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[smjjames]

Seems like he's trying to answer every possible question he can think of in his opening statement, which could come back at him if there are discrepancies.

fakeedit: Yeah, he's definetly trying to pre-answer every question he could think of while writing it.

edit: Uhoh, he's trying to emulate Trump and it doesn't seem to be working too well for him...

[Folly]

Kavanaugh keeps boasting about how much he loves beer. When questioned about how much he thinks is too much, he responded "I don't know, whatever the law says." Yeah, I can't wait to have this guy making laws for us.

[misko27]

Fox News has called Christine's testimony credible. Probably won't last, but it's an interesting bit of candor.

edit: Uhoh, he's trying to emulate Trump and it doesn't seem to be working too well for him...

If he's trying the Trump defense he already failed. The Trump defense (the one he reserves for the indefensible), is to admit it, issue a quick apology, and then press on like it's over and done with. Kavanaugh didn't do that, and now he's stuck defending the choir boy position.

Anyway, it seems the female prosecutor didn't win them any favors. A prosecutor is a very different sort of thing than a fact-finding mission, and she was left following irrelevant trains of thought (fear of flying?) and asking questions she did not already have the answers to.

Also, Trump has delayed the meeting with Rosenstein. Interesting...

[smjjames]

Might have been better if the GOP Senators gagged themselves and not said a word the entire time because they're (two of them at least) still stepping on themselves outside of that room. So, their gambit with the female prosecutor isn't helping them that much. If anything, it seemed like the prosecutor actually helped Fords credibility.

Not sure if she is using questions the Senators gave her or her own questions.

And now the Republicans are going to ask the questions? Lindsey Graham looks damned pissed, which is understandable, but.... is it going to help or hurt the Republicans?

[hector13]

Looks like they've abandoned using Rachel Mitchell to ask questions.

[smjjames]

Yep, they have. I thought I read that they were going to do it for consistency, and now they're going to get called out for not being consistent/having a double standard/not being fair and stuff like that.

Granted, they may well have saved themselves some terrible optics, but if they aren't going to do it for Kavanaugh, they might as well not have used the counsel for Ford.

[Folly]

The Trump defense (the one he reserves for the indefensible), is to admit it, issue a quick apology, and then press on like it's over and done with.

I'm pretty sure the last step of the Trump defense is to go back to denying it ever happened, and discredit his own confession as fake news.

[misko27]

Kavanaugh is looking somewhat unhinged. The man's ranted about how this is a "political hit job" and "revenge on behalf of the Clintons." It's legitimately unsettling to hear that from a Supreme Court nominee, I must say.

Of course, Trump has gone and tweeted about how proud he is of Kavanaugh for his performance.

EDIT: Unrelated, but what the hell has happened to Lindsey Graham? The man's gone mad! Positively ranting. Christ, it's like when McCain died, he took Lindsey Graham's sense of decency with him.

[smjjames]

Kavanaugh is looking somewhat unhinged. The man's ranted about how this is "revenge on behalf of the Clintons." It's legitimately unsettling to hear that from a Supreme Court nominee, I must say.

Of course, Trump has gone and tweeted about how proud he is of Kavanaugh for his performance.

The Democrats have asked multiple times (at least two) whether he thought Ford was a "Left Wing conspiracy/political hack job/out for revenge/you get the idea". While the defiant opening statement was understandable, the whole bit about 'revenge on behalf of the Clintons' is a bit concerning, enough that it was brought up at least twice.

Anyhow, they really should have kept going with the counsel or what even was the point* of having her if they aren't consistent?

*Rhetorical question really, I knew what they were trying to do, avoid bad optics. Didn't really help them that well anyway.

[Starver]

(That's the number-one-son Don, who tweeted that. Dad's been quite quiet for almost a whole day)

[smjjames]

Kavanaugh is looking somewhat unhinged. The man's ranted about how this is a "political hit job" and "revenge on behalf of the Clintons." It's legitimately unsettling to hear that from a Supreme Court nominee, I must say.

Of course, Trump has gone and tweeted about how proud he is of Kavanaugh for his performance.

EDIT: Unrelated, but what the hell has happened to Lindsey Graham? The man's gone mad! Positively ranting. Christ, it's like when McCain died, he took Lindsey Graham's sense of decency with him.

Missed your edit. It did seem like he had a lot of steam he wanted to let off. I've seen some comments that he did it to rerail it when Durbin (I think) was wiping the floor with Kavanaugh and he's also a talented lawyer. So, there's that, and wanting to let off some steam probably helped.

[misko27]

(That's the number-one-son Don, who tweeted that. Dad's been quite quiet for almost a whole day)

Alrighty, I got a different source for ya. Trump thrilled by Kavanaugh's defiance.

Or there's just a Trump tweet.

[smjjames]

Some Senators are saying that the outside questioner was a mistake. It's really a multiple edged sword (like triple, or quadruple, maybe more) edged sword because on one hand, they certainly avoided some bad optics, but on the other, she really only ended up helping Ford, and the format certainly didn't help things either and she was really out of her element so to speak.

Anyways, some of the more moderate Senators (and maybe all of the leadership too, dunno) are meeting tonight to decide what to do next. Theres supposed to be a vote tomorrow morning.

It feels like things are back to square one, more or less...

[EnigmaticHat]

The official said Republican lawmakers made a mistake by hiring a woman out of fear of the optics of Ford being questioned by an unbroken line of old white men.

To be fair if they had done that it could have become a rallying point for left-leaning and moderate female voters.  This is a tense election season, officials on both sides are walking on eggshells.

[smjjames]

Still didn't stop at least two of them from stepping on their own faces outside the room though. Though those two were Orrin Hatch, who is retiring, and Lindsey Graham, who isn't up for re-election this year.

They were likely also taking the risk that it would have become a rallying cry anyway, such is the political environment these days.