Well, in the criminal context, there is also the prohibition against using extrinsic evidence to prove a collateral matter. I think a judge would allow the state maybe one witness to testify that Kavanaugh had said that he had blacked out previously.
But, again, this is not a criminal trial, so there are no rules of evidence, but we don’t have those Rules of Evidence just to be stubborn and to prevent truth seeking. We have them largely (except for privileges) to better get to the truth. We don’t allow hearsay, for example, because it is largely unreliable. We could write a law review article on it, but these rules are there to get to the truth.
This question of whether Kavanaugh blacked out does not help us get to the truth of whether he assaulted Dr. Ford. As most of the responses in this thread show, people acknowledge that, but want to find out if he lied under oath about blacking out, something which I pointed out is such a vague term that can never be proven false.
I have complained from the beginning that this is a fishing expedition. If Ford doesn’t stick, let’s keep “investigating” until something does.
Cocaine is the Devil’s way of telling you that you’ve got too much money, and also, not nearly enough.
The dice game is probably backgammon, the elite snob version of Yahtzee. A gambling game, wherein the mathtard is the natural prey of the hustler. Drinking is a vice, gambling is a vice, doing them at the same time is the express train to Fucked City. Such a configuration of stupid might well explain otherwise inexplicable financial gaps. Just sayin’, is all.
Let’s make sure we are talking about the same thing. What do you consider a black out?
In my mind, it is a complete blank for a period of time. Sort of like waking up in the morning in my bed with the last memory being across town at a friend’s house the night before. Something that profound.
I do not consider it to be a black out if some details are fuzzy, or oh God, yes, I remember now telling that girl I wanted to bang her. Damn why did I say that.
To me, a blackout is that you have no memory and when reminded, you still have no memory. Do we agree on that definition?
Remember when Republicans claimed Sonia Sotomayor was unfit to be on the Court because once called herself a “wise Latino woman”? That’s a fishing expedition.
He disqualified himself by stating the leftwing conspiracy by the Clintons against him. And, he was obviously on something during the hearing. He lies. We have potus who lies, a scotus justice needs to be sober and truthful, without scandal. If he cannot be those things, he should go home. IMO.
Here’s a cite from earlier in the thread that relies heavily on Aaron White, Ph.D., senior scientific advisor to the NIAAA director and one of the country’s leading experts on blackouts.
Kavanaugh is probably feeling blindsided by all these accounts of former classmates going out of their way to contradict his testimony. And these are from people who he hung out with socially! I don’t envy him that feeling.
It seems to me Kavanaugh is the type of guy that has always thrived on being in the “in-crowd”. His opening statement made clear that he sees himself as someone everyone loves and respects. His speech at the Yale Federalist Society banquet was also a bunch of name-dropping puffery, aimed at showing who he knows and who knows him, with little focus on ideas and principles. But it seems as if he wasn’t as universally admired as he wants to believe.
If he’s lying about or downplaying his past (and I have little doubt he is), he probably figured no one would out him due to some sense of loyalty. But that assumption is turning out wrong. Either he made some enemies back in the day and underestimated their willingness to talk about him, or his former friends and acquaintances value honesty more than being loyal to him.
The WH has sent the FBI witness lists of people the FBI can investigate in the Ford and Ramirez allegations. People not on the list won’t be interviewed.