Power Trip
The Beltway Bully Boys
The SCOTUS battle was never about Roe v. Wade. The real prize, as always, is money and the power to make more of it.
Now we know that Judge Brett Kavanaugh is not “sober as a judge.” His handlers might have preferred it otherwise. But if watching a rock-ribbed former wide receiver and cornerback snivel and sob for a chance at a lifetime job offended the sensibilities of a he-man worshipper like Senator Lindsey Graham, or forced the President, who hates men who cry, to swallow his revulsion, or made sensitive observers cringe and giggle, it’s a small price to pay for a coveted prize.
Washington is in a state of mayhem, but the odds are still high that Kavanaugh will be confirmed — or possibly dumped for another choice. Republicans need that fifth SCOTUS seat, before the retributive sweep of the November election.
I won’t say the FBI investigation is a sham, but if you think there are any agents left in the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the starch and principle to deliver a thorough investigation after watching Trump personally eviscerate the agents and their wives and lovers who’ve dared stand up to him, I’d like to sell you a crumbly, half-burnt Baku tower embossed with a big gold “T” and boasting a moldy, never-used “Spa by Ivanka.”
For the Republican Party — not only the hard-right but the supposed moderates as well — Kavanaugh must be confirmed. Only, it’s not for the reason that everyone thinks. Despite his flaying in last week’s bloody gender battle, the GOP’s SCOTUS power play has nothing to do with overturning Roe versus Wade. It’s about maintaining power. And money. And the power to make gobs more money, with which to solidify power. And the vast majority of cases the Supreme Court will rule on in the next term are about precisely that. There’s only one Roe. There are dozens of cases about power and money on the docket. Decisions by the next court bear, as they often do, directly on the relative rights of the powerless and the powerful, including questions like: when companies can require arbitration and avoid the court system; when and how class action suits may be filed; issues involving Native American claims to public lands; and how much immunity international…
