Convicted Felon Testifies Against Kavanaugh

 

 

Post by Mustang.

Does anyone recall John Dean?  He was former White House Counsel under President Richard M. Nixon and played a key role in the 1973 Watergate scandal.  Now, long after Nixon passed away, Dean likes to tell folks that he warned Mr. Nixon that there was a “cancer” growing on the presidency. 

Of course, how can we ever know what he may (or may not) have said to Nixon?  He may have had that conversation in the same way that Senator Blumenthal from Connecticut was a hero from the Vietnam war.  But facts are inconvenient things, and John Dean ended up spending four-months in prison for obstruction of justice.  Yes, only four months.  It must have been the deal of the century for the rat who participated in unlawful behavior and then turned state’s evidence.

In any case, Dean added his two cents to Christine Ford’s three cents during the Senate Judiciary—Brett Kavanaugh hearing.  He is now warning the senate that confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh will lead to a White House takeover of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).  We’ll examine this testimony in a moment, but first let’s take a look at Dean after serving four (4) months in prison in 1973.

Shortly after serving in prison for his role in Watergate, Dean became an investment banker, an author, and a lecturer.  There is serious money to be made on the lecture circuit; if you don’t believe me, just ask Billy Clinton.  In his books and lectures, Dean chronicles his experiences in the White House.  In 1976 he wrote a book titled Blind Ambition (actually written by someone else), and this was made into a TV mini-series in 1979.  So, life was good for Dean after becoming a felon.  Oh, Martin Sheen played the part of Dean in the series.  Of course.

Mr. Dean, in appearing before the committee, warned the senate that conservatives have constructed a court that is overly deferential to executive power, particularly since Republicans control both the House and Senate.  Dean said, “Under Judge Kavanaugh’s recommendation, if a president shot someone in cold blood on Fifth Avenue, that president could not be prosecuted while in office.”

Yes, he said that.  It is at this point that one begins to wonder how Dean became White House Counsel in the first place —or how he ever got to appear in front of such a powerful committee.  Crikey!  But GOP Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) did push back when he told Dean, “I think you and your co-conspirators hurt my country,” and then noting that Dean ultimately did the right thing after Watergate, added, “you only did it when you were cornered like a rat, and it’s hard for me to take your testimony seriously.”

Well okay, there is plenty of room in this country for divergent views, but I think Dean is seriously off track.  He seems to overlook the fact that if the Senate and House are in the hands of the GOP, it is only by the will of the people.  If the President of the United States is a Republican, it is by the will of the people. 

And if a Republican president nominates justices to the SCOTUS who view their role as interpreting the Constitution (as opposed to legislating), then it too must be —by extension— the will of the people.  I guess what stymies me with Dean and others is that how does a well-educated man get to be obtuse when it comes to fundamental American civics?

Whether the SCOTUS is gaining too much power, or relinquishing its power to the presidency, is a matter of debate.  Senator Ben Sasse was recently eloquent when he argued that the US Congress have become lazy and ineffective, too willingly sending to the court matters that are actually the responsibility of the legislature.  Apparently, SCOTUS nominee Kavanaugh agrees: his role, he said, is not political—it’s judicial. 

Democrats think the US government should take over everything … including health care.  In evaluating Kavanaugh, Democrats assembled a slate of witnesses who argued about the impact Kavanaugh would have on such “hot-button” issues as voting rights, access to abortion, and gun control.  Ah, the Democrats.  What a bunch of clowns. 

One might recall when Democrats controlled both houses of congress and the presidency, they passed Obama-Care in the middle of the night and sent it straightaway to the president for his signature.  No one in Congress read the measure before it was signed into law, and “We the People” were unaware that the law was less of a health care measure than it was a massive tax.  (Side note: If there was any justice inside the beltway, every member of Congress would be forced into the kind of health care system employed in the United Kingdom).

In spite of what John Dean thinks, the American Bar Association offers Judge Kavanaugh high ratings.  A consensus of his peers, involving 120 interviews and contacts with 500 people, rates Kavanaugh as “well qualified” for the SCOTUS.

Once more speaking about how the Congress doesn’t want to do its job, or the manner in which it passes off its own responsibility to others, how well does it sit with you that Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have relied on the testimony of a dangerously psychotic/delusional female and a convicted felon to help them decide whether or not to support the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.  That isn’t all … they also invited a 13-year old child who suffers with asthma who warned the senators that Kavanaugh wasn’t friends with the environment. 

Gad … we must be living in interesting times.

John Dean. February 17, 2017 Published. Just laying the predicate.