Lest someone think our ire over the Democrat’s actions during the Kavanaugh hearings have now caused us to support Trump’s Republicans let us state nothing could be farther from the truth.  Bad actions by one side doesn’t excuse the thoughtless ones of the other.  We know some Never Trumpers have loudly voiced support for voting Democrat in order to weaken Trump.  Big loses for the Republicans would be seen as a repudiation of Trump and pave the way to their ascendancy.  Just how giving power of any kind to a party where the principles due process and the presumption of innocence are replaced with its more politically expedient to believe an accuser.  Hundreds of years of developing the principles underlining our civil rights tossed aside for possible short-term gains. Joe Biden put it best when he said, “The question is not who Donald Trump is. America knows who he is. The question is, Who are we?’  The abandonment of our basic principles while encouraging mob action isn’t an attractive alternative.

This doesn’t make Trump’s positions on free trade, immigration, entitlements and fiscal sanity any more attractive.  Moreover, his demeanor has only attracted imitation from the other side to the detriment of everyone.  We will always have disagreements, but demeaning others leaves wounds.  At home and abroad long memories will recall slights and name calling damaging us far into the future. Wild unsubstantiated accusations damaging good people’s reputations won’t be soon forgotten either.  As we have said the two major parties are much more alike than they would have us to believe and we now have them competing as to which party can be uglier.

So long as the more extreme wings of the two major parties can control their party’s agendas they can’t help continuing down these dead-end roads. Visible problems will continue to be ignored.  Until a new major party dedicated to real problem solving appears, we fear the situation will only get worse.

In our last post we showed how through Democratic political malpractice, the Republicans got Judge Kavanaugh confirmed on the Supreme Court and energized their base to a point retaining control of both houses of congress is no longer out of the question.  There is a feeling among some Republicans to just turn the page and put all this behind us. This is understandable given the ugliness of the confirmation hearings.  It would also be a colossal mistake.  The accusers, their lawyers and the Democrats should  continue to be investigated.  We need to know just how totally unsubstantiated accusations of decades ago alleged crimes almost came within an eyelash of unseating  and destroying a federal judge.   There are very compelling  reasons for this .

We were told by the Democrats and their media allies a confirmation hearing is not a legal proceeding just a job interview so due process with a presumption of innocence isn’t required. Possibly these people have never been faced with filling a key position with a top-notch candidate.  In most cases it is the prospective employer wooing the prospect and not the other way around. Imagine how difficult it would for any employer to attract top talent if they acquired a reputation as unfair ugly place to work. A place where a totally unfounded claim could forever stain your reputation.  Most employers go to extraordinary lengths to avoid such a reputation.  The Federal Government as an employer is in a particularly  vulnerable position as the salaries are in great variance with the importance of its major positions.  People take a judgeship or a cabinet position not for the salary but the prestige, a desire for public service or a combination of the two.  They don’t do it for the money.  A top lawyer or corporate executive makes far in the private sector.  The prospect of a single uncorroborated accusation ruining your hard-won reputation forever changes the equation for entering public service. A nation needing top-notch people to fill its big positions would instead become a place to avoid.  Is this what we really want for our country?

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In the Late Notes of our last post,  we advised the Democrats to be careful what they wished for.  They wished and indeed demanded yet another FBI  Judge Bret Kavanaugh background check.   Well they got it, making it the seventh in the series.  We warned it was unlikely to find anything further negative about the Judge given the microscope he’s been under.  On the other hand, the accusers were near virgin territory.  The results are in and as we predicted absolutely nothing supporting the accusers was found.  Without any corroborating evidence, the accusers were left naked for all to see.  Vindicated, Judge Kavanaugh is now a Supreme Court Justice.  What were the Democrats thinking?

Going into the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, the Democrats enjoyed a double-digit edge on congressional generic ballot polling.  This pointed to a strong possibility of  a blue wave rolling over not only the house but even the Senate.  Polls showed far greater enthusiasm to vote among Democrats.  They were united in their disgust with President Trump while Republicans had mixed feelings about their President. Many were happy with the tax cuts, and regulatory reform but distrusted him on such things as trade,  immigration and temperament.  What all Republicans agreed on was the appointment of conservative judges and it appeared they already had their wish with two Supreme court justices and a host of other federal judges. If the Democrats avoided a major mistake, they were on their way to regaining some measure of power.  Today, the generic ballot is a statistical dead heat and the enthusiasm gap has disappeared.  All this happened in just a few weeks.

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A least one good thing has come from the otherwise disgusting Judge Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.  Always willing to put an optimistic face on even the worst situation, we  have found an excellent way to tell if a person own principles put them on the conservative or progressive team.  Simply, if you used the phrase, “Credible Accusation”, in speech and/or print in describing Mrs. Ford’s unsubstantiated 36 yr old allegation you’re a Progressive.  Simply, centuries of principles of fairness and justice took no part in your judgement just simple expediency.  She’s a women with an elite background so her accusation must be taken as credible. Now, she can be considered a credible witness in the sense of not being a convicted felon or perjurer. A credible accusation is entirely different.  It requires substantiation which to this point is totally lacking. Forget time-tested principles, if you don’t like his policies or him personally, she’s credible and must be believed.  This means disregarding the long accepted concepts of fairness whereby unsubstantiated 36yr old  claims are not to be used to destroy someone.  It means disregarding the presumption of innocence by demanding the accused prove his innocence.  Remember, it was Edmond Burke, revered by many as the father of conservatism, who remarked of those who put “policy” above justice, “Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society, and any eminent departure from it under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.”

Why is this important?  Because there are many masquerading as impartial or as conservatives who are nothing of the sort.  Reporters claiming to be fair are exposed by including their own judgement by using  “Credible Accusation” in their stories.  We’re talking straight news stories in any media. Opinion journalists have every right to make judgements, but not those reporting the news. When you do this you reveal your own and by extension your employer’s  bias.  You give credence to the cries “fake news.”  A free press in a cornerstone of our society, but it’s a two-way street. To maintain our esteem you need to keep your bias out of news stories.  If you’re thinking they can’t possibly be looking at me, just do a simple search of your reporting on the Kavanaugh Hearings.  If you find you said, wrote, tweeted or posted that Mrs. Ford made a “credible accusation” or it’s equivalent you violated your ethical obligations.  If you want to see this bias in living color, just look at the CNN programs featuring rotating panels of journalists from across media, Reliable Sources and Inside Politics, over the past few weeks.  The one thread throughout these programs is the use of “credible accusation” by these “journalists”. Check the record. Just this past weekend on CBS” Face the Nation, host John Dickerson opened the program with “current credible allegations” against Judge  Kavanaugh. How these “journalists” right this wrong we leave to them, but they can’t be expected to be trusted in the future until they  do.  Trust in the news media was at an all time low before the hearings. It is in no one’s interest to see how low you can go.

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