Under the Radar Blog Archives Select Date… August, 2020 July, 2020 June, 2020 May, 2020 April, 2020 March, 2020 February, 2020 January, 2020 December, 2019 November, 2019 October, 2019 September, 2019

Bob Bennett sent an effusive letter Tuesday paying tribute to Brett Kavanaugh's legal acumen and his personal character. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo Clinton lawyer backs Kavanaugh

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has picked up an unlikely endorsement: a nod from from Bob Bennett, a lawyer to President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky controversy two decades ago.

Bennett, who represented Clinton in the civil sexual harassment suit that ultimately led to his impeachment, sent an effusive letter Tuesday paying tribute to Kavanaugh's legal acumen and his personal character.

"I first crossed paths with Brett in the mid-1990s, when we found ourselves lined up on opposite sides of the decade’s biggest legal battle. At the time, I was serving as President Clinton’s personal lawyer in the Paula Jones case. Brett had just joined the Office of Independent Counsel under Ken Starr, then investigating the President," Bennett recalled.

Bennett, a veteran D.C. litigator, said he and Kavanaugh ultimately became close despite being at odds in that searing and hyperpublicized legal battle.

"That hardly seems like the winning recipe for a close friendship. Much like politics, litigation often brings out people’s worst tribal instincts, and the temptation to view your opponent as a villain can be especially overwhelming when the stakes are high. Despite being on opposite sides of the Starr investigation, however, Brett and I managed to avoid falling prey to that trap," Bennett wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and the panel's ranking member, Sen. Dianne Feinstein. "Brett’s integrity quickly won me over, and we became close friends despite our differences (and the differences between the Presidents we served)."

Bennett also offered metaphorical praise for Kavanaugh that echoed Chief Justice John Roberts' famous claim that as a judge he was solely trying to call balls and strikes.

"On the bench, Brett is not trying to score points so much as tally them," Bennett said.

In an allusion to the anti-Trump sentiment that fuels some of the opposition to Kavanaugh, Bennett says he would have been an obvious pick for any Republican president.

"Brett is the most qualified person any Republican President could possibly have nominated," Bennett wrote in his letter, which does not contain Trump's name or any direct reference to him. "Were the Senate to fail to confirm Brett, it would not only mean passing up the opportunity to confirm a great jurist, but it would also undermine civility in politics twice over: first in playing politics with such an obviously qualified nominee, and then again in losing the opportunity to put such a strong advocate for decency and civility on our Nation’s highest court."

Bennett served as a partner at law firms Skadden Arps and, later, Hogan Lovells. In June, at age 79, he joined D.C. firm Schertler Onorato as senior counsel.

Hearings on Kavanaugh's nomination are set to open next Tuesday.