Things are not looking good for Supreme Court Justice Stan Gable:
As an undergraduate student at Yale, Brett M. Kavanaugh was involved in an altercation at a local bar during which he was accused of throwing ice on another patron, according to a police report.
The incident, which occurred in September 1985 during Mr. Kavanaugh’s junior year, resulted in Mr. Kavanaugh and four other men being questioned by the New Haven Police Department. Mr. Kavanaugh was not arrested, but the police report stated that a 21-year-old man accused Mr. Kavanaugh of throwing ice on him “for some unknown reason.”
A witness to the fight said that Chris Dudley, a Yale basketball player who was friends with Mr. Kavanaugh, then hit the man in the ear with a glass, according to the police report, which was obtained by The New York Times.
The report said that the victim, Dom Cozzolino, “was bleeding from the right ear” and was later treated at a local hospital. A detective was notified of the incident at 1:20 a.m.
Yeah it’s super hard to believe a beer swilling football player who gets into bar fights might have attempted to rape someone.
TenguPhule
But look at all the women he didn’t drunkenly sexual assault! //
gwangung
I still think if Prep Boy had gone the “I was a wild youth and did many things I regret now” route, he could have navigated his way out of this, even with Dr. Ford’s testimony.
But Eddie Haskelling everyone was just plain stupid.
Tim C
Wait…same Chris dudley who played for the blazers and lost to John Kitzhabber in the 2010 governors race?
ThresherK
Didn’t Dudley run for office in OR as a Tea Party/jock (sic)?
Geeno
@gwangung: This. If he had just been smart about it nothing happens, but nooooooooooo
piratedan
anyone taking odds that BK’s debts were paid by someone other than his parents and were done by RNC dark money fellow travelers? Is that why they’re fighting so hard for him, to ensure that not only are all of their dirty deeds sanctioned but also boasting a thin patina of legal?
I can understand being drunk and socially immature and feeling like your wants and desires are paramount to anyone else’s,,, but for fucks sake I grew up and managed not to assault anyone….. this guy is obviously enough of a political power broker to have finally gotten a clue and started to cover his backtrail… although it looks like he’s not only got a skeleton or two left in the closet, but a fully occupied graveyard.
dr. bloor
So now there’s an Ivy-educated NBA player in the mix. A Ferengi transgendered dwarf is undoubtedly waiting in the wings.
zhena gogolia
I vaguely remember this dive. Posted below:
geg6
Make a correction, Cole. They were basketball players. Apparently, Kavanaugh wasn’t so good, but he hung out with a bunch of better players. The history professor (who was also a basketball player) tells this story and now it’s confirmed. Says ol’ Brett was a huge, mean drunk and he knows this because he was often drunk with him. All Brett’s stories are falling apart.
JPL
Today the White House released a testimony from Dudley in support of Kavanaugh. whoops.
schrodingers_cat
Told ya he was a drunken creep during the first set of hearings.
Mary G
@gwangung: This. If K had come out and said “I drank too much at times in high school and college, and while I don’t remember doing anything like Dr. Blasey Ford said, I could be wrong, and I apologize from the bottom of my heart, and I pray to Jeebus for redemption,” he’d already be confirmed by now.
This choirboy thing was a mistake from the start. The mere idea that a degenerate drinker like Judge, who wrote books about being an alcoholic in high school, could be friends with a guy who went to Little Flower every Sunday and never overindulged is just ludicrous.
Jeffro
Just remember it is only Monday evening. Just think we will know about this ass clown by Friday morning
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
Hey — get back into the kitteh thread. You need to stay away from this stuff!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Kavanaugh was trying to rally friends to cast doubt on Debbie Ramirez before the NYer article appeared
Jeffro
@piratedan: is that were definitely paid off by outside money, and I sure hope the FBI takes a gander in that direction
Jeffro
@Jeffro: “his debts” not “is that”
dr. bloor
@JPL: Apparently being a part of the WH strategery team means that you never run out of dicks to step on.
Jerzy Russian
Why wasn’t he arrested or given a citation? Yes, this is a rhetorical question.
Roger Moore
@Tim C:
The very same. So yeah, maybe not the greatest character witness. Not only is he suspect because he’s obviously a Republican operative, but his own judgment is in question.
