That was a such dumb, unnecessary lie. No wonder him and Trump get along so well.
Now that I think about it, his struggling to come up with excuses for his misbehavior kinda reminds me of Principal Skinner lying about his “steamed hams”.
I think he felt free to tantrum precisely because he believes he will be confirmed.
I never played “drinking games” at Yale. Drinking was considered too serious a business to make a game of.
For what it’s worth, the Connecticut drinking age was 18 when I was there (1978-82). When Kavanaugh was there, it was 21.
Yes. He had been signaled by Trump fairly explicitly that he had to be more belligerent and aggressive if he wanted Trump’s support. And he delivered.
As for the obvious lies: Trump loves that stuff. Just lying straight in the faces of The Elites (Senators, in this case) and daring them to do something about it. The ‘boffing means farting’ and the lie about getting into Yale on merit and the lies about never being affected by alcohol except by ‘going to sleep’…these just endeared him to Trump----which wins Kavanaugh the support of Senators who fear crossing Trump (and Trump’s deranged fans).
The only part of Kavanaugh’s performance Thursday that I think could have been potentially harmful to him was the fake-crying. Trump loves whining but he doesn’t fake tears, and I don’t think he’s a fan of men who do that. But that one element is not enough to overcome Trump’s need of the ‘you are above the law, Mr. President’ philosophy Kavanaugh will bring to the court.
The way it looks now, Kavanaugh’s worst problem is the possibility that enough citizens will keep demonstrating, and enough polls will come out saying that a vote for Kavanaugh will mean electoral defeat, that Senators up for re-election in November will fear a ‘yea’ vote will put them out of work. Trump’s threats to sic his fans on them may not overcome the effects of strong polls and large demonstrations.
That’s a very dark vision. Then it was a declaration of a war of force to de-democratize, albeit with a special overarching need to keep trump in office.
I say this because his words are going to be very very complicated for scotus and for him if he is on the court. It will be horrible, until he is off. I thought he was bowing out. We’ll see, but probably not. These post truth events are starting to get murky. If he is confirmed it will never be said he tried to toss it in and bow out with a bang (and was shocked at the failure of his strategy) even if that’s what he was doing.
Occurs to me that one big point of refusing to postpone the proceedings might well have been to get it done before the public has time to react. A genuine hard-core Trumpnik probably expects to bask in the glow of approval. So, he’s likely to be cool with that part.
McConnell knows better, he’s not an idealist, not even in the cramped and constipated Republican version. It could well be that whether any further investigation proves anything or not won’t matter. McConnell herds his cats by fear, he tells them that they will lose if they cross the line. A month ago, a valid threat, this time Wednesday, maybe not.
Its a most upsetting moment when you thought you weren’t bluffing but suddenly, you are. I know how he feels, difference is I don’t deserve it.
National polls on this issue don’t matter. Nobody cares what Californians or New Yorkers think of Kavanaugh. It’s people in places like West Virginia, Missouri, Maine, and Montana that matter.
Since Kavanaugh’s confirmation is still very likely, in narrow political terms this is primarily a fight over how badly the GOP gets clobbered for it in the House and Senate. On that score, national polls certainly do matter. Toss-up House races, for example, tend to be somewhat close to national polling on issues.
WV and Maine, maybe. McCaskill and Tester have already said they’re voting No on Kavanaugh.
Trump just tweeted that the limits on the investigation are fake news. LOL. What a clusterfuck this admin is. Which is likelier: McGahn didn’t ask Trump, or Trump is simply lying now?
Keep in mind that thump is hitting the road with a series of rallies. I’m pretty sure he will be telling his minions to demonstrate loud and long for Kav.
Well, to be fair, Huffpo says the FBI can’t ask anyone questions about Kavs drinking habits.
And CNN is reporting that Trump told the FBI they have “free rein”.
I don’t know what to believe. 
Well, we’ll soon see, won’t we?
Fox News reported the same thing. Are they Donnie’s fake news too?
One consequence of the Democrats using this tactic against Kavanaugh is that it may push him further to the right out of spite once he’s on the bench (if he does get there.) Prior to this, he was merely conservative, but not as much as Thomas or perhaps Gorsuch.
He revealed himself to be a wild partisan hack on Thursday. That didn’t happen overnight.
He does seem spiteful. But you’d be surprised how little difference there is between openly spiteful against liberals and the exact same way Alito votes.
He didn’t “lie” about Maryland’s drinking age. He said some unspecified “seniors” could drink, which was accurate. He did not say he was of legal drinking age. It was more lawerly parsing, which confused you with it’s precision.
UltraVires, it seems like you’re a lawyer, no?
Would you vote to make someone a partner in your firm if they interviewed/answered questions/made a self statement that was somewhere in the ballpark of Kavanaugh’s testimony to the congressional committee? Not a gotcha or being snarky, just a tangent question. And I’ll tell you upfront, I would disqualify if I was the interviewer.
SNL presents Matt Damon as Brett Kavanaugh in what might be the longest-running sketch they’ve ever done, clocking in at nearly 12 minutes.