RUSH: Okay. The Supreme Court choice is Brett Kavanaugh, 12 years on the D.C. Circuit for the court of appeals, which is a feeder circuit for the Supreme Court. On paper he’s impeccable. On paper there is no just way to disqualify Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice.
The left, however, got in gear last night. Even before they knew the name, they started organizing protest marches, and they had protest papers and positions already out. They just had to fill out the name of the nominee; didn’t matter who it was.
And some of the left’s objections to Kavanaugh today, they’re really weird. I mean, they’re strange; they’re laughable. And people are laughing at some of the things the left’s saying. I had to catch myself because 25 years ago I was laughing at the things they said. Now all that stuff has happened. Much of that stuff that we were laughing at, “Nobody would ever buy this stuff.” A lot of people have.
So it’s tempting to laugh at ’em, and I’m going to, and it’s tempting to mock them. But at the same time, you have to realize that there is a certain percentage of Americans buying into all of this and eating it all up. And the more extreme the Democrats go, you would think on the surface they’d be killing their own goose.
Now, much of it is fundraising. I’m hesitant to make any predictions. On paper there’s no way to stop this. I mean, McCain has come out and tweeted his support for Kavanaugh. That pretty much makes it automatic. The Democrats just don’t have the votes right now to stop this, even without any defections from red state Democrats up for reelection. But of course the hearings haven’t begun.
And I want to focus in on what I’ve learned I think is gonna be the primary focus of interest the Democrats make on Kavanaugh. And, you know, I’m kicking myself for not telling you about this last week and yesterday, because I made a point not get into the navel-gazing game that I was seeing everybody else get into. You know, this speculation and the analysis based on this guess and then if that guess happens, what does that mean, if that guess doesn’t happen, what does that mean. It was interminable. You couldn’t find an end to it. I didn’t want to join the game.
He was staff secretary in the Bush White House. And I don’t mean clerical. He dealt with the Bush administration, George W. Bush administration for five years. He dealt with everything going through the Oval Office paper-wise. He composed emails and was dealing with all of that paper. There are literally millions of pages of things written, not just court opinions that Kavanaugh has himself written or signed.
And as many pages as there are, who knows how many opportunities for the Democrats to research and find something. And, remember, with Clarence Thomas, they literally made up the sexual harassment business with Anita Hill when it looked like Thomas was gonna be confirmed. That was a plan, for those of you that were not old enough or paying attention back then, that plan was hatched by the wife of Illinois senator Paul Simon.
I mean, they totally ginned up this sexual harassment business on Thomas, and it totally took over the hearings, and it nearly derailed Thomas’ nomination. And I remember I was wall-to-wall on that. From the moment it happened I was wall-to-wall on it and I didn’t stop until it was beaten back. This was before Fox News. This was before widespread cable news, widespread talk radio. It was vicious, it was Bork-like. And it was made up.
And I think that’s where they’re gonna zero in on Kavanaugh. I think the left is already trying to worry you Trump supporters by calling Kavanaugh, man, this guy is a swamp candidate, this guy is a perfect establishment candidate, look at who all likes him. And then they cite McCain, they cite Romney, they cite Karl Rove, they cite every one of the stamp dwellers that Trump ostensibly ran against the left is citing as people that love Kavanaugh.
They’re trying to drive a wedge between you Trump supporters and this pick by trying to convince that you Trump has sold you out by picking a swamp dweller. I think that’s where they’re gonna go. They’re also not gonna go directly at abortion. They’re gonna go at Obamacare and health care and basically say that this guy wants to deny you access to affordable health care and — hint, hint — including abortion. I don’t think they’re gonna make it the top tier thing. I think health care overall is where they’re gonna go.
Daily Mail Online has a story: “Democrats demand access to potentially millions of files on Kavanaugh as Schumer vows to use ‘everything I’ve got’ to stop nomination.” Kavanaugh was George W. Bush’s staff secretary, which deals with all of the paperwork that goes through the Oval Office. And they’re gonna demand all of this.
Their point is that the Federalist Society doesn’t even know what that stuff entails because that had nothing to do with Kavanaugh being a judge. So I think that that’s gonna be one of their primary areas. They can’t stop this, but it doesn’t matter. They’re gonna go to the mattresses trying to to raise money. They’re gonna do everything they can to rip this country apart over this because the court is their last bastion of making sure that their worldview remains viable even after they lose elections.
Now, I’m gonna take a break here a little earlier than usual because we have Vice President Pence who is gonna join us right after the break here for the remaining portion of the half hour, and we’ll get some lowdown on what their intentions are, what the schedule for confirmation is.
