New SCOTUS Judge

[Skeptic Ginger]

It's annoying that the post-hearing news is citing Kavanaugh's denial while not mentioning his avoidance of answering questions.

Correction: NPR did just mention he dodged the 'ask for an FBI investigation' question.

 

[The Big Dog]

Still voting tomorrow i hope?

After kicking the dims asses i hope so

 

[Stacyhs]

Here we go again and you have done this before. Of course that's you and all the Republican talking heads so maybe you should be careful who you parrot.

There is a difference between saying you don't remember something and saying it did not happen. Please stop lying that witnesses said it didn't happen.


And I'm pretty sure that "two other guys said it could have been them" turned out to be a total fabrication by that PR guy. I'll go find the link.

Yep, Ed Whelan: Hot Air - Ed Whelan: I Didn’t Communicate With Kavanaugh Or The White House About My “Mistaken Identity” Theory; Update: PR Firm Helped

K has repeatedly claimed (several times) that the others have stated it never happened. But that is just not true. As you said, and as I brought up earlier, they have said they don't remember/recall such a party.That is not the same as saying it never happened. Frankly, I'm shocked that none of the Dems pointed that out as it's an important distinction.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Why would anyone want that terrible man to be a supreme court judge?

Ignoring the attempted rape accusation he comes across as shifty, arrogant, and dishonest.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

My word, the photos of Kavanaugh from his hearing today (e.g. the one headlining that New Yorker article) are long going to be (correctly) held against him. And it's not as if he looked snarling and aggressive just once or twice, and was "luckily" caught by cameras on motor drive. Heck, a 12 year old with a shoot-and-wind Kodak instamatic could easily have caught him in that exact expression.

Actually, what's struck me is how much he looks like Arnold Rimmer. At least Chris Barrie pulls that face to deliberately look like a tosser.

 

[Stacko]

I get why Trump likes him.

The @WSJ reports Kavanaugh watched Ford’s testimony, contradicting his later testimony that he did not.​

He's a pathological liar too. Why even lie about that?

 

[Stacyhs]

It's annoying that the post-hearing news is citing Kavanaugh's denial while not mentioning his avoidance of answering questions.

Correction: NPR did just mention he dodged the 'ask for an FBI investigation' question.

I'm still watching (delayed) and he just once again refused to answer the question about wanting the FBI to investigate. Harris asked for a straight yes or no and we got the same evasive scripted answer yet again.

 

[Shalamar]

Why would anyone want that terrible man to be a supreme court judge?

Ignoring the attempted rape accusation he comes across as shifty, arrogant, and dishonest.

He's a conservative. Literally nothing else matters.1

 

[phunk]

Doxxing from congressional computers.


Dems have outdone themselves this time.

How do you know who did it?

 

[Stacko]

I get why Trump likes him.

The @WSJ reports Kavanaugh watched Ford’s testimony, contradicting his later testimony that he did not.​

He's a pathological liar too. Why even lie about that?

I mean seriously:

Based on extensive interviews by me and @katekelly with Kavanaugh's former Georgetown Prep classmates, what he just said about the meanings of "boofed" and "Devil's Triangle" is not true.​

His comfort with lying is disqualifying on its own.

 

[quadraginta]

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.

He may not be in denial about it. But he certainly denied it while being asked questions about that by the lawyer who the GOP selected.

Categorically, emphatically denied it. Repeatedly. He even denied that there were ever any times when he didn't remember something which had been said or done while he was drinking. No memory issues at all, ever.

Anyone who could believe him after watching him (where he even looked like he was lying) make those claims is never going to doubt anything he says under any circumstances, or either just doesn't care that he is lying like a rug.

 

[Babbylonian]

I do still think his performance gave Republicans enough cover to confirm him.

The only cover they need is Kavanaugh's continued denials. Their base would never believe a woman (or 2 or 3 or 20) over a white man who has the support of their Republican leaders.

 

[theprestige]

You're almost certainly right (ugh, gotta love blindly-partisan politics from either side). But what if this thing gains traction beyond the senate process and his swearing in? What if the local police get involved and launch their own investigation? (I'd love to know what if any pressure Kavanaugh and his friends and lawyers might have put on those local police up to now....). What if they want to interview Kavanaugh under caution? What if the local DA convenes a Grand Jury? All of which would be with a sitting SC Justice as the accused and the potential defendant!

