Earlier, we discussed the situation with SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh. A woman, Christine Blasey Ford, has come forward to accuse him of pinning her down and sexually assaulting her when they were both 17 years old. What’s clear to me (and to many others) is that the Republicans on the committee were well aware of Ford’s accusations before she even went public: they had a list of women whom Kavanaugh had NOT sexually assaulted at the ready. Which is shady, of course. It’s almost like Kavanaugh is a serial sexual predator and the GOP knew that at least one of his victims was likely to come forward, so they prepared a list of women just in case.
So will Professor Ford testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee? Several senators – Republicans and Democrats – have made some noise about asking her to testify. But her lawyer was on the morning shows and this was what she said:
Debra Katz, attorney for Christine Ford, on GMA: "If we're really trying to get at the truth, hearings should not be used to be weaponized against those who accuse against powerful men and that’s how this is being set up."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 17, 2018
Debra Katz, Christine Blasey Ford's attorney, tells CNN that no one has asked her to testify yet.
"We've heard from no one. We've seen various statements made on television, but statements that are being bandied about for political reason. But no one's asked her."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 17, 2018
So there are two concerns: that Ford won’t even get to testify, or that she will be asked to testify and she’ll be hung out to dry by the systemic rape culture of the Republican Party.
Meanwhile, Axios has a new report, with GOP sources claiming that the GOP plans “to use aggressive tactics this week in response” to Ford’s story. Sources also say that “if Democrats sink Kavanaugh ‘we’ll just bring in someone more conservative.’” Charming.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Get rid of Kavanaugh and hold out until after the midterm elections. That is what we have to do America!
Amen to this! This creep doesn’t belong anywhere NEAR a judicial bench let alone SCOTUS! I also want to know more about how his $200K debt just “mysteriously” disappeared, all of a sudden. Especially when none of his friends showed any “payback” for those phantom “baseball tickets”.
STOP RAILROADING US!! STOP THIS FARCE!!
I also want to know more about his debts being paid. Someone please follow the money! Somebody forked out the dough with the expectation that this guy will be rammed through to a SCOTUS position. And they are not going to just accept defeat and let Kavanaugh walk away without recouping that money. I know this sounds like a mob conspiracy but seriously, it’s where we are. Kochs? Mercers? Russians? Follow the money.
He could very well lose his district courtship if he is found lying (which everyone knows now. He lied under oath). It’s not a lifetime appt if you engage in illegal or questionable activities.
Exactly. At this point, the only tactic available is delay, delay, delay. Although I have no doubt that even after the midterms, the GOP would try to cram someone through in December. They got away with Merrick Garland. They’ll get away with anything.
Just piling on to agree. Pray the Dems take back the house and VOTE VOTE VOTE!
Since Bork is dead they will have a hard time finding someone worse than Kavanaugh.
Of course they will because all they ever do is threaten people. Look at Trump, doesn’t like what he sees, threaten more, call names, just like a school yard bully.
The Republicans embracing the mobster, bullying mindset of drump and Putin. They have an ultraconservative agenda already planned for the Supreme Court that is at ods with most of the country. God help us.
Scarily, this is our own home-grown Taliban. Only difference is we’re not required to wear burkahs…yet.
Who would EVER think this would be happening in America??
Who would think this would happen in America? Everyone who remembers Anita Hill’s testimony. The only difference this time is that the bullying won’t be bipartisan, like it was back then.
They just need to find a way to delay this nonsense until the mid-terms. The republicans would have found a way, they need to do the same…..this man feels (and looks!) far too evil to be anywhere near the Supreme court.
It would be like McConnell being sworn into the Supreme Court…..imagine the damage….
Democrats start playing dirty against those vile Republicans. They don’t give a sh*t about anything and it’s time we start bringing guns to a fight instead of of a knife.
It’s not even that Dems are bringing knives to a gunfight. The Dems are just saying “I’m a conscientious objector. I won’t use a weapon against you.”
Bingo! And it pisses me off to no end!!
Exactly what do you want them to do? They don’t have the majority. Republicans control every part of government right now. They’re conscientiously objecting because their voters were too lazy to buy them the goddamn knife in the first place, much less put up the funds for a gun.
