A first test U.S. Senate test vote on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will be held this morning.
A spokeswoman for the White House expressed certainty that Kavanaugh would be approved – and Senate Republican leaders are saying the same.
In a fashion, apologies – or statements that resemble them – can be viewed as indicators of confidence. Strategic retreats that do no harm once the objective is obtained, and smoothing over the rough edges left by a fight makes future conversations more palatable.
On Thursday morning, we woke up to a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which Kavanaugh, in a highly unusual move, attempted to explain his caustic approach to last week's hearing that pitted him against Christine Blasey Ford, the university professor who accused him of sexual assault when they were both teenagers. The key phrase from Kavanaugh:
I was very emotional last Thursday, more so than I have ever been. I might have been too emotional at times. I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said.
He included no specifics, and that was the closest the appeals court judge came to a statement of regret.
More important was a statement from U.S. Sen. David Perdue later in the day. On Wednesday, Perdue had taken to the chamber floor and let loose an angry tirade. As posted earlier this morning:
Without naming specific lawmakers, Perdue cited comments from Democrats such as U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., that have stirred up protesters. Waters in June urged supporters to confront Cabinet members and "tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere."
"This is America, but these are the tactics of the Brownshirts in Germany in the 1930s," Perdue said, using a common nickname for the Sturmabteilung, the guerrilla force that guarded party meetings and violently harassed political opponents. "This is outrageous and unacceptable behavior for anyone, but much less a member of this body."
While it is much violated, there has been a rule in public discourse along the lines of "He who first invokes Hitler, loses." Among those reprimanding him on Thursday was the American Jewish Committee. Perdue's apology was real, but came through a spokeswoman:
"He regrets using this historical reference, while attempting to show how heated and out of hand things have become in Washington," she said.
Perdue was one of several U.S. senators harassed at Reagan National Airport in D.C. by opponents of Kavanaugh’s nomination.
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Our AJC colleague Jennifer Brett, traveling with Republican Brian Kemp on Thursday, caught this interesting observation from U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, that connected the Kavanaugh hearings to the race for governor:
"The U.S. Senate has disappointed us in the confirmation process. But in the state of Georgia, the governor gets to pick the people that run the agencies. There's no confirmation process," he said.
"There's no requirement that they be from Georgia or respect our values," Scott said, adding: "That's one of the reasons I'm so comfortable with Brian Kemp for governor."
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We're still poking through the video of this week's series of debates hosted by the Atlanta Press Club on Georgia Public Broadcasting. This candidate-on-candidate exchange among secretary of state candidates caught our eye as a brief window into the details of Georgia election law:
Democrat John Barrow: Brad, you're a successful guy. Your worth some $30 million. And yet since 2005, you've been delinquent on property taxes in Gwinnett and Muscogee counties.
This was actually made an issue in your campaign for city council in 2011, your campaign for the state House of Representatives in 2015, and again in your campaign for secretary of state this year. And yet you didn't pay your delinquent property taxes until this year. Can you please tell us why you didn't pay your property taxes until this year?
Republican Brad Raffensperger: We do over $30 million a year. And each year we pay over $1 million in taxes in all the different states we work in. We work in over 30 to 35 different states. Like I said back in the spring, if there's something that we missed, we'd be happy to take care of it. And we did.
Barrow: We both know the real reason. This was made an issue in 2011 and 2015, and again in 2018. The real reason is because there's a technicality in the law that allows you to pay your taxes late, even if you qualified as a tax delinquent, if it was not determined in a court of law.
The only reason you paid it this year is because your [GOP primary] opponent, David Belle Isle, filed a complaint that was going to get you knocked off the ballot. What you've done is take something that was designed to protect the innocent from innocent mistakes, and turned it into a safe harbor for deadbeats – even rich deadbeats. If that ain't disqualifying, it ought to be.
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Former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder will be in Henry County on Sunday, on behalf of several Democrats, including gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams; Sarah Riggs Amico, candidate for lieutenant governor; and Charlie Bailey, candidate for attorney general. The venue: 2667 Highway 42 North in McDonough.
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