That’s a direct quote from this HuffPo piece by Russ Feingold. He was on Senate Judiciary during Kavanaugh’s 2006 DC Circuit confirmation hearings (and oh how I wish that Feingold was on Senate Judiciary today).
Here’s another snippet from a piece that should be read in its entirety:
As a onetime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I considered the truthfulness of judicial nominees as a non-negotiable quality. Lying under oath cannot and must not be rewarded with a seat on the nation’s highest court, and lies cannot remain unchallenged.
So as an illegitimate administration goes to work attacking the credibility of a brave woman recounting her assault, let’s recognize the enormously cynical hypocrisy: The nominee they’re desperate to protect is a calculated liar who uses dishonesty to advance his own career. And any denial of these accusations by Kavanaugh before the committee must be viewed in the context of his multiple earlier lies under oath to that same committee.
This nomination can and must be withdrawn. Nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court must be held to a higher standard, and it is the job of determined senators to do just that.
I have nothing to add to this analysis. I merely note that, as a 38 year member of the FL Bar, I fear for our legal system. As a father of a 1L, I fear for the profession for my son’s sake even more. I have suppressed memories of the utter disaster of the Thomas confirmation hearings that are now coming to the fore. The utter abomination of the 2000 FL recount capped by the odious B v. G decision comes to mind now, too. There was also that little matter of Mitch McConnell (see Charles Pierce on that topic) effectively amending the Constitution in 2016 to state that presidents no longer had the authority to make SCOTUS nominations in the final year of their terms.
Our legal system has had its low points before—Fugitive Slave laws, Jim Crow laws, anti-strike injunctions, the overturning of New Deal legislation, and the approval of internment camps for Japanese-American citizens all come to mind. The system is at a low point now, and it will go visibly lower if this nominee is confirmed. It’s no longer a question of whether Red State Dems are willing to risk their seats, nor is it even a matter of a nominee’s judicial philosophy that scares the hell out of me. It’s a matter of maintaining a lowest common denominator for the credibility of a Supreme Court justice.
Every incumbent senator who is paying attention knows that Feingold’s conclusions are correct. If 51 of them vote otherwise, we will have crossed another in a series of Rubicons that undermine a belief in the core concept of a rule of law. Ironically enough, it is self-described “conservatives” who seem most bound and determined to undermine that basically conservative concept.
God help us all if they succeed this time.