Can Jeff Merkley Stop The GOP Drive To Confirm Kavanaugh?

Jeff Merkley-- doing something to stop it

I hate writing about Kavanaugh and I'm so glad Noah does every night at midnight. Instead I want to say something about one of my favorite U.S. senators, Jeff Merkley (D-OR). But first a couple of Kavanaugh quickies. I'm sure that everyone in the country now knows that Michael Avenatti's client is Julie Swetnick and that she was a former student at Gaithersburg High School who went to some of those wild high school parties with Kavanaugh and his crowd. She was a victim of gang rape at one of those parties. And, she's willing to testify that she witnessed Kavanaugh and Mark Judge getting teenage girls "inebriated and disoriented" so they could then be "gang raped" in a side room or bedroom by a "train" of numerous boys. "I have a firm recollection," said Swetnick, "of seeing boys lined up outside rooms at many of these parties waiting for their 'turn' with a girl inside the room. These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh.

Yesterday CNN reported that Señor Trumpanzee is dissatisfied with the race of the confirmation-- he called it a CON JOB (his emphasis) on twitter-- and wants to take over the operation himself. CNN: "It has led the President to believe that he must personally take charge of defending his embattled nominee ahead of Thursday’s critical appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Trump made the decision to hold a news conference on the eve of the hearing, making it the fourth he has held as president." He then sent out this tweet:

Avenatti isn't taking any of this lying down. "I’m going to caution Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, Chuck Grassley and others: If they try to come after my client or engage in some smear campaign, they better pack a lunch, because we’re going to respond two-fold." Presumably their lunch buckets will be filled with bologna.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford released her polygraph test just as a Marist poll for NPR came out showing that if Ford is telling the truth, 59% of Americans believe the Senate Judiciary Committee should not confirm his nomination. A Morning Consult poll for Politico is even worse. Even Republican women are skeptical about this guy getting onto the Supreme Court.

Remember how a few days ago Ted Lieu called on his colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee to open an investigation of Kavanaugh that could lead to him being impeached as a Circuit Court judge? Yesterday Jeff Merkley announced that he's "seeking an injunction in federal court designed to stop a final vote on Brett Kavanaugh, asserting an obstruction of his constitutional duty to advise and consent on nominees."

Merkley's bid for an injunction hinges on the Senate's constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on nominees and charges that he's been prevented from fulfilling that due to the withholding of records on Kavanaugh's past service in the George W. Bush administration.

“The events of the past ten days have only underscored how critical it is that the Senate conduct a careful and comprehensive review of a nominee before giving its consent,” Merkley told Politico in a statement.

“The unprecedented obstruction of the Senate’s advice and consent obligation is an assault on the separation of powers and a violation of the Constitution. The President and Mitch McConnell want to ram through this nomination come hell or high water, without real advice or informed consent by the Senate, but that’s just not how our Constitution works.”

Late yesterday the Pew Research Center released a poll showing that Kavanaugh's appointment is now a big deal driving Democratic enthusiasm for midterm voting. 72% of voters say the issue of which party controls Congress will be a factor in their vote. Democratic enthusiasm is at 67% and Republican enthusiasm is at 59%.

Opinions about Donald Trump also continue to be an important consideration for voters. A 60% majority views their midterm vote as an expression of opposition or support toward Trump-- with far more saying their midterm vote will be “against” Trump (37%) than “for” him (23%).

First, Democrats hold a 10-percentage point lead over the Republicans in the generic ballot. About half of registered voters (52%) say if the election were today, they would vote for the Democrat in their district or lean toward the Democratic candidate; 42% say they would support the Republican or lean Republican. In June, the Democrats’ lead in the generic ballot was five percentage points (48% Democratic, 43% Republican).

Second, while voter enthusiasm is relatively high among voters in both parties, it is somewhat higher among voters who favor the Democratic over the Republican candidate. Overall, 61% of all registered voters say they are more enthusiastic about voting than in past congressional elections, higher than at any point during midterms in the past two decades, including at later points in those elections.

Two-thirds of Democratic voters (67%) say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting, compared with 59% of Republican voters. The share of Democratic voters who express greater enthusiasm about voting is substantially higher than at comparable points in three prior midterms, while enthusiasm among GOP voters is slightly higher than in September 2014 (52%) and about the same level as in October 2010 (57%).

Third, more Americans view the Democratic Party than the Republican Party as more concerned with people’s needs, more honest and ethical and more willing to work with leaders from the other party...

In terms of issues, the Democratic Party continues to hold a wide advantage over the Republican Party on dealing with health care (51% to 35%) and modest leads on foreign policy and immigration. While the two parties run about even on dealing with the economy (41% Democratic Party, 40% Republican Party), that represents a change since June, when the GOP held a significant, 9-point edge on handling the economy.

The survey, conducted amid allegations of sexual misconduct by Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, finds that large majorities of voters in both parties view Supreme Court appointments as a “very important” voting issue.

Overall, 76% of registered voter-- including 81% who support the Democratic candidate and 72% who favor the Republican candidate-- say appointments to the court will be very important to their vote this fall. Among all voters, Supreme Court appointments rank with health care (75%) and the economy (74%) among the top voting issues.

No integrity by Chu Proser

While health care and the economy typically rank among the top issues for voters, there is no trend to past midterms on the importance of court appointments.

However, more voters view Supreme Court appointments as a very important issue today than did so in June 2016, during the presidential election. At that time, 65% of voters (70% of Republicans and 62% of Democrats) said court appointments were very important.