I'm pretty sure an interview under caution isn't possible in the US system. BRB Googling.

 

[Stacko]

He may not be in denial about it. But he certainly denied it while being asked questions about that by the lawyer who the GOP selected.

Categorically, emphatically denied it. Repeatedly. He even denied that there were ever any times when he didn't remember something which had been said or done while he was drinking. No memory issues at all, ever.

Anyone who could believe him after watching him (where he even looked like he was lying) make those claims is never going to doubt anything he says under any circumstances, or either just doesn't care that he is lying like a rug.

Nate Silver's take on why he was lying about seems pretty on the nose.

This is a liveblog, so I’m just going to tell you what I’m thinking: I think it seems pretty damned obvious that Kavanaugh is lying about questions surrounding his drinking habits. I think he’s concluded that he has to lie about them because if it can be established that he drinks to the point of blacking out or at least “getting fuzzy,” then his denial isn’t worth very much when Ford said the incident occurred when Kavanaugh was very drunk. He might undertake the strategy of lying about his drinking habits whether he was guilty of the assault, innocent of the assault, or was too drunk to know either way. But if you’ve been following the details about this case, it’s very, very likely that he’s knowingly lying about his drinking habits.

 

[quadraginta]

Why would anyone want that terrible man to be a supreme court judge?

Ignoring the attempted rape accusation he comes across as shifty, arrogant, and dishonest.

The blubbering at the start wasn't very helpful, either.

Or convincing. He certainly didn't take any Drama classes while at Georgetown Prep.

I wonder if he used Vicks?

 

[quadraginta]

Nate Silver's take on why he was lying about seems pretty on the nose.

Yeah. It is definitely a point that he felt like he couldn't give any ground on.

In spite of the fact that it was obvious he was lying through his teeth.

 

[sylvan8798]

Let's take the statement from Julie Swetnick at face value. She willingly and regularly attended parties where girls were being aggressively sexualized and gang raped; she was even a victim herself. Yet she still went to these parties, even after her own rape. This makes absolutely no sense. It can only be explained by coming of age in an extremely toxic culture where rape and sexual harassment was the norm.

She is calling it rape retrospectively. Remember they were 17-18 at the time and would likely not have seen it in those terms. A girl who drank too much and ended up in a bedroom shagging guys was a lush and/or a slut. It was the girl they would have criticized, not the guys. Their understanding was perhaps limited. Even Swetnick herself may have blamed her victimization on herself and her own overindulgence and behavior. Admittedly, it is difficult to see why she would have continued to attend such parties, but perhaps we would need more information to suss that out.

 

[Arcade22]

Why would anyone want that terrible man to be a supreme court judge?

Ignoring the attempted rape accusation he comes across as shifty, arrogant, and dishonest.

If he had any respect for the Supreme Court as an institution he'd revoke his candidacy the second it became apparent that a full blown scandal was brewing. There's no good reason for concluding that he's such an exceptional candidate that he needed to nominated, let alone confirmed by the senate, no matter what the consequences.

Even when you take of account his political and ideological views there's almost certainly someone else that could take his place without being so utterly toxic.

 

[Belz...]

Thank you for the correction! I've seen it in text both ways. I looked it up and found this.

Opinions on how the vote will go?

Confirmed? or No?

I wouldn't be surprised if he were confirmed one way or another, as the GOP has shown that only partisan politics matter. You could say that the Democrats have engaged in that, too, but to completely ignore these allegations without further review is ridiculous.

 

[smartcooky]

We can add to the information that makes it "bizarre" Like: 5 witnesses alleged by her to be there have all denied it.

Again, you are deliberately mis-characterising what they said.

None of those five has denied anything. What they have said is that they do not recall this happening, and that is a long, long way from saying that it didn't happen.

Additionally, these people were replying to reporters, which means they can lie with impunity. Maybe they are saying what they are saying because they just do not want to become involved. After having seen the disgraceful way that GOP Senators have behaved and the way that Trump's base have treated her (harassment, doxing, impersonation on line, re-victimisation and death threats) is it any wonder that some people might want to stay out of it?

Now, if there had been proper FBI investigation (as there should have been) then those five people, and others, could have been questioned properly, by professional, non-partisan investigators, and their answers are likely to have been very different.