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WASHINGTON – During four days of hearings on Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court, Democrats addressed him in a variety of issues, disrupted the committee chair and managed to delay the hearing.
When all was over, the Democrats remained dissatisfied with Kavanaugh's testimony and the way the hearings unfolded, vowing to go ahead with more questions. Committee members say that they will continue to lobby for the publication of hundreds of thousands of documents relating to Justice Kavanaugh's career that have not been shared with senators or the public.
"There are more documents, there are more facts. there is more evidence, "said Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. after the hearing ended Friday. "The question continues to be what they hide and what they are afraid to see the Americans."
But more revelations of documents seem unlikely with Republican leadership advancing President Donald Trump and progressive activists are increasingly impatient with Senate Democrats, demanding that Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer maintain his members in the Kavanaugh opposition.
"The Supreme Court is on the line and you are failing us," wrote a group of 13 progressive organizations in a letter to Schumer.
The progressives demand that Schumer apply party discipline and not allow Democratic senators who are re-elected in the states where Trump won in 2016 and remain popular to vote for Kavanaugh's confirmation.
"Your strategy for sacrificing the Supreme Court to hold democratic seats in the Senate is not just a strategic and moral mistake, it will fail," the letter continues.
Even if all 49 Senate Democrats vote against the nomination, Kavanaugh will be confirmed unless two of the 51 Republicans join them in dissent.
But Democrats could lose ground in their quest to regain control of the Senate if they are all united. And it is unlikely that Schumer is trying to take drastic measures to try to set up a complete unit.
Three Democrats who must be re-elected in a few weeks in Republican states have voted in favor of the first Supreme Court candidate, Neil Gorsuch. All three, Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana compete in very competitive races.
At the hearing, the Democrats have not presented any damning evidence or any testimony threatening to strip him of any support from the GOP.
The Democrats delayed the debate for a few hours to protest the volume of documents that had been denied to senators and the public about Kavanaugh's career as President George W. Bush's White House Council and Secretary of Staff.
They argued that Kavanaugh would overthrow Roe v. Wade, on the side of the workers, would be too deferential to the executive power and would reduce access to health care.
"There are clear flashing lights for my Republican colleagues who have questions about whether he would upset Roe v. Wade," said Blumenthal, referring to Sens Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins , R-Maine, who are abortion rights and say that they remain undecided on Kavanaugh. "The terms" abortion on demand "and" precedent of the Supreme Court ", they were sticks for the far-right ideologues who put it on its list."
In a moment of questioning by Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Kavanaugh described birth control as "abortion-inducing drugs," prompting women's advocates to sound the alarm.
Jake Faleschini, director of the Federal Court Program of the Center for American Progress, launched a fierce attack on the state's red democrats who deal with health issues and Trump, asked how a senator could be "truly pro -choice". be a witness on the president "and" really claim to have protected the health care of their constituents "and vote for Kavanaugh.
Mid-term political concerns also clash with future presidential politics, creating more friction within the party. At least three Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee are considered as potential presidential candidates in 2020: Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., And Kamala Harris, D-Calif.
One of them, Booker, has caused a firestorm for the publication of documents labeled confidential to anyone outside the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he plans to open an ethical investigation on Booker.
"Bring it," says Booker. "This is the closest to what I will probably have ever had in my life at one point" I am Spartacus "."
Booker was demanding documents that he thought were a disturbing record for Kavanaugh on race and positive action. But he also showed the activists that he would push the Republicans farther than some of his colleagues.
And Harris spent several minutes of his interrogation insinuating that Kavanaugh had had a conversation with someone from the law firm of Trump's personal attorney, Kasowitz, Benson, and Torres, about the investigation of Special Advisor Robert Mueller. in Russia. But Harris never detailed what she was referring to and the next day Kavanaugh said that there were no "inappropriate" conversations about Mueller.
"What bothered me the most, and I like Senator Harris, is to insinuate that Judge Kavanaugh did something wrong by talking to an unidentified person in a law firm. 300 lawyers, "said Senator Lindsey Graham. .
McConnell says he's about to bring Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Senate for a vote by the end of September.
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