Jeffro
I haven’t looked in a while … is the hashtag #FindAnotherWingnut training yet? Because that is what I have been suggesting to wingnut relatives … if they had any principles and/or any common sense whatsoever, they would just drop this idiot and find another wingnut to nominate .
But they won’t. Why is that?
Chyron HR
That’s weird, I’ve been assured that the GOP totally Lucyed our Footballs by not forcing Kavanaugh’s confirmation through last weekend.
dr. bloor
@Mary G:
The choirboy thing was less a strategy than an inextricable element of the nominee’s character. Holier-than-thou defensiveness and virtue in the face of the ugly truth is the default, and usually the only available, response.
JPL
WaterGirl asked about the statements by Dudley Since I don’t have front page rights.. snips don’t work for me so I’ll post a link
https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1046863868784513024
I saw it on Kyle Griffin’s feed earlier
delk
Chris Dudley had that terrible free throw shot.
Jerzy Russian
@zhena gogolia: I remember the name, but I could not tell you where this place is/was from memory. It is one of the properties you can buy in the “Yaleopoly” game, which is a copy of Monopoly with Yale/New Haven streets and places.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
Consider the possibility that Kav is truly the best option available to them and that all the other candidates have even worse backstories.
smintheus
Kavanaugh didn’t just “get in a bar fight”. Kavanaugh started the bar fight by throwing ice (or beer) in the guy’s face. The term for that is “assault”.
And there’s also the classic Kavanaugh evasiveness:
Ksmiami
@gwangung: I agree- he could have just said I did things I’m not proud of as a teen and if I hurt ppl I’m sorry but he wanted to obfuscate and play victim so well fuck that prat
TenguPhule
@Chyron HR:
I’m just waiting to see if he withdraws or it actually comes down to a vote.
schrodingers_cat
Named after Elihu Yale who donated his ill-gotten gains from India to the then Collegiate School of Connecticut.
JPL
@dr. bloor: There timing is impeccable. Who among us haven’t been involved in a bar fight.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Yes I should do that. Its like I can’t tear myself away from the train wreck in motion.
zhena gogolia
@Jerzy Russian:
It was on the corner of Broadway and Elm. I must have walked by it ten times a day, but I have no memory of every going there. I think it was like Toad’s, just a place you tried to gingerly walk by and not get too close. We did our beer drinking at Naples or the Gypsy.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
ever going there
Edit function!
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
Me too.
Barbara
I can’t believe Kavanaugh thought all these Yalies who saw him drink himself into a stupor would never come forward — maybe because they didn’t come forward during his DC Circuit nomination. I love best the lady (now doctor) who said she knows because she got drunk with him all the time. Not everyone feels a need to deny their early mistakes.
TenguPhule
@JPL:
You rang?
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
I mean Broadway and York!!!!@Jerzy Russian:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
It’s how we said, “I love you, man” after a night of root beer and charades with my buds
realbtl
Note the thrown ice..”Beer” is what the alcoholic publicly confesses to because everybody has a beer right? Beer my ass.
JPL
@TenguPhule: This is not the appropriate me too movement.
Chyron HR
@TenguPhule:
I think the worse case scenario for GOP senators would be if the vote fails and they don’t get their guy on the supreme court, but they still have to run for re-election against a barrage of ads featuring very concerned white women saying, “Senator so-and-so voted to put an accused rapist on the Supreme Court.”
zhena gogolia
@realbtl:
Ooh, good point.
Chetan Murthy
@JPL: I once got shushed by the barmaid for yelling at a guy about [a matter that I won’t bring into it, b/c it doesn’t matter — it was still inexcusable]. I’ve never been back to that bar, b/c too ashamed.
smintheus
What will Kavanaugh’s explanation be?
“The poor man had spontaneously combusted and without a thought for my own safety, my choir boy training kicked in as I rushed over to douse the flames. I blame Sen. Feinstein for leaking this police report that completely exonerates me.”
scav
@smintheus: So he didn’t want to admit or deny he threw the ice. Did he get into the cops grill and shout “Haven’t You ever tossed a little ice?! Ever!??!“
zhena gogolia
Another tidbit:
chopper
sounds more like he went to Georgetown *Perp*, amirite?
