# Can Democrats actually stop the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 4, 2018, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733 "2018-09-04T12:49:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 109
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2161 "2018-09-20T23:15:30Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > …Her lawyer could make one phone call and have a team of security at a nice hotel anywhere in the country… You volunteering to pay for it? Oh, never mind, we’ve got your guarantee! ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2162 "2018-09-20T23:20:53Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > In an earlier post Evil Economist said > > You replied > > To more simply state what I’m getting at (sorry for the confusion, I should have been clearer): You seem to imply there is no way to figure out what happened, since “Ford doesn’t know”, and I’m suggesting that another way to find out details is to interview others, under oath, who were said to have been there. I’m just asking if you think this is a reasonable idea. The others that have already said they don’t remember / never attended a gathering like that? I don’t think it’s likely to reveal additional details. If Ford / Kavanaugh / Judge / Smyth are willing to testify, then sure, they should be given a chance to speak. I’m a bit more circumspect about the idea of compelling testimony on this matter from private citizens who do not with to to give it. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2163 "2018-09-20T23:23:06Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > … she has no access to materials that anyone facing a Senate grilling about their past would want to access. Presumably a lifetime of her correspondence, journals, yearbooks, agendas, photo-albums, and other items that could help her verify information she’d want to put in her statement, are not available where she’s hiding, now. … She couldn’t send someone home to get those materials for her? Her lawyer can’t do that? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2164 "2018-09-20T23:24:43Z")
> [@Evil\_Economist](#): > > … I suspect that the threat of murder by right wing extremists probably made it difficult to focus on other things. You do have a flair for the dramatic. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2165 "2018-09-20T23:34:51Z")
My prediction: Grassley will agree to move the hearing to later in the week (next week), but there will not be an FBI investigation beforehand. Ford will appear at the later date. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2166 "2018-09-20T23:37:25Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > We don’t know where Ford is staying–in a motel? With friends? But we do know that in addition to the trauma of being the subject of death threats and watching her character being assassinated all over social media (and other media, too), she has no access to materials that anyone facing a Senate grilling about their past would want to access. Presumably a lifetime of her correspondence, journals, yearbooks, agendas, photo-albums, and other items that could help her verify information she’d want to put in her statement, are not available where she’s hiding, now. > > And the Senate Republicans are going to make a very big deal of _any_ discrepancy in her statement. A misspelled name; a date that’s off by a day; a classmate whose married name she gets wrong—they will trumpet these loud and long. And she’s not in a position to be able to check all these things, because she’s not able to work in her own home. Kavanaugh gets to prep in the White House. Rough… ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2167 "2018-09-20T23:41:34Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > I guarantee that the DNC would pay for Secret Service-style security. Are you proposing a wager? Oh, I’m game for that. Shall we say $500? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2168 "2018-09-20T23:48:05Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > My prediction: Grassley will agree to move the hearing to later in the week (next week), but there will not be an FBI investigation beforehand. Ford will appear at the later date. I think it’s really up to Collins / Murkowski / Flake. If they tell their colleagues “I’m a ‘no’ unless you give Ford another week to testify” it will get delayed. If they say they’re onboard with voting (and presumably “yes”) after Monday, then he probably won’t delay it. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2169 "2018-09-20T23:57:03Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Is this a credible accusation? I think it is. I don’t. Not yet. Any man of his age could be similarly accused. Belay that - almost any adult man could be similarly accused. Come to think of it, so could any woman: “Yes, it was a decade ago. We were both at Jim’s party and she grabbed me by the balls and started kissing me.” Kavanaugh is entitled to the presumption of his innocence. As yet no evidence has been presented. He has not been arrested. He has not been charged. He has not been convicted. Ergo he is - as yet - presumed innocent. I think you and other Dopers think the accusation is credible because the accused is a Republican nominee. So far I have seen nothing to contradict that. We have her accusation and that is it. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2170 "2018-09-20T23:57:29Z")
> [@CoolHandCox](#): > > Kavanaugh gets to prep in the White House. Rough… For many hours over several days, apparently: > [@](#): > > Kavanaugh, meanwhile, was back at the White House complex on Thursday, amid a week of visits that have included preparation for the possibility of additional Senate testimony, according to a person involved in the confirmation process. > **[Kavanaugh: I will attend Monday hearing 'so that I can clear my name'](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/kavanaugh-preps-senate-testimony-assault-allegations-n911441)** > > The Supreme Court nominee's letter affirming his decision to appear at Monday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing came hours after an attorney for his accuser said her attendance that day was "not possible." > [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > She couldn’t send someone home to get those materials for her? Her lawyer can’t do that? How smart would that be, if you’ve received death threats that make it clear the writer knows where your house is? Paying someone to be sure no one is watching your house would be pretty expensive, so how could anyone be sure the lawyer, on leaving the house, wouldn’t be followed by a nut with a gun? I guess you could have the lawyer drive like a daredevil to elude pursuers, but not all lawyers are going to be up for that. (Or capable of it.) > [@](#): > > Her lawyer told CNN on Tuesday night: “It’s premature to