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Weak Republicans deprived us of a victory, even if Kavanaugh eventually is confirmed

Weak Republicans deprived us of a victory, even if Kavanaugh eventually is confirmed

We’ve been humiliated by seeing our representatives forced to retreat, apologize, capitulate and crawl past the finish line.

https://youtu.be/H7y8SB8Rp1M

Jeff Flake is getting the blame for the further delay in the Senate confirmation floor vote for Brett Kavanaugh.

After announcing he would vote in favor of Kavanaugh at the Judiciary Committee, without any conditions, Flake was pulled aside in the Senate hearing anteroom and aggressively lobbied by Democrats. It was an unusual scene, with Chuck Grassley and other Republican Senators waiting for Flake to emerge so that a vote could be taken.

What happened out of sight was that Democrats prevailed on Flake to condition his vote on a supplemental FBI background investigation, to take up to a week.

It was not clear, and still is not clear, what the scope of that investigation would be. Clearly, it includes the claims of Christine Ford that were the subject of yesterday’s hearing and extensive Judiciary Committee investigation. But does it also include the completely uncorroborated claims of Deborah Ramirez and the bizarre claims of Julie Swetnick?

It’s supposed to be limited to a week, but Ford’s lawyers already have announced they do not accept that limitation.

For the Democrats, they may have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. After Kavanaugh’s testimony yesterday, Conservatives/Republicans/Deplorables were stoked. Trump was stoked. Victory over the devious, disingenuous, dishonest and disgusting Democrats who sought to destroy Kavanaugh was at hand.

Anger over the War on Kavanaugh was to bring out a previously sleepy electorate, and possibly save Republican control of both houses of Congress.

The Judiciary Committee vote this morning was to launch what amounted to a multi-day victory party, with a series of Senate floor votes starting Saturday and ending with confirmation on Tuesday. While it would not be as amazing as election night 2016, it would have been been sweet revenge, in which each of us who has received some small measure of the abuse directed at Kavanaugh would be triumphant.

But it was taken away by Flake’s announcement. Flake earlier in the morning had been cornered in an elevator by activists screaming at him. As a Democrat operative noted on Twitter:

“Jeff Flake getting cornered in an elevator with his tail between his legs was one of the BIGGEST reasons he maneuvered for the FBI investigation into Kavanaugh. Just days ago, pundits were saying we shouldn’t confront politicians…”

Flake’s capitulation will embolden further confrontations against Republicans. Ian Millhiser, “Justice Editor” for leftist Think Progress, saw the connection, tweeting:

“Tell me again why we shouldn’t confront Republicans where they eat, where they sleep, and where they work until they stop being complicit in the destruction of our democracy.”

https://twitter.com/imillhiser/status/1045740430229409793

Flake not only stole our victory, he emboldened the most aggressive of our opponents.

But Flake wasn’t alone. He took this move with the support of Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.

We are hostages to these three. Flake is leaving, but Murkowski and Collins will continue their de facto control unless Republicans increase their numbers in the Senate. And there probably will be another Senator or two who will step into Flake’s shoes.

I’ve seen analysis by many people that this was a smart move by Flake. That a supplemental FBI investigation will not reveal anything new, that this will wrap up within the week, and that Republicans will hold the line confirming Kavanaugh in a way that stops the complaints about a lack of FBI investigation. That might give cover to one or two Democrats at risk in deeply red states to vote with the Republicans.

That may have been what was sold to Trump, who was unusually restrained today as the developments unfolded. I assume Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and possibly others told him it’s in the bag, let the show go on a few more days. Be patient.

Maybe.

More likely, Democrats will use these extra days to ramp up the pressure on Flake, Collins and Murkowski, to cook up more accusations, to do whatever it takes to bring down Kavanaugh. Delay under the pretense of an FBI investigation has been the major theme of Democrats. But it’s delay for delay sake. Even if the FBI finds nothing new, Democrats will continue to attack and to argue that Kavanaugh is unfit and an illegitimate nominee.

As ugly as the last two weeks have been, the next few days may be even uglier. Certainly Democrat Senators have not lowered their attacks.

Elizabeth Warren vowed to fight “tooth and nail” to stop Kavanaugh despite Flake’s agreement:

“We believe & stand with Dr. Ford. This isn’t over yet. Senator Jeff Flake has called for a one-week delay to allow for an FBI investigation. We’ll fight tooth and nail on the Senate floor to stop Brett Kavanaugh from a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.”

For those of you not schooled in the history of Elizabeth Warren, the vow to fight “tooth and nail” is a throwback to her infamous vow that there would be “plenty of blood and teeth left on the floor” fighting for her legislative goals.

The result of the Flake-Murkowski-Collins capitulation is that Democrats get to claim a victory because they fought and stalled and bullied and attacked and forced Republicans to retreat, even if Kavanaugh is confirmed. That’s what their base demanded of them, and they delivered.

Lindsey Graham electrified, excited and motivated us with his spirited defense of Kavanaugh at the hearings. This could have been the moment when the rise of the blue wave began to slow and recede.

Maybe I’m overly pessimistic, and Kavanaugh will get confirmed in a week.

But it won’t be the same. We’ve been deprived of the victory we deserved even if Kavanaugh is confirmed. Instead, we’ve been humiliated by seeing our representatives forced to retreat, apologize, capitulate and crawl past the finish line.

And if they don’t make it past the finish line? All hell is going to break loose.

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Comments

“We’ve been humiliated by seeing our representatives forced to retreat, apologize, capitulate and crawl past the finish line.”

They weren’t forced. It’s just what they do.

    JusticeDelivered in reply to irv. | September 28, 2018 at 9:50 pm

    Flake, weasel flake, should receive an old fashioned tar and feathering. The same for the ringleaders of all this BS.

      JackRussellTerrierist in reply to JusticeDelivered. | September 28, 2018 at 11:33 pm

      I have no words to describe the GOP jellyfish.

      Flake is just the latest guy to find himself on the bubble. The problem is the entire corrupt Republican party. If it weren’t Flake, it would have been someone else. Collins, Murkowski, Corker,… In fact, I am convinced that once this latest episode of delay is over, Corker or Collins will deliver the next delay. Kabuki theater is alive and well. Just more finessed.

      How many opportunities for slamming the door shut were weaseled away already? Right from the opening seconds of the hearings, Grassley surrendered control of his committee. And it has been all downhill since. Standing on the goal line just waiting for the defense to catch up so he doesn’t have to score. They aren’t even trying to make it look authentic anymore. Could we have all of their bank accounts frozen for an FBI investigation please?

      There is no such thing as Democrats or Republicans anymore. That ended in 1988. The takeover of the two-party system by the globalists is complete. This is the NWO and the end of liberty. All we are witnessing is the part before they seize control of the military and police and turn their guns on voters. We are the last hurdle and we are losing without a fight.

      God help us if we lose this. History tells us the next step will be a catastrophe.

        olhardhead in reply to Pasadena Phil. | September 29, 2018 at 9:35 am

        I was watching the Laura Ingraham show on Fox thursday(Sept 27) night. Joe Degenova was on and said this about Dr. Ford…..

        Ima put it in quotes because I think I caught it all so….check this
        out…and this woman is able to destroy the life and family of a good
        and decent man …. This is what Joe said about her…

        “Dr. Ford is a deeply troubled person. She has a history of
        physiological discard. She had a very terrible life at Holton Arms…she
        had very serious problems..she went to the west coast for one
        reason…SHE HAD SO MANY PROBLEMS IN THAT SCHOOL THAT THEY SENT HER AWAY.”
        he goes on to say that he feels very sorry for her and that
        the Democrats used and abused her badly…..I agree… So…here we have a woman that according to Joe Degenova is kinda cray cray with serious physiological problems (WHEN SHE WAS 15 YEARS OLD) who has not been vetted for those problems and we’re supposed to believe her totally unsubstantiated charges…..RIIIIIIGHT!!