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Speaking of which, which college was he in?
rikyrah
I am so proud of us. We continue to not fall for the okey doke. We never fall for the GOP shiny object… which is the reason why they want to suppress Black votes.
Mangy Jay (@magi_jay) Tweeted:
80% of black voters believe Dr. Ford over Kavanaugh, as do 66% of hispanic voters. Only 40% of white voters do.
When split by gender, 46% of white women believe Dr. Ford and 43% believe Kavanaugh, a statistically insignificant difference
Only 37% of white men believe Dr. Ford. https://t.co/EAfWlqm9Xj https://twitter.com/magi_jay/status/1046802694617419776?s=17
smintheus
@scav: I think it was more “I got into YALE! What part of that is hard to understand?!”
WaterGirl
@JPL: Oh, so that’s what they released. That finally makes sense.
hueyplong
@smintheus: I wonder what would have happened if a differently pigmented young male had declined to answer a police inquiry as to whether he threw the ice.
Meanwhile, in the words of Charlie Pierce, Robert Mueller reaches across his desk and picks up another file folder.
And meanwhile, each of us makes sure that someone we personally know who has trouble getting to the polls actually gets there on Nov 6. I’ve picked out an 84 year old who hates Trump but is a little wobbly on leaving her condo on a good day. If I’m smart, I’ll do a lot more than that.
JPL
@WaterGirl: He might not be the best character witness. just sayin
chopper
@dr. bloor:
looks like his legal experiences started with “taking the fifth” an awful lot.
Chetan Murthy
@rikyrah:
Ehh. I don’t think they disebelieve her. I think they don’t care what she thinks now, or thought then. They think it’s alright to do what you gotta do [and I QUOTE] “for the love of the sport”. Per Bertie Wooster “No, they enjoy it, like foxes. How they enjoy being hunted.”
WaterGirl
@rikyrah:
wow, 40%, that’s just sad.
Right after the election, Al Giordano told us that women, but particularly women of color, were going to lead.
trollhattan
Cripes, they didn’t vett this guy for shit, did they?
If Brettley Eager Winston Cavanaugh VI goes down perhaps he takes the Federalist Society with him. That would make this shitstorm almost worth it.
WaterGirl
@Chetan Murthy: Maybe they think it’s better to say “I don’t believe her” than to say “so what?”
ns
Come on Balloon Juice, are we really going to make plausibility a standard for judging serious accusations? It’s not ‘super hard to believe’ that any guy might have attempted to rape someone since all sorts of pleasant people with great jobs and families have been revealed as scumbags. Dr. Ford shouldn’t need Kavanaugh to fit a profile to be taken seriously and all the narrative-shaping about mean jocks and rape culture has gotten in the way of this story. I believed Dr. Ford before her testimony and I super believe her afterwards and beer muscles don’t have anything to do with that. Being an obnoxious drunk is not evidence of sexual assault (although it might help prove that Kavanaugh perjured himself.)
TenguPhule
@ns:
The rules are different in the Court of Public Opinion.
TenguPhule
@TenguPhule: And the first rule is “If it works then its not against the rules”
dr. bloor
@scav: Nah, none of the cops responding to the call were women.
JR
This Chris Dudley?
Mnemosyne
@gwangung:
I agree — he would probably be getting sworn in right now if he had taken that tack. But he can’t because (IM layperson’s HO) he’s an active alcoholic, so it’s impossible for him to admit that he does anything wrong when he’s drunk. Anything that occurs while he’s under the influence is everyone else’s fault, never his.
Seeing him ranting red-faced up there gave me nasty flashbacks to the times when my dad would come home drunk when I was a kid. He was never a full-blown alcoholic, but I think he came very close to tipping over into that when I was in high school. I’m not the only one who suspects that he had a couple of quick pulls from his flask to steady his nerves before he walked into the room.
Chetan Murthy
@WaterGirl: Well, the latter is (after all) inculpatory, and maybe they’re afraid of what their wives’ll do when they’re asleep.
Lorena Bobbitt was ahead of her time.
