Kavanaugh accused of sexually assaulting classmate in high school

[ProudModerate2]

As much as I loathed Scalia, I never questioned his integrity or honesty, Just can't say that about this guy.

Do you mean Clarence Thomas?

[The Dowager Mod]

As much as I loathed Scalia, I never questioned his integrity or honesty, Just can't say that about this guy.

Do you mean Clarence Thomas?

No, I never had any respect for that scumbag.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Did Anita Hill pass a polygraph back then to back up her accusation?

Yes, she did.

The difference is that Clarence Thomas's behavior, which, if confirmed, would have likely risen to the level of sexual harassment in the workplace, did not involve acts of sexual assault or sexual battery.  The behavior Kavanaugh is alleged to have perpetrated is, quite frankly, far more serious than what Thomas was accused of.  It is not inconceivable that if Kavanaugh did this at age 17 in Florida and it was quickly discovered, he may have faced serious adult charges.  (Florida, unique amongst the 50 states, allows PROSECUTORS, and not Judges, to make the decision as to whether or not to try a juvenile as an adult if the offense were serious enough.)

[ProudModerate2]

Did Anita Hill pass a polygraph back then to back up her accusation?

Yes, she did.

The difference is that Clarence Thomas's behavior, which, if confirmed, would have likely risen to the level of sexual harassment in the workplace, did not involve acts of sexual assault or sexual battery.  The behavior Kavanaugh is alleged to have perpetrated is, quite frankly, far more serious than what Thomas was accused of.

Very good point.
Though you have to admit that a pubic hair in your Coke can is quite "disgusting."

[Yank2133]

If Kavanaugh tanks and R's can't get another nominee then that might be the breaking point for Trump and congressional Republicans.

[libertpaulian]

If Kavanaugh tanks and R's can't get another nominee then that might be the breaking point for Trump and congressional Republicans.

That would only be a further war cry for the GOP to get the vote out: "If you don't vote, the Hollywood Liberals will derail any Supreme Court or federal court nominee!"

It could be a potential reversal of the blue wave's fortunes.

[Alabama_Indy10]

If Kavanaugh tanks and R's can't get another nominee then that might be the breaking point for Trump and congressional Republicans.

That would only be a further war cry for the GOP to get the vote out: "If you don't vote, the Hollywood Liberals will derail any Supreme Court or federal court nominee!"

It could be a potential reversal of the blue wave's fortunes.

That’s what I said earlier.

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

As much as I loathed Scalia, I never questioned his integrity or honesty, Just can't say that about this guy.

Do you mean Clarence Thomas?

No, I never had any respect for that scumbag.

So much this. Even on a purely intellectual level, totally disregarding the Anita Hill stuff, in terms of his decisions Thomas has always been a completely shameless hack. With Scalia, yes there was some hackery, but you can find more than a few examples of cases in which he followed his principles to find outcomes in cases which would have been inconsistent with his personal ideological preference. In other words, it is pretty clear that Scalia was (at least generally) judging in good faith. With Thomas, by contrast, his supposed "principles" always lead him to the outcome with which he is ideologically aligned.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Withdrawing a poor first nominee and replacing them with a somewhat better second nom has actually seemed to help Trump out on at least four occasions:

Andrew Puzder (Labor) - Alex Acosta confirmed with the Support of 61 Senators.
Ronny Jackson (VA) - Robert Willkie confirmed with the Support of 86 Senators.
Brett Talley (Mid. Dist. AL) - Pending replacement nom is Andrew Brasher, who is conservative but avoids the scandals of Mr. Talley, and enjoys the support of Doug Jones.
Matthew Peterson (Dist. DC) - Pending replacement nom is Carl Nichols, who recently sailed through his confirmation hearing. The only complaint from Dems about Nichols is the rather petty manner that he wasn't prescreened by Eleanor Holmes Norton.


Trump should just give up and try someone else from his list. Perhaps a relative unknown like Raymond Kethledge.

[Gass3268]

Jeff Flake wants a delay

https://twitter.com/WaPoSean/status/1041449153841254401

[Southern Delegate matthew27]

Women that make false claims need to be jailed.

[Badger]

To me, this is a lose-lose situation for the GOP, either way:

1) If Judge Kavanaugh gets confirmed, that'll spike female, youth, minority, suburbanite, etc. turnout to insane levels.  We know who those demos are going for...

2) If Trump were to rescind his nomination, the GOP base will cruicify the GOP at the polls.

The damage has been done.

Would they though? If Trump rescinds the nomination today and replaces him with another right-wing ideologue, I would think that would be fine to most of the base. I guess some voters might think Trump and McConnell pussied out and folded to the libs or whatever, but will that be enough to make them not vote?

