I don’t know Appeals Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh from Adam. Self-proclaimed “liberal feminist” Lisa Blatt calls him a superstar, and says his nomination to the Supreme Court by President Trump deserves speedy bipartisan approval in the Senate.
“I have argued 35 cases before the Supreme Court, more than any other woman,” says Blatt. “I worked in the Solicitor General’s Office for 13 years during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. Because I am a liberal Democrat and feminist, I expect my friends on the left will criticize me for speaking up for Kavanaugh. But we all benefit from having smart, qualified and engaged judges on our highest court, regardless of the administration that nominates them.”
Well, I have argued zero cases before the Supreme Court. I never worked in the Solicitor General’s Office under any administration, in part because I dropped out of the UPitt law school umpteen years ago. But I do read the newspapers, and I last Friday I read a long story in the Washington Post that discusses Kavanaugh’s long service with Ken Starr’s “Whitewater” investigation. According to Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Michael Kranish, years afterwards, in 2009, Kavanaugh wrote a law journal article in which he decided that presidents should be immune from such investigations.
O’Harrow and Kranish explain that Kavanaugh’s particular responsibility was the investigation of the death of Vince Foster, a particular obsession with the right wing, who were convinced that there had to be something juicy connected with his death, although nothing was ever found, other than the obvious fact that a depressed Foster killed himself. Thanks to constant yapping and screaming of right-wing conspiracy theorists, aided and abetted by establishment types like Starr and Kavanaugh, Foster’s death was the subject of five investigations, which all reached the same conclusion. Kavanaugh’s, the last of the five, took three years to complete and found absolutely nothing scandalous, to the extreme disappointment of the right-wing Republican judges who had appointed Starr as “Independent Counsel”, dismissing the first Independent Counsel, Robert Fiske, on the grounds that he wasn’t Republican enough, and, in particular, because he had issued a 58-page report concluding that Foster had committed suicide.
The Whitewater Investigation was the first great Republican exercise in “working the refs”, as Paul Krugman calls it—screaming “Conspiracy” whenever they don’t get their way. Kavanaugh was in the thick of it for three long years, and now, of course, he’s decided that what they did then was “wrong”.
Well, that was all a long time ago, right? People change. And, besides, as Lisa will tell you, today’s Judge Brett is a peach of a guy:
“I first met Kavanaugh in 2009, shortly after I left the Solicitor General’s Office. [Kavanaugh was appointed to the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia in 2006] He spontaneously emailed to say he liked an article I had written for The Green Bag, an irreverent legal magazine, about my experience arguing in front of the Supreme Court. I had just started my own appellate practice, and his note was extremely thoughtful.
“Months later, I asked Kavanaugh to join a panel at Georgetown Law School to review a film about college debate. He responded that he knew nothing about debate but nevertheless was happy to help. When a law student asked him how debate had shaped his career, he answered: “I actually never debated, but I did play football, and the two are basically the same.” He then offered this advice: “Practice, learn to get along with all of your teammates, learn from your mistakes, and have fun.” It was clear that judge cared about mentoring and teaching law students and was invested in helping others to succeed.”
Is it rude to suggest that this sounds just a little like high-end legal ass-kissing? Blatt leaves the Solicitor General’s Office and Kavanaugh writes her a note saying how fabulous she is. He agrees to appear on a panel about debating even though he doesn’t know a thing about it (so why appear?) and tells an “amusing” anecdote about how football and debating are the same, which strikes me as both inane and inaccurate, while also letting the judge say “I may not win any debates, but I can knock you on your ass”.
It all sounds a little too Chevy Chasey to me, C.C. being a la-di-da section of DC a couple of miles up the road from my place. It’s hardly surprising that high-end attorneys and high-end judges spend time sucking up to one another. And, since it’s a near certainty that Kavanaugh will be approved, it won’t hurt Blatt that, the next time she appears before the Supremes, the newest justice will know little Lisa did her goldurned best to get him in.
