69 days is a blink of an eye compared to what happened to Garland. And Garland wasn’t even accused of attempted rape!
The other guy implicated saying, “never happened,” is technically a corroborating witness, but I don’t know why anyone would give that much weight. Furthermore, Matt Judge also corroborates parts of Ford’s story.
HurricaneDitka, do you believe that Christine Blasey Ford is lying?
There isn’t anyone worse. Not for those of us who deplore the idea of presidents being given a free pass—free, even, of investigation!—for all the violations they might commit. Kavanaugh was unique on that Heritage Foundation/Federalist Society list for his extremely unusual views on the supposed immunity of presidents from virtually all accountability during their term in office.
And the more the GOP tries to argue that it’s Bad and Wrong to investigate, the more firmly they become identified with views that will NOT help them get the votes of women. And the votes of many men, as well. After all, any father of a teenage daughter is going to picture her in the situation Christine Ford described. Shrugging off the alleged actions of Kavanaugh as ‘youthful indiscretion’ won’t sit well with many of those fathers.
I don’t know. It’s certainly a possibility.
He also wrote about “uncontrollable male passion” :
“Of course, a man must be able to read a woman’s signals, and it’s a good thing that feminism is teaching young men that no means no and yes means yes. But there’s also that ambiguous middle ground, where the woman seems interested and indicates, whether verbally or not, that the man needs to prove himself to her. And if that man is any kind of man, he’ll allow himself to feel the awesome power, the wonderful beauty, of uncontrollable male passion.”
Given this uncertainty, what should the next steps be?
I agree with Hurricane Ditka. I’m not willing to pass judgment on Kavanaugh based upon news stories published within the last 12 hours.
Which is why there should be an investigation of the allegations.
Jeet Heer: I’m all for forgiveness & restorations but there has to be contrition and repentance first. If the accusation against Kavanaugh is accurate (on which it’s proper to remain agnostic until further investigation), then there has been no contrition and repentance.
James Fallows: No one can offer any defensible reason why there needs to be a vote on Kavanaugh now, for a lifetime omni-powerful no-recourse job, before hearing all evidence. In crassest terms, whatever happens in midterms, GOP will control Senate till end of this year. What is the rush?
Corker joins Flake.
…that corroborating witness is on record as saying “reached the point where once I had the first beer, I found it impossible to stop until I was completely annihilated.”
Would that statement, in your opinion, affect that witness’s credibility on this particular issue?
What has Christine Blasey Ford said that gives you reasonable grounds not to believe what she has said?
She sure sounds credible to me. It’s not “proof” yet, but it’s pretty darn credible.
That should be enough to, at the very least, prevent a vote until Ford speaks to the committee.
Yeah, I gotta agree with the others here that since Judge has acknowledged he often got black out drunk in high school that makes him a pretty piss poor corroborating witness.
The rush is to get somebody on the Court who can be counted upon to rule against criminal prosecutability of a President, added to the 4 established reliable partisans. The timing isn’t driven by the election but by Mueller.
Pretty sure Fallows knows that and was asking rhetorically.
That she can’t remember key details about the incident. She’s not sure about where or when it happened, or how she got there or home.
Heard a plausible story about that, the veracity of which I dunno. Jist being that the list of character witnesses is the result of several different standard government background checks. Business references, stuff like that there, on various such forms.
Do you consider Ginsberg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagen to be “reliable partisans” as well?
We’ll see if more women come out of the woodwork. Since the alleged crime took place when the perp (whomever he is) was a minor, it may have not been repeated though.
I don’t think the victim should be necessarily forced to testify in front of the committee, certainly not this coming week. Regardless, an FBI investigation should come first.
I expect media reports to be hopelessly biased, so I’ll turn the mike over to LOLGOP: [INDENT] Trump wanted a human pardon — and there were dozens of judges who’d gut Roe but just one who thinks a (Republican) president is too busy to have answer for crimes.
I mean, who are you supposed to believe – a woman who risked everything to expose the worst moment of her a life or the guy who spent the last week lying to the Senate?
I hope dudes will take a second to step back and realize why vanishingly few sexual assaults are ever reported, let alone prosecuted, is because guys can’t stand their friends being called predators – and their opinions usually matter more than the survivors.
Brett Kavanaugh spent 3 years and millions of taxpayer dollars investigating Vince Foster conspiracy theories and we shouldn’t spend a few months looking into credible allegations against Kavanaugh? [/INDENT]
From what I"m hearing she does not wish to appear, so there’s really no reason to hold up the vote. There are four Republicans who could vote no and that would be the end of it if they follow through. Hold the vote, let the chips fall at this point.
I think the FBI should request an interview with her, as well as Kavanaugh’s alleged accomplice. There is evidence that needs evaluation. Congress shouldn’t rely on mere media reports, unless Kavanaugh decides to withdraw his nomination of course.
Totally separately from LOLGOP: Imagine having such a low opinion of conservatism that you think Brett Kavanaugh is the best you can do right now.
I don’t think she should be “forced” either, but if she doesn’t want to testify this week, I don’t think the committee should delay action on the nomination. She’s the one that chose to wait until the very last minute to come forward.