# 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:** 158
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3141 "2018-09-24T19:20:49Z")
Summary: Hearing is on for Thursday. There will be a floor vote. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3142 "2018-09-24T19:21:41Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Do you feel this is likely to get to a point where we will no longer be able to use the word “alleged”? That this is going to result in a conviction? I’ll answer that after I hear what Avenatti has. If he has proof of Kavanaugh and cronies drugging and gang-raping women, then this will likely get turned over to prosecutors in Connecticut. The accusations by Ford are beyond the statute of limitations, so worst case he’ll be known as a rapey guy, no matter how much evidence comes out (though at least he probably will no longer be a judge). ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3143 "2018-09-24T19:28:57Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > McConnell is on the Senate floor excoriating the Dems if anyone is interested. Why would we be interested? Is he being more morally disgraceful than usual? Like, being suuuuper fucking rapey? ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3144 "2018-09-24T19:30:03Z")
Update: No accuser has come forward in Montgomery County, MD > [@Article](#): > > On Monday, Republicans were grappling with a news report that Montgomery County police, which has jurisdiction over Georgetown Preparatory School, had received new information regarding the judge. The department said it had received no such information. “As of this time, we have not received information from any victim or witness,” a spokesman said. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/kavanaugh-confirmation-process-encounters-more-uncertainty-1537798999](https://www.wsj.com/articles/kavanaugh-confirmation-process-encounters-more-uncertainty-1537798999) ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3145 "2018-09-24T19:31:49Z")
> [@Evil\_Economist](#): > > I’ll answer that after I hear what Avenatti has. If he has proof of Kavanaugh and cronies drugging and gang-raping women, then this will likely get turned over to prosecutors in Connecticut. > > The accusations by Ford are beyond the statute of limitations, so worst case he’ll be known as a rapey guy, no matter how much evidence comes out (though at least he probably will no longer be a judge). You seem convinced Avenatti is going to “deliver”. Do you expect him to release significant evidence prior to Thursday? ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3146 "2018-09-24T19:32:10Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Have you made one post today that didn’t include an ad hominem, a distortion of what others have posted, or a clear factual error? This one. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3147 "2018-09-24T19:33:14Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > McConnell is on the Senate floor excoriating the Dems if anyone is interested. GOP is prepared for war on this then? ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3148 "2018-09-24T19:33:19Z")
McConnell did say something along the lines of, “There will be a vote. Up or down. The American people deserve that.” Fuck that guy. ---
**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 24, 2018, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3149 "2018-09-24T19:33:37Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > You seem convinced Avenatti is going to “deliver”. Do you expect him to release significant evidence prior to Thursday? I do. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3150 "2018-09-24T19:34:15Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > McConnell did say something along the lines of, “There will be a vote. Up or down. The American people deserve that.” > > Fuck that guy. LOL, I thought that’s what you wanted for SCOTUS nominees. ETA: The quote, from C-SPAN’s closed captioning: > [@](#): > > BEFORE THE WEEK IS OUT, BOTH JUDGE KAVANAUGH AND DR. FORD WILL TESTIFY UNDER OATH BEFORE THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE. CHAIRMAN GRASSLEY HAS MADE SURE THE FACTS WILL BE HEARD. JUDGE KAVANAUGH AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DESERVE NOTHING LESS. AND I WANT TO MAKE IT PERFECTLY CLEAR, MR. PRESIDENT. JUDGE KAVANAUGH WILL BE VOTED ON HERE ON THE SENATE FLOOR. UP OR DOWN ON THE SENATE FLOOR, THIS FINE NOMINEE TO THE SUPREME COURT WILL RECEIVE A VOTE IN THIS SENATE IN THE NEAR FUTURE. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3151 "2018-09-24T19:35:23Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Why would we be interested? Is he being more morally disgraceful than usual? Like, being suuuuper fucking rapey? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3152 "2018-09-24T19:36:08Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > You seem convinced Avenatti is going to “deliver”. Do I? I certainly don’t feel that way. He’s backed up his shit before. And there’s a huge incentive for him to be able to back his shit up now, if he’s hoping to run for president. But I don’t know what he has. I do know that Kavanaugh was a heavy drinker, that multiple women have accused him of sexually assaulting them, that he belonged to a fraternity that sat outside a women’s center chanting “no means yeas and yes means anal.” Which implies to me that Avenatti’s claims are plausible. So I hope he has something, and I’ll be pissed if he doesn’t. > [@](#): > > Do you expect him to release significant evidence prior to Thursday? Yes (though I am not a fortune teller). ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3153 "2018-09-24T19:37:42Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > LOL, I thought that’s what you wanted for SCOTUS nominees. The vote is nice. Having it before the FBI has had an opportunity to investigate the multiple credible sexual assault claims is pretty shitty. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3154 "2018-09-24T19:39:27Z")
> [@Evil\_Economist](#): > > The vote is nice. Having it before the FBI has had an opportunity to investigate the multiple credible sexual assault claims is pretty shitty. The FBI _has_ had “an opportunity”. They declined. