Kavanaugh took the extremely unusual step of doing an interview on Fox News last night. The contents of the interview are of less interest than the choice of forum. It would appear that Kavanaugh is trying to rally the GOP base to support his nomination, which would make perfect sense if he were a politician, but he isn’t, at least in theory. He is supposed to be above politics.
The principal objection to Kavanaugh in my eyes is not his sex life as a teenager, but that he will just be a stooge for Trump and the GOP agenda. His record as a partisan political figure prior to serving on the DC Circuit was always of some concern in that regard. The interview with a channel known for its GOP affiliations has only made things worse, and will damage the image of the Supreme Court in the likely event that he is ultimately confirmed, because no one is going to believe he has any interest in giving his political opponents a fair hearing, no matter what he said during the confirmation process.
For Trump, the entire notion of an apolitical judicial system is just so much sentimental hooey, so he probably thinks destroying our illusions is a good thing. It isn’t. Like the markets, the judicial system runs on public trust, not just raw power. If that trust ultimately disappears as the result of overtly partisan judicial behavior, either tyranny or anarchy will follow.