Neldob
Yeah, what about the money? Just credit card and mortgage curious. Do we get to know?
dr. bloor
@trollhattan: The Federalist Society sent a name over and said, “this is the guy.” That’s what passes for “vetting” in the WH these days.
Chetan Murthy
@dr. bloor: Now now, maybe we should check into Rachel Mitchell’s employment history? Maybe she was a po-po in New Haven back in the day.
dr. bloor
@ns: They’re not litigating a court case, they’re interviewing a job applicant. The standard is “You’re gone if I don’t like your fucking tie.” Any of the interviewers who weren’t thinking “we can do better” three minutes into his self-righteous screed last week is lying to themselves and undermining the republic.
trollhattan
@dr. bloor:
Yep. And Trump will roast their asses if Brettley blows up. Make it so.
Roger Moore
@chopper:
It looks to me as if a lot of his legal experience started with “taking a fifth”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dr. bloor:
Yeah, I pointed that out last night(used the same phrase).
Omnes Omnibus
@dr. bloor: I would have gone with, “Fuck off, troll.”
dr. bloor
@JR:
The judges also would have accepted this one.
Jerzy Russian
@zhena gogolia: Right, not that far from the bookstore and other shops.
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They may have started the anti-Ramirez effort as early as JULY.
You guys, I’m not joking when I say that I am convinced that it’s an open secret in Republican circles that Brett gets grabby with the ladies after he’s had a few. They’re counting on Republican omerta to keep his conservative and Republican victims quiet, but they had to take extra steps to try and quash the stories from the women like Blasey Ford and Ramirez who can’t be pressured that way. That’s why they did the whole “carpool dad” charm offensive. That’s why they had a “liberal feminist” woman lawyer introduce him. They know that these stories are out there, and they were trying to discredit them ahead of time.
The three named victims are just the tip of the iceberg. Wait and see.
Lalophobia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This is the bigger story than the bar fight. It basically means, among other things, that he committed perjury, correct?
smintheus
@ns: Kavanaugh did more than be an obnoxious drunk. He assaulted someone. A propensity for violence is a key predictor of sexual assault.
WaterGirl
@Lalophobia: He may be toast, but the Republicans on the committee don’t see any charing yet – not enough to scrape off the toast, anyway.
mad citizen
We used to shoot water ballons out of a surgical tube/funnel contraption in college. We called it “the Wanger!”–of course, we were freshman. In the dorm, not in the frats. The best was shooting across the street at the Betas (the highest level of greeks at our school), enticing them to chase a group of us to our dorm, whereupon they were soaked from above from a third floor balcony from water-filled trash cans. We also shot oranges, lit-firecracker hard-boiled eggs, and maybe a golf ball or two. Don’t thing we hurt anyone, thank goodness.
Percysowner
@gwangung:
Being deeply cynical, you only go with that defense if you actually did STOP doing this type of thing after college. I think that there may be more recent incidents that he thinks will come out, or that there are times that he can’t account for because he blacked out due to over indulging.
Martin
Let’s all take a slight bit of comfort that ethics complaints against Kavanaugh will be fielded by the Chief Justice of the DC Circuit – Merrick Garland.
frosty
@schrodingers_cat:
You’re not the only one.I look forward to times with less news so I can get something done besides hitting “refresh”.
Thank you front pagers and jackals for making the news a little more palatable.
WaterGirl
@Martin: You just know they would call on Merrick Garland to recuse himself because of potential conflict of interest. The same men that would NEVER have Kavanaugh recuse himself on the highest court in the land, for any reason.
Mnemosyne
@Chetan Murthy:
No need — she worked closely with Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona while he was telling his sheriffs to not bother investigating sexual assault and child molestation cases, especially if they involved Latinx victims. She was A-OK with letting people continue to be victimized so Sheriff Joe could pretend to be tough on immigrants.
She’s a Republican hack with no morals or scruples, just like the rest of them.
lamh36
Welp…
sdhays
@Martin: Only if he’s not confirmed, right?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Lalophobia: Ayup. Joy Reid talking about this now
also, they knew these accusations were coming. Somebody on MSNBC played a clip today of John Kennedy’s creepy ‘joshing’ with Kavanaugh about his wild youth. They ask, in their usual extremely bad faith way, why we’re talking about BK’s high school years. What I want to know is: Did Kennedy ask Neil Gorsuch about high school? Why did McConnell try to warn trump off BK? What did the turtle know and when did he know it?
