Democrats’ total personal war on Brett Kavanaugh should be a Midterm wake-up call for Republicans
There but for fortune could go you or I.
Soon after Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination for the Supreme Court, Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced total war on Kavanaugh. That war would not just be procedural, it would be personal:
Schumer chose to fight the nomination aggressively. On the night of the nomination, his office released a statement saying that he would “oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination with everything I have, and I hope a bipartisan majority will do the same. The stakes are simply too high for anything less.” In addition, it has been reported that Schumer is cautioning fellow Democrats that they will face a uproar from their base if they do not fight the nomination. According to this report, Schumer has instructed his caucus to focus on criticizing Kavanaugh specifically rather than raising procedural objections. Schumer’s own statement, which asserts that Kavanaugh’s record indicates that he “would rule against reproductive rights and freedoms, and that he would welcome challenges to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act,” reflects this strategy. [Emphasis added]
Everything that has played out since then reflects this total personal war on Kavanaugh. There were weeks of Democrat claims that Kavanaugh being elevated to the Supreme Court would kill millions of people and enslave minorities and women.
Democrats brought protesters into the hearing room to scream at Kavanaugh. His childrten had to be escorted out of the room.
Democrat Senators were unseemly in how they conducted themselves.
Senator Kamala Harris circulated a dishonestly edited video of Kavanaugh’s testimony as to contraceptives. Senator Cory Booker performed for the cameras, declaring himself to be Spartacus. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse talked over Kavanaugh and then trotted out large posters portraying the “dark money” backing Kavanaugh’s nomination. Senator Patrick Leahy falsely suggested Kavanaugh perjured himself at his 2006 confirmation hearing, and again at these hearings. That false claim of perjury was amplified throughout anti-Trump social media.
The confirmation hearings were a low point in a low political environment. And those were the good ol’ days compared to what has happened since then. Senator Dianne Feinstein knew that a woman had sent a letter claiming the Kavanaugh assaulted her in high school, but Feinstein said nothing. Not during the hearings, not during her consultations with fellow Senators, not during her private interview with Kavanaugh.
Instead, after the confirmation hearings were closed and a committee vote ready, it was conveniently leaked to The Intercept and Buzzfeed that the letter existed, and that Feinstein had forwarded it to the FBI. Days later the accuser was revealed in a Washington Post interview and story to be Christine Blasey Ford.
In the subsequent week, the personal attacks on Kavanaugh have escalated.
He is being portrayed regularly as a rapist and sexual predator, students at Harvard (where he teaches a winter course) and professors at his alma mater Yale Law School have demanded investigations into his relationship with the school. Sheldon Whitehouse has promised congressional investigations if Democrats regain control of either house of Congress, and others are promising attempts to impeach Kavanaugh either from his present Appeals Court position or his Supreme Court position.
In other words, Democrats have declared total war on Brett Kavanaugh the person.
Ford has repeatedly delayed her testimony and has assembled a team of advisors who are veterans of wars against prior Republican nominees and the Trump administration. It was a strategy to buy more days in which to ramp up the attacks on Kavanaugh, to find new claims to try to derail the nomination.
Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti is claiming there will be more claims coming.
As of this writing it appears Ford and Kavanaugh will testify on Thursday, September 27, though the format is not yet clear. That means a committee vote probably will not be had until the following Monday, and a Senate floor vote until later that week. There is almost no possibility that Kavanaugh would be confirmed in time to sit with the other Justices at the first oral argument day of the term on October 1. His absence, even if for a short time, will be a public relations victory for the Resistance.
This is what Democrat total war looks like.
Democrats can get away with it because of a supportive media, and a small number of weak links in the Republican majority in the Senate. Chuck Grassley and Mitch McConnell don’t have to worry about Democrats half as much as they have to worry about Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Jeff Flake, and to a lesser extent, Bob Corker.
