As Democrats continue to promise their base they'll somehow manage to impeach the newest justice on the Supreme Court, Justice Kavanaugh's first day on the bench last Tuesday showed a man far from disabled by what the left just put him through.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh heard oral arguments for the first time Tuesday in cases about one of the Supreme Court's least favorite criminal laws, jumping into his role with some straightforward questions and little hint of the bitter confirmation process he just went through. There were no outbursts from protesters in the gallery, as there had been during his Senate confirmation hearings or Saturday's historic vote.

After the justices took their places, Chief Justice Roberts welcomed Kavanaugh, telling him, "We wish you a long and happy career in our common calling."

Shortly after, while lawyers were being admitted to the Supreme Court Bar, Justice Kagan leaned over and spoke to Kavanaugh, who "became animated, smiling widely and nodding as he exchanged comments with his new colleague."

The court was hearing oral arguments in two cases on Tuesday. About 15 minutes into the first hearing, Kavanaugh asked his first question, inquiring why a previous Supreme Court ruling regarding the Armed Career Criminal Act shouldn't be applied to the statute under review in the current case. He showed complete familiarity with the issues and the law, including a related Florida statute. From then on, he was asking questions throughout both oral arguments.

It's encouraging that, in his first appearance on the Supreme Court after that awful nomination process, Brett Kavanaugh showed no hint of apprehension that he was there on probation or that he wasn't fully deserving of being exactly where he was. It's clear that by Tuesday, his estimation of the accusations being hurled at him only days before was exactly what they deserved – forgotten and put out of his mind. Unfortunately, in his personal life, Kavanaugh and his family will still need healing, and all the scars the left so basely inflicted on them will be there for life. But by keeping his promise to rise above all that without bitterness, and to become a fair and successful justice, he's showing his enemies up as being the small and vindictive people they are. He'll let their hatred remain their problem, not his.

Kavanaugh is a brilliant jurist, considered possibly the best qualified candidate ever nominated to the Court. The strength of his mind was evident Tuesday in the way he waded right in with his new peers to hash over the legal intricacies of cases, statutes, and precedents. He was made for this job.

Roll Call reports that former justice Anthony Kennedy also was there, listening to the arguments from the audience. Afterward, "[a]s the arguments ended and the justices stood to retire to their chambers, Kagan shook Kavanaugh's hand."

It was Kennedy who swore Kavanaugh in Monday night, and if the former justice believed any of the accusations of Kavanaugh's enemies, he would never have done so, nor attended court the first day of Kavanaugh's service. (Recall that Bill Clinton was disbarred from practicing before the Supreme Court for lying about Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones). Nor, judging by the way Justice Kagan warmly – and publicly – welcomed Kavanaugh, is it likely that she shares any of the doubts about his character that her sister liberal women claim to have. Even liberal justices respect evidence, and Chuck Schumer's political directives don't extend to the Supreme Court. (Maybe that explains the red-haired woman's desperation at the doors of the courthouse).

These are promising signs. It means there are still areas of our national life that remain uncorrupted by raging mobs, even if the U.S. Congress is no longer one of them.

T.R. Clancy looks at the world from Dearborn, Michigan. You can email him at trclancy@yahoo.com.