Chetan Murthy
@Mnemosyne: I was just jokin’. And yeah, for anybody who wants to be sickened at what people [ok: “men”] are capable of, the recent case of a guy who got off w/6mos in jail + probation for ….. sickening levels of child molestation …. well, I’ll let ’em look it up themselves. If I were a christian I’d say “Jesus wept” but then, there can’t be a Christ, and can’t be a God, b/c if there were, they wouldn’t let little children suffer like this boy (and maybe his brother, I stopped reading at some point) suffered.
So yeah, she’s exactly what you wrote.
sdhays
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I wonder if the Turtle had told Spankee that “Kavanaugh is the best, he must choose Kavanaugh” if we could have been spared this.
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne:
I thought her first 2 or 3 questions seemed neutral, with smiles and everything.
THEN it was like the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, her fangs started showing.
Speaking of which, one of the greatest books of all time: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
I might have to send that to EF to read to his grandchild.
different-church-lady
“No, I remember what happened, and I think you’ve probably had bar fights, senator.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
We had dinner tonight with a couple who are Rs but did not vote for Trump. Both Mr DAW and the other man thought Kavanaugh would be withdrawn. Both the other woman and I thought he’d be confirmed. Small sample, I know, but I thought it was interesting.
PhoenixRising
@dr. bloor: I’m told they prefer ‘little people’. No shame not to know, I just learned this yesterday. But your point, that the Cambodian dogsled team will be filing an information with the FBI shortly, is taken.
All he had to say was ‘I lost a few too many weekends & anyone who’s still mad at me, please see 8th step’ and this trauma for our entire country was avoided. The asshole.
different-church-lady
@lamh36: The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward
justicea dumpster fire.El Caganer
@ns: Thank you for your service.
Ladyraxterinok
@zhena gogolia: Source?
Omnes Omnibus
@mad citizen: A funnelator.
WaterGirl
HE’S NOT A MAN, HE’S A REMORSELESS PERJURY MACHINE
PhoenixRising
@Martin:
Life is beautiful.
Baud
@WaterGirl: I’m starting to wonder whether his name is actually Brett.
different-church-lady
@ns:
It is, however, evidence of being an obnoxious drunk.
WaterGirl
@Baud: hahaha.
At least he spells it with two “T”s. I would hate to have him spoil the good name of Bret Maverick.
Raoul Paste
I really like the Eddy Haskell reference
Ladyraxterinok
@frosty: Glued to the tv like during Watergate.
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: OMG – my dad was a Yale alum (and I tried to be a legacy, but wait list was as close as I got) and I remember him taking us to Toad’s when I was a teenager and we were passing thru’ New Haven. Somehow I had managed to repress this memory till now.
Bobby Thomson
@Jerzy Russian: apparently it was in the spot where the Au Bon Pain moved in. So near Toad’s.
Mnemosyne
@Chetan Murthy:
Yeah, I read the story in the Phoenix New Times after you posted the link a few days ago. Mitchell herself negotiated a ridiculous slap on the wrist for a guy who had repeatedly molested a young boy for almost 10 years. When the victim found out how light the sentence was, he attempted suicide. Twice.
But Mitchell didn’t give a shit about the victim’s pain, because she’s a fucking asshole who just wanted a W on her record.
(If you seek out the story in the Phoenix New Times, be warned — the details of the molestation and the suicide attempts are quite graphic.)
Chetan Murthy
@Mnemosyne:
Oh god, I posted it? Ugh. (1) I’m sorry I did that, and (2) I hope I put a sufficient trigger-warning on it? Ugh. So sorry I did that.
J R in WV
@lamh36:
Toot suite!!!! Glad to hear about this, should help our cause. Surely can’t hurt!
Aleta
@smintheus:
“He was a great friend of ours. He hung out with us at a bar. We drank beer. Boys and girls. Beer. I believe he still likes beer. And he’s a good person. It’s an abomination his name’s been dragged into the news like this. It’s been misinterpreted. The language in the police report refers to the fact that it was a quarters game. Three glasses in a triangle. I admire him to this day.”
eemom
@zhena gogolia:
He was in Stiles, but he lived in Lawrance Hall freshman year, which is where I lived and in that time was the Pierson feeder, so maybe he transferred. That’s where the infamous quarters game took place also.
