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[birdy51]

Inb4 with hunt tweets from the Donald. Except, he probably has already beat me to the punch.

[smjjames]

The GOP have agreed to allow a one week background check, which may or may not help clear things up.

IMO, they should give it a month, maybe more, in order to do it deeply, but since it took them 3 or 4 days to do Anita Hill, a week seems reasonable in that respect.

Also sounds like Trump wants to stay out of it, or at least let the Senate do what they need to do.

[Karnewarrior]

The GOP have agreed to allow a one week background check, which may or may not help clear things up.

IMO, they should give it a month, maybe more, in order to do it deeply, but since it took them 3 or 4 days to do Anita Hill, a week seems reasonable in that respect.

Also sounds like Trump wants to stay out of it, or at least let the Senate do what they need to do.

That sounds entirely reasonable and thus highly suspect coming from Trump of all people. Maybe the "Keep him sane-ish" conspiracy is to blame? Sanegate!

[redwallzyl]

I'm fairly sure I have seen a 'are you a communist' box on some paperwork before. That kind of stuff is just so idiotic.

[hector13]

Typical US visa form usually has “are you a Nazi? Are you a communist? Have you ever been part of s terrorist organization?” on it.

It has been a while since I’ve had to fill one in though, seein’ as how I’m a permanent resident and that. I get to go the quick way at customs now.

[RedKing]

The GOP have agreed to allow a one week background check, which may or may not help clear things up.

IMO, they should give it a month, maybe more, in order to do it deeply, but since it took them 3 or 4 days to do Anita Hill, a week seems reasonable in that respect.

Also sounds like Trump wants to stay out of it, or at least let the Senate do what they need to do.

That sounds entirely reasonable and thus highly suspect coming from Trump of all people. Maybe the "Keep him sane-ish" conspiracy is to blame? Sanegate!

More like he realizes Kavanaugh's odds are dicey, and he doesn't like to be publicly linked to losers. Look at cases where people he endorsed in primaries lost, and he went back and deleted all tweets where he backed them.

He's kinda torn. On the one hand, lots of people were saying nice things about him when he was being nice and collected. Lots of people. The best people.
On the other hand, ARGLBARGL WITCH HUNT RIGGED NO COLLUSION CROOKED HILLARY SAD! is his default communication strategy, and Kavanaugh pandered like fuck to that in his testimony. So he probably feels flattered and thinks "He wants to be like me, so he must be a good guy."

Inb4 he pulls the nomination, and then turns around and fires Jeff Sessions and replaces him with Kavanaugh. And then nominates some equally vile fratboy with less Drunky McGroperstein issues.

I mean, I've not quite understood why the Republicans are choosing to die on this hill. It's not like there's a scarcity of conservative legal minds out there that will happily rule however they're told to by a Republican President.

[sluissa]

There's a definite difference of viewpoint between the average conservative I've talked to over it.

Most of them assume innocence without definite proof (which is fair) but are treating this more like a criminal case rather than a job interview. The idea that Kavanaugh doesn't get to be a supreme court justice is somehow "Ruining the life of a probably innocent man." Ignoring the fact that he's had a pretty successful life thus far by almost any measure.

There's also the angle that Democrats have fully played this out and gamed the system with the allegations rather than bringing them to the committee immediately. This is also a fair accusation as they (mostly Feinstein) have done their best to use the whole situation to delay the nomination as long as possible. Now this does not at all mean that the accusations are invalid, just that the people holding onto the accusations acted in a way that puts a shadow over the whole thing. It makes it easy to paint it like a delay tactic rather than anything that should be treated with respect.

It's frustrating, but as much as the Republicans have shown themselves to be stubborn idiots in this regard. The democrats involved thus far have lost a lot of my respect as well. The only one that comes out of this looking in any way reasonable is Jeff Flake. Who oddly enough is hated now by Republicans and only given grudging respect by Democrats for the duration they need him to hold things up and most likely is going to come out of this worse off for daring to have a backbone and a conscience all in the same body.

[hector13]

The GOP have agreed to allow a one week background check, which may or may not help clear things up.

IMO, they should give it a month, maybe more, in order to do it deeply, but since it took them 3 or 4 days to do Anita Hill, a week seems reasonable in that respect.

Also sounds like Trump wants to stay out of it, or at least let the Senate do what they need to do.

That sounds entirely reasonable and thus highly suspect coming from Trump of all people. Maybe the "Keep him sane-ish" conspiracy is to blame? Sanegate!

More like he realizes Kavanaugh's odds are dicey, and he doesn't like to be publicly linked to losers. Look at cases where people he endorsed in primaries lost, and he went back and deleted all tweets where he backed them.

He's kinda torn. On the one hand, lots of people were saying nice things about him when he was being nice and collected. Lots of people. The best people.
On the other hand, ARGLBARGL WITCH HUNT RIGGED NO COLLUSION CROOKED HILLARY SAD! is his default communication strategy, and Kavanaugh pandered like fuck to that in his testimony. So he probably feels flattered and thinks "He wants to be like me, so he must be a good guy."

Inb4 he pulls the nomination, and then turns around and fires Jeff Sessions and replaces him with Kavanaugh. And then nominates some equally vile fratboy with less Drunky McGroperstein issues.

I mean, I've not quite understood why the Republicans are choosing to die on this hill. It's not like there's a scarcity of conservative legal minds out there that will happily rule however they're told to by a Republican President.

