;)
The Commentariat -- Sept. 29, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times refute some of the tall tales Kavanaugh told during his confirmation hearings. ...
... Charles Pierce: "In plain terms, for all his spleen and outrage, Judge Kavanaugh lies about everything. In his earlier hearings, he lied about his judicial philosophy, and he lied about his days as a Republican operative, both in and out of the White House. On Monday, he lied to Martha McCallum of Fox News. On Thursday, he lied about his entire adolescence and his college days. He lied even when he didn't have to lie. He lied in preposterous ways easily disproven by common sense. (The 'Devil's Triangle'? 'Renate Alumnius'?) He lied like a toddler, like a guilty adolescent, and like a privileged scion of the white ruling class, which is a continuum with which we all are far too familiar.... And now, he is a couple of easy steps away from having lied his way into a lifetime seat on the United States Supreme Court. This guy is going to be deciding constitutional issues for the next four decades, and the truth is not in him." ...
... Michael Kranish, et al., of the Washington Post: Those calendar pages Kavanaugh provided to exonerate himself may be of interest to the FBI this week. Several entries tend to corroborate Blasey Ford's account. ...
... Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "Catholic University's president suspended a dean whose comments on social media this week questioned allegations of sexual assault against ... Brett M. Kavanaugh. John Garvey, the president of the university, said Friday evening in an email to the campus that the remarks 'demonstrated a lack of sensitivity to the victim.' Will Rainford, the dean, had issued a written apology Thursday evening for a remark he made on his university Twitter account that he said 'unfortunately degraded' one of the women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.... 'Swetnick is 55 y/o,' Rainford posted Wednesday.... 'Kavanaugh is 52 y/o. Since when do senior girls hang with freshmen boys? If it happened when Kavanaugh was a senior, Swetnick was an adult drinking with&by her admission, having sex with underage boys. In another universe, he would be victim & she the perp!'... Scores of graduates of the National Catholic School of Social Service signed a letter to the university's president, provost and board of trustees objecting to Rainford's comment and calling for his resignation." Rainford is dean of the School of Social Service. Huh.
*****
If you're unsure of how yesterday's drama went down, Chris Hayes has a good tick-tock:
Ellie Hall of BuzzFeed News: "... Donald Trump on Friday called Christine Blasey Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee 'compelling' and 'credible,' adding that he was not sure if Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court would 'continue onward.' Trump also said Ford, who alleges that she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh at a house when they were teenagers, was 'certainly a very credible witness.' 'I thought her testimony was very compelling and she looks like a very fine woman to me. A very fine woman,' he said. 'And I thought that Brett's testimony likewise was, really something that I hadn't seen before. Incredible. It was an incredible moment in the history of our country.' However, the president seemed less sure about the fate of his nominee, telling reporters, 'I don't know if this is going to continue onward or if we're going to get a vote.'... Speaking to reporters at the White House before a meeting with Chile's President Sebastián Piñera, Trump said that undecided senators must do what makes them 'comfortable' regarding his nomination, adding that he had 'no message whatsoever' for the senators who now face a vote to confirm Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court Justice." ...
... Nicholas Fandos & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Senator Jeff Flake, the lone swing Republican vote on the Judiciary Committee, said Friday morning that he would vote to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, ensuring committee passage and bringing President Trump's nominee to the brink of confirmation...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The story has been updated. New Lede Plus: "President Trump, ceding to a request from Senate Republican leaders facing an insurrection in their ranks, ordered the F.B.I. on Friday to open an investigation into accusations of sexual assault leveled against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, his nominee to the Supreme Court. The decision capped a confusing day on Capitol Hill, where the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to advance Judge Kavanaugh's nomination, but only by agreeing to a last-minute demand by Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, to conduct a time-limited inquiry. 'I've ordered the F.B.I. to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh's file,' Mr. Trump said in a statement. 'As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week.' The decision in the Senate, made in a hurried closed-door meeting between Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, came after a dramatic reversal by Mr. Flake, who announced he would not support final confirmation until the F.B.I. investigates the allegations.... [Republicans] were still able to muscle the nomination through committee with an 11-to-10 [party-line] vote and send it to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation." ...
