Finally, there is the political background. Watching Kavanaugh’s petulant, conspiratorial testimony on Thursday made it extremely clear that he is the kind of duplicitous hack who lives to overturn Democratic Party laws, no matter what they say. In this as in so many other areas, Republicans are actually the unscrupulous partisan judicial activists they constantly accuse liberals of being. Therefore, should Democrats win Congress in 2018, or the presidency in 2020, they must be prepared for everything they do to be overturned in 5-4 Supreme Court decisions based on nothing but tendentious Federalist Society argle-bargle.

If Kavanaugh is confirmed, that gives Democrats a perfect way to start hacking down that obstacle. But even if he is not, he should be investigated, and, if appropriate, impeached and removed from the D.C. Circuit Court (where he currently sits). The man is unfit to be judging any kind of legal proceeding — let him proceed into right-wing martyrdom and the lifetime wingnut welfare sinecure that awaits him.