EDITORIAL: Kavanaugh interrupted

Senate Democrats have decided that disruption is their best strategy to stop the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. It’s a sure sign that Kavanaugh will be the next U.S. Supreme Court justice.

On Tuesday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, opened Kavanaugh’s hearing with what should have been a forgettable introduction. He didn’t get very far. Just seven seconds in, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., interrupted. She wasn’t the only one. Democrats interrupted the hearing more than 50 times in the first hour. There were protesters from the gallery as well. The scene was so chaotic that Kavanaugh’s wife rushed their two young daughters out of the hearing.

Harris and other Democrats justified their protests by claiming they wanted time to review a batch of documents they received Monday night. Their obvious desire to use the media spotlight to bolster their respective 2020 presidential campaigns also loomed large.

Documents from Kavanaugh’s time working in the George W. Bush White House have been a continuous source of disagreement. Democrats claim they’ve only received a small portion of them. But as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pointed out Tuesday, Kavanaugh has produced over 500,000 pages of documents. That’s more than the previous five Supreme Court nominees combined.

Further, Kavanaugh didn’t author the documents Democrats are making a stink about. He simply distributed them to their proper destinations.

These records aren’t germane to Kavanaugh’s judicial philosophy — which is what the committee is supposed to be considering. He spent 10 years on the bench of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and authored over 300 opinions. His judicial philosophy is well-known and well within the conservative mainstream.

That’s the real issue here. For decades, liberals have used the Supreme Court to impose legislative changes without having to do the hard work of winning elections. Retired justice Anthony Kennedy, whom Kavanaugh would replace, sometimes voted with the court’s four liberal justices to invent or preserve previously undiscovered rights. Kavanaugh would give the court five justices who believe a judge “must be an umpire — a neutral and impartial arbitrator who favors no litigant or policy.” That’s how Kavanaugh described his judicial philosophy in his opening statement.

Democrats’ chances of stopping Kavanaugh received another blow Tuesday. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey named former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl as the successor for the late John McCain. Kyl will be sworn in this week after spending the summer helping Kavanaugh navigate the nomination process. McCain had been too ill to travel to D.C., so Kyl gives Republicans another yes vote.

All the Democrat hysteria does is confirm they don’t have the votes to stop Kavanaugh’s nomination.