The total war on Kavanaugh is why so many Trump voters voters wanted someone who would fight, as Jonathan Tobin noted at National Review, Has the Kavanaugh Battle Vindicated Trump Voters?
The willingness of the Democrats and their mainstream-media allies to use a solitary, unsubstantiated, 36-year-old allegation to turn Judge Brett Kavanaugh into a Me Too villain whose guilt of a heinous crime is to be assumed despite the lack of proof or a semblance of due process has shocked his friends and supporters. But it has also vindicated the Trump approach to politics. After the public assassination of Kavanaugh’s character over the last week, there can’t be many left in the GOP who will still dispute former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon’s assertion that politics is warfare and Trump is thus justified in anything he does to combat his opponents….
It also brings back what I said in The value of Trump to the Trump voter is that he stands between them and #TheResistance:
Right now the value of Trump to the Trump voter is he is all that stands between them and the people who hate them every bit as much as they hate Trump.
This is not about Brett Kavanaugh. Democrats would have waged total personal war on any Trump nominee.
The answer is to get out and vote. Get your friends and relatives out to vote. Vote not just to defeat the Democrats, but to free us from the grip of 2-3 weak Republican Senators.
If Republicans had 53-54 Senators, the Kavanaugh personal war would have ended already with confirmation.
As readers may recall, I’m a big fan of Phil Ochs. One of my favorite songs is There But For Fortune.
There but for fortune, go you or go I — you and I.
Senate Republicans better fight and win this confirmation battle. It’s not just about Brett Kavanaugh.
It’s about all of us who are subjected to personal wars by Democrats and #TheResistance in the workplace, campus and social media. And about those among us who keep their heads down and mouths shut so as not to be targeted.
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Comments
Michael Avenatti is a total sleazebag. This guy resurrected his sorry career on the back of a porn star. You can’t get lower than that. And the guy is a straight up liar, just like this scumbag of woman who came out in the 11th hour to slander a man’s name.
One has to wonder if the exchange services.
Liar he may be, but he is, unfortunately, probably telling the truth this time.
The GOP establishment is in a real bind: if they treat the Democratic caucus like it deserves, there would be no Senate. There would be no fiction of “comity” anymore, and every Democratic Senator would be treated like the seditious louse they are.
So to preserve their own privilege, I guess the GOPe will simply ignore this behavior and pretend it was bad luck or something.
AND…let me add…the Republican ‘pretend’ response to the Democrats is interpreted by both the Dems and the Leftist Progressives as further permission to act out their treasonous behavior. The same attitude is seen amongst the Muslim population, where a non-robust response is considered as weakness and further permission to attack and accuse.
These groups of thugs, both the Muslims and the Democrats, do not interpret patience, kindness, philosophical or cultural inquiry as anything other than weakness. Rather, they respond and act in the most elemental of base emotive manners. Counseling patience or understanding is seen only as a stalling tactic by their opposition to be rejected out-of-hand, without qualm or guilt.
I do NOT think the Republicans are cowardly, but rather the GOP hasn’t taken the need steps to understand the war we are already in. They have yet to understand that there really is a ‘us/them’ component that the enemies are abiding by. Western culture will be devoured by either the communists or the Muslims if the GOP and the ‘normals’ do not wake up.
Can I let you in on a little secret? They understand exactly what’s going on around them. They do not care to do anything about it.
I used to work for a member of Congress. People in DC are not oblivious to anything, trust me. I remember the first time I heard my boss say the (R)s couldn’t do anything because Clinton would veto it. That’s when I became disillusioned with the (R) party. I thought – you mean you don’t even want to try? You don’t even want to attempt at persuasion? You don’t even want to see if you could win when you imagine you can’t? How come the (D)s don’t share that pathetic POV?
