Kavanaugh the carpool dad
Why on earth would the Washington Post run a piece by a carpool buddy of Brett Kavanaugh’s letting us know what a super-nice guy he is?
When I saw the title I honest to god thought it was satire:
I don’t know Kavanaugh the judge. But Kavanaugh the carpool dad is one great guy.
It sure looks like satire, doesn’t it, but she’s serious.
Her qualification for writing the piece is that she lives in Chevy Chase.
Much has been written about Brett Kavanaugh as President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, but the discussion has focused on his record as a federal judge and in his legal career. I’d like to talk about him as Coach K. Like the one at Duke University, this Coach K also is a mentor to student-athletes who love basketball. But his players are sixth-grade girls.
STOP.
Stop right there. Not another step.
Yes of fucking course the discussion has focused on his record as a federal judge and in his legal career, because he’s been nominated to be on the Supreme Court. Our only interest in him is because of his nomination to be on the Supreme Court. He’s not our future roommate or next door neighbor or babysitter or blind date. We don’t care about him personally; we shouldn’t care about him personally.
This is not a soap opera or a tv cooking competition. Kavanaugh’s personality and character and taste in literature are not relevant and not our business; his record as a federal judge and in his legal career very much is. It’s insultingly frivolous to pretend that his basketball coaching is worth reading about in the Washington Post.
Brett’s older daughter and mine have been classmates at Blessed Sacrament School, a small Catholic school in the District, for the past seven years. On evenings and weekends, you’re likely to find Brett at a local gym or athletic field, encouraging his players or watching games with his daughters and their friends. He coaches not one but two girls’ basketball teams. His positive attitude and calm demeanor make the game fun and allow each player to shine. The results have been good: This past season, he led the Blessed Sacrament School’s sixth-grade girls team to an undefeated season and a citywide championship in the local Catholic youth league.
I don’t care. Nobody should care.
Except for the Catholic part. That is relevant, and it continues the trend of filling the court with Catholics. There are liberal Catholics who don’t do what the Vatican tells them to do, of course, but it’s still worth paying attention to – but as a matter of world view and judicial philosophy, not as a matter of basketball coaching. Yes even for girls.
I’ll leave it to others to gauge Judge Kavanaugh’s qualifications for the Supreme Court as a jurist. But as someone who would bring to his work the traits of personal kindness, leadership and willingness to help when called on, he would receive a unanimous verdict in his favor from those who know him.
I repeat – what is the Post doing publishing childish drivel like that?
I hate to remind everyone that the bar in America is much lower than ‘good ole carpool dad’.
The majority of Americans think the purported claim of ‘man of faith’ supersedes all other qualities, including harassment, molestation, fraud, racism, and general fascism.
Yeah, but only one of the Catholics on the high court fulfill this definition. Only one is willing to put the Constitution in front of the Vatican in determining what is constitutional or not.
I know a lot of people that are good fathers (or mothers), do good in the community, and are fun to be around. I still wouldn’t want them on the court. Even the ones that are lawyers, I wouldn’t want on the court because they lack the relevant experience (many of the lawyers I know spend their days in law libraries looking up precedents, not arguing cases, and certainly not making life-changing decisions about the Constitution. The rest are Poli Sci professors).
I think one of the most relevant facts that Congress should pick apart is the fact that this guy apparently believes the President is above the law. That right there should disqualify him for the highest court because it is not true (I suspect the writers of the Constitution would be appalled at the idea, even those that tried to act like that while they were President) and it is dangerous. It takes us one step further down the road to emperor Trump (or Empress Ivanka or Emperor Ryan or whoever follows the elderly Trump).
It’s also relevant that I grew up in Chevy Chase and went to nursery school at Blessed Sacrament!
No, I mean irrelevant.
Today I learned that a lot of people apparently live in an actor.
I don’t think that’s quite true. On religious issues (including abortion) the Vatican drives most people here crazy, but on social/economic issues they are very pro-immigrant, in favor of a solid safety net, in favor of universal health care, in favor of a strong progressive tax and wealth redistribution, etc. I don’t see the right-wing Catholic justices jettisoning the Constitution to do any of that (except for Roberts’s vote on ObamaCare).
^ Ahem. They’re also very much against sex ed, contraception, and abortion. I can easily see the constitution being jettisoned to abolish that last in particular.
Yeah, Skeletor, but most of what they do on behalf of that comes under the heading of “Republican”. The anti-woman, anti-gay measures are right in line with their Catholicism, and they vote Catholic all the way…I suppose it could be said they vote Republican, but that’s only because the GOP has adopted right-wing Christianity as part of their platform, thanks to Nixon’s Southern Strategy. It hasn’t always been there.
And ain’t it odd that the secular institution, the Supreme Court, has SIX catholic seats out of nine? Demographics, representation?