The Whitewater investigation went on for nearly 3,000 days. Did that mean that any court with Stephen Breyer, nominated after an independent investigation was launched, became “fundamentally illegitimate?” I mean, that investigation ended up convicting 15 friends and allies of the Clintons for over 40 crimes, including felonies like fraud, bribery and embezzlement. Talk about a “cloud of suspicion.” Clinton himself was impeached, not on campaign finance charges, but on obstruction of justice and perjury. His wife was under investigation throughout most of her 2016 campaign, and not one serious person claimed that her SCOTUS nominees would be “illegitimate.”

Does this standard mean that all of Richard Nixon’s justices are retroactively illegitimate, as well? Or that the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts and Environmental Protection Agency are also now illegitimate? Does it mean anyone who cops a plea with prosecutors to save themselves some prison time can “all but” name a politician as a co-conspirator, ending that elected official’s ability to engage in their constitutional duty?

Of course, if the Senate doesn’t want to take up the Kavanaugh’s nomination, that’s its prerogative.