New SCOTUS Judge

[Tsukasa Buddha]

Fourth?

A possible fourth person has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, Maryland law enforcement officials told a Maryland newspaper.

An anonymous witness told Montgomery County investigators over the weekend about another incident that occurred while Kavanaugh was in high school, according to a Monday report in the Montgomery County Sentinel.

In a response to this report, The Montgomery County Police Department put out a statement that said it had not received a request from an alleged victim to start a criminal investigation — though it’s unclear if the witness from the Sentinel’s report is an alleged victim.

“At this time, the Montgomery County Police Department has not received a request by any alleged victim nor a victim’s attorney to initiate a police report or a criminal investigation regarding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh,” the statement said.

Montgomery County prosecuting attorney John McCarthy told the Sentinel that authorities are working to determine if the alleged incident happened within the county. “We are prepared to investigate if the victim wants to report to us, and we can determine it occurred in the county,” he said.

Linky.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Oh, but, he was captain of the varsity basketball team, and first in his class and, did I mention, he went to church a lot?

Why, he sounds as clean and wholesome a character as Bill Cosby!

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Yeah. Caught that as well. To be generous to Kavanaugh, the context of that comment included the rumored allegations of gang rape coming from Avenatti, so his comment wasn't, technically, irrelevant, but at the same time one definitely got the impression that he was trying to cover all the allegations, even though the ones revealed so far didn't have anything to do with sexual intercourse.

One other, related, element that I noticed was the, "this would have been the talk of Yale." Uhhhh…..Brett. It was. In the New Yorker piece, two sources, one of them named and the other anonymous, said they heard about it, at the time, second hand.

Of course, second hand information can be in error, so it isn't dispositive, but if his defense is that people would have been talking about it, he maybe should have tried a different focus group to test that one on.

Oh, but, he was captain of the varsity basketball team, and first in his class and, did I mention, he went to church a lot?

It's like these people have never met the all-to-common gross frat-boy. One night they'll be forcing themselves on some half-passed out freshman girl, the next day running some charity event. Frat houses are practically date rape factories and a fancy preparatory high school just means extra time in this toxic culture. Having a great resume says nothing about a person's personal character.

Rich, ultra elite prep-school guy turning out to be entitled, unaccountable, and binge-drinking jackass is among the least surprising headlines in history. Being a member of these ultra-elite, totally opaque social cliques is a huge red flag, if not outright disqualifier, in my estimation.

 

[Frank Newgent]

Mitch and some other GOP senators have made it clear that Kavanaugh will be confirmed no matter what happens on Thursday. They simply don't care what Ford says. For that matter, they don't care what any woman has to say about him.

As or the GOP voters turning out en masse on election day, I doubt it. They don't have Hillary in their sites this time. But no matter if they do or don't because we'll be told by Trump that the most voters in the history of voting turned out because of him.

Perhaps securing a solidly conservative majority in the Supreme Court worth more than losing control of Congress for a while.

 

[uke2se]

Perhaps securing a solidly conservative majority in the Supreme Court worth more than losing control of Congress for a while.

I think they feel it is.

However, now that the GOP playbook is out in the open, it's rather easy to counter it by simply packing the court with more judges. The GOP has taken a system that works because it's supposed to be non-partisan and made it super partisan and thus broken it. Democrats can either roll over and accept the GOP walking all over them and the system, or they can take the broken system to its limits, thus possibly prompting a switch to a system that works.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Perhaps securing a solidly conservative majority in the Supreme Court worth more than losing control of Congress for a while.

They could jettison Kavanaugh and support some other, equally conservative nominee that doesn't have such toxic personal baggage. They could ram that person through with a straight party vote and not have to deal with quite the same backlash and still accomplish their goal of moving the SCOTUS to the right. Before these women came forward, this is exactly what was going to happen with Kavanaugh.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

“I did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter.”

That may very well be true, but it is also irrelevant to the allegations he is currently facing.

"Kavanaugh's remarks came in the context of him responding to allegations leveled by celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti, who claims the judge was once a leader of a ring of violent rapists."

-- Washington Examiner (Sept 25, 2018)

 

[Belz...]

They could jettison Kavanaugh and support some other, equally conservative nominee that doesn't have such toxic personal baggage. They could ram that person through with a straight party vote and not have to deal with quite the same backlash and still accomplish their goal of moving the SCOTUS to the right. Before these women came forward, this is exactly what was going to happen with Kavanaugh.

Yeah but that would mean conceding defeat here.

 

[Stacko]

Yeah but that would mean conceding defeat here.

Also, it isn't a god look for the White House that wants you to ignore the 19 accusers the president has.

 

[Belz...]

They probably just let him do it. When you're a celebrity they do that, I hear.

 

[uke2se]

They could jettison Kavanaugh and support some other, equally conservative nominee that doesn't have such toxic personal baggage. They could ram that person through with a straight party vote and not have to deal with quite the same backlash and still accomplish their goal of moving the SCOTUS to the right. Before these women came forward, this is exactly what was going to happen with Kavanaugh.

