Pierce: I Believe Brett Kavanaugh Doesn't Belong on the Supreme Court as Strongly as I Believe He'll

[mcar]

I Believe Brett Kavanaugh Doesn't Belong on the Supreme Court as Strongly as I Believe He'll Be There
Everything new we learn about him further undermines his fitness.

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
SEP 14, 2018

...When word of the letter from the woman accusing him of sexual assault first got out, I thought it might be an act of overreach by the Democratic minority on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Not that the charge wasn't a serious one, and not that it didn't deserve extensive and rigorous investigation, I just thought the intellectual chop-shops of the Right would be able to fashion a spin cycle sufficiently vigorous as to mitigate the damage in time for Kavanaugh's confirmation. (No proof. It happened in high school. You were in high school once, too, and you were pretty much a jerk, right? You know the drill by now.) Then, three things happened.

1) Kavanaugh, who tore up the English language tap-dancing around everything he actually believes and actually would do if elevated to the Supreme Court, and who actually was the Bush Administration's dance instructor on the techniques back when he worked there, flatly denied the allegations. He told Senator Maizie Hirono under oath that he never had been involved in any sexual assault and, on Friday, he denied the specific allegation both through a White House spokesman and in a statement released to the media. This is a guy who left himself more wiggle room than a bucket of nightcrawlers in his hearings, but now he offers an absolutely, no-walk-backs denial. This is called going all-in. It is also called, "I dare you."

2) Senator Chuck Grassley—who has stayed too long at the fair—and the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee released a letter from 65 women who allege that they knew Kavanaugh in high school and that he was at all times a perfect gentleman. This was enormously stupid on Grassley's part.

I, for example, went to an all-boys Catholic high school, just as Kavanaugh did. I can say with perfect honesty that I didn't know 65 girls while I was in high school, let alone 65 who would know me enough to vouch for my gentlemanliness four decades later. And I am supposed to believe that Grassley and his staff mustered these women in the past two days? That dog slumbers on the porch and will not hunt. The Republicans on the committee knew, and they knew there might be some substance behind it, and they had a rapid-response document ready to go. And...

3) The New Yorker published a detailed piece about the alleged assault with the single most terrifying double byline I can imagine: by Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer. Farrow owns this particular kind of story, and Jane Mayer is one of the two or three best reporters in the world. These are names that you don't want to see on your call-sheets. And what they wrote, if accurate, is damning.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a23134666/brett-kavanaugh-high-school-sexual-assault-allegation/

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. This is why we dont have rule of law anymore, democracy. This new SC is not credible and MUST

be dealt with.

I dont care if you increase the size or if you impeach the perjurers which is at least two of them. But this court is not credible.

[mcar]

2. It is not credible, Eliot

I believe we need to increase the size and a case can be made for same.

I also believe we need to make DC and Puerto Rico states soonest.

[Grasswire2]

5. yes and yes

thank you

Four new senators and more justices TBD

[spooky3]

3. And the friend who was allegedly a participant

Said he “has no recollection” of the incident.

I don’t know about you, but if I was accused of something I did not do, I would say I did not do it, not that I didn’t remember. And, of course, some guilty liars say they didn’t do it, when they did. But my point is that that is a very weaselly denial, and I am very suspicious because of it and the other points Pierce raised.

Obviously if the Republicans cared about integrity, they would delay the vote until all the facts were in and due process occurred.

[mcar]

4. Right?

I don't recall is shady as hell.

[pangaia]

16. Or as KKK put it some 1,745 times. "I am not recalling." Who talks like that?

[DallasNE]

21. That Jumped Off The Page For Me Too

My reaction was did it happen more than once and the assaults are a blur.

[FBaggins]

6. I had some of the same thoughts... but they don't make sense

I, for example, went to an all-boys Catholic high school, just as Kavanaugh did. I can say with perfect honesty that I didn't know 65 girls while I was in high school, let alone 65 who would know me enough to vouch for my gentlemanliness four decades later.

The problem with this theory is that, unlike his accuser, these 65 women all put their names on the line. If most of them didn't go to school nearby (or whatever), that will be public knowledge very quickly

[stuffmatters]

11. Every one of these women needs to be interviewed by the authorities

I doubt many will stay true to their "rent a friend" lie if it has legal consequences.

[FBaggins]

14. What legal consequences?

Senators can certainly take the allegations into account when they choose how to vote, but there aren’t many possible legal consequences here.

[stuffmatters]

22. Lying to the FBI (to whom Feinstein passed on Kav's victim's letter) is against the law

[Cha]

7. Thank you for Charles Pierce's invaluable

analysis on Kavanaugh, mcar.

I hope by some miracle he goes down in well deserved flames.

[mcar]

12. The Rs don't care

They are amoral. But I hope for the same.

[bitterross]

8. It won't matter. He, like Thomas, will be confirmed.

He's part of the real deep state.

[Honeycombe8]

17. Thomas would not have been confirmed, but for a number of Democrats who voted for him.

Sad but true. He was confirmed by a slim majority...11 Democrats voted for him.

For Kavanaugh, they have a larger majority. It's possible to prevent it, if every Democrat votes against confirmation. Every single one. Which means the leadership will have to make it clear: if you want a future in the Democratic Party, you need to vote no. Because I can guarantee the Republican leadership is stating the opposite to their Senators: If you want a future in the Republican Party, you need to confirm. Otherwise, your career here is over. (Senators can't function without the support of their party group, and money from the organization.)

[mountain grammy]

19. Agree!

[smirkymonkey]

9. K&R

[Cha]

10. Let's pause to appreciate what a complete idiot @ChuckGrassley is.

Link to tweet

[mcar]

13. Yeah, it totally proves they knew about it

Idiots.

[spooky3]

18. Not only that, but many criminals have had dozens of "character witnesses."

All these 65 can say (whether it's true or not) that they personally were not assaulted. They cannot possibly know whether Kavanaugh ever assaulted someone else. They were not witnesses 24/7.

There needs to be full investigation.

[Honeycombe8]

15. He & Clarence Thomas can compare notes, when he gets to the S.Ct. nt

[Hekate]

20. Spot on, Charles Pierce. Spot on. nt

[LiberalFighter]

23. The women were from five different high schools?

That doesn't pass the smell test.