So, even though we’ve been properly busy dealing with the fact the Carolinas are washing out to sea and Manafort is doing his best canary impression, there has been yet more news out there that needs some appellate Jackal review.
Brett Kavanaugh, it seems, has some “boys will be boys” ‘splaining to do:
A secretive letter shared with senators and federal investigators by the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee charges that a teenage Brett M. Kavanaugh and a male friend trapped a teenage girl in a bedroom during a party and tried to assault her, according to three people familiar with the contents of the letter.
The letter says that Mr. Kavanaugh, then a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in suburban Washington and now President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, had been drinking at a social gathering when he and the male friend took the teenage girl into a bedroom. The door was locked, and she was thrown onto the bed. Mr. Kavanaugh then got on top of the teenager and put a hand over her mouth, as the music was turned up, according to the account.
This would have been roughly thirty five years ago (Kavanaugh is 53), and it would seem a hard charge to substantiate. And yet Kavanaugh and his GOP allies are clearly running scared. There is a letter signed by sixty five women who were high school contemporaries with Kavanaugh (not “classmates” as GOPsters have said, and some outlets report — Kavanaugh went to an all-male school). The letter basically says that the young right-wing thug-to-be was a prince of a young fellow.
Here’s the odd bit, though: how do you find sixty five women who knew Kavanaugh as a kid back in the eighties and would be willing to vouch for him? Grassley’s office says this was all organized by the nominees former clerks, starting at five last night. You weigh the odds that this is bullshit. For me, it seems very clear that the GOP has known this might drop and has been prepping for it for some time. Recall that Senator Hirono asked Kavanaugh about any sexual harassment claims made against him as a legal adult — as in out of high school. The framing of that question looks interesting now. It also suggests that some noise around this potential obstacle to Kavanaugh’s nomination was already buzzing. The GOP knew; can’t prove it (yet) but I’d be stunned if they didn’t.
Similarly, the “male friend” referenced above and has tried to give his wing man some cover. Steve M. over at No More Mister Nice Guy gives the necessary background on this mook:
Judge is identified as “a writer in Washington, D.C.” But Judge is not just any writer. As Elon Green notes on Twitter, he wrote a notorious (and implausible) 2012 Daily Caller piece titled “The End of My White Guilt.” In it, he says his bicycle was stolen in a predominantly black D.C. neighborhood, after which he was infuriated when “a liberal friend” told him not to pursue the thief. “That person needs our prayers and help,” the friend said, according to Judge. “They haven’t had the advantages we have.” Result: “My white guilt died.” [all links in the original]
…
Judge doesn’t write about sex on a regular basis, but when he does, it’s clear he’s part of the “Help! Help! I’m Being Repressed!” school of conservative punditry.
[Go read the whole thing; the good stuff — as in the repulsive bits — are all there.]
So here’s the deal: there is an uncorroborated accusation against Judge Kavanaugh that claims he was a high school attempted-rapist. There is a very rapid circling of the wagons. Senator Collins is getting increasingly testy about people who harsh her mellow about voting for a perjurious goniff who has made it clear in all kinds of ways he’s going to vote down Roe v. Wade. Most of his paper record is still chucked down the memory hole. There may be, and I certainly hope there will be more shoes to drop. And Grassley’s determined to hold a committee vote next Thursday.
All of which allows me to begin to think there’s a non-zero chance Kavanaugh might crash and burn. It’s not odds-on yet, not by any means, but this confirmation process has been a shitstorm from day one. I’m even just starting to believe that even if Kavanaugh gets onto the court he might not last long there. That paper trail is not going to stay hidden forever — and if this attempted rape account proves to be true (and I have no reason to doubt it), well…one thing’s become clear over the last several years. When a guy twists this way, most often, it’s never just one woman to be treated as prey.
We live in waaaaaay too interesting times. And the Republicans are, once again, shown to be waaaaaay more interested in power, and the immediate win, than doing even the minimally right thing (which in this case would be swapping out a non-rapey reliable right wing vote for the rapey one).
Have at it, fellow jackals!
Image: Giuseppe Crespi, Tarquin and Lucretia, c. 1695-1700
TenguPhule
Republicans knew about this ahead of time.
This used to be a cause for scandal.
Martin
Character witnesses are worth exactly dick in this situation. How many character witnesses could Bill Cosby produce? Judge Kosinski? The only people who can speak to this are the 3 people that were in that room.
The Midnight Lurker
Kavanaugh is rotten. Full stop.
TenguPhule
There are no consequences for Republicans in office accused and probably guilty of sexual assault.
TenguPhule
I maintain this will all end in tears and tumbrels.
PaulWartenberg
the thing to remember about men who seem to have a history of sexual assault at any level – groping, verbal harassment, stalking, assault, straight-up rape – is that they NEVER STOP AT ONE VICTIM.
We’ve been seeing it with the likes of Roy Moore, Moovnes, Cosby, nearly every SOB paraded before us as more and more stories get out there about men in power abusing women for their shits and giggles.
Remember Anita Hill? It turned out there was another woman – Angela Wright – that the Democratic Senators failed to call on to give her testimony, leaving Hill to dangle in the wind. There have been rumors of so many others…
Sexual predators do not stop until forced to stop. There will ALWAYS be more victims in their wake by the time you catch one.
