WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - Even after the U.S. Senate has confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to the nation's highest court, some Democrats are considering trying to impeach Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's newest U.S. Supreme Court appointee, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, then appeared before the committee again to respond to a sexual assault allegation and was subject to a week-long follow-up investigation by the FBI. The vote to confirm Kavanaugh passed through the Senate 50-48 on Saturday.
Some Democrat politicians have been saying for weeks now that they would like to impeach Kavanaugh if their party scores majorities in both houses of Congress during this year's midterms. For example, Representative Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said on Twitter on Sept. 26, "Based on the numerous allegations of sexual assault against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, including these new criminal allegations by Julie Swetnick, the @HouseJudiciary Committee must immediately start an investigation into Judge Kavanaugh to see if he should be impeached."
Based on the numerous allegations of sexual assault against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, including these new criminal allegations by Julie Swetnick, the @HouseJudiciary Committee must immediately start an investigation into Judge Kavanaugh to see if he should be impeached. https://t.co/IqkeZMcoXl
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) September 26, 2018
Likewise, Representative Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) has promised he would push for yet another investigation into Kavanaugh if the Democrats win the House of Representatives in November. If the Democrats seize control, Nadler is likely to become head of the House Judiciary Committee.
Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor emeritus, told Fox News that impeaching Kavanaugh for something that allegedly happened decades ago is unlikely and might not be even possible.
"Impeachment operates for what a judicial officer does well, serving as a judicial officer," Dershowitz said on Oct. 6. "That would be something for the Justice Department to look to, not really Congress. They don't have the skills and the investigative authority to investigate crime."
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has become energized to fight against the Democrats in the midterms to avoid any possibility of impeachment.
The South Carolina senator told Fox News on Sunday, "I hope everybody running for the House in these purple districts will be asked the question: 'Do you support impeaching Judge Kavanaugh based on five allegations, none of which could be corroborated? Do you want an outcome so badly that you would basically turn the law upside down?"
Many politicians, pundits and analysts are saying that the Kavanaugh confirmation battle has energized both Republican and Democrat bases in the lead-up to this year's midterm races.
"Our energy and enthusiasm was lagging behind theirs until this," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. "And I think this gave us the motivation and the opportunity to have the kind of turnout in this off-year election that would help us hold the Senate."
On the other side of the aisle, Katie Hill, a Democrat House candidate in California, told The Wall Street Journal that she feels the Kavanaugh controversy has energized left-wing female voters.
"I really think this is going to drive women out to the polls in unprecedented numbers," she said.
Democrat senator from Hawaii Mazie Hirono has likewise expressed hope that the sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh will bring more women out in the midterms to vote Democrat. She has said, "I'm very focused on the here and now, which is that all these angry women, mainly, out there who saw what was going on and how the Senate was not able to deal with the entire issue of sexual assault."
Former George W. Bush administration official Bruce Mehlman told Fox News, "The fight over Judge Kavanaugh is increasing base intensity for both parties, helping Democrats with white college-educated women in suburban House districts while bolstering Republicans among evangelical voters in the many rural red state Senate contests."
Professor Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party in the 1980s when they both were in high school. Ford's allegation, in the form of a confidential letter to Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), was leaked to the media after Kavanaugh's initial Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Kavanaugh insisted on his innocence and passionately defended his reputation to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senate Democrats have been opposed to Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court from the very beginning, even before President Trump announced that Kavanaugh was his nominee to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.
For example, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a July 2 opinion piece for The New York Times, "Perhaps the most consequential issues at stake in this Supreme Court vacancy are affordable health care and a woman's freedom to make the most sensitive medical decisions about her body."
Schumer's piece was published several days before Trump even announced who his nominee was.
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