Wow - IF anyone was ever more between a rock and a hard place - we are.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

18. Impeaching Kavanaugh is way harder a task than most anyone thinks.

It wouldn't really be for any of the allegations raised against him now--If the Senate votes to confirm, they've essentially ratified his conduct and say those claims don't matter.

It would have to be for something that arises beyond that point. And given the overall failure rate of impeachment attempts against federal judges, and the one and only impeachment of a Supreme Court justice (Samuel Chase in 1805, which resulted in an acquittal), it's a rather tall task to think he'll just be impeached and removed willy-nilly.

The way I see it, we are screwed either way. Unless there is some way that we can stave off a Republican president from filling the seat through January 2021--which is rather unlikely--that seat will get filled by a conservative, Kavanaugh or someone else.

And Kavanaugh's vote won't come with any asterisk if he is confirmed. His vote will carry as much weight as the other eight judges.

The way I see it, because we are in a no-win position, we might as well hope that Kavanaugh gets voted down, even if that means another less-blemished conservative judge takes his place.

At least Kavanaugh being voted down constitutes some sort of karma or repudiation of his past conduct. And if there's anything good at all that can come out of this situation, that will be it.