This is one of Deep State Radios “Briefs and Debriefs”
David Rothkopf: Hello, and welcome to one of Deep State radios new “Briefs and Debriefs” in which we go to our experts and we drill down into an issue that is on the minds of the Deep State and Deep State Radio nerds everywhere and clearly this week one of the issues is the confirmation battle over Kavanaugh and the allegations that have been made against him. Ed Luce, one of our core team family here wrote a good piece on this about how this reveals the true nature of the US as you know, Ed these Briefs and Debriefs are essentially 8 to 10 minutes to talk about these things. I just like you to open up and give us your take on where this Kavanaugh thing stands and more importantly, what can we learn from it?
Ed Luce: Oh, thanks David. I mean where it stands right now is kind of at an impasse in the as, you know, Dr. Ford saying that she wants an FBI inquiry into her allegation before before she\’ll consider testifying and the Republicans what was Senator Chuck Grassley the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee saying no, we\’ve scheduled you for Monday if you can talk Monday, we\’re going to go ahead and have a vote. I\’m not sure how that is going to resolve itself but I think if she doesn\’t agree to appear on Monday and President Trump doesn\’t order the FBI to investigate her allegations against Brett Kavanaugh and the Republicans go ahead and confirm Kavanaugh all the same then this is going to look really really awkward in terms of the Republicans midterm strategy and they\’re kind of in a lose-lose situation politically, but the larger point that I was trying to write about earlier this week is the just the way that this episode\’s really crystallizes 25 years on from the Anita Hill hearing 27 years on from Anita Hill hearing over judge Clarence Thomas how much further the demographic split has gone in the last two three decades and that we\’ve you know still got all white all male Republicans on that Judiciary Committee. The entire committee was all white all male both parties 27 years ago. Now, it\’s just the Republican side. On the Democratic side, we\’ve got we\’ve got four females, we\’ve got non-whites like Senator Cory Booker and so the prospect that this is going to unleash a far more poisonous culture war a me-too culture war between the two parties where essentially we\’ve got a we do have the male party, the white male party and then we have the everybody else party, The Democrats is I think both very real and has implications for November in terms of female turn out particularly if Kavanaugh is confirmed regardless next week, but it\’s also it\’s also going to inject even more poison into the already highly toxic Washington political climate then we already have and and that\’s you know, but for those of us who wish to see this system working at some point, that\’s a very very troubling prognosis but I think it\’s a realistic one, otherwise I wouldn\’t have been writing about it.
David Rothkopf: What does it does suggest, you know, multiple divisions male female Democrat, Republican but I think one of the big ones that it suggests is the one that opened the door to Donald Trump, which is kind of inside the Beltway outside the Beltway. You know, it has to be that the part of this that is most infuriating to many Americans is that it\’s so dysfunctional.
Why is it going on this way? Why are hearings, you know absent of the documents that are necessary to do them or why are they rushed through or why is there you know this last-minute gamesmanship where this gotcha kind of politics. It\’s I mean the Kavanaugh thing is quite apart from the merits of the arguments for or against Kavanaugh, kind of you know an in-depth look at how broken Washington is, isn\’t it? I mean coming up close to an election that to could be decisive and that might actually, you know, cut back in favor of Trump.
Ed Luce: It could do. I mean at the moment I\’d be inclined to think it\’s going to increase you know, what some people call the pink wave female turn out to vote against Republicans if that\’s if that\’s the Kavanaugh confirmations are going to happen regardless. But you know, there is there is some geology to this in terms of Kavanaugh’s background, you know. He\’s not some sort of independent jurist his works his way up the Judiciary, you know and has a conservative bent and therefore, you know was on the Federalist Society short list. This guy was the chief number one hack for Kenneth Starr for the Kenneth Starr investigation into Bill Clinton. He was the person who put out a lot of the leaks and the off-the-record briefings to the media in the late 1990s. And you know, he\’s been to the groomed as you know, one of those sort of ultra-conservative talents of the future ever since. He\’s a very very ambitious very conservative political hack who became a judge and you know, that that gives some geology to have a Democrats feel about this. So when he says which I think in other contexts, you know were you not being nominated Supreme Court quite reasonably look something that happened when I was at a drunken teenage boy 36 years ago, you know that I no recollection, well actually he categorically denies it that but even if he’d said which I have no recollection, you know, it\’s just not actionable particularly a few days before the vote when he says that for most people you would sort of have quite a lot more sympathy. But if you\’re one of the Democrats up there and you know what his background is, you know that you know when he answers or gives non answers to questions about Roe v-Wade or about marriage equality and so forth that this is just a complete, you know, euphemism that he has absolutely one clear conservative agenda. Then that sort of puts it in a slightly different perspective that this this lady Dr. Ford didn\’t just make this this nomination hearing controversial. It has a deep geology to it. And I think that context is really important.
