{"id":31950,"date":"2018-08-24T00:39:29","date_gmt":"2018-08-24T00:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=31950"},"modified":"2018-08-24T00:39:29","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T00:39:29","slug":"meet-with-the-judge-senate-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=31950","title":{"rendered":"Meet with the judge, Senate Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blumenthal.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-31951\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blumenthal-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"308\" height=\"308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blumenthal-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blumenthal-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blumenthal-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blumenthal.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 308px) 100vw, 308px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s no surprise to anyone who reads this blog regularly that Brett Kavanaugh is not the kind of jurist I would nominate to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>However, it might surprise regular readers of High Plains Blogger to know that I believe U.S. Senate Democrats are wrong to refuse to meet with Kavanaugh prior to voting &#8220;no&#8221; against his nomination to the nation&#8217;s highest court.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, whose statement is attached to this post, calls the nomination a sham and said he won&#8217;t participate in private with Kavanaugh. He is troubled by the conviction of former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of tax fraud and the guilty plea of former Trump lawyer\/fixer Michael Cohen to similar accusations.<\/p>\n<p>Here is what I would do if I were a member of the Senate &#8212; and y&#8217;all can thank God in heaven, as I have, that I am not a U.S. senator. I would sit down with Kavanaugh and then <em>read him the riot act.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I likely would tell him up front that he won&#8217;t have my vote, that his lengthy paper trail of judicial opinions and essays is anathema to my own philosophy and that I cannot in good conscience betray my own values.<\/p>\n<p>Then I would shake his hand in front of the cameras, smile and send him on his way.<\/p>\n<p>The idea that these senators &#8212; particularly those who will question Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing &#8212; will refuse to meet privately with him is anathema to the kind of decorum and dignity they insist from the president of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s important to remember that presidents have the right under the Constitution to nominate judges to lifetime posts on the federal bench &#8212; and that the Senate has the role to &#8220;advise and consent&#8221; to these nominations.<\/p>\n<p>What is the actual harm in sitting down with this individual and questioning him intently about issues you deem critical &#8212; and then voting your conscience?<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s no surprise to anyone who reads this blog regularly that Brett Kavanaugh is not the kind of jurist I would nominate to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. However, it might surprise regular readers of High Plains Blogger to know that I believe U.S. Senate Democrats are wrong to refuse to meet with &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=31950\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Meet with the judge, Senate Democrats<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7874,1424,7221,5053],"class_list":["post-31950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","tag-brett-kavanaugh","tag-donald-trump","tag-richard-blumenthal","tag-us-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31952,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31950\/revisions\/31952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}