IT'S KAVANAUGH, SO I THINK I KNOW WHAT THE DECIDING FACTOR WAS

President Trump chose Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, even though Mitch McConnell believes Kavanaugh could be hard to confirm...

... Mr. McConnell made clear in multiple phone calls with Mr. Trump and the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, that the lengthy paper trail of another top contender, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, would pose difficulties for his confirmation.

Mr. McConnell is concerned about the volume of the documents that Judge Kavanaugh has created in his 12 years on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as well as in his roles as White House staff secretary under President George W. Bush and assistant to Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton.

... and even though he and his wife have close ties to the Bushes, who are Trump's mortal enemies...

Kavanaugh rose to serve as Bush’s staff secretary, but it’s his wife who is closer with the Bush family: she followed George W. Bush to Washington from the Texas Governor’s office, served as his personal secretary for years, and has a close, personal relationship with the Bush family....

... and even though there could be other roadblocks to his confirmation:

... the perception that his opposition in his judicial opinions to abortion and Obamacare was insufficiently adamant; and even a 1991 clerkship with Judge Alex Kozinski, a former federal Ninth Circuit judge who retired last year after accusations of sexual misconduct, have all come into question.

I quoted this a few days ago, but I'll quote it again, because, for Trump, I assume it was the deciding factor:

“I believe that the president should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office,” Judge Kavanaugh wrote in 2009 in The Minnesota Law Review. Among those burdens, he said, were responding to civil lawsuits and criminal charges.

“Even the lesser burdens of a criminal investigation — including preparing for questioning by criminal investigators — are time-consuming and distracting,” Judge Kavanaugh wrote. “Like civil suits, criminal investigations take the president’s focus away from his or her responsibilities to the people. And a president who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as president.”

Who'll protect Trump? That seems to be what mattered most.