Kavanaugh battle may leave lasting scars

[struggle4progress]

By Dan Balz
October 6 at 10:44 AM

The .. battle over .. Kavanaugh .. has left the country as it was before .. Trump selected him: deeply divided, politically polarized and with many people hostile toward those of opposing views.

But that hardly means everything has reverted to the status quo. The divisions have been magnified because of this raw, wrenching moment in the history of the country ...

The court may be political in the broadest sense, but it is supposed to be seen as impartial, deliberative and, most of all, nonpartisan. That gloss has faded due to a series of events in recent years, but the Kavanaugh confirmation makes the problem far more acute ...

... no one on the court will face more questions than Kavanaugh. His angry demeanor on the day he sought to defend himself against the charge of sexual assault by Ford could stamp him in the public’s perception indefinitely ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-kavanaugh-battle-only-magnified-the-nations-divisions-and-may-leave-lasting-scars/2018/10/06/ab25672a-c91c-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html?utm_term=.a09aba5eb289&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

[Jersey Devil]

1. Happiest Supreme Court Justice right now

Clarence Thomas. Kavanaugh's actions make Thomas look like a choir boy.

[dalton99a]

2. "He accepted the role of partisan"

In his defending himself against charges that he insisted were false and defaming, Kavanaugh said things no modern Supreme Court nominee had ever said in trying to win confirmation: He attacked Democrats. He accused opponents of looking for payback because of Trump’s victory in 2016.

In a sign of just how much damage he had done to himself, Kavanaugh published an op-ed piece in Friday’s Wall Street Journal under the headline, “I Am an Independent, Impartial Judge.” He acknowledged that his “tone was sharp and I said a few things I should not have said.” He said his presentation reflected “my overwhelming frustration at being wrongly accused, without corroboration, of horrible conduct completely contrary to my record and character.”

What he did not address was the fact that some of the harshest, most partisan language came in testimony prepared in advance, words Kavanaugh explicitly said were his alone.

Twice Kavanaugh went to the media, itself an unusual step. Twice he chose outlets — the Journal’s editorial page and Fox News — whose audiences are conservative. That too was a sign that he accepted the role of partisan in this battle.