GOP/NOMINATIONS/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “When Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor testified in 2009, confirmation seemed so certain that Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham famously predicted she only had to avoid a ‘complete meltdown.’ As Judge Brett Kavanaugh takes the witness chair on Tuesday [9-4-18], the sense of inevitability in these partisan times is even greater. Republicans control the Senate, they are tightly managing the vetting process, and Democrats no longer have an opportunity for a filibuster to block a final vote. Yet the inevitability is strikingly paradoxical because the stakes for the nine-member Supreme Court are greater than they have been in decades. America’s highest court rests on a precipice, with many rights — those related to abortion and university affirmative action, to name just two — teetering on a single vote. The chance also exists that this deeply divided bench could end up resolving a dispute related to investigations involving President Donald Trump. Most significant, of course, is special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russia’s intervention in the 2016 presidential campaign and any ties to Trump’s campaign.”
–Joan Biskupic, “A sense of inevitability for Kavanaugh, who can transform the court for decades,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, September 3, 2018 5:25 am