        Shouldn’t we demand that the FBI investigation include this information? Do we have to accept the word of a mental case?

          That was the argument the flipped the “victim” dialog in Graham’s rant. You would think the GOP would have taken that and run with it. Where are the ads? Where are all the Republicans running for re-election? That was gold! Crickets.

    C. Lashown in reply to irv. | September 29, 2018 at 12:20 am

    re: “We’ve been humiliated by seeing our representatives forced to retreat, apologize, capitulate and crawl past the finish line.”

    This is what the Republicans are best at, cringing in the face of aggression, whimpering at nasty looks directed towards them, surrendering ‘claimed’ principles under threats of retaliation, yielding to false accusations and losing. Republicans are REALLY good at losing, being the butt of any meme you could think of. Politics as usual.

    After so many years America finally get’s a good president and he’s forced to lean on these squishes…and the entire country suffers.

    Elzorro in reply to irv. | September 29, 2018 at 1:18 am

    With Republicans like these you don’t need democrats.

    Bucky Barkingham in reply to irv. | September 29, 2018 at 7:46 am

    Thus the moniker Roll-Over Party.

    He did it for the buck$. That’s why he said he’d vote YES in the first place, to get the Dems to HIS bargaining table. “What will you give me for a week’s delay?”

Flake is going to give a speech in New Hampshire. Does he really think he has a shot at getting the nomination? Is he that deluded?

    Whitewall in reply to brightlights. | September 28, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    Flake thinks he is the new John McCain.

    Yes, he’s that deluded. Guy quits because he can’t win a Republican primary here but thinks he’s presidential material. He was fairly solid as a representative but he’s been an addle-brained weather vane in the Senate. His insistence that the ‘investigation’ last only a week and that if it isn’t done by then he’ll vote to proceed to confirm Kavanaugh cannot be taken as sincere or reliable – just from his flip/flop this morning, he’s demonstrated he’ll bend with whatever wind is blowing hottest at the moment, but that’s hardly the only example. Quite disgusting, actually.

      Edward in reply to Daiwa. | September 29, 2018 at 12:00 am

      I sincerely hope the President does everything legally possible to make the rest of Flake’s life an equal to the living Hell he has enabled to continue to be heaped upon Judge Kavanaugh and his family.

      Maine probably would elect an even worse Democrat than Collins, and likely will in 2020. Alaska needs to rid itself of Murkowski, but they are so conditioned to the government handout to every citizen that they may see an advantage to fully turning Socialist. Once upon a time Alaskans were very independent people. Government money seems to have bought them.

There is no way to rid the party of these ‘Vichy’ Republicans because the people in their respective states are a mirror of them.

    Matt_SE in reply to Whitewall. | September 28, 2018 at 11:54 pm

    Incorrect.
    The GOPe keeps getting these people re-elected through a series of tricks and strategies meant to skew the odds. Taken together, they add up to an almost insurmountable advantage.

    The way to defeat the GOPe is to understand and expose their strategies to the public. Also necessary is some central form of coordination and counter-programming.

    This is what Steve Bannon was trying to do a couple of years ago, and that’s why the GOPe made sure he was exiled. They essentially manipulated Trump into doing their dirty work for them.

    Because many people were reflexive Trump supporters, they didn’t question the wisdom of throwing Bannon out any more than they challenged the narrative of the Roy Moore fiasco.

      “Because many people were reflexive Trump supporters, they didn’t question the wisdom of throwing Bannon out any more than they challenged the narrative of the Roy Moore fiasco.”

      Speak for yourself, bucko. And the Founders gave us all the same toolset for dealing with politician tools. I’m using them.

        Matt_SE in reply to SDN. | September 29, 2018 at 9:50 am

        “Speak for yourself.”
        Oh, I wasn’t talking about me. I was here at the time, telling people they were making a mistake and why. Nobody seemed interested in listening.
        Ditto for the Roy Moore debacle.

    Matt_SE in reply to Whitewall. | September 28, 2018 at 11:56 pm

    P.S. the idea that everyone is stupid except you is confirmation bias. That is another trick the GOPe ENCOURAGES to keep people ignorant of the truth.

    It’s similar to how any challengers to the RINO candidates are all unelectable kooks. It is statistically IMPOSSIBLE that it’s true; every race cannot attract only kooks. It’s just another smear the GOPe uses.

      V.Lombardi in reply to Matt_SE. | September 29, 2018 at 6:15 am

      That seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy. RINOs smear a conservative saying he/she is not electable, then they sabotage the candidate, and when the candidate loses, they cite the loss as proof.

      There could be 3-4 more republican senators if the McConnell gang had not sabotaged candidates. A decent republican would have replaced Murkowski. RINOs aided her victory though she was not on the ticket. They overrode the primary voters.

Flake: so, bribery or blackmail?

If anything happens to Kavanaugh, Flake will have to answer for it.

Which will mean he will get a high paying gig with MSNBC.

    MAB in reply to EBL. | September 28, 2018 at 9:37 pm

    Do you really think he cares?

    Matt_SE in reply to EBL. | September 29, 2018 at 12:00 am

    The answer is to make Flake answer for every hiccup in the next week. For example, within 12 hours the legal team of Ford’s had already repudiated Flake’s “deal” with Democrats.

    Someone should’ve stuck a microphone in his face to make him answer for it. He’s the one who held up the process for this farce: he’s the one who bears the blame if it explodes.

    I figure the only outlet with enough juice to compel Flake on the record is Fox News. He will probably just ignore anyone else.

Again…
If Ford is found to be less than honest, will she be exposed to possible prosecution?

    katiejane in reply to snowshooze. | September 28, 2018 at 10:40 pm

    Wouldn’t you hope that someone on the Right would be already looking into not only Ford but the other 2 women? Apparently the GOP just sits on their thumbs because they don’t want to be accused of being mean to these poor women. /s

    Of course she will face consequences.

    Remember Bike Lock Thug? Blindsided four of our people with lethal force?

    Four felony counts. Bashing people over the head with a metal lock. “The felony charges against him were dismissed, and an allegation that he had caused serious bodily injury was stricken.”

    He got 3 years probation!
    I
    Ford will get a strongly worded warning revised to a resolution that she must agree, may! she must promise pinky swears to something something something.

    My alternate reality is looking better and better every day. The left stopped going out of bounds long ago because we punished them severely for it instead of rewarding them.

    I’m still flabbergasted that Stolen Valor Poser has a seat on the Judiciary committee. much less a Senate seat. In my reality, stealing valor and reputation from dead heroes was a serious ethical breach. And ethical breaches did not result in to promotion to honorable positions of responsibility and influence.

    We didn’t have to hang him. His own people shunned him into obscurity.

    Of course, our people didn’t tolerate that level of corruption. It would be like shrugging off blasphemy.

    I’m going to go find Thanos.

      Edward in reply to Fen. | September 29, 2018 at 12:06 am

      It’s Connecticut, there is no hope of getting rid of Blumenthal. Lying about service in RVN is a plus. Not the service, but getting away with lying about it.

      olhardhead in reply to Fen. | September 29, 2018 at 3:51 pm

      Stolen valor hasn’t stopped John the traitor Kerry. He’s still doing traitorous things…No justice for him yet…jus sayin’

    V.Lombardi in reply to snowshooze. | September 29, 2018 at 6:20 am

    Certainly not by Sessions. He is the leader of republican betrayal.

