Brett Kavanaugh's Confirmation Hearing

[AuntK]

Kavanaugh's accusatory ranting during his so-called "testimony" today clearly illustrates he neither has the temperament necessary for a judge/justice,  nor can he be impartial.  His assertions that these allegations resulted from the 2016 election and the Clinton camp's need for revenge sounded like it came directly from Infowars or other similar whacko sites.

[Howl]

I'm seeing an incredible number of tweets on various threads pointing out that Kavanaugh's response to being questioned is exactly like the response from abusers who have been caught.  And they are basing this on personal experience....

[formergothardite]

Senator Till posted that he is still voting to confirm him. I think her testimony caught them off guard and they are having to switch tactics from claiming she is lying. He says he believes she was assaulted but that it just wasn't Kavanaugh. He says she is a victim of the democrats who cruelly violated her privacy. 

[AmazonGrace]

47 minutes ago, Howl said:

I'm seeing an incredible number of tweets on various threads pointing out that Kavanaugh's response to being questioned is exactly like the response from abusers who have been caught.  And they are basing this on personal experience....

If this is what he behaves like when sober in front of TV cameras, he must be a right SOB in private.

[Drala]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

I'm seeing an incredible number of tweets on various threads pointing out that Kavanaugh's response to being questioned is exactly like the response from abusers who have been caught.  And they are basing this on personal experience....

I watched his testimony around alcohol use very closely.  Maybe I should mention I'm trained in drug & alcohol use assessment.  It's been a few years since I worked in direct practice, but the skill set is still operant.  First, what's up with all the broken blood vessels around his nose, which appear evident through a television screen?  I would want a closer look at him face-to-face, to be fair, but without makeup on screen, it looks like he's got a glowing case of gin blossoms.  Second, he deflected when he was asked about his drinking.  First, it was "I like to drink beer, Senator.  What do you like to drink?"  (Hey, we all like to drink!)  His deflection was particularly evident when asked about black-out drinking by someone who has experience with alcoholism.  "I don't know.  Have you?"  He knew he crossed the the line on that one, evidenced by his subsequent apology.  He's emotionally brittle and defensive on the subject of alcohol.  People without a problem don't typically act that way when asked about their use. 

I'm not diagnosing.  Just making some observations.

 

 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

@Drala -- you made some interesting and valid points. If he hadn't been so combative about the drinking, I would have just thought the broken blood vessels were rosacea, which I have. But once he started in on the out of control behavior, I thought it might be gin blossom as well.

[Howl]

David Brock is the author of "Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative"

During his time in the conservative trenches, he knew Brett Kavanaugh very, very well.  This is from ancient history, many Scaramuccis back, well, Sept 7 of this year when he was sounding a warning to vote No!, just NO! on Brett Kavanaugh.  In my opinion, there are some huge fucking bombshells in this piece, but more importantly, Kavanaugh's nomination is the culmination of decades of planning and advancing the "right" people.  It has nothing to do with Kavanaugh's drinking, financial affairs or morals.  It has everything to do with who Brett Kavanaugh is a political operative, which will be his role on the Supreme Court. 

I knew Brett Kavanaugh during his years as a Republican operative; Don't let him sit on the Supreme Court We were part of a close circle of cynical hard-right operatives being groomed for much bigger things

Quote

I used to know Brett Kavanaugh pretty well. And, when I think of Brett now, in the midst of his hearings for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, all I can think of is the old "Aesop's Fables" adage: "A man is known by the company he keeps."

And that's why I want to tell any senator who cares about our democracy: Vote no.

Twenty years ago, when I was a conservative movement stalwart, I got to know Brett Kavanaugh both professionally and personally.

Brett actually makes a cameo appearance in my memoir of my time in the GOP, "Blinded By The Right." I describe him at a party full of zealous young conservatives gathered to watch President Bill Clinton's 1998 State of the Union address — just weeks after the story of his affair with a White House intern had broken. When the TV camera panned to Hillary Clinton, I saw Brett — at the time a key lieutenant of Ken Starr, the independent counsel investigating various Clinton scandals — mouth the word "bitch."

