If Feinstein believes an investigation is so important, why did she sit on the accusation for six weeks? Why didn’t she ask Kavanaugh about it during the hearings? She didn’t even need to launch a separate investigation.
The bad things are claiming you respect the wishes of the accuser, and then announcing her accusations publicly so they can be leaked, and claiming that accusations should be taken seriously, and using them for political purposes (by delaying the confirmation).
It’s hard to take a Senator seriously when she claims she is being respectful of the people she is using as a political football, and when she claims investigation is necessary when she doesn’t even try during the hearings.
It’s also amusing that anyone would think that progressives would be lining up to defend Feinstein, rather than hoping and urging her to retire for many, many years.
Who is taking Feinstein “seriously”? She sucks. I’ve been rooting for her to get primaried for years, as have the vast majority of Democrats and progressives I’ve spoken to.
Why does this matter when compared to whether and how the Senate should investigate a credible allegation of attempted rape?
Perhaps because she is female? Ms Ford is fearful of the blowback, the calumny, (Goodness, where did she get such a notion?) Ms Feinstein respects her fears and is scrupulously reluctant. Perhaps because she knows something I don’t. Because I’m a guy?
No, I don’t. For us, the worst thing about unwanted sexual approaches is the embarrassment, the reluctance to rebuff well-intended affectionate interest. And that’s it. Perhaps she and Ms Ford have an understanding I cannot share, one that motivates actions I don’t entirely understand.
Don’t have to. Not required. Doesn’t take all that much to know right from wrong, this is wrong, and I’m against it.
The sad part is that you think you’re making points here.
At the risk of being accused of concern trolling, what exactly is the Republican end game here? What do they want to accomplish?
Get a reliable conservative on the Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh isn’t the last reliable conservative judge in America. There are plenty of others.
So why is it so important to get Kavanaugh confirmed?
Because Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. If Republicans win on Kavanaugh they look like winners, and if they lose on Kavanaugh they look like losers. And the election is coming up.
The specifics of the case are irrelevant to them. Doesn’t matter what happened. What matters is winning the news cycle today, which means that Kavanaugh has to be confirmed come hell or high water.
Except at what cost?
Seriously, at what cost?
Is the Republican party the party of “Grab them by the pussy” or not? This shit adds up. How do you change the narrative if you never stop re-enforcing the narrative?
LOL. She sucks and I can’t wait until she retires or loses a Democratic primary.
I won’t bother chiding you yet again about how terribly our society treats victims (and alleged victims) of rape and sexual assault, and how the attitudes you’ve expressed in so many of your posts contribute to this, because I’ve done it so many times with not even the slightest shift in your tone. I’m just glad that more and more Americans are understanding how shitty we are as a society with regards to rape and sexual assault, and those of us who recognize this are passing you by. You’d be welcome to join us, but we don’t need you.
WASHINGTON—In the wake of the release of a letter implicating the Supreme Court nominee in a sexual assault, Senate Republicans told reporters Monday that they would seek to delay a vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation until his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, was properly smeared.
Why would that be a problem? I thought if there wasn’t an official rule against it, that such procedural hurdles in Supreme Court nominations should be fair game?
Not really helpful. Because suppose I do know for a fact the truth or falsity of the accusation. I was at that party back in 198~, and I saw what happened, and I know for sure.
But nobody in the Senate was there. So nobody in the Senate knows whether the accusation is true or false. So the Senators have to use the same fallible tools that all other mortals have to use. And even if I know for a fact what happened, I also know that it’s not reasonable for me to expect other people to act as if they knew for a fact what happened. I was there, but they weren’t.
So even though lots of Republicans are going to insist that the accusation is false, they aren’t saying that despite knowing that the accusation is true. And vice versa.
I think a better rubric would be to expect people to act as if they didn’t know for a fact whether the accusation is true or false, and to stop acting as if they did. We’re never going to have that information. Instead we’re going to have to decide, based on what limited evidence we have, whether to vote for or against Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
The only way she doesn’t get heard is if the Republicans refuse to let her be heard. If anything, Feinstein is letting the Republicans look like heroes by so generously delaying the hearings as long as necessary to ensure this is properly investigated.