Once upon a time there was an alcoholic who became the president of the United States.
Once upon a time there was an alcoholic who became a justice of the Supreme Court.
This is no fairy tale. It is a true story.
Bush and Kavanaugh are similar in odd ways.
Each man went to Yale college, though in different decades.
Both were "legacy" admits, students admitted partly because they had ancestors who went to Yale.
Bush, of course, had almost endless numbers of Yale ancestors, including his father and grandfather. In Kavanaugh's case, it was his paternal grandfather who helped open the door. He lied about this during the hearings ("I have no connections there," he said. "I got there by busting my tail.")
As it turns out, legacies or not, both men were fall down drunks at Yale, and both were members of the same notorious fraternity which eventually was thrown off Yale's campus. Yes, George H.W.Bush had also been a DKE man.
Did the President, who gave up alcohol when he was 39, see his younger self in the younger man, who, we have heard at the recent hearings, never gave up liquor, at least not his beloved beer? As Kavanaugh testified to the Senate, "I liked beer. Still like beer. We drank beer." And they certainly shared a passion for sports, especially baseball.
As you may recall, Kavanaugh's financial disclosure forms showed he reported up to $200,000 in debt in 2016, on three credit cards and with a loan.
The Washington Post quoted White House spokesman Raj Shah as saying that Kavanaugh built up the debt by “buying Washington Nationals season tickets" and also attending playoff games for himself and a "handful" of friends.
We never learned, nor was he asked by the Judiciary Committee, how a man who had only $70,000 in reported assets, 2 girls in expensive private schools, had managed to buy a house worth $1.2 million and to spend $200,000 in baseball tickets by debt …which was quickly paid off by outside parties.
Who paid it off? No one, not Press, not Judiciary Committee asked, and we likely will never know.
Kavanaugh became attorney for George W. Bush's campaign in 2000. He played a major role in the legal battle between W. and Al Gore. He then became the associate counsel and then staff secretary in the Bush White House— a role which meant he attended most Oval Office meetings and was a sounding board for Bush.
In 2003, Bush nominated Kavanaugh to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. It took 3 years to confirm him. The length of the confirmation then never came up at the 2018 hearings but the 2003 confirmation process took three years. Kavanaugh wasn't confirmed until 2006. The Democrats put up a serious fight against putting him on a court, then as now, arguing that he was far too partisan. Bush stuck by him throughout it.
By the time he was first confirmed, Kavanaugh moved himself even more deeply into the Bush family circle. In 2004, he married Ashley Estes, who was George W's personal secretary at the White House. She was also Bush's personal assistant while he was Governor of Texas from 1996 to 1999 and for the Bush-Cheney Presidential campaign from 1996 to 2000.
After he left office, she was Director of Special Projects at the George W. Bush Presidential Foundation from 2005 to 2009, and then Media Relations Coordinator at the George W. Bush Presidential Center from 2009 to 2010.
It should not surprise us then that about 8 days ago, articles with titles like this from Business Insider began circulating - "George W. Bush is reportedly calling undecided senators to sway them to vote for Kavanaugh."
George W. Bush, the former President, a so called anti-Trump Republican, suddenly sprang to action supporting Donald Trump's about to be favorite jurist, and yes, Trump's White House wouldn't release the Bush White House papers on Kavanaugh, hundreds of thousands of them.
Now let's add Susan Collins, the Senator from Maine, to this conversation.
Don't be surprised. She too is an honorary member of the Bush family.
She got her start in politics as a congressional aide to Rep.-turned-Sen. William Cohen, a Maine Republican who was close to George H.W. Bush, GWB's father and himself a former President.
At the end of the H.W. Bush administration, she was appointed New England regional director of the Small Business Administration. In 1996, she was elected to the Senate to replace Cohen.
Yes, she received several calls from Jr. during the confirmation process. Today's news is filled with it.
Here is CNN today: George W. Bush made calls reassuring Collins about Kavanaugh
And this had happened too, earlier in Kavanaugh's 2018 confirmation process.
No wonder, this happened yesterday, after Collins disgraceful and decisive speech, announcing her support for Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh is now on the two Bushes, as well as on Trump and the Republican Senators.
But again,why are we surprised?
George H.W. Bush was the President who brought SCOTUS its first known sexual predator too.
It was he who nominated Clarence Thomas.
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October 6, 2018
Post Script. Here is another issue connected to GWB's appointment of Kavanaugh that needs attention.
What did the FBI reports on the nominee say back in 2003? We likely will never know:
In a letter addressed to committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), eight of the panel's 10 Democratic members said the majority's official Twitter account was incorrect when it sent out a tweet saying: "Nowhere in any of these six FBI reports ... was there ever a whiff of ANY issue ― at all ― related in any way to inappropriate sexual behavior or alcohol abuse."
The eight lawmakers indicated that statement was false and called on Grassley to issue an immediate correction. "While we are limited in what we can say about this background investigation in a public setting, we are compelled to state for the record that there is information in the second post that is not accurate," the Democrats wrote. "It is troubling that the Committee Majority has characterized the information from Judge Kavanaugh's confidential background investigation on Twitter, as that information is confidential and not subject to public release."
Hmm.
2. I was too upset yesterday to post. Today, I wrote this. I thought you should know about the Bushes, Collins & Kavanaugh. I hope you will read.
Share what happened in the backrooms of Midland, TX & Kennebunk, ME to make Kavanaugh happen!
I hope you will move forward too. Nov. 6 is soon. Now,more than ever. #TakeItBack #VoteBlue