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3155 "2018-09-24T19:40:17Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > Shame. The vast majority of sexual assault victims feel ashamed because they “let” themselves be violated. They feel responsible even if intellectually they know they weren’t. Also, it’s common to feel like being raped turns you into damaged goods. > > The author’s point has nothing to do with virginity. The point is that Ford was determined to act normal, not like the victim of something dirty and shameful. > > If this needs to be explained to you after all the discussions you’ve had on this board about rape, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. It’s not that difficult to understand. Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that I don’t think what she alleges to have happened to her is all that serious. During the days of my own youth such occurrences during drunken parties was fairly commonplace, and the reaction of the girls involved was usually that the guy was just a drunken asshole and then they forgot about it. You do raise an interesting point though, which is that Ford may have felt shame for having put herself in the position where such an attack could occur. She was underage, in a swim suit, at a party where alcohol was flowing, there was no adult supervision, and with boys who were known to become sexually aggressive when drinking. I can certainly see how she would feel a certain sense of responsibility for what happened to her (though I doubt anyone here will profess the same), and that she was probably also fear of her parents finding out. So to that degree, I will accept that your point is well taken. > [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > I don’t know why this merits an eye roll. Can you expound? First, she did not ‘flee’ to California to escape the memories of what happened that night. I know this because she remained in the town and at the school she was attending when the attack occurred for two to three years afterward. She then moved to North Carolina to obtain her bachelor’s degree. So now we’re up to six or seven years after the fact before she is alleged to have found it necessary to flee 3,000 miles to California to escape the memory of that night. The nonsense about her wearing blue jeans and surfing is obviously intended to show that she was finally able to relax, throw off the binds (and apparently the clothing preferences) of her former prep school environment in Maryland, and at long last wrest some enjoyment from life. In other words, it was a ridiculously clumsy and tortured attempt at creating a deliberately false impression, which was that she was so uptight and haunted that she fled to the West Coast immediately after high school to seek refuge from her memories of that night, when the reality is that she still lived at or near home for some six or seven years afterward and then merely moved to California to continue her education, as countless people have done before and since. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3156 "2018-09-24T19:40:52Z")
Further update: New York Times passed on the Ramirez story as irresponsible to print. The New Yorker did not find corroboration, that’s why their article was titled “Dems are investigating…” > **[Yes, let's see the emails that led to Deborah Ramirez's accusation against...](https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2018/09/24/yes-lets-see-emails-led-deborah-ramirezs-accusation-kavanaugh-n263056)** > > Stop. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3157 "2018-09-24T19:42:20Z")
> [@Evil\_Economist](#): > > Do I? … It’s possible that I’ve mixed up you with another poster who expressed more certainty about Avenatti. If so, apologies. Either way, I thank you, both for your (in my view) fairly reasonable approach to Avenatti’s rumored evidence and for the (relatively, for this thread at least) polite way you’ve expressed it. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3158 "2018-09-24T19:43:58Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Further update: New York Times passed on the Ramirez story as irresponsible to print. The New Yorker did not find corroboration, that’s why their article was titled “Dems are investigating…” > > [https://hotair.com/archives/2018/09/24/yes-lets-see-emails-led-deborah-ramirezs-accusation-kavanaugh/](https://hotair.com/archives/2018/09/24/yes-lets-see-emails-led-deborah-ramirezs-accusation-kavanaugh/) Maybe they were still feeling a little gunshy after their big expose on curtains. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2018, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3159 "2018-09-24T19:44:00Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > LOL, I thought that’s what you wanted for SCOTUS nominees. That is what I want after the senate has had a chance to review the nominee in full. Mitch McConnell, on the other hand, is a little more fluid in what he believes the American people deserve. ---
**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 24, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733/3160 "2018-09-24T19:45:37Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > McConnell did say something along the lines of, “There will be a vote. Up or down. The American people deserve that.” > > Fuck that guy. I don’t get the point of announcing this. Why can’t they just go through the formalities of hearing Ford on Thursday and then determine whether to move to a floor vote? In secret, they could have everything pre-determined and still have the same result as being public about it would, except without the bad optics. There are several things that have made the Republicans look terrible in all of this, but what takes the cake is their false sense of urgency. Even if I had no opinion one way or the other about Kav’s qualifications or character, their dogged commitment to rushing him through would be a concern for me. They are acting like a pack of panicked hyenas. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733.md?page=157) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-actually-stop-the-nomination-of-brett-kavanaugh/820733.md?page=159)