I left that job because I couldn’t work for people who didn’t care to even attempt to preserve the good in America. In fact, the only reason my boss ran for reelection was so he could be in DC long enough to gain as much power as he could get there, or he could work his way up the party line for a big statewide office run, like governor, Lt. G or AG. He was talked out of his term limit pledge the first year he was elected. He eventually got the power he craved in DC. Not gonna tell you who it is but I can say that he when he got to where he wanted to be, what did he do with that power?
Nothing.
I am disgusted by these people. (R)s are total damn pansies but both parties are thinking only for themselves. Neither one cares about constituents.
Do the (D)s chose not to fight? No. They fight 24/7, they fight when they don’t have a chance, they fight when they are in power. They are killing machines.
Every action you see from DC is because of a conscious decision to take that action. Same goes for inaction.
It’s called corruption. The Dems didn’t catch the Republicans by surprise. Schumer openly declared exactly what their plan was. The Republicans once performed their role in the kabuki theater by refusing to take the final step into the end zone.
This entire circus could have been nipped in the bud had Grassley seized control of his committee by delaying the opening of proceedings on day one, clearing the room of protestors and threatening Kamala Harris,Dick Durbin and “Spartacus” with censure for flagrant disregard of Senate rules to the point of almost triggering a riot.
Committee chairmen DO have the power to bring their committees under order and have a duty to do so. Grassley is either being blackmailed, senile or hopelessly corrupt. We can now all see for ourselves that the entire GOP is part of the “resistance” and will allow the 2016 elections to be usurped.
Corruption and chaos. And it’s no accident. It’s scripted.
Professor, you really have to take that last final step and abandon the completely false Dem vs GOP paradigm. We once again find ourselves heading into a critical election being asked to hold our noses without a clear message. It is imperative that we get the narrative right this time. We are fighting for the Republic itself. The Constitution, the validity of the Supreme Court, our once deliberative Senate, the entire thing. We have lost control of our society to barbarians and the people we keep voting for allow it. They are doing it right out in the open. LET’S HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE BY NAME THIS TIME AND CALL THEM WHAT THEY ARE!!! CORRUPT TRAITORS!
If you don’t have the courage to name and define the enemy, the battle is lost before the fighting starts. Where have we heard that before?
Trump was our last chance thanks to a miracle. We are blowing it by the lack of courage to speak the whole truth that is plain for all to see. We don’t even have the courage to call those who openly describe themselves as communists what they are! Communists! Could we at least start there?
That’s the goal line Legal Insurrection can never seem to cross, always reacting to what others are saying but never going that last step. Is Trump the only person with the courage to tell it like it is? Join the team you’re on! Get it the fight! We haven’t defeated the NeverTrumpers among us and we have to hold our noses again to blindly vote for them as if that will make a difference?
This is why I keep telling people RINOs are worse than Democrats. Only a Republican could sabotage the party from within.
People who keep electing RINOs are fools. They are the ones responsible for this mess.
I spent a few decades, two to three months each year in the beltway. I view it as a very corrosive environment which can and does corrupt most people.
Several years ago I retired, fed up with the cesspool. In addition to reelecting Trump for a second term, we need to start electing many more independents. A decade or two of being sidelined is likely the only thing which can fix both parties, which are in large part dysfunctional.
Many of of the issues we face today are crucial, such as illegals, Muslims, blacks who feel entitled to break any and all laws and demand a free ride, media which tries to impose their agenda rather than deliver news facts, are all serious problems.
No, they do not, not when the entire minority is misbehaving. The committee cannot function without the minority’s cooperation. If he throws the entire minority out of the room, the meeting must immediately be cancelled, which is exactly what the Dems wanted.
“If he throws the entire minority out of the room, the meeting must immediately be cancelled, which is exactly what the Dems wanted”
Says who?
Say the senate rules. A quorum for a committee includes at least two minority members.
“…he GOP hasn’t taken the need steps to understand the war we are already in…”
Wow, that is truly naive. Somehow, their ignorance always them away from sure victory to lose by exactly one vote. Regardless of how many Democrats flip to support a GOP cause, there is always that number plus one Republicans to assure defeat. Pure coincidence.
