The Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times presents a detailed look at the political fight to fill the Supreme Court seat made vacant by Antonin Scalia’s death—using it to explain the paralyzing and all but irreversible dysfunction across all three branches in the nation’s capital.
Hulse is not a knee-jerk Trump critic ... As a longtime Washington correspondent, Hulse is an expert guide through the machinations on Capitol Hill. He does not offer any revelations about Kavanaugh, searingly accused of sexual assault as a high school student. But he offers a telling scene of McGahn coaching Kavanaugh to push back, hard, against his congressional inquisitors.
The book is an absorbing, if dispiriting, look at the maneuverings of inside players like McConnell and Donald McGahn, Trump’s first White House counsel, and outside advocates like Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who appears to have steered judicial selection as much as anyone at the White House ... Inevitably, [Hulse] covers previously reported ground, but Confirmation Biasis an important guide at this crucial time for the stature of America’s judiciary ... Hulse admires Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate who was decisive in Kavanaugh’s confirmation, calling her 'meticulous' and 'not one to be intimidated.' His observations regarding whether the Maine Republican’s vote was ever in doubt and her interactions with the Trump team are minimal.
... a gripping tale of insider Washington with implications far beyond the capital and far beyond our own time ... Much of what Hulse sets out is familiar to those following the news ... Hulse gives us little new insight on Kavanaugh’s private life and the accusations against him...But Hulse does provide us with an assessment of the impact of the Kavanaugh hearings, and it is a searing judgment ... The ultimate victims of the wars over the courts may be the Americans of the future. They will look back on this book, and the episodes it chronicles, with wonder, and with disappointment and disdain.
