In her book on Justice Brett Kavanaugh, ‘Justice on Trial,’ Mollie Hemingway warns of things to come

Kavanaugh’s nomination was finally approved, though his reputation was in ruins. He and his wife and daughters will never forget what happened. It was positively shameful.

Chicago Tribune  “ 'Carrie and I wanted to write this book because we knew that what happened last year was extremely important, the Kavanaugh confirmation and what happened to him but also what was happening to the very notion of justice itself,” Hemingway said “And so, we tied it to what has been going on with the Supreme Court in recent decades.”   

The Judge was used for cheap publicity photos

"Only a child, or a useful idiot, could look at our political life today and see the anger and constant emotional outrage and think it all began less than three years ago. It didn’t.

" 'Justice on Trial” takes us back to where much of it started for real, to the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Robert Bork, and the later nomination of Justice Thomas, and how they were shamed, mercilessly, by Democrats and media allies who viewed conservatives on the Supreme Court as threats to their power and influence.

"The late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and his infamous, incendiary speech was one thing. They also lined up actor Gregory Peck, as if he were the real Atticus Finch, to trash Bork. Actor Clint Eastwood volunteered to cut a pro-Bork commercial in response, but the Reagan White House thought this would be unseemly.

“ 'Robert Bork’s own son tried to go on air to defend his father and was told no, that this would be out of the question,” Hemingway said. “But after Bork’s nomination is defeated there is a huge change in the conservative political movement, because they realized that if they don’t fight, they’re going to lose.” . . .

Reading it, you can hear today’s echoes in what happened last year, and you can hear how it will sound in the future, loud and desperate and angry, with reason drowned by emotion in the pursuit of power.