Face it, the Stupid Party may not necessarily be cowardly, but their duplicity and mendacity are beyond doubt. We are just witnessing the latest iteration of Uniparty Kabuki Theater.
It’s a wake-up that pieces of shit like Flake should have been gotten rid of years ago.
The miserable sack of crap actually went to INTERVIEWS with CNN and MSNBC this week and his staff has already leaked that regardless of what Ford does he’s going to vote ‘present’.
Kelli Ward runs against him in the GOP primaries. When given a choice (just like in Econ 101 monopoly theory), the voters flee from the unpopular status quo. Jeff Flake starts polling around 18%.
The GOPe sees this and (I’m convinced) FORCES him to retire while there’s still time to find a squish replacement who the people don’t hate yet.
What happens next? The voters of AZ vote for the squish replacement instead of the person who got rid of Flake because “McSally is more electable.”
THIS is how RINOs keep getting elected. The GOP is run like a union for politicians.
the democrats can kiss the blue wave goodbye, there won’t be a red wave but they might make some gains
The Four Horsemen of this Apocalypse (Flake, Collins, Murkowski and Corker) have sowed the seeds of not only of Dem victory but alienation of many voters. Here it is their PERSONAL goals and egos that have replaced a responsibility to the Constitution and also to their Party. There is no equivalent term in the Democrat lexicon for “RINO”.
I need to refresh myself with Bork”s “Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline” along with brushing up on my old coursework on Soviet politics and history.
For now… the Party has decided to blink and toss Kavanaugh aside. In medicine, it’s called a “slow code” where the outcome has already been decided.
“It’s about all of us who are subjected to – ”
Interesting choice of words. I guess my concern that no one was listening was unfounded.
As for the GOP, there are very good reasons why nations go our of their way to avoid total war. But the GOP is too oncerned with tone to remind the Dems why.
This is Stalinism, period.
This leftist tactic needs to be addressed – by being crushed in kind.
Identifying what Democrats are doing, or that it’s underhanded is not the problem. The problem is how to make the GOP fight.
Cowards and traitors.
Each one of those “protesters” had a Gallery Pass signed by a Senator. Why the hell won’t Grassley or McConnell publish their names?
Some did. Most seem to have just got in line and got in.
and now her lifelong friend and 3rd named witness has denied knowledge of the party even happening.
Grassley has not been idle in this time. Hios people have been investigating what they can.
What’s the point of investigation. The dems plan to run out the clock and that tactic seems to be working.
I called this several days ago.
https://hillreporter.com/maryland-police-say-theyre-ready-to-investigate-kavanaugh-sexual-assault-case-if-a-report-is-filed-7775
Dems pushing to have charges filed in MD.
I know it is a big “IF”, but if the local PD/Sheriff’s Office personnel have any professional pride they will accept the claim and perform a perfunctory interview or two and then close the complaint as unsubstantiated. They already have statements which are the equivalent of statements under oath from all the identified people except Ford. Good luck to them in getting Ford/Ford’s lawyers to allow them to interview her.
I can’t imagine anything would come of it … note what the Police Chief said:
“We are prepared to investigate IF the victim wants to report to us, AND we can determine it occurred in the County.”
How can that be determined without a physical address which Ford says she cannot recall? Where that might get interesting, is Whelan’s mistaken identity theory wherein he identified a house with floor plan similar to what Ford described. So she identifies that as the house to the police – they go back through the record of ownership and determine there is NO relationship between the former owners and Ford or any party and it’s filed as unverifiable.
Police Chief left himself an out. And with that, I’m amazed that the news/twitter ran with just the “police will investigate if filed” … Ford HAS TO come up with something MORE concrete first. So it’s just departmental PR for the police.
