Guilt by association. It's a go-to strategy in politics all the time, in both parties.
Democrats are doing it right now in an effort to wring every last possible drop out of the Paul Manafort conviction and Michael Cohen guilty plea. This one's a huge stretch, but they're going for it anyway. They want to halt the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh that's scheduled to begin on September 4th.
The Manafort and Cohen courtroom dramas were barely over before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for the immediate pause of Kavanaugh's confirmation process. The air is thick with something more powerful than Schumer's Old Spice — it's desperation.
Democrats are grasping for ways to tank the Kavanaugh nomination. Earlier this week, they tried the unearthing-old-documents trick. That effort uncovered that as part of Kavanaugh's job working for Kenneth Starr in the 90s, he prepared detailed sexual questions to potentially be asked of Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. So, basically Kavanaugh was guilty of doing his job.
After the Manafort and Cohen developments on Tuesday, however, Democrats were tossed a lifeline. Never mind that it's barely a strand of dental floss, they'll take anything at this point. Senate Democrats say Kavanaugh can't be confirmed, because what if a case involving President Trump lands before the Supreme Court? Kavanaugh couldn't possibly be a fair judge in such a case because Trump appointed him.
Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says she will now cancel her meeting with Kavanaugh. That might make sense if Kavanaugh was going to baseball games with Manafort or Cohen, but he has absolutely nothing to do with them.
Manafort and Cohen give Democrats a chance to pretend they care about truth and justice.
Manafort and Cohen give Democrats a chance to pretend they care about truth and justice. In reality, they only oppose Kavanaugh because they're freaked out that he may somehow end abortion and enslave women forever. Democrats and the media have turned Kavanaugh's confirmation into an abortion rights trial. They don't care about the thousand other issues Kavanaugh could deal with on the Supreme Court.
But this is the Democrats' last-ditch, Hail Mary plan: delay Kavanaugh's confirmation until next year, win a bunch of seats in November, impeach Trump, clone Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and get Mike Pence to nominate RBG-2 to the Supreme Court.
It's a foolproof plan.