed a smear campaign to defame Robert Bork, President Ronald Reagan’s highly qualified nominee to replace Associate Justice Lewis Powell on the Supreme Court.
Bork had previously served on the U.S. Court of Appeals and as solicitor general of the U.S. But no amount of experience, intellectual prowess, or fidelity to the Constitution could prevent the coming onslaught.
Sen. Ted Kennedy led the charge with a floor speech, claiming Bork’s legal decisions would be sexist, racist, bigoted, and other scare-tactic adjectives. A liberal Washington newspaper even tracked down Bork’s Blockbuster movie rental history, publishing the benign list in a bizarre effort to further slime the nominee.

Bork went down in defeat, earning not a seat on the nation’s highest court but instead a listing in the English dictionary. His name became a verb. To bork someone, according to the Oxford Dictionary, means to “obstruct by systematically defaming or vilifying them.”
Democrats, much more than Republicans, have turned Supreme Court nominees they oppose into villains ever since. Justice Clarence Thomas received this treatment in 1991. A leading liberal activist with the National Organization for Women even stated, “We’re going to Bork him. We’re going to kill him politically—this little creep.” Thomas then faced a last-minute, 10-year old allegation of sexual harassment from a former employee whose credibility was questionable and whose testimony was laced with inconsistency.
Thomas barely squeaked by with 52 senators voting in favor of his nomination.
Later Republican nominees would receive significant opposition from Democrats, including now-Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch. Democrats, eager to paint Alito as a sexist and racist, caused the nominee’s wife to leave the hearing room in tears.
President Bill Clinton’s nominees, meanwhile, sailed by with strong Republican support. Only 3 Republicans voted against Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and only nine opposed Justice Stephen Breyer.
Republicans pushed back harder against President Barack Obama’s nominees, but they avoided the nasty personal attacks often deployed by the Left. After Justice Sonia Sotomayor clarified a racially-insensitive comment she had made in several speeches, the Senate confirmed her with 68 affirmative votes. Justice Elena Kagan won confirmation in the Senate with 63.
President Trump’s first nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, saw 43 Senate Democrats vote against his confirmation and only 3 vote in support. Since the first borking in 1988, that’s more opposition votes than Republicans have ever offered a Democratic nominee, and fewer supporting votes than Republicans have ever granted a Democratic nominee.
[Also read: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on the major issues]
This practice extends to Appeals Court nominations as well, where Obama nominees received, on average, 84 votes in support of their confirmation. Trump nominees have only received, on average, 62 votes in support.
When it comes to judicial nominations, Senate Democrats play by different rules, rules that typically include an orchestrated political campaign to defame a nominee. Their attacks veer into the personal realm, attempting in usual liberal fashion to slime a nominee for alleged efforts to dismantle every last pillar of the progressive identity politics agenda.
Now President Trump has nominated an experienced, intelligent, and reasonable individual to serve on the Supreme Court. Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s record and statements prove his fidelity to the Constitution. Even his liberal former law professor at Yale, Akhil Reed Amar, is writing in the New York Times in favor of Kavanaugh’s nomination.
So, what will Democrats do? Undoubtedly, they’re preparing a barrage of personal attacks and identity politics accusations against this eminently qualified judge.
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Republicans must stand their ground. We must demand a civil debate over Kavanaugh’s experience and methods of judicial interpretation. We must hold every Democratic Senator to account for their vote. We must stand by a good nominee and diligently shield him from the flaming arrows of vitriol headed his way.
Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican, represents Coloardo's 4th Congressional District. He serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Rules. You can follow him on Twitter: @RepKenBuck.

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