Can someone explain why Dubya is so game to get KavaNO appointed?

[diva77]

For Dubya to lift a finger to do any work would require an extreme form of motivation

[dchill]

1. He's just another criminal who could benefit from yet another...

favorable Supreme Court ruling.

[RockRaven]

2. Same reason he hired half his admin/Cabinet -- old boys network and tribalism

Kav worked for him, been a loyal partisan hack, so W's gotta buttress his promotion.

[CatMor]

3. I would think it's because Kavanaugh's wife ....

worked for W. Bush when he was governor and president. He probably feels loyalty to her.

[lunatica]

4. Kavanaugh evidently may have signed off or helped them justify their

water boarding and torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s something I heard but I don’t know if it’s true.

[diva77]

8. makes me wonder whether there's something on the docket that could revisit the

BFEE crimes, and KavaNO would come in handy for that

[lunatica]

10. Remember the Republicans wouldn't allow the Democrats

to see thousands of Kavanaugh documents.

[diva77]

12. ah, yes

[StevieM]

5. Because all Republicans understand that Ken Starr and his cronies need to be rewarded.

Just like Robert Bork needed to be rewarded for carrying out the Saturday Night Massacre.

[MiniMe]

6. He was the one who put Kavanaugh on the Federal Bench

[eleny]

7. Loylaty to those who worked behind the scenes of Bush v Gore

I read that Kavanaugh worked with Roberts who at one time clerked for Rehnquist. They knew how he thought about the law and helped frame arguments for Bush attorneys so that they could convince Republicans on the court. Roberts knew how important Equal Protection was to the Chief Justice. So they helped frame the successful argument for the Bush team. It worked.

It's probably why Roberts landed on the Court and as Chief Justice. Bush's wet kiss to the man heavily responsible for making him president.

Btw, Kavanaugh was an operative down in Florida during the recount.

[solara]

9. Bingo!! n/t

[diva77]

13. wow! was he one of those guys in the hall fake-protesting, trying to stop recount????

wherever he was, that was the heist of the millenium for sure

[Princess Turandot]

11. Loyalty to Kavanaugh's wife is likely a big part of it..

She first worked for Bush when he was a governor, then moved to DC to be his executive secretary in the WH, where she met Kavanaugh. Then she worked for the Bush Library. If she contacted him or Laura Bush for help...

[Initech]

14. Because it's a "fuck you" to democrats, that's why.

That's all this is - just a gigantic middle finger to all that is good and decent.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

15. Dubya/Cheney favor the concept of "unitary executive."

The big question is: To what extent can presidential power be restricted by Congress? Some believe that the President holds broad power, citing this passage from Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution:

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

And from Section 3:

... he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

The view that the President holds total control over the executive branch is called the unitary executive theory.

Under the Bush administration's interpretation of the unitary executive theory, the President has authority over members of the executive branch. He functions as a CEO or Commander-in-Chief, and his power is restricted only by the U.S. Constitution as interpreted by the Judiciary. Congress can hold the President accountable only by censure, impeachment or constitutional amendment. Legislation restricting the executive branch has no power.

source

---------------------

The key phrase is that the president's power is restricted only by the Constitution as interpreted by the Judiciary. And if Kavanaugh, who believes in expansive powers for the presidency, is able to persuade the other conservative justices to see it his way, Trump will have virtually unlimited powers.

This is a theory that Bush/Cheney advocated for eight years, and got as close as they could by using signing statements to overrule the Congress.

That's why I think he supports Kavanaugh.

[diva77]

16. Who do they really want for their unitary executive? surely it's not Dump???

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

21. I think Trump figures that with Putin's help he's got a lock on the presidency.

Remember, Trump said he'd only accept the election results if he won. I think that in that little brain of his -- stuck between thoughts of repainting Air Force One and screwing Ivanka -- there's a niggling voice saying, "President for life, President for life, President for life." With Kavanaugh's help, he might achieve that.

Bush is still trying to dig himself out of the hole he dug while he held office, and by helping Mushroom Dick get Kavanaugh on the SCOTUS he may figure there's a Presidential Medal of Freedom in his future.

This is unlike Lindsey Graham, who only wants to be patted on the head and told, "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?"

[magicarpet]

17. You wash my back,... I'll scrub yours.

A Fascist bubble bath, don't forget,.. bring a keg of beer and your rubber duckies.

[SharonAnn]

18. Kavanaugh's wife was W's secretary as governor, presidential candidate, and as president.

He’s ha a long, close relationship with her.

[suston96]

19. All dedicated to the dilution of the power of the individual vote.

I was involved with the term limits efforts in the early 1990s. The Repubs hadn't won the congress in a long time and blamed their woes on entrenched Democrats throughout tha country.

I opposed term limits then and still do now because they are a serious dilution of the electoral process as well as an attempt to control the participation by candidates politically unacceptable to opposing parties.

After Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected ro a fourth term in 1944 Republicans who controlled a majority of the state legislatures passed what became the Twenty Second Amendment limiting the presidential office to two two terms.

Ollie

[no_hypocrisy]

20. K-K-Karl Rove made a call to his old boss and buddy, W.

to step up and give him a favor. Rove wants Kavanaugh on the bench more than W.