David Rothkopf: Well, I think that\’s a really important point and I think it\’s the core of what we\’re going to talk about here. I think frankly you maybe Ed should have been the strategist for the opposition to Kavanaugh because the tactics that they\’ve used have actually been sort of blunt or and less effective than the point that this guy is a hack that when it was on the star here and he was there saying let\’s dig and find out everything disgusting we can about Clinton that he went after Vince Foster and went after some of the sort of dark underbelly kind of right-wing conservative conspiracy theories in order to achieve a political goal that that\’s what he\’s been doing all along that he\’s dressed up in the the kind of veneer of a jurist. He went to the right schools, but all long working with the Federalist Society all along giving the speech as he gave he has been essentially a political operative advancing a hard right agenda and the President wants him because of the President wants him because he thinks he\’s going to protect him and that should have been the core issue and frankly, the fact that he lied under oath the last time he was confirmed is also disqualifying this thing that Dr. Ford may also be disqualifying but this guy has no business being on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Ed Luce: I\’d agree with that. I mean, I think that the background to this man\’s career, you know is completely unmistakable. We know exactly who he is. And the machinery behind his advancement, you know was just think of how quickly that letter 65 women signed attesting to his good character and virtues when he was a teenager at the time that the allegations arose. That came out 18 hours you know after it emerged that these allegations were being made. Just 18 hours it took apparently to find 65 women who knew a boy 36 years ago who went to a single-sex school. You know clearly it wasn\’t just 18 hours. Clearly, this had been prepared, you know for any eventuality and so the strength of the machine behind him I think is what\’s carrying him because if you look at the caliber of the individual, not very impressive and leave the allegations aside his answers, not very sophisticated, not very quick-witted not a high-caliber hack, a fairly mediocre one. It\’s becoming clearer and clearer.
David Rothkopf: Well, yes, and thank you for that. I you know just to wrap and put a button on it and go back to your pink way of point, you know, one of the few consistent policies of Donald Trump has been to be an advocate for sexual harassers and sexual abusers and his own sexual harassment and sexual abuse whether it\’s defending Roger Ailes or Rob Porter or Corey Lewandowski or Kavanaugh, he always steps up and says, this is a good guy, I support him, I\’m behind him and the Republican party has not pushed back. They have owned it. They got the guy who was the pussy grabber. They elected him president. He hasn\’t changed. They haven\’t been able to persuade him to change. This is a pattern and it will not be lost, I think on women when they go to the polls in November. I also hope it\’s not lost on men of character who simply do not approve of this kind of disgusting behavior.
Ed Luce: Yeah
David Rothkopf: I don\’t know if you want to add to that, I don\’t want to force you to editorialize here, but. . .
Ed Luce: Well, I mean I do think this is going to you know, heighten Democratic enthusiasm not just amongst women, but you know, this is losing there\’s no there\’s no real upside for the Republicans now, you know if they wait for an FBI investigation which could take weeks and then lose the senate in November, they\’re going to lose this seat and that\’s clearly dictating their panic. But if their Panic dictates the speed of this then they\’re going to bring the base out on the other side to an even greater degree than it than it already so if you know, it\’s a losing strategy for the Republicans, whatever they do.
David Rothkopf: Well, I think that\’s right. Thank you, Ed for this. Thank you for joining as is appropriate for one of the very first of these “Briefs and Debriefs” here at Deep State Radio. Thank you everybody for listening and for more “briefs and debriefs” and for more rants, and for more regular podcasts, and for more content go to thedsrnetwork.com. Join up, be a member, support the Deep State. Thank you very much.
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