I’m already seeing on Twitter whispers about Kavanaugh having other rape-y stories out there. This needs to get out there, the stories need to get out there and the proof confirmed.
TaMara (HFG)
I think this is why they brought this all up now – there is someone else out there (more than one?) – and by establishing a pattern, having BK state none of this is true – then the other shoe drops.
Mike in DC
@PaulWartenberg: If there are other women, the window for disclosure is very narrow and closing fast. Not long enough for the agonizing decision to come forward.
ruemara
I *JUST* read a tweet from Andrea Wolfson saying a DC lawyer friend was waiting for a Me Too moment to come out. But, they said it was from a summer clerkship. Infrastructure week of 9/16-9/22 is fitting to be lit.
trollhattan
Has Kavanaugh ever gone to a costume party dressed as a swan?
Major Major Major Major
Seriously, why haven’t they yanked him and put up somebody more generic yet? Why THIS guy?
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
This all sounds about right to me, for whatever that’s worth, which isn’t too damned much.
Jerzy Russian
I am sure we could, with a bit of effort, find 64 people whom Ted Bundy did not kill, or whom Jeffrey Dahmer did not eat. A question for the defense attorneys out there: would these lists of people benefitted these two men during their respective trials?
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: Trump doesn’t want to admit defeat. And that it might delay the confirmation past the election.
Tom Levenson
@MisterForkbeard: This.
Given the sequence: pick a name (at least a couple of days after the ritual washing of hands of Kavanaugh); begin the FBI vetting; transmit documents to the committee and so on — there are only about thirty working days, maybe a couple more — between now and the election. Even with the raging fire to pack the court, that’s hard to do. If the GOP holds the senate (which is at least even-money) then the delay doesn’t matter. If they lose, though, then there’s the question of getting a vote done in the lame duck session. I have no doubt McConnell would try, and I wouldn’t bet against him succeeding. But it’s not a sure thing, and this crowd does not like taking chances.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
He’ll do what Trump tells him too. Hard to find that practiced a Koch-sucker these days.
Martin
@Major Major Major Major: He’s an unequivocal ‘no’ on ‘Can the president be indicted’. That’s what Trump needs. Kavanaugh wasn’t on the original list of candidates that Trump put out there. He wasn’t added until indictments started flying. McConnell said it would be hard for him to get a confirmation on him. McConnell knows.
Major Major Major Major
@Tom Levenson: I mean. Mitch could confirm a Supreme Court Justice in… certainly less than a week. One vote to change the rules, one vote out of committee, one floor vote.
It sounds like his hurdle is that at least one of his senators enjoys the process, more than they enjoy getting their guy on the court. It would look bad, sure, but—don’t voters famously not care about process?
John Revolta
@Major Major Major Major: This guy was Kennedy’s hand-picked choice.
That’s not an answer to your question though. It’s more like another question.
Princess
I went to an all-girl’s Catholic school at the same time Kavanaugh was going to his all-boys school. I can guarantee you, Kavanaugh didn’t even know 65 girls when he was 17. And if you think those women all found each other last night and came up with that letter, I have a bridge to sell you. All the letter does is it shows us that Grassley, McConnell and Trump knew about this accusation ahead of time and nominated this sleaze ball anyway.
Major Major Major Major
@John Revolta: ah yes! I forgot.
@Martin: agree with all of this. It could just be that Trump made a staggeringly poor decision to cover his own ass, and everybody else is having to deal with it. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Mike in NC
Trump liked Kavanaugh because they both enjoyed “locker room talk”.
Original Lee
The sister school to Georgetown Prep is Georgetown Visitation. It’s a very small school – fewer than 500 students. Theoretically possible to round up 65 women from the same graduating class to sign a letter like that.
Ladyraxterinok
That report at nomoremisterniceguy is somrthing else.
This guy seems to have some real baggage. EVEN EMAILS!
Princess
@Original Lee: I don’t buy it. My graduating class was 75. We even have a FB group we contribute to often. I could get maybe 20 people to sign a letter on behalf of me in one night. There would be no single guy we could all sign a letter for. Besides, they now are telling us the women went to five or so different schools. One of them is Brett Hume’s wife. The whole thing stinks.
BC in Illinois
@Major Major Major Major:
Maybe because he has a lifelong record declaring that Democratic Presidents are to be pursued and prosecuted on any basis (Vince Foster, etc) and that Republican Presidents are to be protected at all costs, from indictments, investigations, or questions. As people have said, he is Trump’s walking pardon.
B.B.A.
Forget the confirmation, this is grounds for impeachment from the DC Circuit.
also, WTF was Feinstein thinking keeping this hushed up from the rest of the Dems on the committee?
James E Powell
@Major Major Major Major:
They can never admit they’re wrong. About anything or anyone.
delk
I’m 3 years older than Kavanaugh and attended an all boy college prep the same size. I call bullshit on the 65.
delk
@Jerzy Russian: Dahmer did not eat me though he probably wanted to eat my co-worker. He came to the bar we worked in a lot. We were both shocked to find out about him.
burnspbesq
I’m still where I was this morning: I don’t see two Republican votes changing based on what has been revealed so far. There needs to be more.
