Politicians playing politics? Well, yes

I always find it fascinating when someone accuses politicians of playing politics.

Webster’s first reference for the word politics describes it as a.) the art or science of government; b.) the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy; and c.) the art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government.

Given those definitions, accusing politicians of playing politics is like accusing a football player of, well, playing football. It’s like trying to make a baseball player feel guilty for getting a base hit when part of his job is to — get this — get a base hit.

The latest in this weird game of accusing people of doing something that by trade they’re supposed to do has surfaced with the Brett Kavanaugh hearings on his nomination for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. I shouldn’t have to go into the details here, they’re as well known as the recipe for boiling water.

But Republicans — who want Kavanaugh on the bench — have accused Democrats — who do not — of playing politics by withholding allegations made by Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford that she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh when both were teenagers until the final days of the confirmation hearings. Now, others have come forward: women accusing him of additional sexual harassment and men of drunkenness that bordered on belligerence.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham turned the accusations into public anger and condemnation prior to last week’s 11-10 Judiciary Committee vote along party lines confirming Kavanaugh, turning red with rage at Democrats’ “dirty politics” and insinuating, with some merit, that those on the other side of the political aisle wanted to delay the nomination until after November’s mid-term elections. Graham should have known better, but then again, that’s the way the game is played.

Two words for those who might not know what I am referring to here, and they’re both proper nouns.

Merrick Garland.

In 2016, Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who is also playing the politics accusation game — refused to even hold a committee hearing on then President Barack Obama’s pick to succeed the late-Justice Antonin Scalia. Their reasoning was that the position was too important for the sitting president to appoint someone to (really?!), and that because of that, waiting until after the upcoming presidential election was the proper course.

Graham was one of those carrying water for the strategy.

“Just had a good meeting with Judge Garland. ... I told him that I believe that the (Justice Antonin) Scalia vacancy should be filled by the next president,” Graham said in a video quoted in an April 20 story by The Hill. “We’re well into the nominating process. I think that’s best for the court. I think that’s best for the country. Let the voters have a say about who they would like to be the next Supreme Court justice. Judge Garland’s a fine man, but this should be done by the next president.”

Garland was, and is, a “fine man” and he should have at least had a hearing. Republicans, who control the Senate, knew his professional and personal quality would come across well in the public forum of a Judiciary Committee meeting, and as such, could find themselves facing an electorate that approved of the nomination and sought his confirmation.

If the vote in the committee, and even in the Senate chambers, then went along party lines and denied the nomination, Republican candidates might have had some explaining to do at the polls.

So, Republicans “played politics” to control government. That’s the way it goes, just as today’s politics by Democrats is also part of the way the game is played. The only difference is the intensity and that Republicans have been caught advancing a flawed candidate who is now the most unpopular Supreme Court nominee in modern times, according to a recent USA Today poll.

But that’s politics. And since today’s game is played in a sort of nuclear war-fashion — total annihilation of the other side — it shouldn’t surprise anybody that its played in such an ugly, no-holds barred fashion.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.