But there's a lot more to know about Kavanaugh than just his Pavlovian response to Hillary's image. Brett and I were part of a close circle of cold, cynical and ambitious hard-right operatives being groomed by GOP elders for much bigger roles in politics, government and media. And it’s those controversial associations that should give members of the Senate and the American public serious pause.

Call it Kavanaugh's cabal: There was his colleague on the Starr investigation, Alex Azar, now the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Mark Paoletta is now chief counsel to Vice President Mike Pence; House anti-Clinton gumshoe Barbara Comstock is now a Republican member of Congress. Future Fox News personalities Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson were there with Ann Coulter, now a best-selling author, and internet provocateur Matt Drudge.

At one time or another, each of them partied at my Georgetown townhouse amid much booze and a thick air of cigar smoke.

In a rough division of labor, Kavanaugh played the role of lawyer — one of the sharp young minds recruited by the Federalist Society to infiltrate the federal judiciary with true believers. Through that network, Kavanaugh was mentored by D.C. Appeals Court Judge Laurence Silberman, known among his colleagues for planting leaks in the press for partisan advantage.

When, as I came to know, Kavanaugh took on the role of designated leaker to the press of sensitive information from Starr's operation, we all laughed that Larry had taught him well. (Of course, that sort of political opportunism by a prosecutor is at best unethical, if not illegal.)

Another compatriot was George Conway (now Kellyanne's husband), who led a secretive group of right-wing lawyers — we called them "the elves" — who worked behind the scenes directing the litigation team of Paula Jones, who had sued Clinton for sexual harassment. I knew then that information was flowing quietly from the Jones team via Conway to Starr's office — and also that Conway's go-to man was none other than Brett Kavanaugh.

That critical flow of inside information allowed Starr, in effect, to set a perjury trap for Clinton, laying the foundation for a crazed national political crisis and an unjust impeachment over a consensual affair.

But the cabal's godfather was Ted Olson, the then-future solicitor general for George W. Bush and now a sainted figure of the GOP establishment (and of some liberals for his role in legalizing same-sex marriage). Olson had a largely hidden role as a consigliere to the "Arkansas Project" — a multi-million dollar dirt-digging operation on the Clintons, funded by the eccentric right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife and run through The American Spectator magazine, where I worked at the time.

Both Ted and Brett had what one could only be called an unhealthy obsession with the Clintons — especially Hillary. While Ted was pushing through the Arkansas Project conspiracy theories claiming that Clinton White House lawyer and Hillary friend Vincent Foster was murdered (he committed suicide), Brett was costing taxpayers millions by pedaling the same garbage at Starr's office.

A detailed analysis of Kavanaugh's own notes from the Starr Investigation reveals he was cherry-picking random bits of information from the Starr investigation — as well as the multiple previous investigations — attempting vainly to legitimize wild right-wing conspiracies. For years he chased down each one of them without regard to the emotional cost to Foster’s family and friends, or even common decency.

Kavanaugh was not a dispassionate finder of fact but rather an engineer of a political smear campaign. And after decades of that, he expects people to believe he's changed his stripes.

Like millions of Americans this week, I tuned into Kavanaugh's hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee with great interest. In his opening statement and subsequent testimony, Kavanaugh presented himself as a "neutral and impartial arbiter" of the law. Judges, he said, were not players but akin to umpires — objectively calling balls and strikes. Again and again, he stressed his "independence" from partisan political influences.

But I don't need to see any documents to tell you who Kavanaugh is — because I've known him for years. And I'll leave it to all the lawyers to parse Kavanaugh's views on everything from privacy rights to gun rights. But I can promise you that any pretense of simply being a fair arbiter of the constitutionality of any policy regardless of politics is simply a pretense. He made up his mind nearly a generation ago — and, if he's confirmed, he'll have nearly two generations to impose it upon the rest of us.

 

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

If this is what he behaves like when sober in front of TV cameras, he must be a right SOB in private.

I'm still not convinced that he was completely sober yesterday, but I agree with your assessment of what he must be like behind closed doors.