JoyceH
And the other fellow who was in the room doesn’t deny it – he says he ‘has no recollection’ of it. That’s what you say when it’s true and you neither want to confess nor open yourself to a potential perjury charge.
Gvg
Actually we haven’t heard much more about Clarance Thomas, so maybe he did learn his lesson. In general though, you do find more than one incident.
If the woman doesn’t want to be public, it won’t happen. The story so far seems thin to me. So long ago hard to prove. The really conspicuous part is a character letter so fast. That doesn’t happen everyday.
I hope a reporter verifies those women exist and actually signed the letter.
TenguPhule
@Gvg:
or maybe seeing how he’s now on the highest court in land, all of his victims have resigned themselves to never getting justice.
Omnes Omnibus
I am more or less Kavanaugh’s age, and I doubt I could remember the names or faces of 65 classmates.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
One week till the shootings and reprisals start. They have the frog in the pot and its not quite cooked yet.
TenguPhule
@Omnes Omnibus:
Especially if they had sex-change operations, seeing as he went to an all-boy’s school.
Gelfling 545
@Princess: I”m a bit older than he but even at his age I’d have been hard pressed to find 65 students from my own school, much less from our equivalent boys’ school. That 65 women who weren’t even his classmates claim to know his character well enough to say this was impossible is ludicrous.
Jaye
I am one year older than Kavanaugh and definitely travelled in peripherally overlapping D.C. private school social circles at the time (Cathedral ‘82). Although I don’t believe I ever met him, I have no problem believing this happened at a party. There were “open” parties pretty much every weekend – generally at a house with out of town parents, and always with tons of liquor and beer and some pot. It was far from uncommon for people to slip away (I recall an interesting encounter in a sauna in Potomac) for a more “private” space. With all the drinking involved, there was a fair amount of what was, retrospectively, borderline sexual assault. This doesn’t sound borderline at all, though.
Thomas Levenson
@burnspbesq: Collins is getting squirrelly. Flake has no f**ks left to give. Not sure where Murkowski lands. I’m not saying it’s likely. I’m just saying that last Monday Kavanaugh was a done deal. Today he’s not.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@Omnes Omnibus: Ah but the question is would they remember you (or me). I have my doubts, but it is a different question. There certainly would not be that many that maintained a 30 some year relationship.
PPCLI
Even if the wildly implausible Republican story about tracking down the 65 in 24 hours is true, the letter says they are “classmates”, which is not true. Did the women even see the letter? I wouldn’t sign a letter that described me falsely as a classmate of someone I wasn’t a classmate of, even if I had an otherwise very high opinion of the person and desired to lend my support. It’s not that hard to ask for a minor change like that.
Also, the letter claims that the people signing come from a diverse range of political views. First, I find that on its face unlikely, but also that is not something that the women being contacted would be in a position to know.
And it needs to be asked just how much the women were told when they were solicited. Were they told of the content of the accusation, or were they told the story that the Republicans were trying to get us to believe yesterday. Recall that the Repub. story yesterday was that the accusation was just: Kavanaugh and a pal locked a woman in a room, and she felt uncomfortable about that. This is very far from “throw on a bed, hold down, muffle screams, turn up music to drown the sound”.
Were all the women told the actual complaint in the letter that they were being enlisted to defend Kavanaugh against?
MazeDancer
The 65 women are likely all anti-choice. And willing to stretch truth to overturn Roe.
BuzzFeed reporting said the 65 went to various all-girls Catholic schools. The victim went to a local high school. So likely they didn’t know each other.
Chain reaction among Roe haters to get 65 lies overnight is doable. As Charlie Pierce says, he went to an all’boys Catholic school, absolutely no way Kavanaugh knew 65 girls.
Have to say I find the image of two Georgetown Prep guys turning up the music to cover the screams of a local girl believable.
TenguPhule
@MazeDancer:
I would not be surprised to find that not all of those 65 signatures were done by the same person.
Jaye
@Princess: The Hume on the list is Brit’s daughter-in-law, not his wife, I’m pretty sure.
TenguPhule
Texas is why we can’t have nice things.
Worst timeline ever.
Princess
They can’t even keep their stories straight. One story is that five clerks of Grassley got the letter signed last night. The other story is in buzzed and ascribes the campaign to one the the female signatories:
“In an interview Friday, McCaleb said the letter-writing campaign began after her husband, Scott McCaleb, got a call from a reporter following initial reporting by the Intercept and BuzzFeed News about a secret letter containing an allegation against Kavanaugh.”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/chrisgeidner/brett-kavanaugh-allegations-women-letter-chuck-grassley
Cheryl Rofer
The big question I see is, if they knew about this and it certainly looks like they did, why didn’t Kavanaugh answer Hirono’s question with something like “Not as an adult, but when I was in high school, I did something I’m not proud of.” And then go on to take advantage of our all knowing that yes, kids do stupid stuff in high school. Always better to be ahead of the revelations.
However, in today’s atmosphere of #MeToo, they may have figured that was too risky. Or maybe, as Tom and Paul Wartenburg pointed out, one incident like this implies that there are more.