Yesterday I said go for this now, get it done, schedule these hearings. There’s a New York Times op-ed by a leftist who voted for Obama and voted for Hillary. He taught Kavanaugh at Yale. He’s got an idea. He’s got a compromise idea. Every senator pledges, pledges, promises to vote for Kavanaugh in exchange for Kavanaugh having to answer any question he’s asked at the hearings. Now, it doesn’t take an idiot to see that that’s a heck of a giant mistake.
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RUSH: There is a poll out today from Axios. It’s an Axios/SurveyMonkey poll. And the headline: “Brutal Poll, Democrats’ Senate Dream Slips Away — To win the Senate, Democrats need to keep all 10 seats they’re defending in states that President Trump won in 2016 – plus pick up two more seats.”
So they need to maintain 10 and pick up two.
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RUSH: The fact that this man is exactly what the framers of the Constitution had in mind for a Supreme Court justice will of course not stop the Democrats from their attempt here to destroy him and his family.
They may make some noise about it between now and then and they may make some noise during the confirmation hearings about it, but I think when all is said and done and it’s time to vote, Collins and Murkowski will be in there.
McCain says he’s all in, but whether he’ll get back to Washington to vote, who knows. But Collins and Murkowski, with Pence — as I said yesterday, if the Republicans remain unified here, there’s nothing the Democrats can do. There’s not a thing they can do other than rip the heart and soul, again, out of the process, which I have no doubt that they will do.
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RUSH: So it comes down to the numbers. And right now there’s nothing the Democrats can do. If the vote were held today, Kavanaugh would be confirmed. So are the Democrats gonna be able to turn some Republicans against Kavanaugh? Who knows. Highly, highly unlikely. But it doesn’t mean they’re not going to try. They are loaded for bear.
But I want to remind you of my prediction yesterday, and I stand by this, and I still believe it. This is another failure that hits them right between the eyes. It’s one thing for Trump to win the election. That’s been bad enough. It’s another thing for every effort they have mounted to get rid of Trump to fail. Do you realize all the things they’ve done to fix what went wrong in 2016’s blown up in their faces. Trump is winning, he’s succeeding, his agenda is being implemented, his poll numbers are creeping up, contentment, satisfaction in America on the rise. They’re losing everywhere they turn.
And it was well known Trump would get a judicial appointment or two for the Supreme Court, but now after last night, it has actually happened. Now it’s reality, not just fear of the future, but now it’s reality. And they are going to go batty again. And at some point down the road, folks, all of these leftist factions are gonna start blaming each other for all of this.
They’ve about run out of time and energy blaming the Russians, pending what Mueller comes up with, and they still have a lot of hope and prayer invested in that. But at some point these failures are obvious, and it’s driving them crazy, and they always have to blame somebody. It’s never their fault. These factions are gonna start blaming themselves at some point, the feminists blaming the NAACP, the pro-choice blaming somebody. I don’t know how it’s gonna manifest, but there’s gonna be internecine warfare here on the left before all this is said and done, because they’re gonna continue to fail.
They’re gonna fail, and it’s gonna be hard to accept because the techniques they’re gonna use are techniques they’ve used to win in the past. And they’re going to bomb out this time around. And in the process they’re gonna done great damage to their electability in the midterm elections. They’re gonna make the mistake of assuming a majority of Americans are with them in their opposition to Trump choosing Supreme Court judges.
They’re gonna assume that the country is with them, the media is gonna facilitate them believing that most of the country doesn’t like Kavanaugh. They lie to themselves daily about this kind of thing. But even so, it’s still going to get vicious and it’s gonna disgust you. And it’s gonna tick you off. But I think we’ve reached a point where it ceased being productive for them and may in fact now begin to start taking a toll. I hope so. We’ll be watching.
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RUSH: Okay. Let’s get started on the phones. We have David here from Athens, Texas, who says he worked for Judge Kavanaugh.
CALLER: How are you, Rush?
RUSH: How are you? You worked for judge when he was staff secretary in the George Bush White House?
CALLER: Yes, sir. I worked in the Bush White House.
CALLER: Absolutely. So the staff secretary is in charge of essentially the process where all the documents that go to the president’s desk — everything from a letter he signs to a photo he signs to, you know, the most significant memo he might sign or a speech that he gives. Everything that reaches the president’s desk goes through the staff secretary. So the staff secretary makes sure it’s been reviewed by all the right people, it’s been footnoted, and everything is on the up and up before it reaches the president.
