Noone is celebrating someone for being a sexual predator. The Republican party overlooks Trump’s behavior because they want to win elections and get conservatives on the bench so they can reverse Roe v Wade. They just picked up seats in the senate. RBG just broke her ribs last night, she is 85 years old and they could replace her with someone worse than Kavanaugh and still have enough votes to do it.
I was talking about the Kavanaugh effect. How much did it hurt Democrats to attack Kavanaugh like that over uncorroborated allegations from 30 years ago.
If you want to bring Trump into the conversation then I would suggest that if we got rid of the Trump effect, Democrats might not have taken the house.
Obviously, but they were either sufficiently indoctrinated by a patriarchal culture that rgularly excuses or ignores sexual assault and rape, or were otherwise misled about the facts.
I don’t know. Neither do you.
Agreed. Luckily, I’m not advocating this. A full investigation, including calling all witnesses to testify, would not have provided any significant delay. There was no legitimate reason to rush this process, only political concerns.
The only such evidence could have come from a full investigation, including statements under oath from all witnesses and all accusers, and looking into all potential corroborating evidence (like the employment records of a witness Ford identified meeting later at their place of business). The Republicans (and Kavanaugh) elected not to pursue such an investigation, but rather a token sham that actively avoided trying to gather this evidence.
So what are you advocating? That Democrats should stop advocating that allegations should be treated seriously and fully investigated?
If so, I disagree. Some things are more important than short term politics. Or even SCOTUS seats. Treating sexual assault allegations with seriousness is one of those things.
I think treating sexual assault allegations with seriousness is the right move in the long run, politically. Maybe there are short term political consequences. But I think there are lots of voters like me who might totally withdraw from politics if they thought no party was willing to even attempt to do the right thing on such a massively important issue.
By the way, exit polling with regard to Kavanaugh does not support the conclusion that the Democrats hurt themselves with how they handled the accusations against him.
And as you pointed out this is a position that Democrats seem to take when its politically convenient and ignore when it is not convenient.
Sexual assault allegation can still be taken seriously after Kavanaugh is put on the bench. Why aren’t they still pushing the sexual assault allegations? Do they no longer care about the matter now that the confirmation hearings are over?
That’s the way that Slate is reading the polls but the poll doesn’t ask whether it motivated anyone who might have stayed at home to vote. That is the kavanaugh effect. it didn’t change anyone’s vote, it got them to the polls. The enthusiasm gap was in favor of the Democrats. Kavanaugh closed that gap.
There was no “thorough investigation” – that’s a joke. He was asked directly, multiple times, if he would speak out for a full FBI investigation that would question every witness, and he refused to answer the question. That was a big moment in the questioning – his refusal to answer this question – did you miss it?
You’re kidding. You really think the Democrats want to or even should go back there? They’re going to “investigate” an alleged crime from 35 years ago with no corroborating witnesses?
Who said anything about uncorroborated allegations? We’re talking about the Ford accusations against Kavanaugh, which were strongly corroborated by the evidence of his calendars, his journals, his own testimony, and the testimony of others as to his character (including other similar incidents) and the character of Ford.
Yes, it’s too bad that the Kavanaugh Effect seems to be focused entirely on sexual assault allegations whose substantiation is, to be fair, tissue-paper thin, and not on the heavily documented instances of his political hackery. Vince Foster Murder Conspiracy, anybody?
That such a dissembling crapweasel was ever put on the Supreme Court bench is a stain on this country that is going to take a long time to fade, if ever.
Please. I don’t think there is any value in having that debate again, so let’s just focus on whether or not it would be smart for the Democrats to re-open the investigation into Ford’s allegations: You think they should? You think they will?
Not Chronos, but unless they know or have a good idea that they’ll find some very damning things, I think not. Plus, they also put two of his accusers in the firing line, Swetnick, who already had a reference, and Ford, who the ‘Pubs seem ready to go after for perjury, if the Senate report is any indication.