Democrats can’t ‘Kavanaugh’ unflappable Justice-to-be Amy Coney Barrett: Goodwin

They came, they questioned and they got nothing. It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for Democrats. Almost.

With a history of vicious misbehavior and the political calendar limiting their ability to smear Amy Coney Barrett, Dems on the Senate Judiciary Committee were reduced to being annoying nags and finger-wagging scolds. They were never going to vote for any Supreme Court nominee of President Trump’s to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but they don’t even have the option of giving Barrett the Brett Kavanaugh 2.0 treatment.

Another character-assassination attempt of the kind visited on Kavanaugh two years ago — now Justice Kavanaugh — would have been risky business so close to the election, so it was politics, not decency, that stayed their bloody hands. Make no mistake, though, if they could have, the Dems would have trashed Barrett as too religious and too conservative and done everything they could short of setting the building on fire to stop her from joining the high court before the election.

As it was, they spent their time during the first day of questioning largely trying to trip her up and get her to make statements they could use as campaign fodder against Trump and the GOP. Their fallback position was to lay the groundwork for getting Barrett to recuse herself in important upcoming cases, especially the challenge to ObamaCare the court is scheduled to hear beginning Nov. 10.

They also fumed and sputtered about the possibility that the court might be called on to make key ballot rulings after the election and hoped she would not participate. No luck. They all struck out.

Their basic problem is that Barrett came across as an appealing Superwoman. Flanked by her husband, six of their seven children and her six siblings, she was flawless in answering those questions she could and in politely sidestepping the traps.