As to why they picked this guy and are hanging on to him, I suspect that Trump likes to have people working for him who have something in their pasts he can blackmail them with. I’ve seen other managers do this. One of my mentors gave me the very good advice to be careful to keep my nose absolutely clean.
Ken
@Major Major Major Major: Wild conspiracy theory: The Republicans knew about Kavanaugh’s many issues, including this one (that’s not the wild part, obviously). They set him up to take a fall, knowing that the only way to close the voter enthusiasm gap is to have that open SC seat, dependent on a Republican-controlled Senate.
Omnes Omnibus
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): They might. Some for good and some for not so good.
James E Powell
@burnspbesq:
I agree with you but must add that I have no idea what more would change any votes.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
That would only work if he stopped doing it after high school…..
B.B.A.
@James E Powell: A secret conversion to Islam? or worse, Unitarianism?
West of the Cascades
@B.B.A.:
I was wondering the same thing … unless she was calculating that the time to drop this was now, when it will have maximum salience (after Labor Day, i.e. when People Start Paying Attention to the Election) and minimum time for the GOP to circle the wagons. Keeping it from the other Dems gives them plausible deniability. Not sure Feinstein really is the sort of person that would think this strategically, but it could be one explanation.
Mnemosyne
@MazeDancer:
This. Lying is a-okay if you’re saving baybeez!
Chip Daniels
I’m of the opinion that we should draw a line across acts done before the age of maturity.
For all people, barring extraordinary circumstances.
Meaning we get rid of trying juveniles as adults, and sealing their records.
But of course, in the frenzied environment where we sentence 12 year old boys to life, or sometimes shoot them outright, maybe it would be a bit of irony if that same form of injustice took this guy down.
TenguPhule
@B.B.A.: Baby eating.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Why this guy? My money says THIS GUY made a promise to Trump to keep him from being indicted.
dmsilev
@Ken: Doesn’t really fit. If Kavanaugh goes down in flames, that’s a defeat. Especially for a dominance-me-me-me type personality like Trump. It’d be more demoralizing than anything else.
Tenar Arha
Rapey Kavanugh & Creepy Thomas really should ridevoff into “phuck em all” land. Totally sick of these ahole mens created in the GOP’s monster factory.
James E Powell
@Ken:
Republicans don’t play eleven dimensional chess.
Emily68
I’ve read somewhere that Sen. Hirono asks that question of everyone who’s trying to get confirmed if she’s on the committee holding the hearing. The question doesn’t mean she had some secret inside information.
TenguPhule
Mike Pompeo accuses John Kerry of ‘actively undermining US policy’ on Iran
Trump really wants a war with Iran.
Anne Laurie
@Major Major Major Major:
Because he’s an extremely average jurist, someone who couldn’t dream of a SCOTUS nomination except for the fact that he’s always been willing to go the extra ratfvcking mile for the Greedy Old Perverts party.
The Federalist Society didn’t include him on their shortlist because they knew how much of his career was spent in ‘probably legal enough, if nobody notices in time to raise an objection’ territory (the Brook Brothers Riot, Terri Shiavo, Ken Starr’s Clenis hunt, Cheney’s torture-the-ter’rists fantasies). And that’s exactly why Trump chose him — he saw a fellow member of the ‘Anything I Can Get Away With Must Be Okay’ society.
Guys like Trump — and Kavanaugh — keep pushing the bounds until those bounds snap back.
TenguPhule
@Emily68:
But you have to admit that they serve as a great catchall when a nominee is caught.
Gravenstone
@Major Major Major Major: Because Trump and his enablers are betting the farm on Kavanaugh being a reliable shield for all of Trump’s legal and extralegal entanglements. Not sure other candidates were as sure a bet.
Roger Moore
I don’t think this would be easy. It would have been easy to nominate somebody without such skeletons in his closet- as McConnell apparently wanted- but now that they’ve spent all this time on the nomination it’s too late to back out. If they withdraw the nomination, they have to line up the next candidate, produce all the material the Senate wants/needs about them, hold hearings, and hold the vote. Yes, they theoretically have 3+ months to do that, but there’s going to be a lot of pressure not to confirm in the lame duck period, especially if the Democrats regain control of the Senate. So they really have more like a month and a half. I don’t think they can pull it off, at least not with the Democrats dragging their feet as much as possible. So they have a real risk that if they can’t push Kavanaugh through they aren’t going to get anyone. They really can’t afford to back down.
Geoduck
There’s also swirling questions about Kavanaugh’s more recent finances, and a bunch of debt he accumulated that now seems to have Gone Away.
debbie
Maybe so many crapfests have jaded me, but this inevitably will be played as being nothing more than adolescent highjinks. And he’ll get away with it.
TS (the original)
@Roger Moore:
Definitely not something that would bother republicans – they are doing the will of the people, regardless as to how many people agree with them.
schrodingers_cat
When we first heard of the one week delay, I hazarded a guess that T and K bonded over their mutual pussy grabbing proclivities. Judge K looks like a creep. I wouldn’t want to be in a room alone with him. That was my opinion before all this shit came out, when Kamala Harris was raking him over hot coals.
Anne Laurie
@Gvg:
There were multiple women — all, IIRC, African-American — ready to testify against him, during his confirmation; it was known at the time that a number of senators (including, to their shame, Ted Kennedy & Joe Biden) just didn’t want that icky lady-talk to sully the pure ears of American voters.