There is literally nothing they can do to stop this beyond releasing as much documentation as possible like Booker did, but even then, the vote can be overridden. If you want to pick a real reason to be angry about 2016, don’t be mad about Trump – be mad about CONGRESS. When I saw people couldn’t even be bothered to show up and vote there, I knew we were screwed.
+1
Sounds about right. Finding the worst nominees possible to own the libs.
Personally, I’m…LOVING everything that is happening…because WE THE PEOPLE just need TWO SEATS to flip in the Senate and ramming this POS down the WORLD’S throat…who is a liar…WHOA IS HE A LIAR…and a gambler…whose past indiscretions leaves him OPEN to blackmail and everything else…and whose character shows that he…really doesn’t have any…will make it THAT much easier to make my dream of a majority come true…
People are TRULY LIVID regarding this whole thang….
With the way things are going, Democrats might keep their 23 seats and flip the 9 Republican ones.
Politico reporter Daniel Lippman contacted all 65 women who signed the letter vouching for Kavanaugh’s character. Only two said they still supported him. Several didn’t return his calls.
The fact that they had such a letter in the first place, so quickly, is super problematic. Who keeps a letter signed by 65 women saying that they are not a rapey a-hole ON HAND?
HE WENT TO AN ALL BOYS’ SCHOOL!! WHERE DID HE EVEN KNOW 65 WOMEN FROM DURING THAT TIME IN HIS LIFE!
Sorry for shouting, but I am SO DAMNED MAD!!!
I am in touch with some of my high school classmates on FB but I wonder if even I could get 65 people to sign something on my behalf in a few days. He is much older than me and I doubt most of his classmates, much less women from nearby schools are on social media.
I hadn’t heard this. That is pretty huge I think.
I have a feeling when these women were contacted (long before the letter was released from Feinstein) they were told nothing about an allegation and that they were just being used as character references. Now that the allegation has come out, I’m sure most of them who grew up in that circle definitely know that even if it didn’t happen to them, the boys they hung out with were definitely capable of it.
Which means they were horribly used.
This is all so terrible, these are terrible terrible people
Politico is reporting they tried to contact most of the 65 women and only 2 standby their comments. Two of them declined to comment and the rest have not even responded. I think the GOP knew this was coming and likely didn’t tell the women the full story.
Who’s horrible used are those little girls from his basketball team who were told to sit behind him at the hearings. I hope the parents are happy to let that happen.
One of the women who stood by him is Virginia Hume – Brett Hume’s daughter (he used to work at ABC now he’s a Faux mouthpiece). I highly doubt she is even the same age as him.
I didn’t know that, crazy!
So, they’ll do to Christine Ford, what was done to Anita Hill?
I will never forget Biden playing smarmy good old boy with Hatch and Simpson to attack Hill.
Agree. I have been unable to forget that as well, and do not want him to run in 2020. If he does, I won’t vote for him in the primary and I really will be upset if he is nominated. Let’s move on folks! We’ve got great younger potentionals!
Yes, and he has since then regretted that.
Ok if Biden regrets that, then Kavanagh regrets what he did.
This is why we can’t use Biden.
except that Kavanope is DENYING what he did, not admitting it and being remorseful.
but I do agree that Biden is a nope for 2020.
“they had a list of women whom Kavanaugh had NOT sexually assaulted at the ready. Which is shady, of course. It’s almost like Kavanaugh is a serial sexual predator and the GOP knew that at least one of his victims was likely to come forward, so they prepared a list of women just in case.”
How much you want to bet they also have a list of women that he HAS assaulted? They probably told him to divulge his skeletons early on so they could be prepared to head off any stories that may come out. How many women has the GOP sent thugs out to silence with fear, intimidation, gaslighting, blackmail and bribery? There is zero chance that Dr. Ford is the only victim of this bag of human excrement.
Can you imagine this?? It’s like a serial killer using the defense ‘here’s a list of people I haven’t killed’..omg. it seems beyond these old men’s comprehension that ‘just’ attempting to rape one woman (but I bet there are more) is wrong..in fact, it’s a crime…so sick of this boys will be boys excuse, and the women -yeah you susan collins-who go along with it.
I saw a comment that referenced Jeffrey Dalhmer in that way. “Here’s a list of 65 people I haven’t eaten”
Who is “we”? The only reason this guy was nominated is because Trump wanted someone who would cover his butt. The GOP wasn’t thrilled with this choice.