I didn’t know you went to Yale. What year did you graduate? I was ’84.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: :: wipes away a single tear::
Fuck that fucker.
Mnemosyne
@Chetan Murthy:
Well, somebody posted it. I’m not sure who. I noticed because I was posting the PNT coverage of the scandal of Arpaio quashing investigations of sex crimes. Those revelations were what cost him his office as sheriff and why I knew he didn’t have a chance in the primary for US Senate. Republican voters are very, very tribal, but Republican politicians aiding and abetting child molesters still tends to upset them.
zhena gogolia
@Ladyraxterinok:
http://thepolitic.org/memories-and-demerys-yales-heavy-hand-over-one-broadway/
Chetan Murthy
@Mnemosyne:
Republican voters are very, very tribal, but Republican politicians aiding and abetting child molesters still tends to upset them.
zhena gogolia
@Bobby Thomson:
He reminisced about Toad’s in that speech he gave years later where he also talked about breaking furniture at the Lawn Club.
Jay
@WaterGirl:
Why should Judge Merrek Garland recuse himself.
There never was a hearing, technically, his nomination was never accepted.
Therefore, he’s free of conflict.
zhena gogolia
@eemom:
I was a mere grad student.
mad citizen
I only know Toad’s Place as the site of an epic Dylan show (warm-up for a tour or something), where he played 50 songs, including Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” and his own “Wiggle Wiggle”. https://www.bobdylan.com/date/1990-01-12-toads-place/
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: But you went to undergrad at the Harvard of northeastern WI.
Thoughtful David
@Baud: l bet his wife is, too.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: how does that compare to the Harvard of Rockbridge County, Virginia?
Schlemazel
@PhoenixRising:
Sadly, Garland is a fair jurist & would treat the complaints in a fair and reasonable manner. If it were me in that role they would have the stake up already and be gathering tinder
lamh36
Chetan Murthy
@Schlemazel:
Merrick Garland is a neo
liberalconservativeSchlemazel
@ns:
If it is not a problem why did he lie about it? Why did he lie about blackouts? Lie about the definition of ‘boof’, ‘Devils triangle’ and ‘FFFF’? Why lie about his well known anger & violence issues?
Schlemazel
@Chetan Murthy:
that is obvious but he has a more mature view of his role on the bench
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Our athletic facilities are on the other side of the river. Are yours?
PaulWartenberg
At some point you’d think Kavanaugh’s public habits would have led to serious arrest and jail time.
But then again he is white and coming from a rich entitled family.
If he was Black or Latino, that bar brawl would have led to 5 years in jail and a downward spiral into a cycle of criminal behavior.
Hell, if he was still white and coming from a middle-income family, there’d have been a plea deal with the judge for 50 hours community service and court-ordered rehab. But still a serious mark on his record.
No. He gets out of Jail, Free.
PaulWartenberg
@Schlemazel:
Because nobody in a position to hold him accountable – The Senate leadership – will hold him accountable. Republicans excuse their own. And if the Dems were in charge he’d be yelling at them over “witch hunts” and “politicizing the judicial nomination process.”
Aleta
@Jeffro: Because they’re more sure of him when it comes to protecting Trump? And the privacy of the Trump Organization dealings, or lawbreaking federal agencies? His past work proved his loyalty, and they knew he was vulnerable to being compromised with money (or something else)?
We know Trump carefully picks the lawyers he trusts with the bad stuff; they say he tests them with smaller things first. He’s bribed a prosecutor, a DA or governor or two. Now that he’s president, having a SC judge just makes sense.
The Lodger
@Chetan Murthy: Was that the link to brettse.com?
Schlemazel
@PaulWartenberg:
ns was arguing that the drinking & other issues were not really a problem. If Rapey McRapejudge really thought that he would not have felt the need to lie about them
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh yeah.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
Yep. If he’s willing to tell that many lies under oath about shit he did in high school, what isn’t he willing to lie about? ?