That is of course the rational play given what's out in the open. However, I think the GOP handlers see a few problems with it.

First, it violates the Trump political doctrine of never admitting an error. If Trump's pick for SCOTUS wasn't confirmed with a GOP majority in both houses, that would be a pretty big loss for someone who always picks the best people.

Secondly, the one thing Kavanaugh has that no other known candidate has is the opinion that Presidents can't be subpenoed or indicted.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Yeah but that would mean conceding defeat here.

I honestly don't understand their play here. Are they really going to call a vote? Either they lose the vote, which seems likely and would be more disastrous than just pulling the nomination, or they just barely skate by and have this stink on them for a long time. The longer this goes on, the more the situation worsens for the R's. Dropping Kavanaugh and pushing through someone "clean" seems a no-brainer. I don't get it.

 

[varwoche]

"Kavanaugh's remarks came in the context of him responding to allegations leveled by celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti, who claims the judge was once a leader of a ring of violent rapists."

-- Washington Examiner (Sept 25, 2018)

Except I read the article, and Avenatti didn't say that.

That's what happens when you cite crap sources without confirming the claims.

 

[uke2se]

I honestly don't understand their play here. Are they really going to call a vote? Either they lose the vote, which seems likely and would be more disastrous than just pulling the nomination, or they just barely skate by and have this stink on them for a long time. The longer this goes on, the more the situation worsens for the R's. Dropping Kavanaugh and pushing through someone "clean" seems a no-brainer. I don't get it.

It's all about getting a conservative majority, because McConnel and other Goopers don't think the Dems will break tradition and stack the court. If he gains a conservative majority he figures the GOP can risk being in opposition for a few terms. Democrats need to call this play by stating their intention to stack the court when they get power back.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Except I read the article, and Avenatti didn't say that.

That's what happens when you cite crap sources without confirming the claims.

"Stormy Daniels‘ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, claims he is aware of 'significant evidence' that embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was involved in 'gang rapes' during his high school years.

"Avenatti tweeted a screenshot Sunday night of an email he wrote to Mike Davis — the chief counsel for nominations for the Senate Judiciary Committee — alleging that Kavanaugh, his friend Mark Judge, and others targeted women with drugs and alcohol in order to allow a ‘train’ of men to subsequently gang rape them at house parties in the early 1980s."

-- People Magazine (Sept 24, 2018)

 

[carlitos]

So the witnesses have already testified under oath. Now what?

1 - That's not what "testifying under oath" means. Come on, no one even administers an oath in this context.
2 - Mitch McConnell said some words. He's a lying piece of ****, so who cares.

 

[The Big Dog]

The Poet, Thirsty the Porn lawyer, Spartacus, Senator Shut Up...

god all the bottom dwellers the leftists have to offer are out on display.

 

[Lurch]

You keep saying the word 'cute' in regard to my statements....but hardly anyone elses. It is DEEPLY offensive as a woman.
I'll take that as misogynist. People at my fortune 50 get in trouble for just saying 'girl'. Please refrain from abusing me this way in the future, thanks.

Your taking offense here seems rather overwrought to me.

I see no particular gender-based barb in the use of "cute" in response to what might be called naivete. If you were a guy the same response would be valid. I hope we're not going to collate a lexicon of otherwise neutral words that must be weighed based on the *presumed* gender of a participant on an anonymous message board. To even attempt to do so would require that we declare our gender as part of our user name/avatar.

 

[Sherkeu]

One just has to reckon that if the misogynistic disrespect of having your words/ideas referred to as "cute" gets you five posts worth of upset, you must've made sure to get out there and campaign against Donald Trump and convince all your friends to do the same.

Do you believe my allegations are false? Maybe ISF should suspend or ban anyone who says 'cute' to a female poster til we get to the bottom of it! You don't want me continuing to feel abused, right? My word on that should be good enough..


As for the SCOTUS process, I think they need to put some rules on how 'new' information is handled or every single nomination will become a circus in its final days. Next time we'll have someone claiming child abuse or prostitution or <insert lurid claim here> an hour before the swearing in.

 

[varwoche]

"Stormy Daniels‘ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, claims he is aware of 'significant evidence' that embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was involved in 'gang rapes' during his high school years.

"Avenatti tweeted a screenshot Sunday night of an email he wrote to Mike Davis — the chief counsel for nominations for the Senate Judiciary Committee — alleging that Kavanaugh, his friend Mark Judge, and others targeted women with drugs and alcohol in order to allow a ‘train’ of men to subsequently gang rape them at house parties in the early 1980s."

-- People Magazine (Sept 24, 2018)

Crikey. yet again you post a characterization of what Avenatti said, rather than quote what Avenatti actually said. This is fundamental, and I'm at a loss why you persist.

Mind you, it may be the case that Avenatti actually said these things. But if you can't muster the effort to quote his actual words (what a concept!) my level of concern about the topic is such that I'm disinclined to follow your inept citations.