“I’m A Soulless Careerist, Here’s Why Liberals Should Support Judge Kavanaugh”
By Oh, great, another entry in the “as a liberal feminist, I have no integrity or self-respect” genre:
What Paul says here. And as to the “Kavanaugh is going to be confirmed anyway, so who can blame someone for kissing a little ass to get ahead” defense, I really can. Why should Akhil Amar’s students get an edge because he’s willing to bullshit the public and his colleagues aren’t?
There is no salvaging the premise, but the content is also bad in its details:
I do not have a single litmus test for a nominee. My standard is whether the nominee is unquestionably well-qualified, brilliant, has integrity and is within the mainstream of legal thought. Kavanaugh easily meets those criteria. I have no insight into his views on Roe v. Wade—something extremely important to me as a liberal, female Democrat and mother of a teenage girl. But whatever he decides on Roe, I know it will be because he believes the Constitution requires that result.
1)The idea that we have no idea what Kavanaugh thinks about Roe is ridiculous. 2)As to the last point, who cares? A vote to overrule Roe is a vote to overrule Roe, and as with most constitutional questions of any political interest there is no single formal legal answer to the questions presented, so how exactly he rationalizes reaching the conclusion is completely irrelevant.
Democrats should quit attacking Kavanaugh—full stop. It is unbecoming to block him simply because they want to, and they risk alienating intelligent people who see the obvious: He is the most qualified conservative for the job.
Here’s the thing: there’s nothing liberal or feminist about claiming that there is a single “most qualified” person for a job like this. There are literally thousands of people perfectly well “qualified” to cast predictable votes and lightly edit opinions written by elite recent JDs. As is most often the case with job searches — the myths of meritocracy notwithstanding — this is about picking among many perfectly well-qualified candidates.
Speaking of the pernicious myth of the One Indispensable Man, Tina Smith will win re-election in November and cast the same votes Al Franken would have. As it happens, her opponent Karin Housley lived in the same neighborhood as my parents for a year or three, was by all accounts a very nice woman. Look for my forthcoming op-ed, “As a liberal, I saw Karin Housley jogging without littering or tripping anybody, so Democrats should support her.”
..good thread:
He spoke on a panel with her, and is a good mentor to law students pic.twitter.com/Fb8SAAYFyz
— Jay Willis (@jaywillis) August 2, 2018
This is 'West Wing' fanfiction pic.twitter.com/btgLhBe5tq
— Jay Willis (@jaywillis) August 2, 2018
Anyway, rocket every last one of these "Wealthy Liberals 4 Kavanaugh" takes into the sun, please and thank you https://t.co/jBycgYsSEh
— Jay Willis (@jaywillis) August 2, 2018