Last week, in response to Democratic chatter about expanding the Supreme Court, Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted, “This has been a Dream of the Left for decades. I will do everything in my power to ensure that dream is NEVER fulfilled!”
Democrats must be quaking (sarcasm in original). After all, the South Carolina Republican now holds the gavel of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, which in the seven months since he took over as chair has done exactly nothing in response to the left’s character assassination—through perjury and possible witness tampering—of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
In his final memorandum to Senate Republicans on Christine Blasey Ford’s debunked claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while in high school, outgoing Chair Chuck Grassley stressed the investigation was ongoing and that committee investigators continued to pursue leads to determine whether Ford committed perjury and whether others involved attempted to tamper with witnesses. But Graham appears to have done nothing in response to Ford’s fraud since taking over as chair.
Graham’s inaction is disappointing to conservatives who thought the long-time senator’s lambasting of his colleagues for “legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics” meant the man had his mojo back. But for all of his righteous indignation, the Graham meme made famous at the time showcases more gravitas than his current leadership does.
Yes, Kavanaugh is on the high court, but Democrats are still hounding the man. Last week, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler demanded access to more Kavanaugh records. Citing the committee’s role in “judicial disqualification and misconduct,” Nadler asked the National Archives to turn over records related to Kavanaugh’s stint in the George W. Bush White House from 2001 to 2006.
“The Committee’s jurisdiction encompasses the laws governing judicial ethics and the judicial oath of office; judicial disqualification, and misconduct; and the organization of the Supreme Court,” Nadler wrote in seeking the records.
Kavanaugh will remain a target of the left so long as Graham refuses to mete out consequences to Ford, her enablers, and Democratic senators and staffers who peddled the fraud in an effort to prevent his confirmation.
In addition, what liberals did to Kavanaugh will seem a peck compared to the pummeling that awaits the next Republican nominee. Democrats don’t need to expand the Supreme Court to stack the courts, they just need Graham and other ineffective Republicans to stick to their seething.
Every putative victim now knows Congress is a consequence-free zone. And every liberal senator now knows that he just needs to push whatever mythical misconduct someone willing to swear to presents, and he has a chance to thwart the next conservative nominee.
The lack of justice for Kavanaugh is but one half of Graham’s failings. As investigative journalist Paul Sperry noted earlier this month, since taking over as chair for the Judiciary Committee, Graham has held zero hearings on Spygate.
In that same time, Graham made more than two dozen appearances on Fox News, prompting Sperry to note that “Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham is squandering his power. Instead of going on Fox, he should be subpoenaing Bruce Ohr, Glenn Simpson, Nellie Ohr, Kathleen Kavalec, Victoria Nuland, Jonathan Winer, Joseph Pientka, Lisa Page, and Sally Yates and put them under oath & Klieg lights.”
Graham’s failure to fully investigate Spygate portends an even more devastating consequence to our country than his inaction surrounding the fraud pushed during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. With Spygate, we are talking about the widespread abuse of power to take down a political opponent and democratically elected president. If the Senate Judiciary committee stands down when faced with this reality, we’re likely to see the next attempt at a soft coup succeed.
It’s beyond time for Graham to vacate the green room and raise his gavel for justice—both for Kavanaugh and President Trump. And if he is unwilling to do so, Graham should hand off the chair to someone who will.