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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBrett had what one could only be called an unhealthy obsession with the Clintons, especially Hillary
Has anyone posted this David Brock interview yet?
David Brock on NBC:
I used to know Brett Kavanaugh pretty well. And, when I think of Brett now, in the midst of his hearings for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, all I can think of is the old "Aesop's Fables" adage: "A man is known by the company he keeps." And that's why I want to tell any senator who cares about our democracy: Vote no. Twenty years ago, when I was a conservative movement stalwart, I got to know Brett Kavanaugh both professionally and personally. Brett actually makes a cameo appearance in my memoir of my time in the GOP, "Blinded By The Right." I describe him at a party full of zealous young conservatives gathered to watch President Bill Clinton's 1998 State of the Union address just weeks after the story of his affair with a White House intern had broken. When the TV camera panned to Hillary Clinton, I saw Brett at the time a key lieutenant of Ken Starr, the independent counsel investigating various Clinton scandals mouth the word "bitch."
But there's a lot more to know about Kavanaugh than just his Pavlovian response to Hillary's image. Brett and I were part of a close circle of cold, cynical and ambitious hard-right operatives being groomed by GOP elders for much bigger roles in politics, government and media. And its those controversial associations that should give members of the Senate and the American public serious pause.
Call it Kavanaugh's cabal: There was his colleague on the Starr investigation, Alex Azar, now the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Mark Paoletta is now chief counsel to Vice President Mike Pence; House anti-Clinton gumshoe Barbara Comstock is now a Republican member of Congress. Future Fox News personalities Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson were there with Ann Coulter, now a best-selling author, and internet provocateur Matt Drudge.
At one time or another, each of them partied at my Georgetown townhouse amid much booze and a thick air of cigar smoke. In a rough division of labor, Kavanaugh played the role of lawyer one of the sharp young minds recruited by the Federalist Society to infiltrate the federal judiciary with true believers. Through that network, Kavanaugh was mentored by D.C. Appeals Court Judge Laurence Silberman, known among his colleagues for planting leaks in the press for partisan advantage.
When, as I came to know, Kavanaugh took on the role of designated leaker to the press of sensitive information from Starr's operation, we all laughed that Larry had taught him well. (Of course, that sort of political opportunism by a prosecutor is at best unethical, if not illegal.)
Another compatriot was George Conway (now Kellyanne's husband), who led a secretive group of right-wing lawyers we called them "the elves" who worked behind the scenes directing the litigation team of Paula Jones, who had sued Clinton for sexual harassment. I knew then that information was flowing quietly from the Jones team via Conway to Starr's office and also that Conway's go-to man was none other than Brett Kavanaugh.
That critical flow of inside information allowed Starr, in effect, to set a perjury trap for Clinton, laying the foundation for a crazed national political crisis and an unjust impeachment over a consensual affair.
But the cabal's godfather was Ted Olson, the then-future solicitor general for George W. Bush and now a sainted figure of the GOP establishment (and of some liberals for his role in legalizing same-sex marriage). Olson had a largely hidden role as a consigliere to the "Arkansas Project" a multi-million dollar dirt-digging operation on the Clintons, funded by the eccentric right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife and run through The American Spectator magazine, where I worked at the time.
Both Ted and Brett had what one could only be called an unhealthy obsession with the Clintons especially Hillary. While Ted was pushing through the Arkansas Project conspiracy theories claiming that Clinton White House lawyer and Hillary friend Vincent Foster was murdered (he committed suicide), Brett was costing taxpayers millions by pedaling the same garbage at Starr's office.
A detailed analysis of Kavanaugh's own notes from the Starr Investigation reveals he was cherry-picking random bits of information from the Starr investigation as well as the multiple previous investigations attempting vainly to legitimize wild right-wing conspiracies. For years he chased down each one of them without regard to the emotional cost to Fosters family and friends, or even common decency.
Kavanaugh was not a dispassionate finder of fact but rather an engineer of a political smear campaign. And after decades of that, he expects people to believe he's changed his stripes.
