If nothing else, her story makes it electorally viable for folks like McCaskill, Donnelly, and Heitkamp to get off the fence and come out against. Senate Democrats have been pretty unified today in calling for a delay in vote and an investigation.
I hadnāt thought of that. Good point. Especially since they can say, āI canāt vote for him until and unless we fully investigate these claims,ā as no such investigation will take place.
Fordās story is credible and itās corroborated by the therapistās notes. Collins or Murkowski may be able to justify a yes by claiming it happened over three decades ago and (so far as we know) there are no other such episodes.
However he has been untruthful or at best misleading in prior confirmation hearings and then he comes out and denies this. If Collins votes yes, I doubt she will run again in 2020 (sheās 65.)
Thing is, as other have pointed out, they donāt have time to investigate it. The smart play is to have Kavanaugh step down and grab someone else off the Federalist list who can clear the bar and get appointed before they lose control of Congress.
But Donnie canāt take a loss and he REALLY canāt afford to not have someone who thinks the President is not a King on the Court, which is likely going to be the position of most conservative judges. Kavanaugh was his silver bullet: conservatively chosen, but a supporter of an all-powerful executive.
Heh, let the first person who didnāt try to rape someone while a teen throw the first stoneā¦
Chillingly, thatās exactly the defense coming from the White House earlier today: āWho among us HASNāT raped when we were younger???ā
Well yikes.
There are a lot of things wrong with that statement. The opposite of withdrawing is what exactly, submitting him again? No, no itās more of a stay the course than anything āopposite.ā
The other thing is the majority of men would not have even thought about raping someone, reality, let aloneā¦ nope. I should stop there. Most men would not even think about raping someone. Itās not normal. Iāll give anyone a fantasy or two or three but when it comes down to it, if someone suddenly says no, tuck it in and walk away, and most do!
I donāt know why theyāre trying to normalize rape or even accusations of rape. This is a lifetime appointment. The least they can do is investigate or just submit someone else.
ā_____ to own the libsā.
To a large degree, winning is the only thing they care about anymore. It doesnāt matter how terrible their guy is, the most important thing is to never admit defeat in any way.
Because itās the āconservativeā position now.
One could argue theyāve been doing it since Thomas.
Trueā¦ I guess with MeToo they play up that narrative, but the number of accusations compare to the number of guys in public or prominent positionsā¦ itās just minuscule. The percentages are simply not there. I think itās safe to say that most judges arenāt going to wind up with accusations of rapeā¦ affairs, and consensual stuff, well maybe.
Flake ā who sits on the Judicial Committee ā says that a vote should be delayed until the committee can hear from Christine Blasey Ford.
That seems like an interesting development.
Weāll see.
I agree with Max Boot here. There is big difference between anonymous allegation and what Professor Ford has said. I think it is awful the way that Feinstein handled a last minute leak right before the committee vote, is just shitty. This is a lot more important than if he talked about Mueller to some lawyer at law firm.
All that being said, the incident is serious and should be investigated and Congress should hear from Professor Ford. We can also count on the Trump White House to smear the women, so she has my sympathies in advance.
In a better world, and allegation like this would have been known, investigated by congress, and all handled by both partys together and discreetly. Because itās unacceptable for a SC justice to be vulnerable to blackmail. This stuff has to be known to the oversight committees at least. But because of the partisan way approvals are handled now, making the allegation public is the only way this gets a full hearing now. It takes more bravery and sacrifice to get things done than it should.
Iād still like someone to explain what exactly Feinstein was supposed to do when Dr. Ford didnāt want to go forward with it. Feinstein didnāt say what it was only that she had handed it off to the FBI.
Committee have off the record sessions. She could/should have told the other committee members of the existence of the letter, asked Fordās permission to share the contents of the letter with other members. That would have been the right thing to do.
edit: Now to be fair, there is possibly some cool Senate parliamentary rule that I donāt know about that would have prevented Feinstein from ever releasing the letter if the committee chair said it is confidential.
100% chance that Fordās name would have been leaked by the GOP, especially if the issue gained any traction. They canāt tear her down without naming her.
I think Feinstein understood that a single anonymous allegation would not derail the train. And as long as the victim wished to remain anonymous, the only way to do that was to sit on the letter or turn it over to the FBI. She was in a no-win situation.
It feels like everyone knew about it.
They got those signatures pretty quick.