... Niraj Chokshi & Astead Herndon of the New York Times: "Two women blocking an elevator door, angrily demanding to be heard as a senator stood by, listening quietly, nodding and looking away. 'On Monday, I stood in front of your office,' one of the women, Ana Maria Archila, forcefully told Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona. 'I told the story of my sexual assault.' Mr. Flake had just announced his intention on Friday morning to vote to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, despite emotional testimony a day earlier from Christine Blasey Ford, who had accused Judge Kavanaugh of sexual assault.... Hours later, in a surprise development, Senator Flake said that he would not support confirmation without a one-week F.B.I. investigation into the allegations, as he joined his fellow Republicans in advancing the nomination. There was widespread speculation that the elevator encounter had played a role."Story includes transcript of the exchange. ...
... Flake Earns His Name. Elana Schor, et al., of Politico: "Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Friday brought Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination to the brink of victory, then into significant uncertainty, in a matter of hours.... [He] announced his support for ... Donald Trump's high court pick Friday morning. But after a dramatic series of closed-door meetings with senators from both parties, he said that he would 'only be comfortable' voting yes in the end after the FBI investigates a sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh. 'I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation, limited in time and scope,' Flake told fellow senators on the Judiciary Committee. The committee voted to advance Kavanaugh's nomination. The latest head-spinning twist may not stop Kavanaugh's nomination from coming to the Senate floor by this weekend. But Flake's maneuver drops a political land mine in the lap of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the White House, which now must decide whether and how to initiate the FBI inquiry Flake sought.... Key undecided senators joined Flake's calls minutes after he made his move. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he supported Flake's call for an FBI investigation "so that our country can have confidence in the outcome of this vote," as did Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)." ...
... Matthew Haag & Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "Mark Judge, who has been named by two women as being a key witness to sexual misconduct by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, said Friday that he would cooperate with any law enforcement agency 'assigned to confidentially investigate' the accusations. The statement came in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee after the full Senate decided to delay a vote on Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court so the F.B.I. could conduct an investigation of up to one week into the allegations.... Mr. Judge is now an author, filmmaker and journalist who has written for conservative publications including The Daily Caller and The Weekly Standard. He had active profiles on Facebook and YouTube until his name surfaced in recent weeks, but those pages have since been removed." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't know what the law on this is, but I'm guessing that if the FBI wants a person to cooperate, he has to cooperate except to the extent he asserts a Fifth Amendment right. BTW, when the photo accompanying the story, which is of Judge at his Delaware beach hideout, surfaced several days ago, I was struck by how much he & Kavanaugh look alike now. I wonder whose beach house that is: a friend of Don McGahn's maybe? Trump should have put up Judge in his international hotel in Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, but maybe he was too cheap to do that. ...
... Update: I was wrong about that. According to the Washington Post: "A background investigation is, by its nature, more limited than a criminal probe, and FBI agents will not be able to obtain search warrants or issue subpoenas to compel testimony from potential witnesses."
... Seung Min Kim & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Shortly after the Judiciary Committee convened, the panel voted down a motion on party lines by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to subpoena Mark Judge, a high school classmate of Kavanaugh. Ford has alleged Judge witnessed the assault. The committee then voted, again along party lines, to decide on Kavanaugh's nomination at 1:30 p.m. The votes prompted outrage from Democrats.... Underscoring the acrimony surrounding Friday's proceedings, a a dozen House Democratic women who gathered to watch the Judiciary Committee stood up in the room in protest." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Clare Foran of CNN: "Two red state Democrats facing re-election in 2018 announced on Friday that they oppose Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Jon Tester of Montana both came out against ... Donald Trump's nominee the day after Christine Blasey Ford testified that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s -- allegations that Kavanaugh vehemently denied." ...
... Bully Boys. Josh Marshall: "Kavanaugh's performance told us little new that we didn't know but was filled with rage, grievance and aggression. Senate Republicans were close to ecstatic in response and appear to remain so this morning.... Kavanaugh decided to emulate Trump -- right down to the conspiracy theories, casual lying and aggressive counter-attacks against political enemies. It all seemed to come naturally. And Senate Republicans loved it. The reaction alone -- to a performance that cannot possibly ever command even the most limited respect on the Court from those Kavanaugh explicitly terms his political enemies -- is the most telling political takeaway from yesterday." ...