The answer to Mr. Millhiser is simply, because some Republicans just might shoot your red liberal ass.

I will hope the Investigation covers every facet of the Ford allegations. And starts looking up HER tail.

The only carrot and stick for Murkowski and Collins are committee appointments. As I was posted elsewhere Murkowski is otherwise almost bullet-proof (IF I can use that old expression).

These proceedings rival the Andrew Johnson impeachment times. The one senator (Ross) who saved the nation at that time took a huge hit.

We are at the threshold again. Who will be that “Ross”? I doubt three senators I know will fill those shoes.

    V.Lombardi in reply to alaskabob. | September 29, 2018 at 6:22 am

    What about opposition in the next election, the same way McConnell and his gang destroyed several other republican candidates who were decent conservatives.

Do you think Roy Moore would have waffled?

Notice the fine healthy complection of Ford.
She looks like 20 miles of bad road.
A party life of booze and drugs will do that.
And look at Brett… he could pass for being in his 40’s…
As a Psychology Professor, can she self-prescribe medications?
I guess it doesn’t matter. If she wanted some, she is connected.

    guyjones in reply to snowshooze. | September 28, 2018 at 9:40 pm

    Good observation. And, please — she only had one beer, that night? She can’t remember the town, the address, the day, or, the month of the alleged attack. But, she’s damn sure it was Brett Kavanaugh who attacked her! This is insanity.

    JusticeDelivered in reply to snowshooze. | September 28, 2018 at 9:58 pm

    We have an older part of town where prostitutes ply their trade along a highway. There are many industrial businesses along there. Many of those women look pretty rough, just like Ford.

    herm2416 in reply to snowshooze. | September 29, 2018 at 11:40 am

    Psychiatrists can write scripts, not psychologists.

I don’t blame Grassley, or, McConnell, or, any other member of GOP leadership. Trying to keep the GOP caucus in line, with this many weak-willed, easily-duped rubes on the roster who are prone to defection, is an utterly impossible task, given unfortunate realities of the caucus composition. This isn’t the Mafia; we can’t put a gun to their heads and compel their loyalty.

The three Stooges remaining in office after Flake retires need to be replaced with conservatives of more substantive backbone and fiber. And, beyond that, we need to increase our majorities. It is beyond masochistic to have to perpetually approach the four Stooges, on bended knee and with hat in hand, to kiss their rings and beg for their fealty and support on every issue under the Sun.

And, predictably, as sure as the changing of the tides and the phases of the moon, the duplicitous, vindictive, lawless and totalitarian Dumb-o-crats are already angling for an FBI investigation without time limits or subject matter constraints imposed. As per usual, give these hustlers an inch and they’ll take a parsec, and, your wallet, while they’re at it.

This is a delaying tactic, quite transparently. The Dumbs are hoping more kooks come out of the woodwork, with accusations. Or, that some unflattering dirt on Judge K. will be dug up. Maybe he once had a subscription to Playboy magazine, or, something. Maybe some friendly faces at the “neutral” FBI will conjure up some Psy-Ops dirty tricks.

If anyone believes that these power-hungry sociopaths will placidly accept the FBI’s findings and tell their ginned-up and frenzied mob to pull up their tent stakes and go home, I’ve got some prime oceanfront real estate in Kansas, to sell to you.

    I’m sorry guyjones I accidentally downvoted you. I meant to do the opposite. You are so right. I’ts a delaying tactic. I go on record that I don’t believe a word of what Ford said and i’m Sick and tired of everyone saying how credible she was. She wasn’t. She was working hand in glove with the Dems to destroy the judge. I just hope and pray there is some decency left in this world.

      guyjones in reply to MAB. | September 28, 2018 at 10:02 pm

      No worries. Well, the clock is ticking — POTUS has authorized a “one-week” FBI investigation. So, agents will re-interview the two lead players and the supporting cast. Presumably, none of them will be so foolish as to contradict their prior testimony and/or written accounts and place themselves in legal jeopardy.

      Which will leave us with what, exactly, at the end of this exercise? Everyone will basically reiterate and reconfirm their prior attestations. Barring some sort of explosive revelation along the lines of, Kavanaugh has multiple freezers in his basement, containing dismembered human body parts, along with Satanic ritual garb, we will back where we were at the end of the last day of testimony before the Committee — with the infantile, spite-filled and venomous Dumb-o-crats still clamoring for blood and a Deus Ex Machina to enter from stage left, to grant them victory.

    “I don’t blame… GOP leadership. Trying to keep the GOP caucus in line, with this many weak-willed, easily-duped rubes on the roster who are prone to defection, is – ”

    You know I love you.

    But someone who cannot keep weak-willed dupes in line has very poor leadership skills.

    And your average county clerk has the political skills to shape this into a desired result.

    I’m with Stannis. Interrogate last night’s watch then execute them. They were either derelict or they conspired with the enemy.

    Oh, another thing – Reason #23 why you never quit, never throw a game, never stop fighting: when your moment finally comes, your body has forgotten its strength.

    We need a new party. No loss. We already knew there was no going back to the GOP’s failure theater once Trump left office. Better that we get started now.

    And ohmygod not a damn word about decorum and civility. That’s as stupid as the RedCoats marching rank and file while American snipers annilahated them from the treeline.

    Matt_SE in reply to guyjones. | September 29, 2018 at 12:05 am

    The GOPe leadership is very much to blame. Flake didn’t put himself on the Judiciary Committee with an upcoming SCOTUS confirmation (and after Flake announced he was retiring, removing most leverage from him).

    All of that would’ve been taken into account by competent leadership. Leadership that wasn’t interested in stroking the egos of prima donnas like Flake.

    Then there’s all the incentivizing of traitors they’ve done over the years for betrayals. I don’t recall one time that McCain, Collins, or Murkowski were punished for bucking the party line. I’m pretty sure that contributed to the problem, since McConnell didn’t hesitate to punish people like Ted Cruz.

    V.Lombardi in reply to guyjones. | September 29, 2018 at 6:56 am

    You did not follow the histoy of McConnell stacking the senate with RINOs. He is guilty.

    Anonamom in reply to guyjones. | September 29, 2018 at 10:27 am

    “I don’t blame Grassley, or, McConnell, or, any other member of GOP leadership.”

    I do.

Wouldn’t it be normal for the FBI to investigate the credibility of the person making a charge? I have an idea that if they started looking at this Ford woman, who gives me the impression of being nutty as a fruitcake, that would change the dynamics in a hurry.

    It would be really funny — and, some sublime just desserts — if the FBI investigation produced rock-solid evidence that Ford’s account is transparently-contrived and utterly false. Not that we can’t assume that, already, based on numerous factors, including her inconsistent narratives and utter paucity of evidentiary supports. But, the proverbial “smoking gun” sure would be a nice way to conclude this farce.

    But, my understanding is that the FBI in such matters doesn’t reach evidentiary conclusions — it merely gathers evidence and releases the fruits of its production to the Committee.

    For allegations of violation of state misdemeanor statutes? No.

The bottom line is the same as always: Flake, Collins, and Murkowski have wanted to vote against Kavanaugh since the beginning but have been too cowardly to just declare it and send him down. Instead they have been demanding delay after delay (either paralleling or in collaboration with the unified Democrats) in the hope of wearing down the Republicans into withdrawing the nomination, or else hoping to find some fig leaf by which they can justify their vote without facing retribution.

