I don’t want to hear it. I know our chances are little and none. If we do nothing they are “none.” As Wayne Gretsky said, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”. As a former DOJ trial attorney (Civil Division under Ford and Carter) I am writing this “hair on fire” diary because I don’t understand why the Front Page and Recommended List aren’t filled with multiple SCOTUS diaries, urging everyone to give one last push to stop this nomination.
WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE THIRD BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT BY THE FORCES THAT HAVE ALREADY INFECTED THE EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE BRANCHES.
IF WE LOSE THE JUDICIAL BRANCH WE — AS IN “DEMOCRACY” — WILL BE DONE.
The SCOTUS Hearings start Tuesday. We have two days to pull out all the stops. It’s not a lost cause. We need either Murkowski or Flake or even Collins to understand that IF — knowing what they now know based on their classified review of the documents Congress forced from Rosenstein — knowing all that and the Cohen “allocution” in Federal Court — If they knowingly band together to vote to place this man in a position where he will even potentially be ruling on whether the WH obstructed justice, they will themselves be participating in the WH conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
Do I know that for sure? Nope — I’m not a criminal attorney and never prosecuted anyone BUT — here’s the thing: NO ONE CAN DEFINITEIVELY SAY IT’S NOT TRUE, because we’ve NEVER been here before. This is not Watergate. Watergate was some thugs and crooks in the WH trying to ensure Nixon’s reelection.
This is a virtual coup of all three branches of government. We’re already down two. We can’t afford to lose the judiciary. There are no precedents applicable to allowing a president who is an unindicted co conspirator in obstruction to name his judges.
The most consequential, long lasting, and destructive impact this president has already had and will continue to have until removed from office by impeachment, indictment or whatever other end fate brings, is the ability to nominate federal judges, especially SCOTUS.
It doesn’t matter what Kavanaugh’s policies are — he is being nominated by a man who has been identified by sworn allocution in Federal Court as an unindicted “co conspirator”. What has he “co conspired about?” Obstructing justice. What does that make any Senator who knowingly allows a “co conspirator” to name his own judges”? That’s the very definition of “conflict of interest”! It makes the Senator who votes to confirm a “co-conspirator in the same conspiracy as Trump himself .. . . An endless mobius loop of conspiracy and obstruction.”
Forget about the “tit for tat” arguments about what McConnell did to Garland and what Biden allegedly did or didn’t do to someone else. That’s a LOSING argument because it supports the media narrative of “both sides do it.” If it were a winning argument we would have succeeded in delaying the confirmation and not be facing this existential threat to our democracy.
Framing the decision that a vote to confirm is “knowingly and intentionally aiding a known uninidicted co conspirator in a federal criminal investigation by allowing that person to pick his own judges makes each Senator part of the same conspiracy” may give just one or two pause. All we need is a Flake, or Murkowski. Murkowski especially, who is said to have not had enough calls to her office (unlike during the health care vote).
We can’t afford to lose the third “leg” of the already teetering separation of powers stool. Please stop everything else that isn’t critical and pick up the phones and call the following Senators FIRST (then call all the rest):
Please, be PASSIONATE but also civil and courteous because if you are they might listen. If you’re not they won’t for sure. I called Senator Schumer’s office Friday and spoke for over 15 minutes to a staffer who listened attentively and assured me she’d pass the message along. Don’t just vent, make the case for why they are complicit if they take this vote. Each Senator should be approached differently. We need to jam the phone lines.
I’ll post more Senator’s numbers later. For today here’s a start.
Senator Chuck Schumer, MInority Leader: 202-224-6542 — Tell Senator Schumer that he needs to show the same spine that Minority Speaker Nancy Pelolsi would show if this were in the House: Meaning — he needs to have his entire caucus in hand — all 47 Democrats plus the 2 Indies — The entire deomcratic caucus needs to bring this issue up and unanimously sign a letter to either Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein or Special Counsel Mueller asking what the legal definition of “obstruction of justice” is, and whether simply taking a vote on a nominee knowing that the president was possibly an unindicted co-conspirator could our could not be viewed as “Conspiracy to Obstruct”.
It doesn’t matter if it isn’t “proper procedure” . . We have to do EVERYTHING we can think of that isn’t illegal. This could draw attention to the issue and perhaps cause a momentary pause in the rush to confirm. EVERY EXTRA DAY is one more day when something — anything [e.g. the Manafort trial, or the Bernstein book, or the Michael Moore movie] — may reveal something that helps us.] The universe turns on a dime sometimes. We have to try.
Until such a legal opinion is given or refused to be given (Congress’s Letter should be addressed to Attorney General Rod Rosenstein) ANY Senator would be ill advised to vote for confirming any more federal judges, but especially SCOTUS so as not to be vulnerable to charges of conspiring with the WH to obstruct justice.
Schumer must also be willing to hold his caucus together to walk out en masse if the McCain seat is still open and the Senate lacks a quorum.
