(Photo by ANDREW HARNIK/AFP/Getty Images from CNN)
Amid growing concerns that Trump is trying to rig the reopened FBI background investigation of Brett Kavanaugh, Democrats — convinced Kavanaugh has lied in his confirmation hearings — used a Sunday television talk show to fire a warning shot across the GOP’s bow.
If the Senate confirms Kavanaugh without a “proper” investigation, a Democratic House majority elected next month “will have to” open an impeachment investigation of Kavanaugh, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said. Read story here.
There is historical precedent for articles of impeachment based on perjury. Both Judge Walter Nixon in 1989, and President Bill Clinton in 1998, were impeached on those grounds. (Nixon was removed from office; Clinton was not.)
Republicans, who desperately want Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court — no matter what he has done — face a quandary. Unable to railroad his confirmation through the Senate without any real inquiry into his fitness, they may now gamble on confirming an openly flawed nominee in an openly flawed process and then bank on their Senators to prevent his removal, accepting the inevitable political repercussions and damage to the court’s and Senate’s institutional reputations and legitimacy as a necessary price of achieving their partisan goals.
Conservative control of the Supreme Court would enable them not only to overturn Roe v. Wade, but also to block a wide array of legislation and regulations by future Democratic administrations. Nobody is really interested in Kavanaugh’s youthful drinking and partying, and whether he committed perjury to get confirmed is a technicality. This is about the GOP trying to weaponize the Supreme Court. It’s is a power struggle, pure and simple, and that explains why they don’t care about the facts and are digging in their heels. Getting Kavanaugh on the court will enable them to frustrate the will of America’s voters and impose their will on the country even as an unpopular minority party.