RUSH: And what’s done with it after the president does what he does with it?
CALLER: And then once the president is done with it, the staff secretary is then the conduit to the archives, essentially. So everything that eventually ends up in the record — unless there was a server in some sort of a basement. But something that went through the right process would go back through the staff secretary and get to the archives.
RUSH: Does the staff secretary have any input opportunity on some documents? Does he do any writing, for example?
CALLER: Absolutely. I mean, he touches everything the president sees. So he naturally has input. I think he becomes a subject matter expert on, you know, what the president would say about a given topic ’cause he’s seen everything, and I think that’s what made Brett… I know him so I’m saying “Brett.” Actually, that’s what makes Judge Kavanaugh so successful in that job because he was so detail oriented, so process oriented, and he really just became a subject matter expert on what the president had said and would say about any give an issue. And in my opinion, that’s what makes him such a good judge, because I think that same sort of filter of what would…? You know, instead of the president, “What would the Constitution say about a given issue? What is the precedent? You know, what is the case history?” You know, it’s the same kind of process. I think that’s why he’s been so successful.
RUSH: You liked working with him?
CALLER: I love the man. As far as I can tell, everybody who’s ever worked for him loves him, and I can say I know… You know, I’m very conservative. I know a lot of listeners who are conservative are naturally skeptical of anyone who comes from D.C., but I can say, you know, this is a very, very good man.
RUSH: Well, here’s an argument. I’ve heard a lot of people say, “Hey, this guy’s a Bushie!” Folks, if you live in Washington and you want to climb the ladder there, the only Republican presidents you’ve known have been Bush administrations. If you want to work in a Republican administration, you really haven’t had much choice but than to work in a Bush-dominated one.
CALLER: (chuckles) That’s right. That’s right. Yes.
RUSH: You can’t hold that against somebody.
RUSH: What did you do…? We’ve got 30 seconds. What was what did you do for him? What was your job in the staff secretary’s office?
CALLER: My title was assistant staff secretary. So I helped Brett and I was kind of one of his right-hands, helping him.
RUSH: Where was the office? Is it over the —
CALLER: It’s in the basement of the West Wing so his is right at the bottom of the stairway, then there’s a haul that leads down to where The Situation Room is. That’s where we had at anyway.
RUSH: You were right at the thick of it. You’re not over at the Old Executive Office Building. You’re right there.
CALLER: Correct. He’s just a phenomenal guy. He’s gonna be an amazing justice. I’m happy for my kids that he’ll be on the Supreme Court.
RUSH: That’s a great way to look at it. This is David from Athens, Texas, who worked with Kavanaugh in the staff secretary office the George W. Bush administration.
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RUSH: I just started talking about this next story when Vice President Pence came on the line. It’s an Axios/SurveyMonkey poll that apparently is very, very bad for the Democrat dream of taking control of the Senate. We’ll have details on this when we get back. And I want to delve further into what the Democrats are hoping to uncover by exposing all the documents that Brett Kavanaugh dealt with as the White House staff secretary for George W. Bush. So hang on.
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RUSH: You know, it’s an interesting observation. Here is the thing that the Democrats will never get about people like Brett Kavanaugh. To people like Antonin Scalia or the people like Neil Gorsuch or Clarence Thomas. They will never, ever understand this. And what it is is that they have no reason to fear Brett Kavanaugh’s politics.
Brett Kavanaugh is going to interpret the Constitution without a political filter, as did Scalia, as does Justice Thomas, as does Neil Gorsuch. This is what they cannot understand. In truth, they should be wildly grateful for the fact that Kavanaugh’s politics are not going to be a factor here. But they can’t imagine anyone doing that, since they never would.
They would never put their politics aside. In fact, when it comes to politics, the left has litmus tests. And if their nominees do not pass these litmus tests, there’s no way they’re gonna get any court appointment — U.S. District Court judge, appellate court judge, Supreme Court justice, not gonna happen unless they check off the right political boxes. And I’m dead serious.
They’ve got nothing to fear from Brett Kavanaugh’s politics, because that’s not what he does. Kavanaugh is a strict — the word is constructionist, meaning he believes in the original intent and the way the Constitution was constructed and written. All the talk about his politics, especially this guy, this is what makes him a great judge. All the talk about his politics is moot!
And all of the left’s objections are gonna be with the Constitution, previous rulings, black letter of the law, not with his politics, which will not even ever enter into it. Well, that’s what they should go into. And if they looked at his jurisprudence, there’s no way to disqualify the guy. If you look at this man as a judge of the law, purely as a judge of the law, a man able to see the law rather than politics, there’s no reason to disqualify.
