What we saw today from Kavanaugh was a man who has never had to answer for any of his actions in his life. A man only concerned about the repercussions on his life. He’s the unfortunate person who happened to be accused of rape or attempted rape. How dare it ruin his life.
Not to mention it happening right up near the presidential election. It's the complete lack of self awareness and irony I think I appreciate and admire the most. I mean really. Investigating a major public candidate close to a major election date. Who does that?! What a sleazy tactic!
Compare that with the hearings with Hillary, where she went what... 16? hours and kept her cool. Now, don't get me wrong, I fucking HATE Hillary, but I'll be damned if she didn't show, by her own personal actions, why Kavanaugh isn't fit to be on the SCOTUS. If the guy loses his shit that easily over something like this, then why would anyone think that he's suitable for the job?
I tend to agree with Juice. I think Kavanaugh did incredibly poorly today, enough that there are AT LEAST two Republicans that aren't going to piss off their voters by putting him through. I think this will be more of a litmus test to see which (R)'s vote the party versus which ones are more self-serving. It will be interesting. What will be really interesting will be Trumps tweet-storm should Kavanaugh not get voted through.
Even if he makes it onto the Supreme Court, at least based on his reactions today, there is a zero percent chance he holds it together for any reasonable length of time once he makes it big time. Just like with trump when he was running, and he was showing his temperament in those rally and we were like jesus christ if this guy actually wins it's gonna be a shit show. Every reasonably observer who watched him for any length of time knew he wasn't mentally fit for the Office. And now he's getting laughed at by the UN Assembly, and we're like "well, what did you think was gonna happen?" One can only imagine how it'll play out if Kavanaugh actually makes it onto the Court.
I'm interested to see what happens if he doesn't make it to the Court. I think that Trump and Co. are really relying on the support/protection that Kavanaugh would provide if he made it to the Court. If he doesn't make it, what's their next play? Again, next month the SCOTUS is looking at reviewing the separate sovereign situation... if it stays, then that means that presidential pardons don't protect you at the State level. That leaves the Trump Foundation, Trump companies, Cohen, Mannafort, his family, all open to state level charges.
Trump had other options for his pick. What's to stop him from trying to push one of those through in a hurry?
Maybe they weren't as willing to play ball with Trump? I mean, Mitch Fucking McConnell said, "don't go with Kavanaugh"... so it makes one wonder, why did Trump go with him over someone else? Sure, it's a bit of a conspiracy theory, but no more so that the conspiracy theory that Kavanaugh proposed during his testimony today. Seriously... without any grounds or evidence, a SCOTUS nominee hypothesized a totally uncorroborated conspiracy theory. Laughable.
Corker announced he'll be voting yes as of an hour ago. Corker is resigning, so he doesn't have to face the voters, but he's also been among the less-Trumpy Republicans as a result. I think it'll be tough to find two.
I’d even look at his decision-making ability skills on partisan issues down the road as well. He asserted democratic conspiracies today surrounding this hearing that he said permanently ruined his life and reputation. I don’t see how he uses the power of the bench fairly after this. I feel it could potentially call into question his legal judgement if he has a bone to pick with libera and democratic causes.
Trump likes people who like trump. I mean look at lindsey graham today. He all but gave the guy a blow job on live tv. It would not be hard to imagine a world in which Kavanaugh said he'd be "loyal" to trump (as he is fond of asking) and that was that.
That's kind of my point... so what does Trump do if he doesn't make it through? I don't get the impression that this is the GOP choice, it's Trump's choice.
Everything is trump's choice until he's either replaced in 2020 or his time runs out in 2024. The GOP just follows along because they don't have the balls to do what's morally correct. Party over country and all that. I'm socially liberal and fiscally republican, but when I vote I always lean GOP because money talks. As disappointed as I was in the Dems in 2016 and immediately thereafter, the GOP has simply made it impossible to support them unless you also support trump. There are a lot of republicans locally who are good guys, but I simply can't vote that way because of who they ultimately have to kiss ass to. I'm more interested in what they do after Trump is either voted out of office, or removed from it. What's their identity then? How do they win back everyone who didn't wear a MAGA hat everywhere?
I think they're going along with it because it generally doesn't hurt them, for now, but in the end they will claim "it wasn't us, it was Trump". It comes down to if they're held accountable by the voting public for going along with the bullshit or not. I think they'll be held accountable with the House votes, but they'll have to put someone else up besides Trump for the next presidential election. In the end, they're getting a lot of what they want... the big donors are getting EPA laws revoked that mean more profits for them... they're getting huge tax breaks... what is not to love if you're a stupidly rich guy/company that is donating to them right now? As long as they keep their base voting "not HIllary", a lot of them will vote for them.
The one pictured just over his name sign on the table. She’s had that look permanently affixed to her face since the Fox interview.