OPINION:
Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s Senate hearings for the Supreme Court fitness are scheduled for this week and thanks to the end of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, he’ll be confirmed, sooner or later.
Yes, even if Democrats walk out of the hearing — as some have said they’ll do — Kavanaugh will eventually win the seat vacated by Justice Anthony Kennedy.
He only needs a simple majority.
Translation? Say hello to a solidly conservative leaning high court for the foreseeable future.
This is a huge win for the Republicans — for President Donald Trump — for the president’s Christian and evangelical base, the voters who may have hesitated for spiritual reasons to don the MAGA cap but decided, based on Supreme Court potentials, to get in his camp after all.
It’s paying off. First Justice Neil Gorsuch, now Brett Kavanaugh. Trump’s nomination powers have turned out to be the feather in the Christian MAGA voter’s hat.
“If [Kavanaugh] does well at the hearing, he will get, my belief is, 55 [votes] or higher,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
That means even some Democrats will vote for Kavanaugh — even after fighting so hard to delay his hearings with request after request for documents, and with the far left ratcheting tensions by warning his confirmation would mean an end to abortion.
The tone from the left is depressed resignation.
“What’s the point of even Democrats showing up,” Hillary Clinton’s former spokesman, Brian Fallon, said on CNN, Breitbart reported. “If I were them, I’d consider walking out of the hearing.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar disagreed, saying on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it would be “much more powerful” for her party to stay at the hearings and instead, ask tough questions. Either way: Kavanaugh’s on a sure path to the high court.
Gorsuch, when all was said and done — when all the Democrats were done crying over his nomination — was confirmed by a 54-45 margin, with the support of Dems like Sens. Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Manchin and Joe Donnelly.
“A sense of inevitability for Kavanaugh, who can transform the court for decades,” read one CNN headline.
And that pretty much says it all.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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