Note “The Kavanaugh Kalculation” http://www.trevorloudon.com/2018/09/the-kavanaugh-kalculation/
“We know not when the accuser penned this letter; why these decades later she decided to; whether any one was soliciting her to write it, or assisting with its composition.
“Nor do we know when she engaged her current attorney(s); how they found each other (or through whom); or may be paying the attorneys’ fees (or reimbursing / subsidizing the accuser for them).
“The timing of the (partial) release of this letter is significant – it came only after the Democrats were unsuccessful in derailing the nomination during the hearing process – so having all the signs of a quintessential “Plan B.”
“Presumably, what the Supreme Court can giveth, it can also take away: the Progressives’ fear of a Justice Kavanagh is palpable, for they sense genuine risk to the viability (pun intended) of abortion, and so their Satanically-inspired culture of death (as detailed here).”
Grassley needs to call for the vote Monday. The fourth person Ford named as a witness is Leland Keyser. Today, her lawyers released a statement saying she never met Kavanaugh and she doesn’t know anything about the party. It’s over. Every witness contradicts her story and there’s no where else to go with this.
Is this the same Leland Keyser who is also the former Mrs. Bob Beckel?
The very same.
If Grassley doesn’t call the vote on Monday, what are you going to do about it?
Nothing. There’s nothing you can do.
How do you make cowards and traitors fight?
I feel like GOP leadership needs to watch and re-watch the scene from “The Untouchables” where Sean Connery’s character, veteran Irish cop Jimmy Malone, tells Kevin Costner’s Elliot Ness what it will take to bring down Al Capone and his gang.
I’m not advocating a violent approach; just saying that, as motivational material in advance of the mid-term elections, this is thematically on-point. The GOP needs a wholesale reassessment of its tactical strategy when it comes to judicial nominations, not merely in terms of advancing the confirmation of our own nominees, but, with regard to how we handle Dumb-o-crat nominees. Because, ever since Bork’s immolation in 1987, it’s become clear that we are dealing with a bunch of jackbooted street thugs who have no compunction about using the dirtiest, sneakiest most underhanded scorched-earth tactics available to achieve political power, whilst denying their opponents the same.
So, the next time the Dumb-o-crats nominate transparently Left-leaning judicial nominees who are quite obviously comfortable using the federal bench to effect Leftist policy preferences best enacted by the legislative branch, such as Sonia “Wise Latina” Sotomayor, or, Elena Kagan, why should they sail through the confirmation process totally unscathed? Why should only Republican nominees be subjected to withering kamikaze slander attacks? Why does the Left get to pick judges without a scintilla of opposition, but, conservatives are prevented from doing the same?
It is insanity to continue to willingly tolerate our judges becoming human pinatas for the Dumbs’ sadistic politics of personal destruction.
Exactly. Just like the nuclear option. Use their own tactics and rules against them. Point out how Keith Ellison’s defense at last minute allegations echo this, but they believe him, not the woman.
Trench warfare. Take no prisoners. They won’t.
Perhaps some parts of the confirmation ought to be conducted by agencies better suited to the task than the Senate. Specifically, what if the Senate Judiciary Committee were tasked ONLY with reviewing the nominees credentials, jurisprudence, etc.? They are, after all, the Judiciary Committee. As for the portion of confirmation that concerns elements of character and security, leave that to the Secret Service, or if ever redeemed, the FBI.
There is no excuse for subjecting a person of proven character to a public DRE by the Democrats.
I don’t think fighting fire with fire is the best solution. Having seen now how they fight a qualified nomination (Bork, Thomas, Kavanaugh), change the process and take the opportunity for playing dirty tricks away from them. IOW, outsource the character and security portions of the process to an organization known for professionalism and discretion.
Question is whether the Republicans sleep through the alarm as they have so many times before.
That’s rich coming from National Review, leaders of their own resistance. That magazine can go to hell. It was so influential in my switch from being a leftist to a conservative long ago. What a disappointment.
If the (R)s don’t confirm Kavanaugh, they can also go to hell.
