It is refreshing to have input from an utterly non-partisan and objective source like RealClear, as compared to the failing New York Times or the lying sumbitchs at Washington Post.
3 GOP Governors call for delay in confirmation vote.
Not a good sign for Team Rapey.
But the public, the voters, believes they mean something and it seems that both Ford and Kavanaugh do.
Mitchell is trying to undermine that (agreed mistaken) belief but instead she is just reinforcing to the casually informed who watches lots of television procedurals that she was willing to take one, took it under difficult circumstances, and passed it, while Kavanaugh has been unwilling to take one.
She’d have been better off moving along.
I am on a mobile device so I cannot link (very easily). Google “Kavanaugh opinion Kathryn Sack v. United States Department of Defense.”
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Agreed on all points, DSeid.
So what is the theory that Mitchell will present?
And how will it sell in this venue?
To be fair, it’s unusual for Trump to blame other people for his own failures. He has the best, the very best, failures!!
Couple quick thoughts, as someone who has sat through hundreds of depositions:
Mitchell, the attorney, is being fair. But she’s just gathering facts at this point (and doing it an odd way with only 5mins of questioning). Generally, the “nasty” “bad” questions come at the end. Not saying she’ll do that, but that’s when I’d expect them. Regardless, she’s probing Ford and then the Senators can later use any discrepancies she uncovers (and there have been a few, but minor ones), Mitchell is not going to use them as ammunition during the hearing (unless she does it at the end).
Ford is credible. She has to be 100% certain it was Kavanaugh and she is.
We need to wait for Kavanaugh to testify. He could be equally credible.
Apparently (according to the live-tweeting I’m following), Lindsey Graham just said the following with a straight face, even though the Senate refused to subpoena additional witnesses who might provide more information:
“unless something new comes forward, you have just an emotional accusation and an emotional denial without corroboration."
It’s even worse than that. A huge chunk of that article is referencing photos of girls at Ford’s high school behaving in less than ladylike manners. Photos that Ford wasn’t even in.
I’m trying to remember who it was in this thread who wanted to do away with this guilt by association nonsense. Who was that?
Kavanaugh is not even accused of rape.
Are you one of the 54% of Republicans who thinks it doesn’t matter to the confirmation vote if Kavanaugh attempted to rape Dr. Ford?
Interesting thought from the FiveThirtyEight live blog
All of this thinking that it’s over and Kavanaugh is not going to be confirmed is way too soon. No reason to think he won’t be confirmed. One story versus another. No way to be sure.
Let’s hear how he does.
Couple of new perspectives heard on CNN:
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if Kavanaugh is confirmed notwithstanding the evidence, a Democratic Congress could impeach him based on what’s been presented
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if Kavanaugh is rejected, even his present job as circuit judge could be in jeopardy (and should be, IMHO)
Here’s a link to all the Supreme Court markets on PredictIt.
These have been super swingy all morning so I’m reluctant to comment on it because things could change by the time I hit submit.
Snapshot:
Collins 65-35 No
Murkowski 70-30 No
Flake 59-41 No
Paul(!) 55-45 No
Corker 54-46 Yes
Capito(!) 53-47 Yes
Bottom line:
Will Brett Kavanaugh be the next confirmed Supreme Court justice? 61-39 No
She seems to have attacked Prof Ford on two main lines
- Inconsistencies in her testimony
- Collusion with Democrats
I would say she certainly has gotten material for the wavering Senators if they are inclined to use them. She clearly has not gone in for a hard cross, which she could have by my count about 4 times, so she obviously been instructed to avoid that.
Biggest thing she elicited, the fact that Prof Ford named her friend, who is on record saying she does not remember and the fact that her house was a fairly long way away from the club so presumably she would have been driven, and that is a gap.
Correct, he’s accused of trying but failing to rape. Huge difference.
My experience in trials is if you go first and are not certain if victory at half time, then you are certainly going to lose.
Kavanaugh still has to talk. Wait until that is done. Then we’ll have a better idea.
Agreed. Look, what I think is happening is this. Mitchell’s gathering information, asking good common-sense questions some of which I would not have thought of.
I don’t think she’s going for a “gotcha Bitch!” Perry Mason moment with Ford. I don’t think that would be productive or even possible.
I am frankly more interested to see how hard she goes after Kavenaugh. She hasn’t thrown any hardballs at Ford, and may not, but I expect her to get pointed with Kavenaugh.
I think at the end of the day, as soon as this is over or soon thereafter, Mitchell is going to provide her professional opinion to the Republicans on the judiciary how much merit each side has, and they’ll make a decision on what to do based on that.