By the time he was nominated, though, Thomas had married a white lady, and he was ‘aging out’ of the sexual-predator timeline. This is a real thing, though hardly inevitable. Look at Roy Moore, who seems to have stopped bird-dogging teenagers after he reached male-menopause territory… and married a much younger, girlish-looking woman. Quite possibly Clarence Thomas gets all the nasty jollies he’s capable of enjoying by ruling against the claims of ‘uppity’ women, and then sharing the most prurient stories with his equally anti-sex-obsessed wife.
Jack the Second
@JoyceH: or he was in the room with Kavanaugh on too many rapey occasions to keep the details of each straight.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
I think there are a lot of Republican senators who are institutionalists at heart. They actually believe in the process, and it’s a struggle to convince them to change stuff. That’s why McConnell hasn’t just shredded all the rules and done away with the legislative filibuster. He can shred the rules gradually, but he has to sell his caucus each time he wants to change stuff. The bigger the change, the bigger the struggle to get people to go along. If he tries to completely change a long-established process, at least two members of his caucus are going to rebel.
Roger Moore
@JoyceH:
No, he’s being honest. He did this so often the different incidents all run together. Who can remember one particular attempted rape out of so many?
Anne Laurie
@Geoduck:
I find that a lot more interesting — as in “liable to derail his nomination” — than this latest attempted-rape charge. But the cynical take seems to be that Brett’s always relied on his rich lobbyist parents to come to his rescue, whenever he’s outrun his income trying to keep up with the lifestyle he obviously assumes he “deserves”.
Were I in charge, that’s the line of investigation I’d have gone down. Possibly some wealthy Koch-style donor generously paid ol’ Brett’s bills down, so the man wouldn’t be embarrassed in front of the cameras. Even more likely, if not for Daddy coming to his rescue — and not for the first time, apparently — he’d have been shown to the world as a less-than-stellar wanna-be who’s spent his life trying to earn through an excess of dishonest diligence what he can’t earn through competence. Which might have the salutatory effect of causing him to withdraw in embarrassment. But, at the very least, it would be on the record as to just how weak a nominee he was, and exactly why the Trump administration wanted to rush through his confirmation before the Relevant Authorities came knocking.
randy khan
@B.B.A.:
As I understand it, some of the story involves the woman who wrote the letter having some trouble – understandable trouble, to say the least – deciding that she was willing to let it be used. Much though I don’t want another sexual predator on the Supreme Court (and it’s bad enough to have one), I completely respect her right to keep something like this private if she’s not ready to disclose.
Ladyraxterinok
@Ken: Quite plausible GOP plan. They really need to play on RW desire for ‘finally a SCOTUS justice with OUR values, the values of REAL Americans!’
schrodingers_cat
How many more Grabby Old Perverts in the R party are there in positions of power?
Roger Moore
@Geoduck:
He debt was raptured.
MazeDancer
Jane Mayer just described the attack to Chris Hayes:
Kavanaugh and another boy followed her into a bedroom. Closed the door. Locked it. Kavanaugh forced himself onto her. Held her down. She screamed. The boys turned up the music to drown her screams. Kavanaugh held his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming.
When Mayer recounted “Closed the door. Locked it.” I involuntarily gasped. Somehow, feeling that lock click made it all real.
B.B.A.
@schrodingers_cat: All of them, Katie.
Frankensteinbeck
@Roger Moore:
I don’t think this is true. It’s sort of like how everyone in Trump’s cabinet turns out to be a monster. We talk about ‘not normal’, but the GOP lost their fucking minds well over a decade ago. Kavenaugh isn’t conservative, he’s a reactionary nutcase. You don’t get someone who is willing to vote for the absolutely disgusting, insane positions the GOP has adopted, which are based on indulging cruelty over established law or the Constitution, without also getting a total slimeball. Democrats were ready for that fact this time. Kavenaugh is likely the blandest, most superficially clean candidate McConnell could find that he’s also sure will never betray him by voting a liberal way on very rare occasions.
Mary G
i’ve been off the net most of the day and I am going out for the teen’s birthday dinner, but Adam Serwer’s petsitter lost his cat in San Antonio, so if you know anyone there have them look:
His cats are Butters, Beans, and Eggsy, plus there is at least one dog, but I forget its name. I’ve been watching them on Twitter for years.
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
All of them Katie.
schrodingers_cat
@Mary G: I love Butters, he is a handsome kitteh. Paws crossed for Butters, I hope he comes home soon.
NotMax
OT.
On the slim chance anyone associated with Rachel Maddow’s show is slumming here, please please please inform her the construction is “pleaded guilty,” not “pled guilty.”
Sets these old ears on edge every time she says it, which is a lot.
MoxieM
@schrodingers_cat: All of them, Katie!
MoxieM
@Jay: oops, ditto
TenguPhule
Contractors sue nonpartisan group No Labels
Republican ratfucking operation discovers the drawbacks of shitting where you eat.
Omnes Omnibus
@TenguPhule: This is the issue I have with this lawsuit: Fuck all the fucking No Labels assholes.
OT: Will we ever get sticky ‘nyms and edit again?
