Sometimes you just have to give the devil his due.
I have hammered John Kennedy pretty hard on his record and on his campaign for and his performance in the U.S. Senate, particularly in regard to his unquestioning subservience to his lord and master, Donald Trump.
But recently, in the words of my grandfather, he kicked over the traces (it’s a term about plowing the good earth with an insubordinate mule, for the more unsophisticated among you) regarding the Trumpster’s court nominees.
It was both a long time coming and something of a shock to see Kennedy undergo the delicate medical transplant procedure that involved replacing jelly with a spine—he certainly displayed no symptoms of having a backbone regarding the Republican shell game called tax reform or of challenging any of the other administration agenda items.
But his questioning of Federal Election Commission Chairman Matthew Spencer Peterson, one of Trump’s nominees for a federal judgeship, showed just how shallow Peterson is and how slipshod Trump’s aides are in vetting nominees for lifetime positions on the federal bench. In short, they made it almost too easy for Kennedy.
If I had to sum up Peterson’s performance in a single sentence it would be this:
Based on his lack of knowledge of the most basic principles of law, he should return to his alma mater and demand a refund.
The questioning by Kennedy and Peterson’s feeble responses were at once comical and painful.
I have never set foot in a law school class but after working as a sub-mediocre claims adjuster for the Louisiana Office of Risk Management for 20 years, even I know that the Daubert Standard is used by judges to qualify expert witnesses during trial.
Even I know that a Motion in Limine is a legal maneuver (more commonly employed by the defense counsel and always discussed outside the presence of a jury) to bar certain evidence from admission in trial.
Peterson drew a blank on both questions as he did when Kennedy asked if he had ever actually tried either a civil or criminal case at the state or federal court level. He did say that he “may have” participated in a handful of depositions early on in his legal career—that is, if you can legitimately call his experience an actual career.
Kennedy, who has a knack for mouthing nonsense like “I’d rather drink week killer,” actually had a jewel during an interview with New Orleans TV station WWL when he said, “Just because you’ve seen My Cousin Vinny doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge.” In the words of Larry the Cable Guy, that’s funny, I don’t care who you are.
Fortunately, but too late to avoid abject humiliation, The White House withdrew Peterson’s name for consideration but not before he managed to turn insult into further self-inflicted injury when he said, “I had hoped my nearly two decades of public service might carry more weight than my two worst minutes on television.”
John Sachs of Ruston summed that remark up rather succinctly: “A garbage collector is performing public service but that doesn’t qualify him to serve as a federal judge.”
For your entertainment, here is a VIDEO of that exchange between Kennedy and Peterson that is certain to instill unshakable confidence in the Trump administration, especially among all those nasty critics in the media who harbor unreasonable expectations of real leadership from our POTUS—or at least sporadic signs of lucidity.
Of course, all that leaves unanswered the burning question of what prompted Kennedy’s sudden display of intestinal fortitude. After all, he had shown all the aggression of a three-day-old kitten when questioning Betsy DeVos during her confirmation hearings for Secretary of Education.
As a footnote, perhaps it should be noted that Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) also pulled two other nominees for district court judgeships. It turns out that one nominee, Brett Talley, was a horror book author who has taken part in ghost-hunting activities but never tried a case. Worse, he posted a message board comment in 2011 defending the Ku Klux Klan. Jeff Mateer, who had been nominated for a judgeship in Texas, is on record as advocating discrimination against the LGBT community and as calling transgender proof that “Satan’s plan is working.” Kennedy also had opposed the nominations of both Talley and Mateer.
As to his motivation for torpedoing Peterson, the Washington Post on Tuesday had a lengthy analysis of how this particular testy little scenario played out.
It turns out it may have been as much revenge against White House Counsel Don McGahn on Kennedy’s part as for any philosophical principle or anything having to do with qualifications. Talley is married to McGahn’s chief of staff, so Kennedy’s smack down dug his spurs in a little deeper.
It all started about three weeks ago, wrote Post reporter James Hohmann, when Kennedy first made known his dissatisfaction with the manner in which the White House was ignoring his concerns about the less-than-stellar qualifications of some of Trump’s judicial nominees.
