3279

Perhaps, but many will resent Trump for putting them in that position, and some day he would have to pay.

I like the way Douthat described the battle lines in his latest column. The culture war actually has multiple fronts, and the nihilism represented by Trump/Kavanaugh can at most be an unreliable, temporary ally for the major combatants.

3280

Interesting thread on why lies don’t (or probably won’t) hurt Kavanaugh (and also explains why and how trump gets away with lying.)

Highlights


(Link to the journal, abstract available but the entire study is behind a pay wall)
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122417749632?journalCode=asra

3281

On John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight last night the entire show was dedicated to this hearing. Nothing new brought up that wasn’t mentioned in this thread already, but a nice summary of a lot of the issues.

3282
3283

There is no blue wave big enough to deliver 67 Democratic seats in the Senate. The last time either party had 67 seats in the Senate was 40 years ago. Whatever else happens, there will be no successful impeachments anytime soon without the support of something on the order of 15 or more Republicans. We’re stuck with who gets on the Court. Even if Kavanaugh is rejected, he will retain his Appeals Court seat until he retires or dies.

3284

This is a pretty extraordinary admission by Flake, so much so that I think perhaps he doesn’t realize how extraordinary it is.

He’s basically saying this: I knew that circumstances demanded an investigation, but if I were not retiring that would not matter, because I’d have nothing to gain by calling for an investigation then.

This is what passes for a ‘man of principle’ in the GOP.

3285

Question from an outsider. The confirmation voting process, is it a secret poll or public for the senators?

3286

It is a public vote.

3287

I wonder what would happen if they voted secretly … probably more R senators would not vote for BK

3288

It’s a small committee - it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out who they were.

3289

The remaining vote is in the full senate; the committee has already voted (along party lines) to approve.

3290

Including an “aye” from today’s favorite hero, Flake.

3291

Kavanaugh clearly doesn’t have the temperament for this position. If Ford had talked to the committee the way he did, they would not be taking it well. He couldn’t even handle a few basic questions from a woman.

3292

Don’t have to - the Majority Leader can just do it, the way McConnell did. Plus the Judiciary Committee is all commies on the Dem side; CA, CA, HI, DE, VT, CT, RI, NJ, and IL, plus Klobuchar from MN is the closest thing to a red state.

3293

Agreed. Also the reverse doesnt seem to have been a problem for blue state Republicans.

3294

Looks like they will be looking at the drinking to some extent.

Edit: Poor headline. He is bringing a statement to a field office. So far no information about them questioning him about the drinking.

3295

Question for those who watched the hearing Thursday - in his opening statement, Kavanaugh declared that the whole thing was the Clinton’s revenge (or words to that effect) - did any Senators have him clarify these remarks, asking for evidence or anything, or did it just slide by?

It occurs to me that if he made this accusation without any proof, it is even more evidence on how bad a Judge he is, and will be.

3296

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t clarified.

3297

Correct, it wasn’t clarified.

3298

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