WaterGirl
@Mary G: How awful for him and for the pet sitter.
chris
More “best people.”
jl
Just another superfluous nail in the the thug Kavanaugh’s nomination coffin. Total mistake to get fussy over whether whatever he did was something that could be prosecuted back then. If there is any truth to it at all, hell with Kavanaugh, he should be disqualified.
The reactionaries have been lowering the bar for their thugs of choice down into a hole in the ground for years. If there is no criminal conviction, then their guy is totally in the clear and it is outrageous and uncivil to question his absolute purity. Second, to force focus on one things at a time. If you hire a person for a job, and a bunch of little problems pile up, and the person isn’t straightforward about that is going on, then it is perfectly legit to disqualify them for a job. And I am talking about hiring a plumber or a salesperson. This is for lifetime appointment to SCOTUS.
So, we got unethical behavior with stolen Democratic caucus emails, and probably perjury over it. We have weir funny money mystery shenanigans with tens of thousands of dollars,and sudden mystery payoff. We have odd about faces in legal opinions that conveniently align with partisan political advantage. We have possible unethical meetings with Trump legal people. We have incomplete document release and the little sneak Kavanaugh doesn’t emit a squeak to free it up. We have misdirection and evasive BS in his testimony. Now, we have what appear to be a plausible accusation of sexual violence in his personal history (not HS immature talk, not teenage crush style junior league stalking or creeping). NO, we have accusation of attempted rape.
Would you hire someone with all that come out to work in the mail rooms? No, you would not.
I say, build case against this weasel thug creep for his history of perjury, do very hard questioning of him to induce him to more perjury in these hearings, and then impeach his ass asap after confirmation if appointment cannot be stopped.
I’m tired of this farce of a federal government. Time to play hardball with crooks, and that is what the GOP has become, a bunch of crooks.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus:
No. SATSQ.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Supposed to coincide with Global Handwashing Day.
;)
chris
@chris: PS (dammit!) It’s a 400 mile, 6.5 hour drive with “a caravan of federal workers.”
Geoduck
As others have noted, McConnell evidently warned that trying to push through Kavenaugh would be difficult. I have to imagine there were others he would have preferred.
rikyrah
@MazeDancer:
???
smintheus
@Original Lee: Theoretically possible, but obviously strange for more than a small handle of anybody’s high school friends being willing to vouch 35+ years later that the person had a sterling character. That’s some major league vouching, under any circumstances.
Under these circumstances, the 65 signees are really saying that the accuser is lying about Kavanaugh. They’re not saying “I don’t know anything about it” or “I don’t believe the accusation”, because who would care that they don’t know or don’t believe. They’re lining up to insinuate that the accuser is lying. She may very well be, but they don’t know the truth and must realize that it’s obvious they can’t possibly know the truth.
That means there’s only one way to interpret the letter. The 65 “friends” of Kavanaugh are actively trying to thwart the opposition to his nomination by any means, including claiming to know things about his record they don’t know.
smintheus
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m about the same age and went to a school about the size of Kavanaugh’s. There weren’t 65 people total at my school whose word of honor I would trust about anything, much less whose character assessment of me or anybody else would be worth hearing.
A few years back on fb I was earnestly assured by a schoolmate – after I mentioned that another punk at our school once caught me resting on the gym floor and nearly stomped me to death just for yucks – that I must be confused, because she knew for a fact that the boy in question was the sweetest guy ever. Why he even took her to the prom, so of course she was the real expert on what he was and was not capable of doing.
Omnes Omnibus
@smintheus: By punk, do you me mean Punk or punk? Just to clarify.
Omnes Omnibus
OT: If you listen to Florence and the Machine, it must be loud.
Anne Laurie
@Frankensteinbeck:
Except Kavanaugh was Trump’s pick, not McConnell’s. Mr. Here-Comes-Mueller wanted a guy he could trust to insist that no (Repub) president could ever ever be indicted, no matter what. Mitch has been stuck with the grim duty of getting this blood-and-other-body-fluids-flecked candidate confirmed, because losing would be even more disastrous for the GOP ‘brand’ than seating a candidate who’ll be impeached (or imprisoned) within the next calendar year.
(And I, quite frankly, am hoping Mitch will make Trump pay for sticking him with this unpleasant duty. Not that McConnell could’ve passed for a plaster saint in even the dimmest historical light, but tossing him this particular pinless grenade at this fraught point in the voting cycle is most definitely a cause of adding insult to injury.)
trnc
@smintheus:
Yup. And yet, we’re supposed to just to dismiss the accuser out of hand because of the time span while we just take the collective word of this suspiciously cobbled together group at face value.
smintheus
@TenguPhule: But it was all legal and stuff when most of the people around private citizen Trump held secret meetings with Russians about US foreign policy?
jl
@chris: Yeah, that is sad story if true and as bad as it looks. Long was actually a qualified emergency response manager with solid career and ran some successful and important response efforts at state and regional level. Not sure how a person like him even got considered. Somebody convince Trump he looked like a central casting emergency response manager?
If he just did this because he figured, WTF, I’ll get some perks off the public dime, I’m in TrumpWorld after all, then maybe the Trump administration is so toxic, it drags down anyone who gets sucked in. Or maybe some Trumpster is out to get him, since he actually seems to be competent, and they want to frame him to get a complete corrupt hack in the position. Like the old USSR and its Kremlinology, we have to do Trumplinology to figure out what is really going on in our own federal government these days.