Chetan Murthy
@The Lodger: Dude, you’re not gonna make me click on that *grin* but you did get a giggle out of me.
chopper
@Roger Moore:
that was the joke. jesus, you people.
eemom
@zhena gogolia:
Nothing mere about that. When were you there?
Have you seen/signed the various alum letters that have been circulating on social media?
Also, if you’re on FB, consider joining the group called YaleStrong. (Don’t bother with the general alum group; they’re a bunch of entitled clowns.)
Villago Delenda Est
@Barbara: His problem is he’s trying to pretend he was a choir boy when in actuality he was part of some C&W dive bar band.
cwmoss
@Tim C: Fuck yeah, same guy.
cwmoss
@PhoenixRising: “Chief Judge” is the term. @Tim C: Fuck yeah, same guy.
ns
So many strawmen and so little time.
“A propensity for violence is a key predictor of sexual assault.”
— this is the only legitimate point I can see and it is still a correlation/causation fallacy. Also, one incident does not a propensity make (although I count this as a 2nd incident as I believe Dr. Ford.)
“If it is not a problem why did he lie about it?”
— I didn’t say it wasn’t a problem. I said that it wasn’t good evidence as to what he had done in the past with women. Nor did I say that lying was OK — I was openly hoping that this episode would help build the case for perjury and therefore that would keep him from being confirmed.
I also made no argument about whether alcohol abuse and obnoxious behavior as a teen/young adult/adult was relevant (or not) to whether the Senate should confirm Kavanaugh.
“The rules are different in the Court of Public Opinion.”
— Alas, public opinion doesn’t vote on whether to confirm the appointment, but I wasn’t writing about that either. I was calling out John Cole for associating a cliche personality type with a tendency towards criminal sexual behaviors.
That is illogical, and progressives wouldn’t stand for lazy stereotyping in any other context. The evidence that Kavanaugh attempted to rape Dr. Ford is the quality of Dr. Ford’s account and personal testimony. If Kavanaugh drank like a median young adult male, Dr. Ford’s testimony would still be compelling and more than enough to deny him a position on the court. By harping on DKE, extra-heavy drinking, and such, progressives are UNDERMINING future victims who have the bad fortune to be assaulted by someone less unsympathetic than Kavanaugh.
Now, I understand the bar fight incident as Kavanaugh escalating a misunderstanding by dumping his drink on someone which then escalated further. It’s good evidence that Kavanaugh has a temper. It isn’t good evidence as to what he did with Dr. Ford — and that should be enough.
Being an asshole is not evidence of criminality. Saying so is not making excuses for assholes or endorsing Kavanaugh for the court or implying that Kavanaugh has good character in the present. There is plenty else in Kavanaugh’s history that disqualify him or raise troubling questions (debts run up and suddenly wiped clean; helping Bush torture; citing partisan conspiracies without a shred of evidence, being quick to anger, etc.).
I want some evidence to surface that would further support Dr. Ford’s account, like finding out that Timmy’s house had a narrow staircase, or that ________ remembers driving Dr. Ford home one night when she was strangely upset but wouldn’t say why, or something. An altercation at a bar shows nothing new about Kavanaugh’s character that we didn’t know already.
We need more evidence that relate to the actual alleged assaults. I understand that some would like to excommunicate all former fraternity members from polite society but that’s a distraction. I don’t want an unrepentant sex criminal and liar in my government and at this point the lying is provable and the sex crimes still under investigation. The rest is BS narrative shaping.
mere mortal
Yeah, but he probably only felt comfortable being this aggressive because he had a wing-man to help him…
Oh, wait, this isn’t helping him out at all…
mere mortal
@ns:
“By harping on DKE, extra-heavy drinking, and such, progressives are UNDERMINING future victims who have the bad fortune to be assaulted by someone less unsympathetic than Kavanaugh.”
This is idiotic.
ns
@mere mortal:
Great argument here, way to discern the meaning and respond with a claim or evidence or reasoning…
For years, education about rape has rightfully focused on date rape and that the background and reputation of the person being accused is irrelevant to evaluating the claims of the accuser.
If you can’t tell how this Kavanaugh media circus might reinforce the bogus narratives of the past, try harder. Lazy correlations are bad analysis in either direction.