... ** He Was Always an Obstreperous, Lying, Partisan Prick. Avi Selk of the Washington Post: For three years, Democrats blocked George W. Bush's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to a federal judgeship because of his partisan bias. During all of this time, Kavanaugh retained an ABA rating of "well-qualified." "But in May 2006, as Republicans hoped to finally push Kavanaugh's nomination across the finish line, the ABA downgraded its endorsement [to 'qualified']. The group's judicial investigator had recently interviewed dozens of lawyers, judges and others who had worked with Kavanaugh, the ABA announced at the time, and some of them raised red flags about 'his professional experience and the question of his freedom from bias and open-mindedness.' 'One interviewee remained concerned about the nominee's ability to be balanced and fair should he assume a federal judgeship,' the ABA committee chairman wrote to senators in 2006. 'Another interviewee echoed essentially the same thoughts: "(He is) immovable and very stubborn and frustrating to deal with on some issues."' A particular judge had told the ABA that Kavanaugh had been 'sanctimonious' during an oral argument in court. Several lawyers considered him inexperienced, and one said he 'dissembled' in the courtroom.... [Senate] Republicans dismissed the warnings." So Kavanaugh got his judgeship, confirmed along party lines. ...
... Roger Cohen of the New York Times: "What America saw before the Senate Judiciary Committee was an injudicious man, an angry brat veering from fury to sniveling sobs, a judge so bereft of composure and proportion that it was difficult not to squirm. Brett Kavanaugh actually got teary over keeping a calendar because that's what his dad did.... This is what you get from the unexamined life, a product of white male privilege.... He failed the job interview.... Kavanaugh has revealed himself to be a man without measure, capable of frenzy, full of conspiratorial venom against Democrats. Justice would not be served by his presence on the Supreme Court." ...
... Judge Wood B. Rapist Lies about Everything. Alanna Richer of the AP: "... Brett Kavanaugh has repeatedly said that he was legally allowed to consume beer as a prep school senior in Maryland. In fact, he was never legal in high school because the state's drinking age increased to 21 at the end of his junior year, while he was still 17.... The legal age in that state was raised to 21 on July 1, 1982; Kavanaugh did not turn 18 until Feb. 12, 1983. In a Fox News interview on Monday, Kavanaugh said, 'Yes, there were parties. And the drinking age was 18. And yes, the seniors were legal.' In testimony Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he said all of his comments during the Fox interview were accurate and could be made part of the record." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND please don't tell me Preppy Boy had no idea what the legal drinking age was. If there's one thing a teenager knows about the law, it's his own & nearby states' drinking age laws. ...
... ** Philip Bump of the Washington Post goes over a number of misrepresentations lies Kavanaugh told in Thursday's committee hearing, some of which were significant & others of which were just LOL dog-ate-my-homework ridiculous. "... either his yearbook entry is littered with repeated references to drinking, being sick from drinking and forgetting things because of drinking -- or each has an innocent explanation that doesn't jibe with the most natural understanding of the term."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Toting up all the false assertions Bump cites, it's clear that, like Trump, Kavanaugh lies whenever it's in his interest to do so. So falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, yes. But there's another thing: Kavanaugh was, of course, under oath during his testimony. In fact, Sen. John Kennedy made a big thing about Kavanaugh's being under oath, beginning with the question, "Do you believe in god?" to which the Choir Boy answered in the affirmative. Then "in front of God and country," as Kennedy put it, Kavanaugh denied a series of allegations. Since Kavanaugh takes the oath to tell the truth so lightly, it seems fair to assume he takes his oath to defend the Constitution with all the seriousness Donald Trump does. ...
Dr. Ford's allegations are not merely uncorroborated, it's refuted by the very people she says were there. -- Brett Kavanaugh, during sworn testimony yesterday
... Calvin Woodward & Chloe Kim of the AP: "Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh misrepresented the record Thursday when he stated that three witnesses have refuted Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that he sexually assaulted her at a party more than 30 years ago. The three swore they had no recollection of the party -- providing no support for Ford's accusations laid out to the Senate Judiciary Committee. But their statements do not disprove the allegations, either." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: Isn't it a curious thing, the way all those Republicans take white boy Bart O'Kavanaugh at his word, but assume Christine Blasey Ford was "mixed up"? ...
... ** AND It Wasn't Only Lies: The Artless Dodger. Alvin Chang of Vox analyzes the answers: "There were several noticeable differences between the Senate testimony of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and ... Christine Blasey Ford. The most obvious was the tone each took. Ford was polite and quiet...; he was angry and loud in his denials of the allegations against him. Beyond the style of their testimonies, there was a striking difference in the content.... Only Ford made an effort to answer every single question. Kavanaugh actively dodged questions. He often repeated the same non-answer over and over. Other times, he insisted on answering a question with 'context' -- which inevitably was a long story about his childhood -- but never actually answered the question. We went through the transcript of the hearing and noted every single time a question was asked of Ford and Kavanaugh.... Then we noted every instance in which answered the question or said they didn't know the answer -- and we also noted every time they either refused to answer or gave an answer that didn't address the question. Here are the results." A chart! ...