Though of course, now he has the stain of the PR hurricane response on his record, but I don’t know how much of that was his fault, versus being hamstrung by malicious Trumpsters higher in the administration, and Trump himself.
smintheus
@Omnes Omnibus: small p punk. He was an arrogant rich kid exchange student from South America.
smintheus
@trnc: Who was it who said “I was born in the middle of the night, but not in the middle of last night”?
Omnes Omnibus
@smintheus: Got it.
jl
@trnc: In this case, I see every reason to apply a relatively weak standard of proof for the sexual violence accusation and combine with all the other crud in Kavanaugh’s background. I’d give civil trail level, more than 50/50, it’s plausible and that is plenty, and add it to the list of crap that makes Kavanaugh unfit for SCOTUS.
Then question him aggressively enough to commit more perjury and if he can get appointed, impeach convict and remove that thug from the court.
In a just and sane world, this miserable dishonest little operator should be done and finished and off to the rest of a vile legal career by now.
eemom
@debbie:
I’m as jaded as it gets, but some of the reactions to this have shocked even me:
1. A FB friend who I normally would have described as a sensible progressive saying, in effect, aw c’mon you guys! We shouldn’t be digging up shit anybody did in high school — it makes us look bad! We all did stupid shit in high school.
2. Other progressives buying into the bullshit media narrative that this is about what FEINSTEIN did or didn’t do.
3. The attitude “Meh, it’s not gonna change any votes.”
Um, folks? This is an allegation of attempted RAPE.
NotMax
So, among properties Manafort relinquishes pursuant to the plea agreement is his apartment in Trump Tower, which thus becomes nominally under the control and direction of … Jeff Sessions.
Wonder if Dolt 45 is aware of this turn of events?
jl
@eemom: it’s additional evidence that this miserable dishonest penny ante ward heeler is unfit.
Me, evidence is more than even he did it, it’s another strike against him on his record, and since he already has far more than three strikes, just extra evidence his completely unfit. Pursue this, and pursue it with vigor and persistence and combine with all the other dirt in his past.
Gin & Tonic
There was some discussion here earlier today, after the “information” hit the presses, about the role of Skadden, Arps and their possibly unethical actions when producing the allegedly “impartial” Tymoshenko report. I’m now reading on CNN that Mueller’s team is reportedly considering further action against both Skadden and the partner who was responsible for that report.
Sometimes things come around.
jl
@jl: Federal appointees have gotten bounced for screwing up taxes for their nannies for God’s sake.
No one should get played by the GOP and kabuki theatre corporate media propaganda machine. The rape charge is a a legitimate issued, it needs to be combine with all the piles of filth in this crumb’s pas that have been swept under the rug. Respond to cowardly and passive BS concern trolling and respond hard, and then ask them how do they like you now.
debbie
@eemom: h
Exactly. The irony of this guy doing these kinds of things and still morally outraged over a blow job in the Oval Office. //
smintheus
@eemom: Your fb friend’s attitude is “We all did rapey things in HS”?! That should really be an ex-FB friend.
My limited contact with HS classmates is that the ones who were assholes then are almost all obviously still assholes.
Omnes Omnibus
@smintheus: She is an asshole, but she didn’t say that. Read better.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
Fuck you, you stalker freak.
There, wasn’t that easy to read?
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: Wow.
eemom
@smintheus:
To be fair, I’m pretty sure the guy didn’t mean it like that. But I was rather dismayed at having to point out to him that attempted rape is not on most guys’ lists of regrettable boyhood pranks. (I assume/hope.)
B.B.A.
I like pie.
burnspbesq
@eemom:
Which votes is it going to change, Elaine? Name names.
Anne Laurie
New post up top, just in case anyone’s looking for a fresh slate.
FelonyGovt
I’m disturbed that the mountain of crap about Kavanaugh seems to be coming out piece by piece- and like Trump scandals, each item (the suspiciously paid off debt, the wildly varying opinions on law depending on party, etc) is apparently forgotten as the next ugly thing comes to light.
This guy is clearly unsuitable for a lifetime appointment to the highest court. But can we possibly derail his confirmation?
PaulWartenberg
@Major Major Major Major:
trump may refuse to let Kavanaugh drop because trump’s ego is purely on the line here. withdrawing Kavanaugh’s name would be a public defeat, unlike other GOP failures of the last two years it will be one pinned entirely on him (he was apparently warned that K was the weakest nominee on the list).