Kennedy was more than a little miffed when Trump refused to nominate Kyle Schonekas, Kennedy’s first choice for U.S. attorney in New Orleans. McGahn, you see, oversees that process.
And then, Kennedy has complained that he was never consulted prior to Trump’s selection of Kyle Duncan for a 5th Circuit judgeship in New Orleans.
It didn’t help smooth the trouble waters when White House spokesman Hogan Gidley (whoever that is) said last Friday that Kennedy humiliated Peterson because he, Kennedy, is one of “the president’s opponents” and was “trying to distract from the record-setting success the president has had on judicial nominations.” Now, anyone with any memory of that ugly 2016 senatorial election, will vividly remember Kennedy blatantly running as an unabashed Trump supporter, so any suggestion that he is Trump’s opponent is typical balderdash from the Trump White House.
Finally, wrote Hohmann (and this is key), Kennedy wants to be Louisiana’s next governor and he feels his sudden flash of independence might boost his chances. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that Trump’s approval rating is around 34 percent, which is below even that of Bobby Jindal just before he left office (officially left in January 2016, that is; in reality, he left shortly after his re-election in 2011). Kennedy can read the tea leaves and he’s certainly aware that Trump’s star is in descending mode.
And there you have it: the underlying reasons for Kennedy’s emerging from the shadows as a freshman senator to dare show up Donald Trump on the national stage as a demonstration to the folks back home that he is his own man.
While State Treasurer, he took on Bobby Jindal, a governor from his own party, by repeating his mantra that the state did not have a revenue problem, it had a spending problem. In Washington, where he could just as easily be lost in the crowd, he has elbowed his way to the front in order to face down a president from his own party by challenging the credentials of judicial nominees.
Kennedy, in summation, can be best described by quoting from The Pilgrim, a wonderfully poetic Kris Kristofferson song:
He’s a walking contradiction,
Partly truth and partly fiction,
Taking every wrong direction
On his lonely way back home.
There’s a lot of wrong directions
On that lonely way back home.
“Based on his lack of knowledge of the most basic principles of law, he should return to his alma mater and demand a refund.”
Petersen “holds” a law degree from the respected University of Virginia Law School. UVA should call Petersen and demand their degree back.
As for John Kennedy….I respected him for standing up to jindal, but after spending most of his first year in the senate MIA, I wrote him off as useless. Alright, good job embarrassing Petersen out of the wrong-headed nomination for a judgeship, after embarrassing the state and himself with other foolish remarks. Taken as a whole, Kennedy’s record is tepid at best. And why would anyone want to be governor of a banana republic when you can live it up in glitzy DeeCee with us bananas paying for it?
Peterson looked really bad. But, the person that vetted him and put his name up for federal judge is the real stupid person. We are suffering the downward spiral of such stupidity
Edith, I am not a Trump supporter, nor a Kennedy supporter, but I applaud Sen. Kennedy for what he is doing. I believe this should be the case no matter what party is doing the nominating. Also, Edith, I agree with you. I do not blame Trump, nor Peterson. I blame the Trump staffers who did not do their job.
If Sen. Kennedy wanted Kyle Schonekas for U. S. Attorney in New Orleans, then that’s who should have gotten the nod!! Kennedy’s not about to risk his good name and reputation indicating a preference that he PERSONALLY makes on anyone who would end up being an embarrassment to him. Kennedy personally reads many of our Louisiana blogs, news stories, and he is abreast of what’s going on in Louisiana more so than just about anyone I’ve ever met.
If they’d taken Kennedy’s guidance on the U. S. Attorney position, perhaps some of the massive governmental corruption that is going on down here unabated could start to be prosecuted! Confirm Fremin for the Middle District and get SOMEBODY in place in New Orleans!! We’re getting fed up with the sheer volume of governmental corruption in Louisiana, and we’re sick and tired of reading, “The Feds are investigating all of it.” It’s time to read either the word “indicted,” or “indictments” in a headline entailing high-level government officials down in this God-forsaken, corruption-out-the-wazoo state many of us have called home for our entire lives!
“…Bobby Jindal just before he left office (officially left in January 2016, that is; in reality, he left shortly after his re-election in 2011).”
I don’t care who you are or support, that’s funny…and oh so true!
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