New SCOTUS Judge

[Belz...]

Even if he's telling the truth, this sniffling, weepy, self-pitying display isn't what we expect from a Supreme Court justice. We're learning more about this guy than he thinks.

He seems like a bitter man. I didn't expect his rant to start with such an angry bang.

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

I think it was Coons (sp?) who said he was too evasive in earlier answers and tried to ask him about drinking again, and he went off being evasive again.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Actually you and Kavanaugh are both wrong I think.

The confirmation hasn't become a disgrace. It was a disgrace right from the start. (Remember the whole issue with the documents that were hidden from the judiciary committee, Grassley banging his gavel during democratic Senator statements, etc.)

I didn't specify when it became a disgrace (I'd argue it was when they refused to even consider Obama's candidate).

 

[Stacyhs]

Uh oh! Someone just slipped Kavanaugh a note! Someone alert TBD!

Hah! Grassley just got his ass handed to him by Senator Whitehouse (I believe it was Whitehouse).

 

[Belz...]

There's a very good reason he appeared on Fox News and not on a far more balanced outlet: it was never about convincing the country that he's innocent rather it was about convincing republicans and republican leaning voters that he didn't do it.

I think it was more about convincing them that he's one of them, as they clearly don't give a **** whether he did it or not.

ETA: Well Lindsey Graham was worth watching.

What a piece of scum. When the time comes for him to have a spine all he does is play partisan politics. And that he claims that Ford is "just as much a victim as [Kavanaugh is]" is nothing short of depicable. And after Garland? The GOP deserves everything that's coming to them.

 

[crescent]

Gosh, that's a very good point. If he did make it to the SC, he almost certainly would be called on to make rulings that could be deemed partisan - and might even have to make rulings related to (e.g.) the Clintons themselves. Regardless of their origin of nomination, SC judges are at least notionally (if not in practice...) supposed to be strictly bipartisan. I can't see how Kavanaugh on the SC could ever be seen to be upholding that principle. He'd have to recuse himself over and over.

He seems like a bitter man. I didn't expect his rant to start with such an angry bang.

Bitterness sticks.

They days of a non-partisan SC are over. Kennedy was nominated by conservatives but voted pretty moderate. There used to be a number of Justices like that, nominated by conservative Republicans but who appeared to drift leftward over time, settling into the center-right.

We can't have that. The goal now is not to find a judge who will examine the legal challenges, or analyze them in a legal constitutional setup. The goal now is to get someone who can craft legalistic reasons for always, always, always supporting the conservative position.

No legal analysis, just legalistic jargon supporting a political position.

And they've got that. If they get Kavanaugh in, he'll be hostile to the Democratic policies for the rest of his life. He'll never be objective, never do any real analysis. This bitterness will stick with him forever. Much to our loss.

 

[Stacyhs]

I agree with Dana Bash that Graham's rant was a tactic to change the dynamics since Sen. Durbin had just made K look evasive and dishonest regarding the FBI question.

 

[LondonJohn]

He seems like a bitter man. I didn't expect his rant to start with such an angry bang.

Likewise. It appeared to me that when you're going into a job interview, you don't start by snarling self-righteous angry insults towards those who are interviewing you with the ultimate power to give you the job or not. Maybe that's just me........

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

The fact is that Kavanaugh has made repeated public statements that refer to memory losses that would seem to be related to drinking — about not remembering the scores of sporting events in his yearbook, about the bus trip to the Red Sox game, and (in an email that was disclosed to the Judiciary Committee from his time in the Bush White House) about not remembering the details of a night during a boat trip he made in 2001. Given that most heavy drinkers black out at least occasionally and that he’s made all these references to memory losses, it’s simply very unlikely that he’s never blacked out.

Linky.

 

[CORed]

"We got a filibuster but not a single answer."

The high school calendar is something else. Who writes down which friends you went out with?

I see they only have copies, I wonder what the ink looks like in the original?

Just barely dry would be my guess.

 

[Belz...]

Likewise. It appeared to me that when you're going into a job interview, you don't start by snarling self-righteous angry insults towards those who are interviewing you with the ultimate power to give you the job or not. Maybe that's just me........

Unless you know for a fact that you're getting confirmed.

 

[Stacyhs]

The fact is that Kavanaugh has made repeated public statements that refer to memory losses that would seem to be related to drinking — about not remembering the scores of sporting events in his yearbook, about the bus trip to the Red Sox game, and (in an email that was disclosed to the Judiciary Committee from his time in the Bush White House) about not remembering the details of a night during a boat trip he made in 2001. Given that most heavy drinkers black out at least occasionally and that he’s made all these references to memory losses, it’s simply very unlikely that he’s never blacked out.

Linky.

I suspect he is in deep denial. It doesn't square with what he believes about himself today.

 

[LondonJohn]

I suspect he is in deep denial. It doesn't square with what he believes about himself today.

If he did it, I'm not even sure he's in denial. His behaviour (evasion, misdirection, self-righteous anger, attempst at table-turning, clear conflicts between his own claims to his behaviour around that time with evidence to the contrary.....) suggests to me that he's much more likely to know exactly what he did, and is trying to use every means open to him to get out of it.

 

[Beelzebuddy]

I suspect he is in deep denial. It doesn't square with what he believes about himself today.

I suspect he is lying through his damned teeth.

 

[kookbreaker]

Another point.

Flight or fight reaction. She was stopped from fleeing. What did she do to fight back? Scratch his face? What was she doing with her hands?

Yay. Victim blaming.

 

[Stacyhs]

If he did it, I'm not even sure he's in denial. His behaviour (evasion, misdirection, self-righteous anger, attempst at table-turning, clear conflicts between his own claims to his behaviour around that time with evidence to the contrary.....) suggests to me that he's much more likely to know exactly what he did, and is trying to use every means open to him to get out of it.

I meant I suspect that he's in denial about the seriousness of his drinking...blackouts, etc.

I think he's out and out lying about the Renate alumni bit.

 

[Stacyhs]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong...

K keeps saying the other 4 people at party deny the incident ever happened. From my understanding, they have not said it never happened, just that they have no recollection of it and/or of knowing K.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Hearing adjourned. Soon to be confirmed. And I'm lovin it!

 

[Babbylonian]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong...

K keeps saying the other 4 people at party deny the incident ever happened. From my understanding, they have not said it never happened, just that they have no recollection of it and/or of knowing K.

Same difference to rape-lovers. Me, I think it's strange to call people "witnesses" who say they didn't see anything and/or don't remember anything.

 

[kellyb]

I meant I suspect that he's in denial about the seriousness of his drinking...blackouts, etc.

I think he's out and out lying about the Renate alumni bit.

He knows he's blacked out before. He's not in denial about that.