Every shout at the Capitol over a court pick has its gritty precedent
Naturally the Democrats are criticizing the scope of the FBI's quickie review of top-court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The once-over was ordered up following accuser Christine Blasey Ford's dramatic testimony last week before the GOP-run Senate Judiciary Committee.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California told reporters after seeing the unreleased 46-page report that “the most notable part of this report is what’s not in it."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) blamed the White House for "a very limited process that would constrain the FBI from getting all of the facts." His party demanded a bureau report and the White House authorized it to get reluctant Republican Sen. Jeff Flake to vote for Kavanaugh's confirmation.
Agents sent the findings without interviewing Ford or other key potential witnesses, some of whom had testified publicly or submitted affidavits to the Senate.
All this carried a faint echo of a moment earlier in President Donald Trump's tumultuous term when another FBI procedure — sought by Republican lawmakers — fell short of the desired partisan results.
One year ago it emerged that former FBI Director James Comey drafted a memo about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email use before his staff had completed the 2016 probe and interviewed her and close aides.
Key Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Senate Judiciary Committee members who expressed satisfaction with the Kavanaugh report this week, had a very different take on the Clinton probe that they deemed short-circuited.
"Conclusion first, fact-gathering second — that's no way to run an investigation. The FBI should be held to a higher standard than that, especially in a matter of such great public interest and controversy," Grassley and Graham wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Now as then, nobody from the other party joined those making the fuss.
The Democrats from the outset wanted Kavanaugh's confirmation put off or withdrawn in hopes of the Senate changing hands due to next month's midterm Congressional elections.
But the Republicans, in the majority, stomped on the accelerator.
Only two years ago, Democrats were the ones pushing for a quick confirmation vote when President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to succeed the late Antonin Scalia on the top court.
At that time Republicans, in the majority, saw patience as a virtue — in hopes the Senate would change hands due to the November 2016 election. They succeeded.
Partisan role reversals come in all sizes and shapes.
On Tuesday, a man was arrested in the office of Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) for allegedly posting addresses, phone numbers and other private information of senators, including Graham.
Remember when in 2015 Trump read out then-rival Graham's cellphone number at a rally, howling that people were "tired of the Lindsey Grahams of the world?”
Of course, many parallels have been drawn between Kavanaugh's hearings and the 1991 Supreme Court confirmation of Clarence Thomas, who prevailed despite allegations of sexual harassment.
Thomas also was the nominee of a Republican president, George H.W. Bush. But there was a big difference in the party dynamic. The Senate that approved him 52-48 had a Democratic majority.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
