And may be we could delay till Thursday of next week given the very different circumstance that Blasey Ford has in order for her to arrive in safety for testimony?
Letâs be clear here⌠The threats to Dr. Blasey can not be compared in ANY WAY to the other threats mentioned in this article. There is just no comparison⌠the Senators have staff and protection provided that Dr. Blasey does not.
If that Whelan attempt to pin the blame on someone else blows up, there may not be any hearings at all. John Harwood tweets that it was Kavanaughâs idea.
Judicious (snark).
Also, itâs most likely that the volume and intensity of Blasey Fordâs mail is considerably more intense than Susan Collinsâ or Mrs. Kavanaughâs.
~Thunk~ That was my jaw, hitting the floor.
I try to expect awful things from GOP stalwarts, but they always exceed my expectations.
Whelan has just made a desperate attempt to retract:
https://twitter.com/EdWhelanEPPC?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author
Itâs going to be an interesting day.
Here it is:
It canât fly outside of the partisan bubble, and maybe not even within spheres within the bubble.
They staged it too well - in terms of folks dropping hints to watch his twitter - for an announcement; the stafferâs statement of certitude that K would be confirmed (ok that is less damning than the former). The point is a day or two were spent hyping his âannouncementâ of something that would ensure Kâs confirmation.
Then he tweeted a lengthy twitter thread (clearly not written on an impulse.)
Donât be too hasty to suggest that the hate mail and threats are the work of Republican thugs. Remember we live in a media culture infected with Russian trolls and bots. Beep. Beep.
Sadly it the way of a lot of men, especially âconservativeâ men. Amazing how much that word does not describe Republicans. Seem like the only part is that they want to conserve the way things were in the past when the strongest men alone ruled.
True⌠but this fits the days on end of huddles/strategizing at the WH and the Whelan spectacle/debacle.
One thing that happened now and again in the university town where I grew upâit happened in a lot of places in America back then, and maybe it still doesâwas that if a young woman who had been raped by a frat boy attempted to bring a charge of rape, all of his âbrothersâ would threaten to testify against her and destroy her life.
They would show up at her door or call her on the phone, and let her know that unless she backed off and kept her mouth shut, they would go to the prosecutor and testify under sworn oath that she was a slut, that she had had sex with all of them, that it had been voluntary, that it had been her idea, that theyâd heard her threaten to lie about it. âBut thatâs not true!â she could say until she was blue in the face: they would just smirk, and say, âWhoâs going to believe you, over us?â
That is, quite simply, whatâs happening here, Ed Whelan may be a genteel fascist whoâs spent most of his adult life attempting to overthrow the American democracy, for pay, on behalf of a band of deranged billionaires who believe themselves to constitute a kind of Master Race, ,but heâs also, at heart, a frat boy, coming to the defense of a brother.
In this case, the accounts appear to own by well-known as republican operatives and staffers. And none of them has claimed to have been hacked or had their identity stolen.
Russian bots were my first thought too, along with the misogynistic trolls who have nothing better to do than harass⌠But GOP also feels like it needs this win so nothing is off the table to intimidate! Sick people.
Of course it was Kavanaughâs idea. He was the only one knew who this guy was.
Mistake?! That was not a mistake, you moron. It was quite intentional.
Okay, so we have Republican thugs AND Russian bots and trolls to deal with. Just donât call it collusion. Great scumbags think alike.
I really do not understand how the Republicans thought this could work. Whelan was going to accuse some random guy of attempted rape because he looks a little like Kavanaugh? And that would exonerate Kavanaugh? And a whole bunch of themâ-including maybe Orrin Hatch and his staffâ actually went along with that plan? (My favorite twitter snark is a picture of bearded Kenny Loggins alongside Charles Mansion with the caption saying something like, âIt turns out it was 1970s Kenny Liggins who killed Sharon Tate.â)
Note that in the accusation Whelan appeals to Judge to âestablishâ that Kavanaugh never went to any party like that. But for this crazy story to work Judge would also have to be lying about what he saw and covering for Garret. Or maybe Judge also mistook him for Kavanaugh? (As Marcy Wheeler says this is the âAll white guys look alikeâ defense.)
I know Republicans are crazy. I know theyâre dumb. But even by their standards this is unbelievable.