Official Brett Kavanaugh confirmation thread

I thought this was a running board. It is stunning how arbitrary and capricious the moderators are here. ZERO credibility.

- BK was a bagman for +15yrs , and has a LOT of enemies in DC

- They began the confirmation process so as to be a campaign issue.

This whole shitshow is a direct result of the GOP gambling with this appointment, trying to get election mileage out of it. They could have picked Hardimann, who is just as conservative, and has no baggage. But no. Had to be BK. And not only that, the staffers, knowing in August how radioactive BK could be, still decided to hold the hearings ASAP. Waiting until Nov/Dec/Jan would have been good.

Now GOP is backed into a corner, and both BK & DJT love a fight. So it can't end well.

The tension is palpable, to me, re: whether she testifies tomorrow or not. Are Trump and the GOP really going to let her go out there and tell her story? As soon as she walks into that room and onto your televisions, she's not a cipher any more, but a flesh-and-blood human being. Assuming she comes off remotely credible, to then turn around and vote to confirm him ... phew, that's going to take some political cojones.

Peonies wrote:

I thought this was a running board. It is stunning how arbitrary and capricious the moderators are here. ZERO credibility.

Yeah, 100% this. It's going to add more trash to this RUNNING message board.

Can't see any way this helps the GOPs chances in the election.

IndyJ wrote:

The tension is palpable, to me, re: whether she testifies tomorrow or not. Are Trump and the GOP really going to let her go out there and tell her story? As soon as she walks into that room and onto your televisions, she's not a cipher any more, but a flesh-and-blood human being. Assuming she comes off remotely credible, to then turn around and vote to confirm him ... phew, that's going to take some political cojones.

Understand where you are coming from, however I think it comes down to this:

3 people claiming sexual assault. They claim that in total there were numerous (a dozen? dozens?) people who witnessed or partook in this. If someone corroborates one of these stories, he is toast.

If they cant get 1 out of a dozen people to corroborate, then you can not obstruct his path/ruin his life. Sorry, if there is no evidence we can't act on these claims.

Don't pick anyone who played football, lacrosse, or especially hockey in school. Especially a star player. SCOTUS needs an intellectual, not a party dude bro.

You played football or lacrosse, sports known for the heavy drinking hazing culture, you're out. Why even go there?

Can they pick someone else?

Feinstein found another nut today who claims Kavanaugh was at 10 parties where there was gang rapes by him and his Georgetown prep classmates in 1982..but she kept going to them until she too was raped.

We've been talking a lot about this at my regular message board for former journalists this week - our thread is up to like 90 pages. And something I keep coming back to is that, although your point is well-taken, the Ramirez and Swetnick allegations are kind of useful red herrings right now for the Democrats. No downside to them.

Re: Blasey Ford, the corroboration is the therapist notes from 2012 and 2013 that the Washington Post examined and vouches for. If they are authentic, and I'm not sure a Republican has even argued that they aren't, that's a contemporaneous paper trail, behind closed doors, leading back six years, when she had no incentive to lie about this to derail a nomination. There is not a coherent theory in which Blasey Ford is lying about this. Misremembering? Maybe. Mistaken identity? Perhaps. But she's probably not lying.

If you're waiting for corroboration from other people, regarding her allegations, I don't know that it will ever be forthcoming, even if the allegation is 100 percent true. Remember, this "party" had four or five other people present. I have been to, literally, thousands of such "parties" in my life. It wouldn't be memorable for anybody there ... except for the person who was sexually assaulted. And that typically doesn't take place out in the open.

Thanks to Avenatti, Kavanaugh is now a fu-king evil mastermind genius...

17 year-old ring-leader of regular, drunken sex-orgies at unknown beach house with college girls - who keep coming back for more! Manages to keep this going through high school, unknown to local cops, parents and school administrators across Montgomery County.

The Angel of Death wrote:

Peonies wrote:

I thought this was a running board. It is stunning how arbitrary and capricious the moderators are here. ZERO credibility.

Yeah, 100% this. It's going to add more trash to this RUNNING message board.

It seems disingenuous to call them arbitrary and capricious when there are large numbers of non running threads they didnt start that are left in place and they even have an official category.

Harambe wrote:

Can't see any way this helps the GOPs chances in the election.

It does not help them. The House is gone. The GOP is willing to sacrifice the Senate. Not so much for Kavanaugh, but for Trump's base. Trump cannot fail. When he does fail, as he will with Kavanaugh, others must be blamed.

The GOP is calculating that either they get Trump's choice, Kavanaugh, on the SCOTUS, or they they don't get Kavanugh on, and use that to inflame Trumper supporters and get them out to vote.

Theoniongoat wrote:

The Angel of Death wrote:

Yeah, 100% this. It's going to add more trash to this RUNNING message board.

It seems disingenuous to call them arbitrary and capricious when there are large numbers of non running threads they didnt start that are left in place and they even have an official category.

You need to learn what arbitrary and capricious mean. Your assertion indicated either you do not comprehend the meaning of the words or you do not reason very well.

Off the Grid wrote:

And not only that, the staffers, knowing in August how radioactive BK could be, still decided to hold the hearings ASAP. Waiting until Nov/Dec/Jan would have been good.

With the possibility of losing a Republican majority?

IndyJ wrote:There is not a coherent theory in which Blasey Ford is lying about this. Misremembering? Maybe. Mistaken identity? Perhaps. But she's probably not lying.

Well, there's a pretty coherent theory that notes that 2012 was also the time when Kavanaugh's name was bandied about as being a leading contender for SCOTUS if Mitt Romney were to win the presidency . Ford is a left-leaning Democrat who opined on social media that there must never be another Justice like Scalia on the court. She's also a documented donor to Bernie Sanders, the DNC, and Act Blue, plus participated in anti-Trump marches. So she's clearly got a political agenda, and is not merely a disinterested spectator in the nomination process.

So...let's see if she releases those therapist notes from 2012....

She just released her polygraph test a couple hours ago and - surprise, surprise - there's some contradictions in that account vs. the letter she sent to Diane Feinstein only a few weeks before the test.

The Democratic party will stop at nothing to ruin this man's life(or any other prominent conservatives life). Its sickening.

If Republicans allow these weak allegations and obvious delay tactics obstruct their Supreme Court pick then they are worthless and deserve to suffer in the election. Just confirm him already and let Democrats have their hissy fit... They're going to melt down no matter what anyway!

I was under the impression that Blasey Ford's "corroboration" was finished. She named 3 people besides herself and Kavanaugh, two men, one woman (who was a supposed friend). The two men claimed it didn't happen (may or may not be biased in this account), but apparently, the woman claimed she wasn't even there.

But this theory requires that she told her therapist this, behind closed doors, as a way to - what? - plant the corroboration behind closed doors in the event that he was nominated by Romney? And again in 2013, looking ahead to 2016 and beyond?

No way.