1. I talked last month about Old-Guard Leftists who can’t really fathom why the Democratic Party got rid of former US Senator Al Franken as fast as it did. stoehr.substack.com/p/trump-expose…
2. So typical, some said. The Democrats kill themselves before they kill the Republicans. What about due process? others asked. Opportunists like Kirsten Gillibrand were calling for Franken’s head before he had a chance to defend himself.
3. Still others: the whole thing was a Republic hit job. *Of course* the Democrats swallowed it.
That was then.
That was then.
4. Having demonstrated zero tolerance for credible allegations of sexual misconduct, the Senate Democrats fighting the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh are on solid ground now that a credible allegation has come out against the appeals court judge.
5. In getting rid of Franken, Dems showed that there are things more important than politics. This is important, b/c Kavanaugh’s supporters are trying to lower the standard: they are saying there’s nothing wrong with going all-in for Kavanaugh, b/c Dems would have done the same.
6. Well, no.
7. To be sure, you could argue that calling for Al Franken’s head was itself a political calculation, at the very least a way of answering the demands of the party’s core interest groups, particularly women (who are probably the majority of the base at this point).
8. To which I would say, yup, it was a political calculation, but it was a political calculation in the service of something larger than politics.
9. And that something that’s larger than politics (equality of treatment for women) is helping the Democrats in a partisan battle for the soul of the Supreme Court, a court that will, if Kavanaugh is confirmed, do its best to erode protections for women.
10. Hi thanks for reading! Please sign up for the Editorial Board, and if you can, become a subscriber. I sent daily analysis to your inbox every weekday. Plain English for normal people trying to understand what the hell is going on. stoehr.substack.com/p/confirming-k…
