When President Donald Trump was touting the accomplishments of his administration before the United Nations last week, there were some guffaws from the assembly.
There are likely a lot of guffaws directed at the United States these days. Envoys and leaders — some no doubt from corruption-crippled banana republics, failed socialist states and hellscape anarchies — are laughing at us.
But we deserve much of it, as the world watches our win-at-any-cost political brawls, as our most respected institutions are dragged down by political partisanship and tribal gender- and race-based warfare.
Even before the hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court took a turn to the truly surreal, senators like Cory Booker from New Jersey embarrassed themselves with ingenuous grandstanding, as Booker channeled “Spartacus” in phoney sacrifice before the Senate committee over releasing supposedly classified material pertaining to Kavanaugh’s record.
Anything. ANYTHING to throw against the wall that might stick as the judge was on the cusp of being confirmed.
But then there was the card played by the Democrats in the form of decades-old allegations of drunken sexual assault.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein had a hollow look as she stammered to microphones in a hallway, “I can’t say that everything is truthful,” when a letter by Christine Blasey Ford accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault came to light. Feinstein was playing a part in crossing a new line for dirty politics in Washington, and it troubled her. But it didn’t stop her.
We can’t know what process of preparation — persuasion? — Ford underwent leading up to her testimony Thursday, but it had been reported for days that she wasn’t sure of many details of the alleged incident, not least even any certainty who the attackers were. On Thursday, she was “100 percent” sure it was Kavanaugh and his teenage friend some 35 years ago.
Case closed to a great many who have declaratively convicted Kavanaugh as a “rapist.”
I shared the impression that Ford showed courage in delivering her emotional testimony, but as a father of two young men I shudder at the ease with which many flatly brand Kavanaugh as not just unfit to serve on the Supreme Court, but as essentially a violent sexual offender. The stain on his reputation, fair or not, will follow him to the end of his days.
Yet I also came away with an impression of Kavanaugh that I hadn’t noted before.
I saw his emotion, and the forcefulness with which he defended his reputation. Certainly, the man was quite literally quivering with anger and pain that he had found himself and his family in this position. Angry barbs delivered at senators arrayed against him were understandable.
But I was taken by what I also saw as a certain lack of — for lack of a better term — eloquence. In the setting where the hearing took place and considering the stakes, it’s asking a great deal to expect utterly smooth and flawless oration from anyone, but Kavanaugh IS an elite lawyer and jurist a step away from the Supreme Court. At times, though, I felt like I was watching Brett the accountant from down the street.
The credentials are impeccable, but the grueling process of confirmation perhaps has peeled a few layers of the onion to reveal the kind of prep school frat boy whose good fortune to attend the right schools and have the right connections are at least as important as his inherent ability. That’s proven to be an opening offered to the opposition by Trump in choosing one of the more dependably conservative jurists for the high court. It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback, but a woman or another male nominee who perhaps was just a tick lower on the conservative meter — rather than a hatchet man for the Ken Starr investigation of the Clintons — might have been the way to go. That person would be on the court right now.
But “I know what’s best” Trump made his choice because he sought to guarantee the court would cleave far enough to the right — and for the judicial wins it would be certain to deliver.
Win.
Meanwhile, weary cynics like Feinstein and eager charlatans like Booker hold forth while liberal activists ambush leaders in restaurants and elevators in their attempts to affect policy.
No matter what the cost; no matter how much we are being torn apart.
WIN.
No matter who is laughing at us.
(Jim Eckstrom is executive editor of the Olean Times Herald and The Bradford Era. His email is jeckstrom@oleantimesherald.com.)
