I would advise [Brett Kavanaugh] against letting Senate Republicans ram his nomination through in a fashion that will forever attach an asterisk to his service on the Supreme Court.
--Benjamin Wittes in The AtlanticI think that if he does get on court, he will be there under a cloud, there will always be an asterisk next to his name. And I think it’s not good for institution of Supreme Court.
--Senator Mazie HironoIf you are confirmed after this truncated and concealed process, there will always be a taint, there will always be an asterisk after your name.
--Senator Richard Blumenthal... if they go through a Senate hearing and it becomes a circus, they push it through, he passes, he’s seated on the Supreme Court, there will be, as we've said last week, an asterisk next to his name as long as he’s there.
--Willie Geist on Morning Joe
And you know what? Kavanaugh doesn't care. Neither does the rest of the GOP.
After Clarence Thomas's confirmation hearings, I thought he would always have an asterisk next to his name. But America shrugged, accepted his confirmation, and treated him as a validly appointed justice.
I though George W. Bush would always have an asterisk next to his name, what with losing the popular vote, along with all that family and party skulduggery in Florida (and, later, at the Supreme Court). But even before 9/11 he was accepted as a legitimate president. It was said that because of the circumstances of his victory he'd need to "govern from the center" -- but he did exactly the opposite. So has the current president, whose election was even more dubious and asterisk-worthy than Bush's.
The GOP is the party of asterisks. It wins by means of gerrymandering and vote suppression; it's widely understood that Democrats won't take the House this year if their overall vote is "only" six or seven points greater than the Republicans'. Yet there's no widespread sense in American politics that this creates a crisis of legitimacy -- Republicans simply rule no matter how they attain office.
Asterisks have never been impediments for other Republicans. So nobody on the right cares if there's an asterisk next to Brett Kavanaugh's name.
Originally published at No More Mr. Nice Blog