After being told for decades by an (R) party with the spine of France, that X, Y and Z are not the hills to die on, here we find ourselves on a hill to die on. What’s the result? I don’t know.
All I know is that if the (R)s retreat yet again, I cannot support this party at the voting both.
If they do nominate Kavanaugh, the backing they will get from all over America will be through the roof and the damage to the left will be hard, good and lasting.
This is on them, professor. Not me.
Colonel, I hope you are still willing to read Andrew McCarthy’s legal analysis over at NR — I think that his essays are essential reading on legal topics. David French is also thought-provoking, though he usually comes at issues from somewhat different angles, as compared to McCarthy.
I read McCarthy when someone links to him. I like to listen to him if he’s interviewed on the radio, also. I’ll read NR if a story is linked by someone who’s opinion I value, as was done here. I don’t go to NR’s site on my own or subscribe any more. They have lost my respect.
It’s one thing to disagree. I’m fine with disagreement, I think there needs to be healthy disagreement. Where I draw the line is when you throw intellectual honesty out the window, which is what NR did. They became bizarrely irrational with Trump. Trump was never my first choice for president, I didn’t vote for him in the primary, there is plenty of disagreement to have with Trump. But the way they handled it was pure lunacy. I first started reading the magazine more than 30 years ago, and through that time you could make a case that an individual writer would go off the deep end every now and then. But the entire staff? I just don’t get it – like I don’t get the irrational fervor that some (not all) Trump supporters have.
I don’t know why it’s so difficult to find reasonable opinions, good and bad, regarding Trump. I’ve never seen such a thing in my life.
Fair enough! Respect to you — your opinions are well-formed. I totally get where you’re coming from.
Recycle the Whigs? Evidently the Democratic-Republican Party of Jefferson have rejoined in the latter decades.
Exactly. The only reason Grassley is tolerating this nonsense is because the numbers aren’t there if he doesn’t. If he had the numbers he would have held the vote as scheduled. And yet we have people saying if the nomination fails we should not vote R any more. Self-defeating.
Since you’re talking about me here and not “people”, go back and read where I wrote:
Let me help you out: I never said that or implied it. You want to vote for this nonsense? Be my guest. I’ve said repeatedly, a failed nomination would be a breaking point for me. I do not speak on behalf of anyone else.
There are 51 (R) Senators and one (R) VP, which = 52 votes. Having 53 or even 54 (R) Senators doesn’t guarantee squat. The number does not matter. What matters is how they vote. This should be blatantly obvious, because the majority party now can’t legislate like it has the majority.
I do not deny that a large cushion makes it easier. But assuming a cushion of one or two would make things better also assumes that Mystery Senator 53 and Mystery Senator 54 would be non-Flake or non-Collins. Sorry, how do you know this? You do not know this.
Regardless of my position, do you seriously not understand how a (R) failure here would not help the (R) party with the 2018 elections?
Vote for us, we promise not to mess up the next SCOTUS appointment!
You cannot get 53-54 (R)s if the Kavanaugh nomination is shot down.
Every Republican senator, except for the few wafflers, is standing strong; the only reason we’re going through this nonsense is because the wafflers’ votes are needed. So if there were, say, 54 Rs the vote would have been held on schedule.
How do I know the extra 3 senators would not have been wafflers? It’s possible but not likely, since more than 90% of the existing Rs are not wafflers.
Then the real problem is that the GOP leadership refuses to crack down on traitors. There’s no good reason for anyone to hold up the vote at this point, and yet here we are.
Who is responsible for this?
“Crack down”? What do you imagine they can do to them?
Down thread at 11:18 you answered the question, the leaderships makes it clear, stand with the party on this one or expect a primary challenge, well funded, and you will lose.
Milhouse:
“She knows she could never win a D primary.”