It is very clear then that if they again force another delay beyond this week, that the nomination is dead – and McConnell needs to force a vote and put senators on the record – and then launch a furious campaign to increase their numbers in the next Senate.

And if all three vote against, that will give Manchin cover to vote yes without cost, since it would then be 49-51.

As for Grassley and McConnell – and probably Graham too – they must be furious that their fellow Republicans are not willing to keep the deals they make but keep revoking them and adding new conditions.

In any case, our country has been riven apart and no matter what goes on from here, politics was be the most poisonous they have been since the run-up to the Civil War. I really don’t know if our system can endure in a form recognizable to what our constitution established.

    V.Lombardi in reply to civil truth. | September 29, 2018 at 6:54 am

    Those 3 are together, want to vote no for any convenient reason. They selected Flake as the bad guy since he is leaving. The ladies hide behind him. McConnell and his gang purge the caucus? Those people are the ones that have filled the caucus with RINOs. That’s impossible. McConnell and his gang have brought about this failure by defeating conservative candidates. It’s fitting that they lose now, but no one will blame them. They are not victims.

      If those three disappeared or changed their minds, there are plenty of other corrupt Republicans who would step in to again make the kabuki work out to a one-vote loss.

      It’s like I’ve been saying for decades now, even if Republicans had 102 senators, they would still find a way to lose to the Democrats by one vote.

This action merely pushes this country one step closer to all out civil war. The Democrats and other liberal-progressives are trying their best to destroy this nation and all that it stands for. Now, the Republicans are aiding and abetting that destruction. The people who voted for a return to the founding principles of this nation are rapidly being placed in the position of having to violently its destruction.

Liberal-progressives are allowed to lie, cheat and steal. They are allowed to physically threaten and attack those with whom they disagree. And, the Republicans in office allow this to go on. The PEOPLE are being placed in the position of having to use the same extra legal means, that are used by the libs, to protect themselves. Once that happens, it will not end well. But, it begins to look as though it will, in fact, happen.

Folks, don’t worry about this. Kavanaugh will be confirmed. And any victory is still a victory. The only thing that would stop this process is if Kavanagh would withdraw. That isn’t going to happen. We are heading in a very typical, maddening, road to confirmation. This gentleman is not going to be Borked and he’s not going to quit. Let not your heart be troubled. We are winning.

    Colonel Travis in reply to eva marie. | September 28, 2018 at 10:15 pm

    Agree. It’s frustrating but there isn’t any other way around it with such stupid, self-serving jerks in office.

    Take the victory and march forward.

    I have been following politics since DDE was President and I read the Dallas Morning News and the NY Herald Tribune (dated myself for sure there, and the DMN is a Leftist rag now). I don’t disagree that the victory will likely still happen. But this process is as far from “…a typical…road to confirmation…” as I’ve ever seen.

    V.Lombardi in reply to eva marie. | September 29, 2018 at 6:49 am

    This is atypical. The party “leaders” who you may support are the problem. The election is nearly lost.

I lived inVenezuela when Chavez ran for president and was voted in. This is how th down spiral started: pitting people of different races, ethnicities, social classes against each other, fanning resentment, character assasination – until it turned into actual assassination. Then the laws were attacked, the legislature, the economic system, and so on – until we have the failed state of the present. I ‘m seeing it happen in my country. The signs are there and I am heartsick.

    JusticeDelivered in reply to MAB. | September 28, 2018 at 10:40 pm

    We cannot allow these people to run roughshod over us. It will only become worse if we do not stand our ground. Unfortunately, when opponents do their dirty work from the gutter, one must wade in to clean up the mess.

      That may be necessary. We can’t just sit back and let it happen.

      I don’t know what it’s like where you live but here in CA, just try to discuss this with anybody. Even people who might agree with you are afraid to talk. Even within their own families. Most people are afraid to discuss this even in private. THAT tells me we are losing. Or maybe even that we have lost. All we have are these blog comments and maybe one final vote in November.

If I were Kavanaugh I would tell the gOP to keep their little nomination. And Limbaugh is right, if they blow this, people will turn on them.

    alaskabob in reply to jack burns. | September 28, 2018 at 10:48 pm

    Limbaugh sees this as an attack to destroy the credibility of the electoral and judicial portions of our country. If elections are controlled by outside forces with Republicans when the Left KNOWs that they should have won, and the judiciary will not advance the agenda which goes back the election issue, then the Left will say only they can change this by replacing how these branches of government are chosen and run. Enter one party rule which selects which “candidates” are on the ballot and which judges are appointed.

    JusticeDelivered in reply to jack burns. | September 28, 2018 at 10:48 pm

    People have already turned on both parties, that is how Trump was elected. Both Rinos and Dems are teed off, and that was exactly what I hoped to see with Trump.

    We need both the FBI and DOJ cleaned up.

    First we need a second term of Trump, then perhaps we need to be electing independents as the next stage of draining the swamp.

      “People have already turned on both parties, that is how Trump was elected. Both Rinos and Dems are teed off, and that was exactly what I hoped to see with Trump.”

      That is exactly correct. Trump (or Bannon) looked at the Venn diagrams and noticed that the fastest growing party was “disgruntled former Democrats and former Republicans” who bolted their parties for the same reasons without switching to the “other” party. Most voters now agree that it doesn’t matter who you vote for, all you are voting for are opposing set of lies. In the end, they both take us to the same place. We all came to agreement on this.

      The problem is that former Dems and former Reps took habits and language with them and couldn’t/wouldn’t communicate with each other. Trump solved that by speaking in a language we both understood and got us to vote as a block. But we still haven’t congealed with an identity.

      I am an unaffiliated independent. The enemy is the NWO Socialist Uniparty that has tricked voters into voting away their freedoms. Voters need to recognize that they can’t vote their freedoms back once they regret it. We are still a majority in this country if we define what we are and drop the Dem/Rep BS. You are either an American patriot defending our constitutional rights and freedoms (“Don’t Tread On Me”) or a NWO globalist (“Raise High The Banner Of Proletariat Internationalism”).

      Heck, the new Democrats who have undermined the party are officially organized as the Socialist Democratic Alliance. They are newbies who already managed to populate the Dem side of the Senate Judiciary Committee. When can we refer to them in the same terms that they refer to themselves? Communists! We can’t even do it among ourselves! How does anyone rationalize that we are winning?

    V.Lombardi in reply to jack burns. | September 29, 2018 at 6:47 am

    Republicans deserve it, to be jolted by Kavanaugh telling them he is going home, will not let the party allow him to be smeared 7×24 nationally.

    If republicans lose in November the nation suffers but the party can be purged.

Are we sure Flake is an American? Seems to me he has some French blood in him the way he surrendered to the DemocRATs so easily.

Ugh! I hate the Democrats and their politics of personal destruction. To quote Charlton Heston‘s character in Planet of the Apes, Damn them all to hell!

No matter who blows what – we vote Republican in November this year and every year. Trump needs us to vote Republican and we need to support him. Nobody go wobbly now.

    JusticeDelivered in reply to eva marie. | September 28, 2018 at 10:51 pm

    I will vote Republican as long as Trump is in and the party continues on its current path. Right now they are the lessor evil, without Trump it is unclear if that will still be the case.

    That’s what I have been saying all along, and keep the pressure on the elected. Get involved and stay involved.