... Melissa Healy of the Los Angeles Times consulted four experts in sexual trauma about Thursday's testimony. While the experts spoke mostly about the credibility of Blasey Ford's testimony (they all found it credible), here's what Kevin Swartout said about Kavanaugh: "He demonstrated a great deal of hostility during the hearing, especially toward some of the female senators on the committee. He had a contentious exchange with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) at the outset, where he cut her off mid-sentence numerous times. There was also the exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn), which he later apologized for, where he seemingly tried to flip the power differential by turning the question back on her. The results of hundreds of studies to this point suggest that levels of hostility toward women, which includes a drive to exert power over women, are positively related with levels of sexual violence." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: You don't have to be an expert or apply analytical measurements to the witnesses' responses to figure out who was lying. Why, even a U.S. senator (and most parents of small children) of average intelligence could do it! Blasey Ford tried to be "helpful" & she admitted to not knowing certain details. Kavanaugh shouted his denials, as if truth were measured in decibels; he whined about how "unfaaaair" the process was to him; he vilified the questioners & scoffed at their questions; he denied obvious facts; & he repeatedly evaded answering questions. ...
... Kevin Drum: "At the time [of his assault on Christine Blasey, Kavanaugh] may well have thought of it as nothing more than horseplay.... But when he was first asked about all this, he panicked and denied everything.... Once he denied the incident entirely, he had no choice but to stick to his story. Everything that's happened since has hinged on that one rash mistake. And this is what explains his almost comically angry testimony.... The Republican playbook has a page for this. Even before his appearance, there were news reports about the advice Kavanaugh was getting: he needed to be passionate, angry, and vengeful against the Democrats who plainly orchestrated this entire witch hunt. And that's what he did. Unlike Ford, his performance was highly rehearsed: his emotional tone was rehearsed; his lines were rehearsed (and then repeated ad nauseam); and more than anything, his angry insistence that he was the victim of a vicious liberal frame-up was rehearsed.... Republicans took his cue and gave speech after speech about the perfidy of Democrats who had planned this entire smear campaign." ...
... Tim Egan: "Story follows character, as the Greeks knew, and what we're seeing now with the Bonfire of Republican Vanities is the predictable outcome of those who enabled the amoral presidency of Donald Trump. The bargain was simple: Republicans would get tax cuts for the well-connected and a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court, and in turn would overlook every assault on decency, truth, our oldest allies and most venerable principles.... Oh, but the price has gone up. Republicans are left with a roomful of men standing athwart the #MeToo movement and yelling, 'Stop!' They are left with Trump, who outlined the game plan for sexual predation, saying women who remember atrocities from the past are part of a 'con game.'"
... Ronan Farrow & Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: "Throughout Thursday's Senate hearing ..., Republicans on the Judiciary Committee claimed that they had tried in vain to secure more information about other accusations made about the judge.... On Wednesday, several conservative-media outlets published leaks of some of the e-mail correspondence between [accuser Deborah] Ramirez's team and Republican committee staffers, which appeared to back up Grassley's characterization. But a fuller copy of the e-mail correspondence ... shows that a Republican aide declined to proceed with telephone calls and instead repeatedly demanded that Ramirez produce additional evidence in written form. Only then could any conversation about her testimony proceed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jonathan O'Connell, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Friday gave the go-ahead to a lawsuit filed by 200 congressional Democrats against President Trump alleging he has violated the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments while in office. The lawsuit is based on the Constitution's emoluments clause, which bars presidents from taking payments from foreign states. Trump's business, which he still owns, has hosted foreign embassy events and visiting foreign officials at its downtown D.C. hotel.... Trump is already facing a separate emoluments suit filed by the attorneys general of Washington, D.C. and Maryland that is moving forward. In addition, he is contending with the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian interference, a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General that alleged 'persistently illegal conduct' at his charitable foundation and a defamation lawsuit brought by former 'Apprentice' contestant Summer Zervos."
Mike Isaac & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "Facebook, already facing scrutiny over how it handles the private information of its users, said on Friday that an attack on its computer network had exposed the personal information of nearly 50 million users. The breach, which was discovered this week, was the largest in the company's 14-year history. The attackers exploited a feature in Facebook';s code to gain access to user accounts and potentially take control of them.... Guy Rosen, a vice president of product management at Facebook, declined to say whether the attack could have been coordinated by hackers supported by a nation-state. Three software flaws in Facebook's systems allowed hackers to break into user accounts, including those of the top executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, according to two people familiar with the investigation but not allowed to discuss it publicly. Once in, the attackers could have gained access to apps like Spotify, Instagram and hundreds of others that give users a way to log into their systems through Facebook."
