Dan Rather: Kavanaugh Nomination Needs To Be Done Right

Welcome

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 04: Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill September 4, 2018 in Washington, DC. Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the vacancy on the court left by retiring Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

For the sake of the country, the Kavanaugh nomination needs to be done right.

What’s at stake is the lifetime appointment of a fairly young man to the nation’s highest court. President Trump and Republicans are trying to ram it through in a desperately, hurried rush. The urgency is the upcoming midterm elections, which overlays a deep irony to the situation considering how Republican senators handled the Merrick Garland nomination.

It is true that Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation is about something that allegedly happened more than 30 years ago. But it is a serious allegation, and her claim and his flat denial mean someone is not telling the truth. If it’s Kavanaugh, the substance of the allegations and his statements of denial matter greatly about his fitness for one of the most powerful positions in the nation.

If Kavanaugh is telling the truth he deserves to have his name cleared. Common sense dictates that this matter should be handled carefully, deliberately, fairly. If that takes time, which it surely will, then so be it.

Too much of the future of our country as a nation of law, and of constantly striving toward the goal of “equal justice under law”, is riding on this to have it be just another politically-partisan rush job.