Folks, I’m seeing a more devious plot from McConnell and Grassley. Based on several comments coming from reporters talking with GOP senators after their late afternoon meeting with Mitch McConnell, it looks like the deal McConnel made with the GOP “swing vote” senators is very calculated. In return for launching the requested maximum one-week FBI investigation, appears the GOP uncommitted senators have agreed that if the FBI investigation concludes with no findings of corroborating evidence that Kavenaugh was involved in the Ford accusation, then they will all vote YES, regardless of any other “stuff” that may come out against Kavenaugh over the duration of the FBI probe. These senators would now have “cover” for their vote since they acquiesced to Democrat demands. With that deal in place, Kavenaugh’s confirmation will be guaranteed, since there appears to be little risk that the FBI will find “evidence” implicating Kavenaugh/ The FBI will remind all persons being interviewed that their testimony, if found to be false, would be a felony federal offense. Doubtful folks will agree to testify that their recollection of events 35 years ago was strong enough that they are willing to risk penalties for giving false information. Hence, McConnell is confident that Kavenaugh will be approved as the next Supreme Court justice, and is saying so publicly.

As for completing an investigation within the week allowed, various Internet chatter is reporting that the FBI has notified regional offices around the country to provide available resources, which might allow each agent to be assigned to a specific single piece of the investigation. That suggests you wouldn’t need to have a small team of FBI agents all going around together getting info which would be a slower process, but instead there would be a large number of agents, each with say one or a few tasks to complete. That could easily happen in a matter of a few days. The FBI is also aware that most people will be accessible on a weekend, so they will likely be meeting with people starting tomorrow morning, possibly concluding the investigation more quickly than envisioned.

    stevewhitemd in reply to NOLA69. | September 28, 2018 at 10:45 pm

    NOLA69, I’d like to think that the technical side of an FBI review would be like that. When the President and Senate Majority Leader say jump, you’re in the air. A fair bit of the review will be dusting off what they already have on Mr. Kavanaugh (and have already reported to the Judiciary Committee) from their prior six reviews. But yes, all hands on deck, get the field agents to talk to everyone, and burn some midnight oil to collate the information into a report that can be read aloud in some coherent way.

    My concern isn’t the technical side, it’s 1) the political side of the FBI which may rear its head and 2) that the calculation is wrong, that Flake/Collins/Murkowski will find another reason to flip.

    So I’d like this scenario to be right just so we can put a lid on the use of extreme character assassination as a political too. But I’m going to have to reserve judgment for now.

      JusticeDelivered in reply to stevewhitemd. | September 28, 2018 at 10:54 pm

      Do not forget that the FBI has shown some very partisan bias. It is quite possible they will work to promote the Dems agenda.

      Yep, neither the Democrats nor GOP are interested in the truth. This isn’t about justice. It’s about political power and “both” players know that this is a pivotal point that will determine whether the Constitution survives. I just don’t see the urgency from the GOP to fight on those terms. Schumer openly declared that they will “whatever it takes” to win. Obviously, they mean it.

      Where were McConnell and Grassley to respond with equal vigor? Where were the rest of the Republicans? Smoking pot and dancing around the maypole? It’s all just a parlor game “cowboys and Indians” to the GOP. The final act in the kabuki play.

    katiejane in reply to NOLA69. | September 28, 2018 at 10:47 pm

    Personally I don’t think the GOP swing votes can be counted on to adhere to any deal like that. If some other “stuff” comes up in the investigation they will fold on any promise in a heart beat.

    That would mean more to me if it didn’t come from the side that set firm non-negotiable deadlines and then broke them.

    V.Lombardi in reply to NOLA69. | September 29, 2018 at 6:45 am

    The FBI is now entirely political. They have avoided investigating some of the biggest crimes in US history in recent years. They will not do an effective investigation of a 36 year old matter which has no evidence in 1 week. Republicans keep backign down, losing is assured.

    Mac45 in reply to NOLA69. | September 29, 2018 at 12:50 pm

    The Dems really do not think that they can derail the Kavanaugh confirmation. They know that Ford’s allegations, as well as all of the subsequent allegations, are worthless. This whole circus is for the purpose of cranking up their radical base and stimulate their more moderate base to believe that the Republican dominated government, in DC, has conspired to steal their victory from them. It is designed to foment popular unrest. And, popular unrest usually results in only one thing, violence. It happened in the Revolutionary War, the Vietnam War and a multitude of social conflicts in between. In the last decade, we have seen it in all of the BLM incidents and the days preceding and following the 2016 Presidential election. This is all designed to foment revolution against the current power structure. Unfortunately, these actions also serve to convince the rest of the citizenry that the Dems and liberal-progressives are their enemies and are actively seeking to physically attack them and their interests. There is a good chance of a violent backlash occurring.

NOLA69, I’ve heard this too: James Harris on the Conservative Circus talked about it today. McConnel seems awfully sure he has the votes.

I hope you (e.g. NOLA69) are not just engaging in wishful thinking. I wonder how many appeasers in Congress thought they were making clever deals with Southern hotheads, and thought they were saving the Union, in the run-up to the Civil War. Clay, Douglas, Pierce . . . The Brits and the French went through the same process in the 1930s. When your opponents are implacable, it is counter-productive to try to placate them; it only makes them hungrier.

At the present time, the Democrats are not even behaving like rational people—they are taking their lead from the rabid mobs they have stirred up. There is no reasoning with them.

    HarvardPhD….Although you’re right on Democrats, I will have to assume they will all vote NO, but it’s the 3 swing vote Republican with Flake, Collins, and Murkowski that is the key, and it would be reasonable to think they are looking for “cover” to justify their YES vote. A clean FBI report on Ford is all they would need. I don’t think the master politician McConnell would agree to this if they didn’t pledge their vote based on the FBI report. Flake cannot be trusted as he is leaving the Senate, but the GOP can afford to lose his vote if Collins and Murkowski vote yes. I suspect NcConnell has some leverage to make those two keep their commitment with committee assignments and maybe other perks.

      There is no shortage of “swing votes” in the GOP. If the three you named fail, others will step up to fill the void and once again snatch defeat from the jaws of certain victory.

Who scrubbed Ford’s internet history to make an investigation more difficult? Charge them with obstructing justice!

The GOP is so committed to losing gracefully that they can’t see the obvious.

Kavanaugh by Proxy.
Confirmed on basis of everything but this.
If FBI investigation implicates him, impeachment.

Why the Democrats will never go for that because their goal is not to determine whether or not he is fit to be seated their goal is to delay his confirmation until after the midterms.

I’m sorry to rub salt but I keep coming back to the question of whether passivity and a failure to act are inherent flaws in conservative philosophy. But Reagan certainly wasn’t a puppy

    Fen in reply to Fen. | September 29, 2018 at 12:10 am

    Puppy? Really?

    How about
    But Reagan wasn’t a pussy

    I’ve given up on the label of “conservative”. I have no idea what it means in practical terms. No one is ever pure enough to belong to the club.

    It’s on the same pile as “liberal”, “libertarian”, “progressive” etal… Just masks to hide the true nature of those using them.

    The fight for freedom isn’t a debate club where we are only allowed to debate with euphemisms hinting at what we really mean. We are fighting communists and if we are too scared to even speak the words, how can we believe that we have the courage to actually engage in the battle?

And how can we destroy Flakes chances of landing a gig at MSNBC CNN etc. No way should he be allowed to profit from this. And we’re still at the stage where sulfuric acid is not tolerated in this establishment.

May I submit a video of a body language expert on Ford’s testimony?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGxr1VQ2dPI&feature=youtu.be

I liked the description of “licking one to death”. Interesting take on things.