talk about a hearing on Monday because she [Prof Ford] has been dealing with the threats, the harassment and the safety of her family and that’s what she’s been focused on for the last couple of days.” > > She said that since going public with her allegation in the Washington Post on Sunday, Prof Ford has been trying to work out where her family are going to sleep at night. > > The legal team’s letter says that Prof Ford’s family has been forced to move out of their home, her email has been hacked and she has been impersonated online. > **[Christine Blasey Ford: Kavanaugh accuser 'faces death threats'](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45568450)** > > The woman who says the US Supreme Court pick once attacked her has had to flee home, says her lawyer. > [@](#): > > Ford’s lawyers said that since going public with her allegation, their client had received multiple death threats, had her email hacked and been impersonated online. She and her family have also been forced to leave their home in California. > **[Kavanaugh Accuser Forced Out of Home Over Death Threats](https://www.newsweek.com/kavanaugh-accuser-christine-blasey-ford-forced-out-home-after-death-threats-1127334)** > > Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s, has been forced out of her home after receiving death threats, her lawyers say. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2171 "2018-09-21T00:04:17Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Kavanaugh is entitled to the presumption of his innocence. As yet no evidence has been presented. He has not been arrested. He has not been charged. He has not been convicted. Ergo he is - as yet - presumed innocent. You are conflating the standard we use for a criminal conviction with the standard needed to approve a nominee’s appointment. Two different animals. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2172 "2018-09-21T00:05:14Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > Yes, of course. A republican SCOTUS nominee was torpedoed for admitting to pot use in 1987. > > What I \*can’t \*seem to come up with is a case where a person was disqualified from high office for underage drinking. Is there precedent for that? For me the real point here is that there is evidence that they were, both of them, Kavanaugh and Judge, at least occasional blackout drunks at this time. How do you deny something you don’t remember? You might feel morally superior but you don’t ever really know. That’s very republican, but we have two parties for now. These situations might be a very bad stick for those accused, but then again he was the one drinking himself into a stupor. I’m sure he knows the adages to use in this case, he might have dispensed them from the bench on occasion. Maybe they will be of some comfort to republicans in the future. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2173 "2018-09-21T00:06:15Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > You are conflating the standard we use for a criminal conviction with the standard needed to approve a nominee’s appointment. Two different animals. This needs to be said on page 44?! Oh yeah, “politics” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2174 "2018-09-21T00:06:44Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > We don’t know where Ford is staying–in a motel? With friends? But we do know that in addition to the trauma of being the subject of death threats and watching her character being assassinated all over social media (and other media, too), she has no access to materials that anyone facing a Senate grilling about their past would want to access. Presumably a lifetime of her correspondence, journals, yearbooks, agendas, photo-albums, and other items that could help her verify information she’d want to put in her statement, are not available where she’s hiding, now. > > And the Senate Republicans are going to make a very big deal of _any_ discrepancy in her statement. A misspelled name; a date that’s off by a day; a classmate whose married name she gets wrong—they will trumpet these loud and long. And she’s not in a position to be able to check all these things, because she’s not able to work in her own home. As I said earlier, all she has to do at this point is convince Jeff Flake. She doesn’t have to worry about what “the Republicans” will do. I don’t think Jeff Flake will do any of the things you are throwing up against the wall there to see if anything will stick. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2175 "2018-09-21T00:07:16Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > She couldn’t send someone home to get those materials for her? Her lawyer can’t do that? Of course not. I watched a documentary the other night called “No Country for Old Men.” Her lawyer would surely get a cattle bolt to the head if the lawyer tried that. Much too risky. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2176 "2018-09-21T00:10:33Z")
I’m not sure preparing in the Trump white house is a positive. Might be better off with Larry , Moe, and Curly ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2177 "2018-09-21T00:13:31Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I’m not sure preparing in the Trump white house is a positive. Might be better off with Larry , Moe, and Curly I heard on one of the shows–and I can’t link because I don’t remember which one–that someone on the staff was actually tasked, this past week, with keeping Trump away. (Of course he was off on his trip to see the storm damage for part of the time, but not all of it.) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2178 "2018-09-21T00:24:47Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > “cites”? Which “cites” (plural) are you talking about? I recall one, which I preceded with plenty of disclaimers about it’s accuracy. Is there a second or third you were thinking of? Given the opportunity to back up your claims, you could have chosen to back up your claims. That would’ve been a good thing to do, if your claims were solid. Instead, you quibble over the letter “s”. That’s a good thing to do, if your claims are weak as shit, and you’re hoping to distract folks from that. Nice try. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2179 "2018-09-21T00:25:45Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > I guarantee that the DNC would pay for Secret Service-style security. And if it turns out he’s wrong, you can keep the guarantee. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/2180 "2018-09-21T00:29:57Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > This “safety” shit is nonsense. Any public figure has cranks out there running their mouths and making threats. I’d be laughing if it wasn’t so overwhelmingly not a laughing matter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733.md?page=108) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733.md?page=110)