[AnywhereButHere]

9 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

I'm still not convinced that he was completely sober yesterday, but I agree with your assessment of what he must be like behind closed doors.

I was wondering that yesterday. Did he knock back a few G&Ts to bolster himself before the hearing and give him the liquid courage to be all fiery and emotional.

[AmazonGrace]

Jeff Flake sides with rapists 

 

[SassyPants]

Our only choice is make them pay at the ballot box!!!!!!

 

And pray that the Russians don't interfere.

Some should be very careful about who and what they support. One day it might be YOU on the short end of things.

3 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

I was wondering that yesterday. Did he knock back a few G&Ts to bolster himself before the hearing and give him the liquid courage to be all fiery and emotional.

Yesterday, Kavanaugh and Graham were playing to Trump-

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Drala]

27 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

I'm still not convinced that he was completely sober yesterday, but I agree with your assessment of what he must be like behind closed doors.

I agree.  His uninhibited belligerence easily could have been fueled by alcohol.  I think he's got the Jekyll/Hyde thing going on, and he took a few shots to bring Hyde into the daylight yesterday.

[GreyhoundFan]

Lindsey is showboating again. The committee vote is at 1:30 Eastern.

[fraurosena]

Fuck him.

 

And fuck him too. Sideways.

 

Here's why Flake is voting yes. 

Greed Over People after all.

[SassyPants]

Go Sen. Whitehouse!

[fraurosena]

Why yes. Yes it is. And I beseech our sweet Rufus that he grants the bigliest of blue tsunamis ever.

[formergothardite]

2 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

And I beseech our sweet Rufus that he grants the bigliest of blue tsunamis ever.

We are very close to election time and I really hope that the GOP pushing a creeper into the SC lights a fire under a hell of  a lot of people. 

[fraurosena]

 

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

 

And fuck him too. Sideways.

 

With a California redwood or a giant Sequoia. A Douglas fir or a Sitka spruce would be too small.

There have been comments on here that I've wanted to use the anger vore, but didn't want to cost any of you negative reputation. I'm beyond livid at the process, and have never had a day that I've wanted to give so much anger! Disgust doesn't seem nearly strong enough for the rage I feel at this debacle we have just witnessed. I have never been so thankful that I don't have children, as I'd be terrified for their future and what behavior is now considered acceptable. 

[fraurosena]

Powerful words, sadly spoken into the Repugliklan wind.

 

[Howl]

I don't feel anger, but I did have a few utterly verklempt weepy moments this morning over this that seemed to come out of absolute nowhere; really caught me by surprise.   I think it was a piece of the universal pain that most women are experiencing right now.  Global group hug, everyone. 

[AmazonGrace]

This is a point I was hoping someone would make yesterday

[formergothardite]

I feel despair. A couple years ago I was super positive about the direction of America. I was sure my daughters were growing to grow into a world where gay and women's rights were the norm. Where America had health care. Where the good old boys club was pretty much dead and gone. And now, I don't see that as happening. I fear the America they have when they enter adulthood will be one ruled by the GOP even though their base is small because they have gained ultimate power by getting positions for life in one of th most powerful parts of the American government. 

[fraurosena]

As you know I'm on the other side of the pond. And last night during the hearing, and all day today, my son (who is a law student and therefore has an added interest too) and I have hardly spoken about anything else.

During every break in the hearing he came rushing downstairs (he was watching on his computer in his room, I was watching on my laptop in the livingroom) and we vented our outrage to each other. 

I guess it's just the absolute injustice of it all, and the feeling of powerlessness against so much tribalism. Those horrid old decrepit white men make me want to puke with disgust. 

I can't imagine what it must be like for all you guys, who's country it is, and who's lives will be directly effected. And I most certainly cannot fathom what this is doing to anyone triggered by dr. Ford's testimony. 

If anyone feels angry at the content of my posts, feel free to give it the "angry" vote, if that is what expresses your feelings best. Like I said not long ago, popularity votes are not my thing.

Anyway, like @Howl, I'm virtually hugging all of you too. Rufus bless you all. You'll get through this. Just wait until November.