Good news.
Donnelly is now saying that if the FBI investigation not finding anything he may vote for Judge K.

Republicans do NOT KNOW HOW TO WIN.

Seriously. Go back and re-watch the opening of the hearing yesterday. The cowards all EXPECTED to lose and be voting down Kavanaugh. They were caught utterly unprepared when Kavanaugh actually came out with a backbone.

And as soon as he was gone? Right back to prostrating themselves before the slimy pieces of shit and begging their forgiveness.

This FBI investigation is BULLSHIT. Anybody with a quarter of a functioning brain can map out what happens from here.

1) Ford either refuses to participate or her attorneys make more ludicrous demands before ‘consenting’ to an FBI interview. By the end of the week she will still NOT have been interviewed

2) Democrats throw another public tantrum about how the investigation is ‘not complete’ and needs more time. They demand more delays. RINO cucks Flake, Murkowski and Collins demand they give it to them.

3) After ANOTHER delay, Democrats throw yet another public tantrum about how the investigation hasn’t been ‘thorough’ enough. They demand the investigators come before Congress. To give time to do this they demand another delay. RINO cucks Flake, Murkowski and Collins demand they give it to them.

4) After THAT delay they are going to throw yet another public tantrum about how the FBI NEEDS MORE TIME and can’t be expected to investigate anything close to an election. So they demand ANOTHER delay.

NOTHING will change in a week except more slime being hurled by the Democrats.

Call their bluff. Force them to publicly vote and DEFEND THEIR VOTE.

If they aren’t going to vote yes now they sure as hell aren’t going to vote yes after a week where the FBI finds NOTHING NEW.

CALL THEIR BLUFF.

    V.Lombardi in reply to Olinser. | September 29, 2018 at 6:36 am

    We know the RINOs hate Trump. They are also corrupt and cowardly. I think those are the reasons though I do not accuse them of being too smart. They choose to lose.

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | September 28, 2018 at 11:47 pm

Fyi

USA Today allows a posited theory column structured around the premise that Judge Brett Kavanaugh be subjected to the same investigative and safety principles considered with a suspected child sex offender. Ergo, no more coaching his daughters’ basketball team….

Knowing how the repulsive leftists operate, this is possibly a signal flare for the direction their false-narrative engineers will attempt with the FBI investigation next week.

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | September 28, 2018 at 11:47 pm

Fyi

USA Today allows a posited theory column structured around the premise that Judge Brett Kavanaugh be subjected to the same investigative and safety principles considered with a suspected child sex offender. Ergo, no more coaching his daughters’ basketball team….

Knowing how the repulsive leftists operate, this is possibly a signal flare for the direction their false-narrative engineers will attempt with the FBI investigation next week.

They practically accused him of being a child predator. Despicable doesn’t convey what they did. He should sue their asses off!

There is one bright side.

This is like losing the last game of the season but after you’ve already qualified for the playoffs.

The real fight comes when we replace a liberal with a conservative on the court, Ginsberg or Sotomayor.

The GOP had their asses handed to them they better pull their head out for this next one, opefully they learned from it.

I’m going to keep the heat on my Congress Critters so they don’t go back to status quo.

Maybe WE should start protesting at their houses and driving them from restaurants it appears to be the only thing that motivates them

    Wrong. THIS is the swing vote that stamps the SCOTUS as 5-4 conservative. If we lose this one, there will be no “next time”. NOW IS ALWAYS THE RIGHT TIME TO DO THE RIGHT THING! “Next time” is for losers.

Looking at this with a bit of optimism, an FBI investigation just might expose Christine Blasey Ford as a flake. That would eviscerate the “I believe her” arguments of Hirono, Blumenthal and their disgusting ilk and perhaps reinvigorate the “innocent until PROVEN guilty” attitude Americans traditionally had.

Well, well, well. Flake was taken. Those two survivors that cornered him in th elevator are activists from the Soros funded Cener for Democracy and it’s Action Fund!

Re: Leadership means being proactive

Feinstein.

Ginsburg is next. Could happen tomorrow. So, after the stunt Feinstein pulled, why is she still on the Judiciary committee? So she can do it again?

GOP Leadership is LAZY. Their attitude of “well it all worked out in the end, let go” is exactly why Fusion GPS keeps bending us over when they should be in court fighting for their lives.

Stop letting them get up off the mat.

And watch Grassley. He’ll be yucking it up with Feinstein in no time, as if this was all a fun game

It’s exactly the way T.H. White described medieval warfare:

Sit Feinstein: Our mounted knights will charge your peasants line and massacre them.

Sir Grassley: Likewise, our mounted knights will charge your peasants and massacre them.

Sir Freinstein: And if our swords should cross?

Sir Grassley: We shall each ensure the other is taken alive and entertained until they are ransomed back to their family.

Whitehouse is saying he thinks he’s cracked the judge’s calendar code and can pinpoint when Ford was attacked.

THIS IS SOLELY THE RESULT OF SESSIONS ALLOWING LEFTIST TREASON AND CORRUPTION GOING UNCHALLENGED. THIS SITS SQUARELY ON THA RAT’S HEAD, AND HIS HEAD ALONE.

Flake is a POS – but we knew that. Thats why w dumped him.

But this is a crisis: we are in the midst of unchecked tyranny. This is a coup attempt, and it is being enabled by sessions in his de-fanging the justice dept.

Chi com Feinstein should be at the same end of an indictment as klinton. Instead, the likes of both are running rampant, unchecked by he Constitutional powers of thr presidency.

Flake should be shot, sessions castrated and then shot, and both shoved in the same coffin as mccain.

Trump should fire sessions and rosenstein, then see to it Justice goes after klinton, feinstein and the rest of te gang.

If he doesnt, welcome to the Second Civil War.

Now revealed that the Flake confrontation was not only staged, but the girls were paid by Soros and were actresses. Neither was sexual abused.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/09/women-screaming-at-flake-in-elevator-were-soros-funded-astroturfed-activist-leaders-not-sex-abuse-victims/

Her real hair in the polygraph picture is very different. What she was sporting on the day looked like a wig to me. She refused to pin her hair behind her ears even when it was falling all over her spectacles. Just an observation of a very fake woman.

Ah, Soros again.

We keep giving the likes of him and Fusion GPS free reign, and when they influence events we make excuses that “nothing can be done”

Poor leadership.

You are going to keep getting these situations as long as you have Republican Democrats like Flake in the Senate!

You ABSOLUTELY MUST vote in proper Conservative representatives otherwise this will never end!! Flake would be a no one if there were 55 other CONSERVATIVE representatives in power right now!

Yes he is a flakey flake BUT its just going to stay that way if people like him are put in to office.

And sure as fuck if you stay home then these last few weeks will just be the warm up act because the Democrats are out for blood! Real blood I may add as well!!!

I refuse to describe or view getting Kavanaugh on the Supreme court as a defeat because of how it was finally accomplished. Considering what was thrown at him and they are still moving forward and GOING to get the votes to seat him is incredible! What’s horrible is not that we have people like Flake and Collins it’s that the Democrats don’t and they operate like the Borg. That’s what has changed in politics. It used to be both sides always had members that could be swayed and reasoned with. Now we are simply at war with the opposition. The left declared that about 20 years ago….the right didn’t realize that had happened till about 6 days ago.

    Joe Manchin is the only fence sitter on the D-side and he’s up for re-election in a red state Trump won by a near 3-1 margin

    and Manchin has already come out and said he will vote YES barring any new info coming out but one can read between the lines of what that actually means

    he will be one of the sure Democract YES votes if the Republicans get to the 50 threshold

    if 2 R-senators break though, then he will predictably eat the bullet and vote NO to snub Kavanaugh

    Even if he is stopped, if we pick up three or four seats Trump can nominate him again.