You are confused. “She” here is Collins. The reason she doesn’t run as a D is that she would never win a D primary. That has nothing to do with the D leadership; it’s who she is. She obviously can and does win R primaries, and that too has nothing to do with the R leadership. Like it or not, Collins is as conservative a person as can be elected from Maine.
“…. but to free us from the grip of 2-3 weak Republican Senators.”
Oh, do you mean like presumptive senator Romney? The GOPe made certain all honest ones lost in the primary round, establishment only made it to the November round.
Despite living in C(R)ook County, I still vote. It means nothing, but I still vote.
One legislator I worked with (an R) over many years was threatened by leadership to roll over or they would oust him in a primary. He did what they demanded, and even planted a mole of their choice in his staff. We figured that out pretty quickly, and isolated and neutralized the mole.
Weak? Hardly. Intentionally harming the GOP? Yes.
Romney would be standing strong behind Kavanaugh.
If there any adults left in Congress, this farce needs to stop. Kavanaugh needs to be confirmed and we move on. Obviously there is no “there there” in this case unless the Democrats are able to fake more accusations. As long as the Republicans put up with this behavior, it will go on. McConnell needs to get control of his majority. Vote. Let the Democrats scream and declare what they want. Let the media bloviate. There will be a new outrage the next week.
If Robert Bork and Justice Thomas weren’t a wakeup call, this will never be.
Many interesting and fair comments, here.
So, with the caveat that “hindsight is 20/20,” and all of that, what do folks think of the notion that, as a tactical matter, as soon as Grassley and staff had learned that Feinstein had sat on this allegation for months and had concealed it from the Committee, and, from Kavanaugh — presumably because she had doubts about the allegation’s provenance, veracity and evidentiary supports — only to spring the allegation at the 11th hour, as a kamikaze sneak attack of the worst sort, that Grassley should have said, “No, you concealed this from the Committee; the proper time and place to present this accusation was before the Committee, so that Judge Kavanaugh could have responded, under oath. In the interests of fairness to the American people and to Judge Kavanaugh, we are moving on to a vote.”
So, of course Grassley would have been excoriated and vilified by the Dumb-o-crats and their media-lackeys, for not giving the “victim” a chance to be heard. But, would this course of action have realistically been feasible, or, prudent? Would this tack have unwisely pissed off independent women voters?I’m curious what other people think, in retrospect.
And, actually, as I look back on events, I don’t think the posture that I had laid out would have been feasible, because I recall Collins, Flake and, (presumably) Murkowski, stating that they weren’t comfortable voting on Kavanaugh, until the accuser had testified.
So, I guess, the real question is, could Grassley have made this trio (Collins, Flake and Murkowski) get in line behind Kavanaugh, due to the incredibly underhanded manner in which Feinstein sat on the allegation, while Kavanaugh was before the Committee?
Collins seems like the most weak-willed of the bunch and utterly useless. With all of her constant and predictable hand-wringing and wavering, I wonder why she doesn’t simply leave the GOP and join the Dumb-o-crats; I think she’d be more comfortable.
She knows she could never win a D primary.
If he’d had the numbers he’d have done exactly that. The only reason he’s going through this nonsense is because one or two of his own members were going to vote “no” if he didn’t.
This situation is another reason to repeal the 17th Amendment.
Why on earth do you think that would make the slightest difference?
Re: “there can’t be many left in the GOP who will still dispute former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon’s assertion that politics is warfare”
Not quite. Politics is the attempt to settle differences by non-violent means. War, as Clausewitz observed is; “War is the continuation of politics by other means,”
Re: “Right now the value of Trump to the Trump voter is he is all that stands between them and the people who hate them every bit as much as they hate Trump.”
Again, not quite. Right now all that stands between the unarmed leftist activist and their liberal “useful idiot” voters and the armed Trump voter is Trump.
Remove Trump and the whirlwind those on the Left will reap… they will not withstand. Slow to anger is righteous wrath but once fully aroused that wrath is terrible to behold.