There’s no reason not to support Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination

The only thing standing in the way of the confirmation of one of the most qualified Supreme Court nominees in history, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, is the petty partisanship of Washington obstructionists.

Despite the venomous rhetoric from some lawmakers, Kavanaugh is no different from many of the Supreme Court justices who have served before him — an honest jurist who interprets the Constitution the way it was written.

Kavanaugh’s résumé leaves little room to doubt his intellect. He graduated at the top of his class from Yale Law School and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

In his current position as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, his rulings are indisputable proof that he can rise above judicial partisanship and rule on a case by case basis.

At least one Democratic senator understands how qualified a nominee Brett Kavanaugh is.

“I think he seems to be a very fine person of high moral standards. A family person who’s very involved in his community ... And with that, you know, we have to just look at making sure that the rule of law and the Constitution is going to be followed,” Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said of Kavanaugh last month.



A former law clerk of Kavanaugh describes him as being “principled, diligent, and open minded.”

U.S. Attorney Rebecca Tailbelson said her former boss would diverge from his colleagues on both the left and the right when the law required it. She said that Kavanaugh considers each case as they come, and is not one to prejudge a case or assume he knows the answer in advance.

Even liberal law professor Akhil Reed Amar recently agreed with President Donald Trump’s assessment that Kavanaugh is “someone with impeccable credentials, great intellect, unbiased judgment, and deep reverence for the laws and Constitution of the United States.”

Any level-headed person can see that Kavanaugh has shown throughout his career the aptitude to consider each individual case based on prudence and discretion.

But there are some self-serving politicians in Washington who won’t even give Kavanaugh a chance.

That’s a shame because, historically, court nominations haven’t been a partisan debacle. In fact, hostilities over a Supreme Court vacancy are relatively new.

Up until the 1970s, most confirmations to the Supreme Court were decided by voice vote, and nearly half of all confirmations since President George Washington have been confirmed without a recorded vote.

Trump won Missouri in a landslide, beating Hillary Clinton by nearly 20 points. Shouldn’t Missourians expect Sen. Claire McCaskill to side with their interests and vote to confirm the president’s nominee?

Unfortunately, many of McCaskill’s Democratic colleagues are planning to obstruct Kavanaugh’s nomination to further their own partisan agendas. A stark difference of opinion in policy is one thing, but to resist the confirmation of a highly-qualified judicial nominee is flat-out extremism.

The partisanship and rhetoric coming from the talking heads and Democrats in Washington over Kavanaugh is outrageous. It’s time to put the hostilities of the 2016 election behind us and move forward as a country.

McCaskill should vote to confirm one of the most qualified Supreme Court nominees of our time — Brett Kavanaugh. He is the right judge for the job.

Bay Buchanan is former U.S. Treasurer.