Does not the Kavanaugh fiasco expose more than a dodgy federal judge but the horde of scorched-earth, Republican swamp-dwellers dominating the Senate? That confirms Trump’s "great" if singular public service: "draining” the swamp didn’t mean removing noxious beasts but pushing them into the open. Swamp-dwellers hate when self-self-serving machinations — oblivious to legal or moral precedents, let alone public good — are crudely unmasked for the multitudes. Political swamps always depend on backhanded secrecy, drying into dust when sunshine exposes nasty undersides.

With unerring consistency, how many of Trump’s crash-and-burn picks were garden-variety Washington henchmen — whose careers B.D. (Before Donald) obscured scandalous vulnerability? Who saw AG Sessions as anything but a backward Senate cracker?  Or that dozen of off-stage swamp-dwellers, now fixated in Trump’s dastardly hall of shame, who oozed up — then just as suddenly face exile for incompetence, mendacity and/or corruption? How soon we forget Tom Price, Scott Pruitt, Hope Hicks, Reince Priebus, and the incomparable Sean Spicer. 

The Creepy Trump Cavalcade grows apace, as Judge Kavanaugh bends over to show himself the greatest Donald wannabe.  How amazingly similar are these two arrogant, profligate preppies: with life-long contempt for women, rule-blasting self-entitlement and maniacal ambition. Past IS prologue for aberrant personalities. Kavanaugh’s outlandish outbursts laid bare his angry, partisan ambition in the raw, invoking vicious, anti-Clinton conspiracy days, aping Trumpian outrage to decoy and deflect, now equally roiled by credible sexual complaints  Above all, what links Trump and Kavanaugh are brain-rattling, self-righteous lying — akin to jailed, drunken moonshiners who barely taste liquor except at weddings and rattlesnake hunts.  

Illegitimacy Rears Its Ugly Head

What a scoop! What headlines: “Illegitimate president nominates illegitimate Supreme Court justice.” Or “Career NY Swamp-dweller Unearths career Washington Swamp.” While never intending — or with a clue how “to drain the swamp,” Trump boasts one historic breakthrough: greater exposure of more swamp-dwellers, with unmatched drama and efficiency, than any other president. For a con artist who lied about clearing the swamp, his regime is swamp-obsessed like none other — and current, non-stop visibility about him and cohorts sets up a mid-term bonanza.

Getting snagged by this corrupt White House sets one up for an unimpeded water slide to infamy. Trump slime slathers the reputation of nearly all major picks. Who now views John Kelly or John Bolton, Mike Pence or Lindsay Graham as “ordinary” Washington fixtures — and Mueller’s revelations on criminal Trump ventures can’t come soon enough. This farcical judicial uprising, thanks to (surprise!) an ill-vetted Kavanaugh, turns a garden-variety federal judge into a raging victim, a conspiracy-driven liar with unchecked anger/drinking/sexual legacies. 

Talk about bad news-good news outcomes! Exposure of this otherwise obscure judge, despite facile promotion from elitist preppy to rightwing zealot to life-time federal judge, blatantly asks: how many other unvetted Kavanaughs are hiding in plain sight?  Don’t worry: as with numberless Trump advisors and cabinet picks, trust Don Corleone to ferret out every dodgy swamp-dweller that kisses his ring, or whatever. The longer Trumpery stays in power, the greater number of corrupt characters will surface — before the majority rejects the false entitlement and perpetual fake news of true low-lifes. 

Corruption Feeds on Itself

That’s the telling problem with illegitimacy: by its own insidious, autocratic nature it must replicate itself to survive, rather like other potent cancers. Epic defectives at the top either find slavish sycophants to reinforce their insularity of “anything goes” —  or ferrets like Robert Mueller start to dig and dig and dig. A president mesmerized by his own bad faith— for that’s what 5000 Trump untruths prove — eventually draws the opposite: a rigorous, unintimidated, fact-driven truth-teller. What goes around, judge, does come around, in spades.  

Thus Kavanaugh notoriety looms only as Supreme Court menace but as the clearest mirror yet to the scorched-earth, Trumpian power obsession. Kavanaugh hearings, and Republican scorn for openness, prove beyond doubt that horrendous outcomes reflect horrendous leadership. As Max Boot wrote this week in the Washington Post, Trump is or is not our worst president, but mocking Christine Ford makes him the “worst person ever to be president.” 

In short, the Cosmic Swamp is now front and center for all to see — especially for irate sideliners pushed to vote. Rest assured: Kavanaugh won’t be the last swamp-dweller, with an indefensible background, ripe for exposure — though not always with such theatrical hi-jinks. This week we also heard the Trump family broke the law when parceling out huge inheritances from father to children. With the Donald’s knowledge and collusion. 

What, cries of “no collusion” here either? Tax violations aren’t like messy Russian connections. More high scandals and misdemeanors could surface before November. The “good news” is that the center of the swamp is the center of the rightwing, winning-is-all Republican Party, wholly polluted and corrupted by vulgarian Trumpery. History is rarely this consistent or unwavering. Confirming Kavanaugh would be a national disaster but not without a  silver lining if it costs GOP leaders the House and the Senate.