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Reader Comments (15)
Spellcheck:
Kavenaugh?Cravenaugh?Kavanaughty?Correction: Toast
Colbert finished strong Thursday night with the same Kavanaugh quote that Ahilleus highlighted yesterday, "You sowed the wind for decades to come. I fear that the whole country will reap the whirlwind."
https://youtu.be/x6Ng298HXcM
Drat! Now I'm dropping letters in names. Sorry AK. More coffee.
ELEVATOR AMBUSH:
What we witnessed yesterday was democracy in action. Jeff Flake was stopped in the senate elevator by two women who passionately pleaded with him to change his vote while angrily and tearfully making their case. And as luck would have it we have it on film.
"Look me in the eye, when I'm talking," said one of the women which reminds one of a mother's insistence during a confrontation with a young child. It was an amazing scene––Flake, like a cowered dog, caught in an elevator by two women who insisted he LISTEN!
And lo, it worked. After Jeff talked long with his close friend Coons and Feinstein he came back to propose the week long probe by the FBI before any more voting takes place.
And because of this what will be unraveled, what will be revealed and presented to Congress at the end of the week will be the end of Kavanaugh's dream of being a S.C. judge although some of us think, after his latest performance he shouldn't be sitting on any bench except maybe one on a soccer field.
If I'm wrong about this, I'll have myself a beer and reflect.
@PD Pepe: I meant to remark on something you wrote in a comment yesterday: about the time three boys assaulted you when you were 10 years old & swimming in a lake. That sounded at least as terrifying -- I think much more so -- than Kavanaugh's assault on Blasey. First, for a 10-year-old having her body exposed is just mortifying. I would have felt deep shame if it had happened to me. But far worse, those horrible little jerks really could have drowned you. Yet that kind of gang assault on girls was so common that you said you hadn't even thought about it in years. Boys wanted girls to be afraid of them. That ability to physically overpower girls & frighten them was almost certainly part of what drove Kavanaugh's attack on Ford. It was about power, even if your attackers and Kavanaugh didn't trust themselves to do so as individuals but only with a "partner" or as part of a "gang." I wish I'd fully understood when I was young what a bunch of useless wimps these bullies really were.
PD and Marie,
As a one-time boy myself, I had a front row seat to at least a few of those wimpy bullies. The most aggressive traveled in packs. After being jumped by five of these creeps one afternoon, walking the tracks to a baseball field after school, I swore revenge. But I decided to pick them off one at a time. It was much easier than I ever expected. Without the support and malicious backing of their tribe, individually cornered, they folded like busted lawn chairs. One kid, the leader, even started to cry, this was a surprise because they were all older than me (11 as opposed to 10). I almost felt bad for him, but not bad enough to keep from smacking him around a bit.
But I did learn a lot about the dynamics of such bully groups. I learned, for one thing, that the taunts and kicks, and thrown rocks were meant as much to impress each other as they were to inflict pain on the chosen victim. Several times after that I ran into this pack when I was by myself and it took me years to realize that they avoided me after their individual beatings (as much of a beating as a 10 year old can dish out) not because they were afraid of me as much as they were embarrassed by their knuckling under when deprived of the vicious support of the group. They all caved when caught alone, and they knew it. But more importantly, I knew it.
Which leads me to think that, had Kavanaugh been on his own at that party, Christine Blasey would never have been touched. Kavanaugh and Judge together, however, was a different story. In fact, I bet Kavanaugh, as a kid (and even as an adult) never did anything on his own.
Bullies travel in packs and they employ aggression to impress each other and feel like they belong as much as to torture their victims. Kavanaugh, momentarily alone in that hearing room did what that other bully did so many years ago. Deprived of the other bullies, even for a few moments, he started to cry.
(By the way, now that I’m thinking of those tribe members caving when cornered by themselves, without the backing of the group, the Jeff Flake Elevator scene comes to mind. I wonder, had those women not walled him off from the influence of Grassley, McConnell and company if he’d ever have caved just enough to do a good thing).