Coincidence? It seems that when Julie Swetnick filed her sexual harassment suit against New York Life, she was represented by nine other than Debra Katz’s firm.

Sadly, I cannot help but feel that this is a bed the Republican leadership made for themselves. Leadership participated in the obliteration of Roy Moore and made it known he would not be welcome in Washington. They aided and abetted Lisa Murkowski’s write in campaign. The put Jeff Flake on the Judiciary Committee. What is a rube in ship’s clothing doing on a crucial committee?

We are all victims of their hubris.

    legalbeagle in reply to Ulysses. | September 29, 2018 at 9:06 am

    Given his capabilities and judgment, Jeff Flake should have been on nothing more than the Aging Committee and perhaps Indian Affairs. I am flabbergasted that any person of responsibility would let this man hold a position of consequence in the Senate.

“We’ve been humiliated by seeing our representatives forced to retreat, apologize, capitulate and crawl past the finish line.”

Not so. We’ve been humiliated by our spineless representatives being so willing to retreat, apologize, capitulate and crawl to the edge of the finish line. They NEVER crawl past the finish line to victory.

Republican motto: “Refuse to win!”

Republican battle cry: “It’s never EVER the right time to do the right thing.”

It’s all one big corrupt uniparty kabuki theater. There is no point of analyzing strategy and tactics anymore. We are just film critics reviewing the final sequel of a very bad movie. Our constitutional protections are gone. Voting clearly isn’t getting us anywhere. I don’t want to see how this movie ends.

The narrative is rapidly shifting from “the FBI must investigate” to “Kavanaugh is unfit for the SC because of his temperament.”

As anyone with a brain could clearly see, the Dems are shifting the goal posts.

At this point, a confirmation is a win even if it takes another week. Yes, Flake’s behavior only emboldens the Dems. More bad behavior on the way. A week delay allows more time for more fake victims and merciless threats and intimidation of the weak 3 Repubs. And then there is another week of the compliant press to portray the weak 3 as scum. My only hope is the Dems have already burned the bridge with the weak 3 and their threats and lobbying won’t matter.

MaggotAtBroadAndWall | September 29, 2018 at 9:33 am

I don’t know if they are just venting, but I’ve seen a couple of people on Twitter say that they are giving up on the GOP and won’t vote in Nov.

One said the GOP has the House, Senate, and Presidency, and a nominee for SCOTUS who is so squeeky clean he’s passed 6 background checks, and now they can’t get him across the line based on uncorroborated accusations from when he was a teenager a third of a century ago.

    If they get him confirmed, most of that will be forgotten at this point. But it’s true that constant delays eventually drive away the base.
    This is why, for example, even if Sessionszzz is actually playing n-dimensional possum like some people hope, after a certain point it won’t matter because he will have lost most of the law-abiding base to frustration.

    As they used to say, “justice delayed is justice denied.”

    If the Republicans lose the House and the Senate things will be much worse than they are now. Much, much worse. It will literally be stabbing Tump in the back. I will vote Republican in November, if for no other reason than to support Trump.

    Three Republicans are holding the GOP hostage (they are Republican in name only). Attack them. Don’t commit hari kari.

    The Democrats pull this far out, twilight zone B.S. at the last minute (along with three traitorous RINOs) and snowflake Republicans get their feelings hurt and say they won’t vote. This proves the Democrat strategy to take over is working as planned.

    “A couple of people on Twitter say they are giving up on the GOP.” Yes the Democrats have trolls everywhere working around the clock to demoralize us. The media is working hand in glove with them. And Soros is providing funding. And stupid Republicans are swallowing it hook, line and sinker.

      Matt_SE in reply to userpen. | September 29, 2018 at 1:21 pm

      “Yes the Democrats have trolls everywhere working around the clock to demoralize us.”
      Maybe, or maybe you’re paranoid. I find it very easy to believe that GOP voters have grown tired of the cowardice of their leaders. I know I have.

      I will further add that the rage and disgust of voters are emotional responses. Once those reach a fever pitch, there’s no rational argument you can make that will break it.

      The only way to win that scenario is to make sure it never happens.

      Yes, we must be unrelenting. Keep the pressure on those 3. Call daily!
      202-224-3121
      The other side is nonstop, so must we be.

The FBI is thing takes away the D’s favorite talking point.

And they might actually investigate the accuser, which would be hilarious.

The confirmation was already delayed past the start of the SCOTUS session, given the fact the D’s will demand a cloture vote and their full 30 hours of sour grapes time to grandstand before the confirmation vote.

Flake’s latest is nowhere near worse than his first – which delayed the initial committee vote and demanded last weeks abomination.

To repeat:
“A RINO in the majority can do more damage than a Democrat in the minority.”

    openeyes in reply to Matt_SE. | September 29, 2018 at 4:17 pm

    “I’d rather have a German Division in front of me than a French one behind.”
    – General George S. Patton Jr

    “I’d rather have a Democrat in front of me than a RINO behind.”

So why you would ask would Flake tell all that he would vote yes to confirm Kavanaugh? Because then he could be part of the “staged event” at the elevator with the paid Soros demonstrators. That’s why. Because now he can backtrack on that yes vote .Clearly he never wanted to vote yes. And now he can use that spectacle as an excuse not to.

This is not ‘resistance’ this is a full blown invasion and attack on the constitution and the USA. These are enemy combatants in full attack mode.

I can’t believe how timid so many of the posters here are. And I include professor Jacobson in that as well. The Democrats hit you below the belt and you just want to try to declare victory and quit? This is a street fight, not a ballet competition.

This FBI investigation can be a GOOD thing. It shows the voters you care about getting to the truth. AND – since it will be looking into “ALL current credible charges”, that would include charges of providing false statements to Congress (potentially against Ms. Ramirez and Ms. Swetnik), perjury (against Ms. Swetnick), and suborning perjury (against Michael Avenatti).

Actually fighting back, and actually drawing some real pain from your opponent when they fight dirty and break the rules is the only way you are going to get your opponent to actually stop fighting dirty.

Don’t be so dang timid when you’re in a fight, people. Don’t look to the crowd to enforce the rule against low blows when you’re in a street fight. Fight back and cause some pain – that is the way you win a street fight.

President Trump should instruct his FBI to conduct this investigation with at least 10 agents – at least 6 of whom are looking into the Federal crimes of providing false statements to Congress, perjury, and suborning perjury. Come back with some actual indictments and THAT will make people think twice before coming forward with false charges.

    I agree in general to your charge of timidity of Republicans but everything else is nonsense.

    First, the Professor began this blog all by himself declaring himself interested in learning about conservative politics and issues. Most of his first posts started with “Tell me about….” And we would rumble.

    Over the years, the Professor has come a very long way. Legal Insurrection has evolved into a blog that often gets national attention and scores big points with the conservative cause. Just in the past few months, I’ve seen a significant uptick in his outrage and bluntness in calling out the Republicans. Hardly indicates timidity.

    The FBI investigation is a GOOD thing? You are the one who sounds like a coward. You are fighting the wrong battle. The proper battle was for defending and upholding the official constitutional process for appointing SCOTUS judges. But the bipartisan kabuki theater immediately surrendered in the opening seconds of the hearings. We would eventually learn that this was an orchestrated personal process of ambush leading up to the Feinstein’s final ambush at the closing minutes.