Anne Laurie
@PaulWartenberg: Actually, Kavanaugh wasn’t even on the list McConnell gave Trump (give Mitch credit for that much savvy). Trump — i.e., Trump’s puppeteers — picked him out all on their own, for reasons. Reasons being, he was willing to cape for Trump no matter how much illegal stuff came out… and in return, Trump wouldn’t make a big fuss about giving the farthest-right nutball revanchists the scope to enact their wildest Republic of Gilead fantasies.
eemom
@burnspbesq:
You miss the point, PAUL BURNS ESQ.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: At this point, she is attacking me for supporting something she said.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh dear. I did neglect to thank you for your support.
jonas
@Major Major Major Major:
Because he’s a 100% sure bet to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2 seconds if given the chance, and when he’s not spending time writing his concurrent opinion for why R v. W. and Casey were badly decided, he would be fucking over workers and the environment at every turn. He’s a Republican wet dream. That’s why.
jonas
We all did stupid shit in high school. Smoked weed. Got in fights. Drank, got a DUI. These were acts of poor judgment. You got busted and hopefully learned from the experience. Trying to rape a girl? That’s just fucked up. You do that when you’re a power-drunk, entitled prick who knows he’s going to get away with it because what’s the slut gonna do? Tell everyone she consented to being in a dark basement with you at a party where everyone was drinking? Right.
If you’re already at the Harvey Weinstein stage at 17, there’s a problem.
B.B.A.
@jonas: There are dozens if not hundreds of Catholic lawyerbots working their way up through the judiciary, all of whom meet those criteria.
Only Kavanaugh has agreed that a sitting or former President has absolute sovereign immunity and can never be investigated for any federal, state or municipal crime.
B.B.A.
(slight exaggeration but you get my point)
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: Okay, please ignore the first entry in the discussion. I defended you and you went dipshit. Fact.
jonas
@debbie: Every accusation is a confession. Especially with Republicans. Dollars to donuts we find Ken Star someday in a New Orleans brothel in a gimp suit accidentally asphyxiated on 4 sex toys.
Bill Arnold
@Mike in NC:
Did you look at that video of Harris questioning Kavanaugh? The microexpressions rippling over his face gave me a distinct impression of an aged frat boy. It turns out that he actually was in a frat (and a secret society) at Yale as an undergraduate: The Yale Secret Society Brett Kavanaugh Joined Was Mostly About Drinking, Yale Alumni Say
This isn’t disqualifying (e.g. my brother was in a frat at an ivy league in the same era, and AFAIK he has treated women very well since then), and was later than his prep school, but does suggest a mind-set.
jonas
@B.B.A.:
*Former* presidents as well? That’s a new one for me. My understanding is that he believes a sitting president can’t be indicted because it would be a “distraction” or something; he has to be impeached and removed from office first. *Then* the legal system can take its course. If I’m wrong, please point me to stuff in Kavanaugh’s record that shows otherwise.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
You “defended” me with the intro that I’m an asshole? You are fucked in the head, pal.
Doug R
@Ken:
Not impossible, but I think the more likely scenarion is anyone who’s willing to let a Republican president have no oversight after getting all bent out of shape about a Democratic president’s sexual adventures is an amoral partisan hack for a reason-part of his soul is missing and I think we just found out which part.
B.B.A.
@jonas: It was hyperbole.
Next time I’ll use the word “Fuhrerprinzip” to make it clearer.
Anne Laurie
@jonas:
IIRC, Kavanaugh added a caveat that once the erring President had been removed from office, ‘the people’ would no longer have standing to investigate any crimes that might or might not have occurred. (Don’t have time right now to google, but you go right ahead.)
jl
@Anne Laurie: Kavanaugh is a fascist thug in high toned disguise.
Once you get the 50 plus one percent this attempted rape allegation is true, then absolutely add it as vigorous and very public argument against him.
I might be willing to argue if probability gets down to 10 or 20 percent.
Question the crook aggressively into committing more perjury then impeach him and kick him off the court.
We can’t afford to play patty cake with dangerous operators like Kavanaugh.
DavidTC
@PaulWartenberg:
Fun fact: Constitutionally, the Senate cannot actually ‘reject’ a nominee in any constitutional way. The Senate say they’re going to have a vote on someone, and if that single vote fails they’re done with that nominee. So if the vote fails does the President generally withdraws the person and submits a new one…but the President doesn’t have to withdraw them. He could leave the nomination standing and, technically speaking, the Senate could reopen the issue and vote again. They might have to change own their rules, but constitutionally they can do it.
Alternately, the President could just withdraw the nomination and then make the exact same one, which would probably allow a new vote even under existing Senate rules. Of course, there is no way in hell that would _gain_ votes as it would seriously piss off a lot of Senators…
So let’s hope that not only is Kavanaugh rejected, but someone informs Trump that doesn’t mean he ‘lost’…the Senate can always change their mind. So (Assuming Democrats don’t get the Senate), let’s hope that Trump just keep demanding the Senate confirm Kavanaugh, and he’s not going to give them the satisfaction of nominating someone else!
Gretchen
@smintheus: very ell said.
Gretchen
@smintheus: well said.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Bill Arnold: From the moment I saw him I thought Kavanaugh’s pallor and facial puffiness made him look like a seriously heavy drinker. I also wonder, givien his massive credit card debt, whether he might not have a gambling addiction or some other issue with impulse control. Going that deep in credit card debt when you’re earning a decent salary shows extremely poor judgement, which seems kinda like a major flaw for a judge.
The rape stuff is obviously worse but I can’t believe no one asked him about his finances, who paid his debts, and what he promised them in return.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@delk: Fer realz?
SWMBO
@Mary G: Butters is found safe and sound.
Mary Ellen Sandahl
@Major Major Major Major: Becuz of his views on presidential immunity from the rule of law.