Because it bears repeating, Dems do not have the power, on their own, to sink Kavanaugh. They NEED Republican help. So even though it’s directed at Dems (and ultimately will be “blamed” on Dems), this is a message to their own members to fall in line behind a nominee who was already problematic BEFORE these latest revelations. This is a get in line, or else, to Repubs, especially people like Susan Collins, who was already going to have trouble with this vote back home (not that she wasn’t going to do it anyway, just that she was going to have trouble with it). It will be interesting to see if Repubs like Flake or Corker, who ostensibly have nothing left to lose, will actually hold out for the greater good or will ultimately fall in line. Their stock in trade lately is basically making disapproving noises and then caving immediately. So I have little hope.
Flake and Corker just went on record demanding that the nomination process be slowed. Flake said a lot of GOP are troubled by this. Here’s hoping.
Oh so it’s “Let this guy in or ELSE?” NO! Here’s my double middle fingers to that threat. Gaaaah! They are all such schoolyard bullies!!! I want to slap them all!
That is pretty unfair to schoolyard bullies. 🙂
They can shit talk, but they have a problem:
Trump Wants Kavanaugh.
Trump nominated him for one reason only – Kavanaugh will rule against Mueller or any case brought to the supreme court involving trump. He wants him there to protect trump. Period.
So there is no replacement for Kavanaugh as far as trump goes. And that’s the R’s problem. They know that’s their problem. Their shit talking notwithstanding.
THIS ^^^^^
@Darla, That’s the reason, 45 wants him to help squash the investigation Mueller is conducting if it goes to the Supreme Court.
If they could have got someone “more conservative”, they would have. Kavanaugh was picked because he could bs his way to a seat with his arch conservatives and give Collins and Murkowski some cover for running the bus over women and minorities for corporation friendly rulings. Anything more conservative and they can’t sell it to their constituents.
Follow the money! I’m an accountant, financial accountant, not a CPA or forensic accountant, but I have a masters. Money is what brings these d-bags down. One of the things I love about my job, I know where all the bodies are buried, so to speak and these special types of ass hats always get buried by the money trail.
I saw a meme that said something like “Kavenaugh always looks like he’s trying to keep 12 spiders from escaping his mouth”. Every time I see a photo of him now I just think that he’s got 12 spiders in there…
*scrolls back up*
Fair enough. Nightmare fuel but accurate.
The Republicans have been using these “do this and you’ll make things worse” tactics since Trump got elected. Consider:
1. If Trump’s impeached, Pence will be worse.– to intimidate folks into not demanding impeachment.
2. This (calling out racism, sexism, the stupidity of Trumpsters) is why Trump got elected. If you keep behaving this way, he’ll get reelected.– to intimidate folks into shutting up.
3. We must understand Trumpsters to prevent a future Trump– if we don’t treat Trumpster’s kindly and with kid gloves, there will be no stopping them.
4. Hillary needs to shut up because she’s making things worse for the Dems by continuing to associate with them- intimidation to silence the woman who should be President.
5. Dems need to “go high” because their dirtiness was what cost them the election.– intimidation again.
Now it’s “approve Kavenaugh or we’ll approve worse.” BULLSH*T. This intimidation needs to stop and Dems need to stop buying into it.
The list provided by the Federalist society are all anti choice people so that is not really a threat. Maybe there is one who would be for the rule of law as well. Kavanaugh was picked because he was a GOP operative for decades and is prepared to bend the rules to save “their guy”. McConnell didn’t even want him as the choice so you know he knew there were going to be issues.
Kavan naw was also not on the original short list of judges. Also, he clerked for disgraced Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kosinski. Kosinski was brought down by sexually harrassing his female law clerks. Don’t tell me ole Brett didn’t know about that or favored it.
I wonder if there’s any chance that Kavanaugh will remove himself at this point. His reputation is shredded, his wife and daughters are humiliated, it’s all become such a horrible mess.
On the other hand, he might be looking at Clarence Thomas and counting on everyone to forget all this.
They can’t bring in anyone more conservative because the clock just ran out. The next time this is broached, hopefully, the DEMS would have already taken over Congress.
It was all sooo shady, I am not sure I could remember 65 people I went to school with much less have them on standby to verify I never attached someone. I say bring it! They are already trying to slide this guy in and pretend he isn’t horrible. At least now we are operating out in the open about how much Republicans hate women.