The left is not gonna look at him that way. The left is gonna attempt to destroy him on the basis of his politics, which are not even a factor here. But they utilize projection. And so since they have politicized everything, they assume we do too. But we have not corrupted the courts. Well, you know, I can’t say we haven’t. I mean, lifetime of history, we’ve had some bad actors, no question. But as a matter of principle, we’re not about corrupting the court.
The left is about corrupting pretty much everything they can that has to do with the Constitution, which is why I made the point of telling Vice President Pence a little less than an hour ago that the left is really not protesting upset with Kavanaugh; they are upset with the Constitution here. Their beef is with the Constitution, Kavanaugh as a stricter interpreter of it poses a great threat to them, because liberalism requires the Constitution be bendable, shapeable, flakeable, formable to accommodate whatever policy positions they have of the moment.
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RUSH: Go back to the phones. This is Robert in Greenville, South Carolina. Glad you waited. And welcome to the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Yeah. Hey. Thanks, Rush. I, like you, am very rarely wrong. It’s a rare event that I am, and I’m telling you I’m hoping this is one of those times because I’m not quite as comfortable with the pick of Kavanaugh as you and some other folks like the vice president are. Because if what I’ve heard reported is accurate — and of course we all know how that works — back when he was being mulled over and talked about, I saw a couple excerpts and it seems like I read an article or two on Fox or Breitbart or whatever to where he during one of his confirmation hearings made the statement that — and again I’m paraphrasing because I didn’t write the copious notes I probably should have — but I got the sense that he was of the opinion that his opinion, his judicial opinion can change.
And I don’t know. The Constitution, not is I living, breathing document as a lot of people like to think it is, and that just gave me an uneasy feeling about, you know, what his propensities may be if once he’s seated will he become like Souter and other guys who get more emotional. And I hope I’m wrong. I’d love to be wrong. This is one of the times. But do you not have any concerns about that at all, or everything you’ve heard just so —
I think what you probably heard was an answer in a hearing designed to swat away a question. The thing with Kavanaugh is that there is one heck of a huge record. The number of pages that contain written analysis and opinion from Kavanaugh is a million. I mean, he has 12 years on the D.C. circuit court. That is a record that has much more weight than an answer or two in a confirmation hearing.
I can remember that there have been a couple of Democrats just in the, I think with Gorsuch, Democrats who, after a couple of Gorsuch opinions in a couple of cases — I don’t remember specifically which ones — accused him of lying to them during hearings because of a vote on a particular case, a number of justices have had that said about them over the years.
You never know. I think they give themselves latitude ’cause they have no idea the kind of cases that they’re gonna hear in the future. You know, Scalia was famous for saying that there were a number of cases that he just found personally distasteful, that he nevertheless had to vote a certain way because of the law.
And I think Kavanaugh is just giving himself the flexibility of being able to follow through on things like that. With a record such as the one he has, pretty solid determining who he is and how he views the Constitution.
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RUSH: Marcia in Fredericksburg, Virginia, I’m glad you waited. We’re gonna squeeze you here at the end. What’s up?
CALLER: Yes. Unlike Neil Gorsuch, I don’t get the same easy feeling about Kavanaugh.
RUSH: Why not?
CALLER: Well, a lot of the connections and some of the… You know, there are certain things that just bring a sense of disgust and disdain in me, and when I hear certain words like “Obamacare” and “Bush,” that’s something I don’t want to hear — and even Elena Kagan. I don’t want to hear that.
RUSH: Ah. Ah.
CALLER: Associations are driving me… I mean, I just… I think Trump base is a bit demoralized this morning.
RUSH: Interesting. I hear you on the Elena Kagan stuff. Kavanaugh mentioned this last night as a way of suggesting that he’s broad-based and that he has support from everywhere. You heard that as, “We don’t want the support of the left! If the left likes a guy, it’s a problem.” I hear you. I understand where you’re coming from. Working with Bush, staff secretary for Bush… Well, here’s the thing about this — and I mentioned this earlier.
If you’re a guy like Kavanaugh, –if you’re anybody in Washington young and you want to work there, and you want to climb the ladder there, and you want to work in presidential administrations of your party — you pretty much have had Bush administrations to choose from. There was George Bush 41; there was George W. Bush. That’s pretty much been it. So that kind of cuts both ways. I haven’t picked up on your interpretation of the Trump base, but maybe as we go on the rest of the week I will.
It’s a fascinating opinion.
I know right where you’re coming from on it.
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