Some questions:
- Why 12+ hours days? Is the GOP really sweating over making this process 1 or 2 days shorter? Even if Dems storm the Senate in the midterms, power wonât change hands for 3 months.
- What is the format of the closed session? Do they just continue to pepper Kavanaugh with questions?
- I see there will be witness testimony Friday. Are the closed-door session and that day of witnesses the only remaining phases of the confirmation process?
- Do we know who the witnesses are? Can the Committee issue subpoenas? Is it usually the case that witnesses are just folks who have agreed to give a positive recommendation, or can we expect to see people called to corroborate or challenge Kavanaughâs previous testimony?
- Is the closed-door session closed to the press, or just the rest of the Senate? How will the public find out about the proceedings? Could an unscrupulous Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee conceal damaging revelations that surface during the closed session?
- Will those witnesses testify before the full Senate, or just the Judiciary Committee?
- When are votes cast? Are there two rounds of votes: one in the Judiciary Committee and then with all members, or is there just one vote?
- Those kids are on my lawn again! There ought to be a law!!!1!
ETA: I added some questions and re-ordered them. Apologies to any early-birds that run afoul of these uncertain times.
OT, but man⌠they just showed a bit of Donnieâs performance at the Montana rally tonight, and he was weird even for him. He couldnât pronounce the word âanonymousâ despite three tries, he was slurring words, he was ranting even more than usual. He looked drunk, except he supposedly doesnât drink.
Just listened to a snippet, talk like that to a cop after he pulls you over and youâre taking a trip with him.
Yup, Grassley is still on plan to get this done by the first Tuesday in October.
Dream on, as if Assley gives a shit what any of us peons think. We are just pawns in their classy rich man game of thrones.
Something that the Senate has yet to focus on directly is the five-month period in 1997-98 in which Brett Kavanaugh was moved from Ken Starrâs Office of Investigative Counsel to Starrâs private law firm before returning to OIC. The apparent purpose was allow him to continue to serve as Starrâs designated leaker â point person for communications of privileged material to the media â while giving Starr and his deputies the means to deny, deviously, that anyone on the staff was leaking or had leaked. (See the affidavit of Dan Moldea, one of the reporters he dealt with.) Today, Kavanaugh was asked whether he would allow reporters whom he spoke to on background to discuss their interactions; he first said no, then said he had to think about it. It all makes you realize how straight-arrow Mueller has been, compared to the disgrace of the Starr investigation.
I saw some of Trumpâs appearance tonight - he did look and sound drunker than a skunk (despite the fact that heâs supposed to be a teetotaler)
BUT , Brett will still be elected .
Confirmed, not elected. 
Kamala Harris brought up ârecusalâ in her interview with Maddow.
The question for the WH/GOP to assess is whether they can keep a lid on how Kavanaugh made it to the list as he was a late add, and why Trump picked him. That Kasowitz got outed as a possible link between Camp Kavanaugh and the WH does not bode too well for them. WAPO has confirmed from Kavanaugh that he is close friends with a Kasowitz partner, Ed McNally, who works in the same NY office as does Kasowitz. There will be more digging, and Kasowitz, who headed for the exits when Trump pushed the AF1 cover up (which he planned with Putin) of the NYT scoop on the Trump Tower meeting, may also look to head for the exits again and avoid negative scrutiny for his firm. Already, the feedback from the firmâs clients, future recruits, and overall reputation will be damaged by what has been revealed in the last 2 days.
I think we know that Trump is only motivated by the quest to protect himself from legal scrutiny. What I think happened is that Kasowitz, who is familiar with Kavanaughâs prior decisions, had Kavanaugh interviewed and then used that info to tell Trump that he would be the best choice from the standpoint of protecting executive prerogative.
Kavanaughâs obvious attempt to cover up and prevent Harrisâ inquiry from going further, however, suggests to me that he has a deeper knowledge of what actions were taken to push his nomination to Trump. I have a suspicion that Kavanaugh positioned himself for the nomination much like he did for all those Bush nominees. If you read what has been release thus far, Kavanaugh identifies a candidate and then bases his strategic positioning on the issues that he wants to promote that support conservative priorities and the risks the candidate might face.
Today, conservative legal priorities are focused on protecting Trump from prosecution, which goes back to the unitary executive philosophy that people Kavanaugh supported strongly in the past (e.g., John Yoo). I think Kavanaugh probably put together a sales pitch on his positions for such issues, presented them to McNally, who then forwarded them to Kasowitz and then to Trump. But I think he did so after being prompted as to what Trump was weighing in his priority list. Someone had to tell Kavanaugh that his views on executive power were at the top of Trumpâs shopping list.
THIS is the one they should walk out of.
Since they made a big deal about bringing in his daughters and girlâs basketball team I was hoping that some Senator would reference them in asking if he thinks these young women would be proud of having been there in ten or twenty years because he had favored the average man over the rich and powerful, been a champion for womenâs rights and understood that students had to be protected from automatic weapons. Unfortunately, there were too many lawyers in the room.
Why arenât the Democrats asking to invoke the McConnell rule? Delay the hearing until the voters have a say. I donât expect the GOP to allow it but I would be interested to hear the GOP explain why that rule doesnât apply here.
I dunno.
Partially I assume they donât want to normalize it. It was never a rule, or some kind of principled act. It was the naked theft of a SCOTUS seat, made possibly only because Mitch McConnell had entrenched his own power to sufficiently that he felt emboldened enough to attempt it in the light of day.
Maddow tried to raise hopes of two female senators voting down Kav.
I think GOP discipline is just too strong for these women to buck.
Recall when Alitoâs wife sat behind him wiping a tear? Oh, the humanity!
i fall upon the thorns of life!
Slurred speech. Neurogenic origin, Iâd guess.