They have less than 6 weeks 'til an election. They don't want to appear weak by rolling over to the Dems on this, and there is the potential they won't be able to find another nominee before the midterms.

It's understandable, but entirely stupid.

Anyway, given his ranting and raving during the hearing on Thursday, one wonders how he can be viewed as impartial to anything with a hint of appealing to the liberals he was railing so hard against.

As sluissa intimated, this entire thing has been mishandled by everyone that's touched it after Blasey Ford sent her letter. The Dems had the allegations a month and a half ago, could've brought it to the committee's attention then and had a confidential investigation which could've advised Trump against nominating Kavanaugh. Instead it was leaked to the press at a time it could cause maximum damage and hold things up. One thinks that leak would not have come from Blasey Ford nor her lawyers, and she said the only other people with access to the letter were the Dems.

The Republicans on the committee decided the best way to deal with it would be to perform their own investigation, which the Dems refused to participate in, because apparently that's better than having the FBI perform an independent and, most importantly, impartial investigation. Then they were all "we have Kavanaugh in front of us, ask him questions" when what, 3 or 4 of the alleged witnesses weren't there to participate? Given what's a stake for Kavanaugh, his entire life's work going down the drain, even if there was incontrovertible proof he did it I don't think he's going to come out and say that he sexually assaulted anyone.

I said it before, I'll say it again, this entire thing has been a farce from the moment Kavanaugh was nominated, even before the accusations surfaced.

Fakedit: came across this which gave me a chuckle.

But yeah, Flake isn't really going to come out badly from this because he isn't seeking re-election.

[Frumple]

snip

Flake doesn't particularly have either, though, near as anyone seems to be able to tell. Just looks like maybe this time he won't entirely live down to his name (note he still voted to kick the can down the road; he could have found an actual backbone and conscience and stopped the fucking mess in its tracks entirely). We'll know more if the investigation actually happens, and if anything comes of whatever they find.

Also that second bit isn't exactly a fair accusation. It can only really be painted that way if you're pointedly ignoring pretty much goddamn everything that's been noted as explaining why the timing has been like it's been. Sat on out of respect and the relatively tenuous (at the time) nature of the accusation, didn't explode until someone (and last I've noticed, people seem to be thinking it was someone going against internal decision-making) leaked the letter and ford decided to hardcore ruin her own life in the name of whatever it is in particular that's motivated her to come forward.

Worst accusation I've seen you could maybe stick on the dems' handling of things so far is possibly treating the general mess more as a political thing than giving ford's (and others') victimization the framing it deserves, and that still leaves them the only folks involved (outside ford and others that have came forward, probably) that seem physically capable of not being a massive pile of shit about both the particulars at hand and subject in general.

[sluissa]

I swear, Frumple, we should lock you up in a vault in France for how consistent you are.

[Folly]

I know that the FBI probe will turn up nothing and Kavanaugh will be voted in along party lines...but some small part of me is actually holding out hope that instead they will find conclusive evidence of the multiple train-rape situation, along with proof that Kavanaugh orchestrated the whole thing and partook every time. Hey, I can dream.

[birdy51]

Two things kind of stood out to me. The first is that it's abundantly clear that Dr. Ford's accusations of being assaulted are true. I don't think anyone in that room actually doubted that; which is why Republicans seemed content in attacking her in other ways, such as by calling into question who is funding her lawyers and such. The second is that Feinstein's crew most likely didn't leak the letter. The Intercept, which evidentially broke the story first, claims that the letter didn't come from them and there was potential for one of Dr. Ford's friends, who were aware of the allegations ahead of time, to leak it to the press.

At any rate, it's a mess and I think the only damn reason that the Republicans aren't putting the brakes on this damn circus is because they stand to lose the coming election, and thus, might have to communicate with Democrats to get a candidate in. And that be horrible? Having to talk to someone across the aisle? It's freaking childish, and they should feel ashamed over their antics. Which, I doubt they will, but... Ah... Doubt it.

[Folly]

Several R's have openly admitted that their fear is the D's will obstruct any nominee to keep the seat open until the next president arrives, since that is exactly what the R's did during the last year of Obama's term.

What really irks me in this situation, is that this is tantamount to admitting they care more about serving their minority base rather than allowing for the will of the majority as the system intended.

[smjjames]

Several R's have openly admitted that their fear is the D's will obstruct any nominee to keep the seat open until the next president arrives, since that is exactly what the R's did during the last year of Obama's term.

What really irks me in this situation, is that this is tantamount to admitting they care more about serving their minority base rather than allowing for the will of the majority as the system intended.

I've definetly seen mention of some Democrats (not any of the 2020 contenders though I don't think) wanting to keep it open until the next Presidential election, so, it's not just their imagination. While it'd be perfect comeuppance for what the Republicans did to Garland, I don't know how viable doing that would be, and it can't be healthy for the country as a whole. And theres the hypothetical of one or more Justices suddenly dying or retiring, can you imagine holding up two or more SCOTUS seats? That would NOT be healthy for the country as a whole.

[SalmonGod]

While it'd be perfect comeuppance for what the Republicans did to Garland, I don't know how viable doing that would be, and it can't be healthy for the country as a whole.

Maybe not, but the alternative isn't healthy for... anyone who's not a Republican.  And perhaps not even for most Republican constituents.  Republicans have intent to do harm.  Everyone else gotta self-defense.