Hardest possible choice

Allegations of assault and attempted rape are swirling around Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. There are people who have evidence that he perjured himself during the hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Some are wondering about Kavanaugh’s history of huge gambling debts that were paid off in unexplained ways. Any of those would disqualify someone from a minimum wage job. And here we are talking about the top justice job in America.

This has John Rogers, in a Twitter thread, wondering: Why Kavanaugh? His paper trail is a nightmare (and, when this started, didn’t include the assault charges). Does he have a great legal mind? Because he vowed to overturn Roe v. Wade? Other judges have vowed the same and are just as smart and are squeaky clean.

Trump's superpower is attracting other people venal enough to do whatever he tells them to do in order to advance themselves. It's his one genuine talent. … Kavanaugh was the hardest possible confirmation choice on that list. There can only be one reason you choose the guy who makes the process that much harder. One.

Alas, Rogers doesn’t name that one reason.

However, some reading I’ve done recently (which, even though I’ve searched through my browser history, I can’t find or credit) does suggest a reason:

Perhaps the nasty guy has dirt on Kavanaugh and will blackmail him unless he does the nasty guy’s bidding.

Some people, when faced with that threat, will simply not play. But go back to the nasty guy’s “genuine talent” of finding people who desperately want what he is offering and willing to live under the threat of blackmail.