Because it gives McConnell an image that he capitulated to the evil libtards.  Not to mention, the Senate won't be able to jam through a new nominee in a month and a half.  It took two months just for Kavanaugh to get an initial committee hearing.

They could, and undoubtedly probably would, seek to do so during the lame duck session.

[Cold War Liberal]

Did Anita Hill pass a polygraph back then to back up her accusation?

Apparently.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Jeff Flake wants a delay

https://twitter.com/WaPoSean/status/1041449153841254401

Oh thank God. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end?

[Torrain]

Jeff Flake wants a delay

https://twitter.com/WaPoSean/status/1041449153841254401

A good place to start. If Flake dissents on a moral basis, it becomes that much harder to confirm. Even just slowing down Judiciary, allowing for testimony and facts to be ascertained would go a long way

[Badger]

Also, are we seriously to the point now where we should judge public figures based on their behavior at drunk high school parties?

I hope we were always at that point. Sexual assault is unacceptable, no matter how long ago, no matter the age of the perp, and no matter who involved was drunk or wasn't.

While I understand your position is the the "feel good" one to take, there would be a severe dearth of individuals to serve in high-profile positions if their behavior as children was fair game.

17 year old boys are stupid, impulsive and don't understand the consequences of their actions.  We're not nominating a 17 year old boy to the Supreme Court.

It's... attempted rape! By someone seeking to be a Supreme Court Justice!

We're not talking about somebody who drank underage or beat a kid duck in high school who wants to be ambassador to Uganda or something.

Sigh. It's early in the thread, but how did I know even last week that if and when the accuser came forward one of the immediate things Republicans would flipped towards was oh, hey, boys will be boys, defense?

[Famous Mortimer]

Jeff Flake wants a delay

https://twitter.com/WaPoSean/status/1041449153841254401

Oh thank God. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end?

Yeah, Jeff Flake grandstanding against Trump always leads to concrete results...

[libertpaulian]

THE FLAKE HATH SPOKEN!

https://twitter.com/WaPoSean/status/1041449153841254401

[ProudModerate2]

Jeff Flake wants a delay

https://twitter.com/WaPoSean/status/1041449153841254401

Wow.
I think this nomination is dead in the water.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Jeff Flake wants a delay

https://twitter.com/WaPoSean/status/1041449153841254401

Finally, Flake grows a backbone.

[Crumpets]

Out of curiosity, what has been Kavanaugh's level of denial about this? "I never met her?" "I remember it differently?"

[Badger]

Kavanaugh will still be confirmed on a party-line vote, 51 to 49 (which is what I always suspected would be the outcome of his nomination).

While I have no reason to not believe Ms. Ford, the lack of evidence or corroborating testimony to support her allegations means that I do not think these allegations should be enough to sink Kavanaugh's nomination.

Also, are we seriously to the point now where we should judge public figures based on their behavior at drunk high school parties?

I heard some conservatives say this. But Kavanaugh isn't being accused of just fooling around. The accuser's uncorroborated testimony amounts to attempted rape.

FTFY.

This case really is a simple one.  These allegations are not sufficiently corroborated to impugn the character of Brett Kavanaugh.

Not? Sufficiently? Corroborated?? There are notes that this professor in a woman of high standing counselor several years ago. She called a crisis center about it last year before Kavanaugh was even nominated. This comes to the point of literally one of two options hey, guys. Either a, this college professor is downright delusional to the point of a psychotic break that she somehow 40 years later imagines and assault buy a high school classmate that she has shared it with Rape Crisis Center and a counselor even though it never ever occurred, which of course not. Either that or, B, he did it.

I ask anyone that can provide me an option C here. There is absolutely zero chance now that she did this over some political move that would somehow expose her to ridicule oh, death threats, and National s***-shaming by half the oh, and she raised her allegations as a matter of record years ago. So, who he is voting that she is is literally psychotic to the point of matching and salt from 4 years ago that never occurred, versus simply admitting, Jesus, this guy probably did it?

Suck it up and at least admit the ladder. Whether you want to try to argue whether or not a nasty attempted rape, and we're not talking about a 17 year old grabbing some girl's ass in the hallway, not that that's cool, but literally and attempted rape a woman's mouth with his hand from screaming, at 17 is still okay for us Supreme Court Justice because it's been 40 years ago. This undoubtedly where the Christians contrarians and cultists are all headed here, but at least let's kind of the crap saying this even probably didn't happen.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Out of curiosity, what has been Kavanaugh's level of denial about this? "I never met her?" "I remember it differently?"

He "adamantly denies" this accusation or "any accusation of sexual assault".

[The Dowager Mod]

How would the committee break a 10-10 tie?

[Fuzzy Bear]

I will say this:  If this guy gets confirmed, we ought to apologize to every nominee for office whose nomination was derailed because they or their spouse hired an illegal alien for a babysitter.