Funny you said that. I had not been able to pinpoint what it was about Kavanaugh that I found so dang creepy and suspect. I’d assumed it’s just because, well, he’s a Republican and they’re all creepy to some extent. But it was more than that. There was something about the way I felt like he was parading his wife and daughters about, the commercials with the seemingly normal women who were vouching for him. I felt like he and his advocates were trying especially hard to send the message that, “He’s okay, ladies!” There was some of that with Gorsuch, but it just wasn’t as obvious. Now we know why.
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I wish I could offer some reassurance to Blasey (note to TPM: that’s the surname she prefers) but the fact is she will be confronted by a pack of vile, soulless men who will stop at nothing to discredit her. The plus side is that I think there is great benefit for a person to be able to finally speak the truth in public, especially about some long-hidden secret and under such difficult circumstances. It can have a liberating effect.
Meanwhile, here is the attitude that she will be faced with. And this, incredibly, is an attempt to put a best face on that attitude. From an editorial in the WSJ, which also includes some discussion of the Salem Witch Trials (!):
"The thing happened—if it happened—an awfully long time ago, back in Ronald Reagan’s time, when the actors in the drama were minors and (the boys, anyway) under the blurring influence of alcohol and adolescent hormones. No clothes were removed, and no sexual penetration occurred. The sin, if there was one, was not one of those that Catholic theology calls peccata clamantia—sins that cry to heaven for vengeance.
The offense alleged is not nothing, by any means. It is ugly, and stupid more than evil, one might think, but trauma is subjective and hard to parse legally. Common sense is a little hard put to know what to make of the episode, if it happened."
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Kavanaugh’s defense is she did experience that horrible tragedy, but I am not the one that did it. She has mistaken me for someone else.
I sure hope you are right, but I thought the subtext of this article was that Ford is getting cold feet, especially in light of Grassley just saying that Ford hadn’t responded to his request that she testify Monday. If she starts waffling now, this could be a political disaster.
I agree, but I thought it was a defense created for his position on Roe v. Wade. Don’t worry little ladies. Nothing to see here.
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And the really sad thing is that there are probably others and their speaking up maybe, and only maybe, be the only thing that gets some folks to believe her and him thrown out.
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Possibly but not necessarily, even if there are victims.
There is a reason why Ford is reluctant. For private individuals, turning their private life public is difficult, there are no buffers except family and friends. There is no money in it, they do not have access to PR firms, and lawyers in this terrain cost serious money. You are completely open to being “torn to shreds” without good counsel, and she most certainly will not have access to that.
Unlike Kavanaugh.
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Sure she’s scared. She probably fears for her children, but I’m counting on that mother instinct to get her there as an example for her children.
Also, I think she has a skilled lawyer who has held hands before and can couch her through this.
Consider this, the tempo keeps building…six days is a lifetime now. Grassley should have scheduled sooner. Trump can’t hold it together for six days. I predict Kavanaugh goes down and the testimony never happens.
They are rushing around, independently, and the number one priority of every GOP entity is “what is best for me personally first and the GOP second.”
They will keep shooting themselves and each other in their handmade Italian shoes.
ETA…it’s what they do.
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…the ridiculousness of the idea that women like Dr. Ford are just mistaken about who attacked them.
Yeah sadly that is something etched into the victim’s brain no matter how much they’d love to be able to forget about. And even worse how much fucks like him for who this was something they did a lot, they really don’t remember who they did it to, even if not drunk.
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Holy shit was that an actually question he wanted or suggested should be asked during that investigation?
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I can hardly believe someone actually wrote and published this. Not evil? Not evil to force a 15-year old girl into a bedroom, lock the door, throw her a bed, lie down on top of her, grind your genitals against her, try to take her clothes off and cover her mouth to shut her up? What universe does this person live in?
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Thomas played the race card, said it was a lynching by proxy. A black woman scorned tried to lynch him. Oy!
What card does a privileged white guy play?
They’ll give him a pass. Flake and Collins playing coy, pretending to be agonizing over the matter.
Pardon me while i puke.
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“…One by one, drip by drip, and Kavanaugh will be forced to resign from the bench…”
Never no happen. Once appointed, only death will rid us of this high priest.
The smiling red-faced drunk, Kavanuagh. I’m glad the smile was wiped off his face.
There is something pervy about him.
And truly creepy. The coaching of the girls team harkens back to his halcyon days of high school, doesn’t it?! Like I said, creepy…
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Yes. Not a joke.
Marcy Wheeler is my source on that. https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1041700328188661760
It is jaw-dropping. I simply cannot believe that someone at a major newspaper can editorialize that attempted rape of a young girl is simply stupid–and that the paper would publish it. If you want to talk about something being evil…
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Wow no wonder they had the 65 woman ready to claim he wasn’t a pervert, he is and there’s definately a lot more out there. No wonder they put the questioning off till next week. I’m guessing he’ll resign before Monday, probably some off hour during the weekend.
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Wingnutopia
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Sounding more and more like the (sane) media and the (sane) public can’t ignore that this woman is the real deal. I predict Kavanaugh will go down. We’ll still get a xenophobic, sexist, racist, corporate-boot-licking homophobe in court, but at least the judge won’t be a rapist…
Kavanaugh had no trouble trying to deny a young woman an abortion. Apparently women have to be fully responsible when in their teens but boys will be boys. So drunk they don’t even recall what they did.
Salem witch trials? Echos of “hi tech lynching” verbiage.
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