Like millions of Americans this week, I tuned into Kavanaugh's hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee with great interest. In his opening statement and subsequent testimony, Kavanaugh presented himself as a "neutral and impartial arbiter" of the law. Judges, he said, were not players but akin to umpires objectively calling balls and strikes. Again and again, he stressed his "independence" from partisan political influences.
But I don't need to see any documents to tell you who Kavanaugh is because I've known him for years. And I'll leave it to all the lawyers to parse Kavanaugh's views on everything from privacy rights to gun rights.
But I can promise you that any pretense of simply being a fair arbiter of the constitutionality of any policy regardless of politics is simply a pretense. He made up his mind nearly a generation ago and, if he's confirmed, he'll have nearly two generations to impose it upon the rest of us."
fleur-de-lisa
(14,624 posts)calimary
(81,267 posts)JHan
(10,173 posts)I have my own theories why.
What Kavanaugh put Vince Foster's family through is also reprehensible.
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)dlk
(11,566 posts)Smells Like Mommy Issues. Scratch the surface and Kavanaugh looks to be a deeply disturbed man. He shouldnt be allowed within 100 miles of the Supreme Court, or any other court, for that matter.
Texin
(2,596 posts)llmart
(15,539 posts)Isn't he a Republican?
Great post.
jodymarie aimee
(3,975 posts)that is why he has all the R dirt, he was one of them...
spooky3
(34,452 posts)He apologized to the Clintons long ago.
riversedge
(70,220 posts)erronis
(15,257 posts)It seems that so many fictional accounts of a dystopian America could actually be real - worse than fiction.
In many sci-fi it requires drugs or implants. In the case of these purveyors of nonsense libertarianism/fascism they appear to have have been indoctrinated bypassing their innate intellectual abilities (assuming they have some.)
The sci-fi part comes as the steady drug drips of cash inflows into hidden bank accounts. Or as ominous warnings about impending death when not following orders.
alwaysinasnit
(5,066 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)hibbing
(10,098 posts)Boomerproud
(7,952 posts)Nt
MountCleaners
(1,148 posts)they so desperately need Kavanaugh to appear innocent (they know he's a creep) - the whole thing falls apart if he looks guilty. He's rubbed shoulders with so many important Republicans, someone a few days ago called him a Repubican Zelig.
FakeNoose
(32,639 posts)link: https://heavy.com/news/2018/07/brett-kavanaugh-vince-foster-vincent-death/
Title is "Brett Kavanaugh & Vince Foster: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know"
On the same thread I posted a plug for David Brock's book "Blinded by the Right"
link: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11160765
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)The more you learn about him, the worse he gets.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)It was Kav who is responsible for our kids getting adult rated news. They learned about blow jobs, cigars as dildos and other highly charged sexual details which Clinton should have told them to fuck themselves early on as none of their business.
Funny how the casualties of this were Newt, Livingston and other Repubs who were having their own ilicit affairs.
Kavanaugh chose the gutter and deserves the same treatment as he chose to give.
You're getting divorced asshole and I hope he loses everything!
Fucking weasel!
oasis
(49,387 posts)srobertss
(261 posts)Its probably really hard to outline in the framework of the confirmation hearings, but Kavanaughs behavior regarding Vince Fosters death is strong evidence of his abusive tendencies. Official investigations bore out that Foster had committed suicide, but Kavanaugh continued to pursue the murder theory even though Fosters widow begged them to stop. He also tried to prove that Hillary and Foster were having an affair. Here were two women grieving over Fosters death and he abused them.
Hekate
(90,689 posts)Texin
(2,596 posts)And the lust being demonstrated by these right wing zealots to create a permanent right wing country devoid of any hint of democratic principles is even beyond my own imagination. I knew they were horrific, I just never imagined what utter monsters these people really are.
LuckyLib
(6,819 posts)Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)Response to jodymarie aimee (Original post)
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