Article 1 Section 5 of the Constitution requires the Senate to have a quorum before conducting business. Majority plus one. Without McCain’s replacement all we need is one. With McCain’s replacement we need only two to deny McConnell the quorum.
Face it: The GOP walked over glass to get Garland delayed. We here out in the grassroots are walking over glass to vote, and to organize and to do everything we can to support our party. We need our Party Leaders to show the same passion and dedication and courage and spine that we are mobilizing. If we’re crawling over glass we expect the Party leaders to do the same. Schumer should ask for demonstrations to gather in the Capital and fill up the Capital Mall. If he can’t be bold then he needs to let someone else make the case — like Kamala Harris, who has already indicated a co-conspirator shold not be allowed to name his judges. Schumer needs to be far less accomodating and far more persuausive or he is going to find himself out at the next election and replaced by a more courageous Senate leader.
Senator Lisa Murkowski: 202-224-6665
Senator Murkowski supposedly has not had her office flooded with calls on this issue as she did on the health care debate, where she joined with McCain to bring it down. Tell Senator Murkowski that her nominal status as an “Independent” won’t help her avoid the fate of other Republicans if — knowing what the Senate now knows — and knowing also that the WH has intentionally refused to release the documents on Kavanaugh needed to review his position on executive power — a vote for confirmation is a vote to join the same criminal conspiracy and obstruction of justice as the president.
Tell Senator Murkowski that if she truly wants to cement her legacy as a “leader” not a “follower” she should lead by example and join the Democrats in refusing to hold the confirmation hearings until all the documents are reviewed AND the Special Counsel, through Rosensetein’s office, has issued an opinion as to whether such a vote would indicate “intent” to obstruct and conspiring to obstruct.
Again, it doesn’t matter if the answer is no — it’s asking the question that matters. The media narrative needs to get away from all the machinations of the tit for tat arguments that allow the media to say “both sides do it” (Chuck Todd’s favorite mantra) and instead have the media discussing whether or not such a vote constitutes a conspiracy. Frame the issue as “conflict of interest” — NEITHER party should do it , not “both sides do it.”
Senator Jeff Flake: 202-224-4521
Senator Flake is the “other Senator” from Arizona. Lately, he has ben making noises about how terrible Trump is and what a diaster this presidency is for the country. All the right noises because he’s not up for reelection. He also has been eulogizing McCain as his mentor and hero. Yet he keeps voting with Trump.
The pitch to Flake is the same — A Vote to confirm knowing what you know now is a vote to join a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice. In addition, with Flake make the argument that if he REALLY wants to “honor” his “mentor” John McCain then for this one moment in history, when the fate of the nation is on the line, and when he is no longer seeking reelection, if he can’t find himself able to vote with the Democrats against Kavanaugh then he should find a way to “absent” himself from the hearings so as to deny McConnell a quorum. Either he can play McCain and walk up to the podium and vote thumbs down, or simply work with the Democrats to deny the quorum.
Senator Mitch McConnell : 202-224-2541
With Senator McConnell the argument has to be made that history will note that he is complicit in the conspiracy to obstruct justice. That he sold out the country back in 2016 when he refused to let President Obama work to craft a bipartisan warning pre-election about Russian interference. Everything he has done to impede the Mueller investigation and to stop legitimate inquiries by the Democrats show conspiriacy with the WH and the Russians. Jamming this nomination through in light of the Cohen “allocution” might just result in his name on an indictment.
His financial interests and those of his wife show that he is neck deep in the corruption. That the chances are already really good that Mueller has him in his sights, and that a vote to confirm the SCOTUS pick is part of the same conspiracy in which he and the complicit GOP leadership — the “GOPutins” as it were — will seal their doom if they try and jam through this nomination. Especially with the lack of documentary transparency. It’s too obvious and overreaching. Gorsuch he got away with because it was at the very beginning of the Trump presidency, and the elements of the conspiracy were not as apparent. There is no longer any excuse.
McConnell will not budge, but we can jam his phone lines and make his job as hard as possible. Something, somewhere might break in our favor.
Who’s with me? Will you put aside all the other “distractions” for a few days and pull out all stops to try and stop this disaster of a nominee from bringing the trump cancer to the Judicial Branch.?
The foundational principles of our democracy are the separation of powers and three “co equal branches” providing a system of “checks and balances.” The Executive Branch has been captured by a Russian asset. There’s no other way to view what has happened. The Legislative Branch GOP leadership is complicit. Nothing else makes sense — they’d have impeached and installed one of their own long ago if they weren’t protecting themselves rather than Trump.
If we lose the integrity of the judicial branch we may never recover. Mueller’s investigation will be impeded or the Report ignored by Congress. The integrity of the 2020 election is already in doubt. We must win in 2018, and we must STOP Kavanaugh from being seated. He would be a disaster to our democracy and a barrier to any attempt to hold the president accountable for any crimes and misdemeanors.
Feel free in the comments to report on your calls, and to add the numbers of other Senators we should target.