@Marie: Yes, it's uncanny that I had forgotten about this incident but I think it was so horrific that I blocked it out. When I couldn't sleep and thought about what it must have been for Ford to be pinned down, hand over her mouth, a fear of being suffocated, the lake assault came back because I experienced that same sensation.
I also think for me this was an anomaly in terms of boy/girl interactions. Even as a young girl I played with boys (found them more adventurous than girls). But looking back my great love of the male population was in part the knowledge that we females were always one step ahead ––that "Body Heat" quote from Kathleen Turner: "you're not too smart are you? I like that in a man"––males could be handled. And perhaps men and bully boys know the strength of females and are determined to shame and cut us down. It's an old story. Looks like it just might have a different ending.
@AK: I think your assessment of group socialization is exactly right. One of the reasons I wanted questions to him to revolve around how he viewed his "place" in those group of friends–-leader? Follower" or something in–between because I suspect as you do that he was not the leader–-that he needed to be "one of the fellows" so he followed the one guy that was––Mark Judge. I think Brett was a weeny when young and was determined to cast off that title in any way he could. Also the fact that his Christianity must get tangled up in a very tight knot when he lies––no wonder he drinks.
Is anyone as confused as I am about Idiotstick’s about face yesterday? One minute he’s full steam ahead on confirming Kav RIGHT NOW and then suddenly Ford is “credible” and so the FBI (yes, that corrupt evil institution) must investigate. My guess is that after watching the teevee coverage he got scared that his ratings might suffer and he has to make sure that if (when) Kav goes down it Won’t Be His Fault
@Rockygirl: I too found that weird. It's as if that guy saying reasonable stuff was a stunt double. But I imagine your guess is right: he's hedging his bets. Also, too, I imagine somebody else told him to say the reasonable stuff, and he thought he'd give it a go for the reason you suggested.
Under Cover of Kavanaugh
While America was glued to the sight of a below average ABA rated hack making a public spectacle of himself, yelling and weeping and calling names, Confederates in the Loony Bin House took the opportunity to pass a $3.1 trillion tax cut that will add about that much to the national debt over the next 20 years.
These traitors, believing that their unlimited control may be taken away shortly, are doing all they can to starve the beast and give their rich pals even more money by stepping on those mooching poors and the middle class.
http://amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2018/09/28/house-3-8-trillion-tax-cut-passes
Rockygirl and Marie,
I think you’ve got it. I also think that that elevator confrontation, the video of which took off like a shot, put Flake on the spot. It was all fine for him to make high falutin’ speeches to make himself sound like a modern day Tom Paine, but then the tribe called and he said “yes” to a would-be rapist. But then he got nabbed in that elevator and put on notice in a very public way. At that point he didn’t want to take the full brunt of public scorn for putting a vindictive asshole on the court, so he did his little flip flop. He could no longer hide in the middle of the pack.
My feeling is that FBI won’t find anything useful on such short notice. Remember, they took three days to investigate in the Clarence Thomas case, but that was a pretty isolated situation in time and place. The Kavanaugh case is much different, involving a lot more people and separated by many more years. Add to that the absolute guarantee that Judge will lie (or maybe he—or Kavanaugh—has convinced himself that he wasn’t there or that he “blacked out” and doesn’t remember anything).
I’m afraid nothing will come of this investigation, giving Trump and Kavanaugh and the traitors on the committee free rein to crow, triumphantly.
Overlooked in all this are the multiple excellent reasons, besides sexual assault, to keep this creep off the court. And not for nothin’, but should we really put a guy on the Supreme Court for life whose professional organization gives him a grade of “just okay”?
I’m afraid the assholes and traitors and bullies and woman haters will win this one.
GOTV!
@Akhilleus: I agree with you. But it may depend on what-all the FBI decides to investigate. If they report on just the lies Kavanaugh told under oath, they would provide enough info to disqualify him. But they might skip that altogether. I hope at least one investigator is a woman. She might be less enthralled with all this male-bonding, what-happens-at-Georgetown-prep hoohah.
Also, it might depend on how much control the FBI politicos have over the investigation. If it's little to none, the investigation might be a real one. But it could also be a wink and a nod if the director has the final say-so. He does know the outcome Trump wants.
@Rocky: The "idiotstick" you are referencing is I gathered Trump, not Flake. Yes? Or am I mistaken. If Trump, I agree with Marie that someone–-many–-told him to be as non-paritison as possible.
@PD - I meant Trump the Idiotstick but the appellation applies to Flake just as well. Come to think about it, it applies to all of the R senators, at least presumptively unless they prove otherwise.