    Now you are calling people cowards for not playing along with Feinstein’s substitute process when she had months to supply the FBI with her information but didn’t? With friends like you…..

    Colonel Travis in reply to cazinger. | September 29, 2018 at 10:47 am

    The Democrats hit you below the belt and you just want to try to declare victory and quit? This is a street fight, not a ballet competition.

    This FBI investigation can be a GOOD thing. It shows the voters you care about getting to the truth.

    I can’t be the only one who laughed at this. (D)s hit below the belt, therefore…

    …capitulate to the (D)s.

    forksdad in reply to cazinger. | September 29, 2018 at 11:08 am

    What ‘fighting back’ do you see happening here? What delusional, impossible world have you been living in where democrats face any repercussions for any crimes? What make believe, Ephraim Zimblest Jr bullshit story in your head do you see playing out?

    No voter sees this as anything but a naked democrat win pure, plain and simple. Street fight? A street fight would have been for the ranking republican to say, ‘no we don’t believe this skanky slut’. She’s lying in general and in all particulars. Street fight would have been for all of the republicans to laugh like hyenas when they offered a two question polygraph. Real resistance and backbone would have been for the the Roy Moore accuser to be publicly pilloried and humiliated for her obviously false to fact statements a year ago.

    No this is a naked, unadorned democrat win given they are in the minority and still coordinating with rino swamp creatures. At the very best, the most charitable, it is a pyrrhic victory.

    This did not pass the smell test from day zero. But still they indulged Diane Feinstein and her perjurous antics. No, you don’t always believe the woman and false rape accusations are common not rare by any means. Statistics that purport to show that it is five percent at most are pulled out of the nether regions.

      Matt_SE in reply to forksdad. | September 29, 2018 at 8:09 pm

      Good post.
      We will endure at this point because we have no other choice. The only lesson to learn here is that this is the quality of representation you get from the GOP establishment.

      We should probably stop re-electing these people, don’t you think?

    CincyJan in reply to cazinger. | September 29, 2018 at 12:32 pm

    Love your will to fight. At this (pathetic) point, we have no choice but to insist the FBI investigation ius a good thing. And then try everything possible to use it towards our end. Looing for opportunity to charge accusers who are lying would be great. We need to extract a cost for playing dirty tricks. Right now, only the ideals of presumed innocence and due process are paying a price. Hit back or give up and surrender.

Best case scenario at this point is that on Monday morning the FBI submits its report, showing that one week was more than generous. If they take the entire week, it suggests that more time should be given.

“MaggotAtBroadAndWall | September 29, 2018 at 9:33 am
I don’t know if they are just venting, but I’ve seen a couple of people on Twitter say that they are giving up on the GOP and won’t vote in Nov”

I would definitely write that off to Dem trolls pretending to be GOP voters trying to get the accept defeat meme rolling. The cold fury of actual GOP voters out here towards the Democrats is palpable and anyone even close to being a reasoned Dem is appalled by their own party..some are even starting to understand just what they are voting for if they continue to vote for Dems

    I am not venting. If I do not personally know an establishment republican, I will not vote for them. They are coordinating with the democrats. I don’t want anything like a bipartisan republican to exist. The democrats want the USA dead. They want us gone as a sovereign nation. You cannot compromise with that.

Flake accurately fits the man–his leaving will be a plus for Republicans because he couldn’t be reelected.
But let me add that the Republicans bungled the whole business. There should have been a committee vote followed immediately by a floor vote after the first set of hearings. Grassley is a nice man–but what is needed was someone as ruthless as the left. To understand the psychological make-up of the current bunch of “progressives,” one should read Yuri Slezkine’s new book with its brilliant dissection of the mentality of the founders of the Bolshevik regime.

Oddly, I don’t see a single mention in all of this hate WRT Duh Donald. Why isn’t he a “weak” GOPe member?

As I mentioned on another thread, his order to the FBI may have been politically shrewd, but was it right?

    stablesort in reply to Ragspierre. | September 29, 2018 at 11:22 am

    When Trump and the Republicans agree with the Democrats and call for an FBI investigation of a nominee that the USA Today doesn’t trust coaching a girls basketball team, Kavanaugh is certainly twisting in the wind on his own.

      Ragspierre in reply to stablesort. | September 29, 2018 at 11:33 am

      A single opinion piece in USAToday raised that really stupid point, not the paper.

      I think the Rs and T-rump are strongly behind BK, and I think he knows it. I’m not worried about a few-day investigation. I think BK comes out stronger for it.

      Now, it will be said that any time gives more chance for more crap to come out. But that’s going to happen in any event, even if BK had been confirmed today. You can make book that this is how at least the early days of his tenure will play. He’ll be the target of a continuing barrage of BS, with impeachment the target for some time to come.

        I’ve been saying all along that we citizens.. the ones who are adept at doing research, along with bloggers, should try to dig up as much dirt as possible about the accusers. I don’t believe a single one. I’m sure there are a lot of computer savvy people who could join forces and do this. If I were a computer whiz I would volunteer, but I’m not. Nothing stays hidden forever. Ford didn’t convince me at all, and even less the other two. Project Veritas where are you?

    Because if 2 of the 3 Flake, Murkkowski, and Collins vote against cloture, then the vote will not proceed.

    If Roy Moore had won, whom you opposed there would be some more leeway.

      Ragspierre in reply to RodFC. | September 29, 2018 at 12:49 pm

      If Strange won, who Duh Donald endorsed, his voting record says he would be a solid BK supporter.

      You can’t count unhatched chickens.

      The people of Alabama opposed Moore, and for very good reasons. This Texas voter didn’t determine any-damn-thing.

        Before the primary, I was neither a Strange nor Moore supporter.
        What you ignore is that after the primary, when the choice was Moore or a Dem you chose to oppose Moore.

          Ragspierre in reply to RodFC. | September 29, 2018 at 7:30 pm

          You mean that based on all the objective evidence, including Moore’s lies and those of his wife on the record, I found Moore not credible, yah. You’ve got me.

          So did the people and courts of Alabama. To this day.

          Matt_SE in reply to RodFC. | September 29, 2018 at 8:18 pm

          “You mean that based on all the objective evidence, including Moore’s lies and those of his wife on the record, I found Moore not credible, yah.”

          1) The GOP had to actively sabotage that race, and he still only lost by 1.5%. The GOP’s interference was the deciding factor.

          2) The “objective” evidence was that there were only two accusers with criminal accusations, and one of them was proven to have forged her yearbook evidence. The other one was a bad apple before she even met Moore.
          Those who opposed Moore did so to virtue signal or to ensure a non-establishment Republican wasn’t elected. His accusers weren’t credible. YOU are partially to blame for the Kavanaugh debacle.

          Good job.

          The only objective evidence was a forged yearbook, and Luther Strange was a crook. As for that endorsement? Donald Trump made a mistake. Your problem, Rags, is that even if Donald Trump goes away, we’re still going to be calling you the gaping A$$hole you are.

    Because President Donald Trump is neither Republican nor Establishment.

    And you are still misunderstanding what we mean with the term “Establishment”. Even Hillary Clinton is starting to finally get it, please catch up. You are like that girl in high school who turns every conversation back to the guy who dumped her.

      Ragspierre in reply to Fen. | September 29, 2018 at 4:33 pm

      Well, right about the first…he’s a Rightist Progressive who up to his “campaign conversion” was a Deemocrat.

      Wrong about the second; he’s Mr. Establisment. You don’t get no more “establishment” than he is.

      You are like the dishonest person everywhere who can’t deal straight-up with a question honestly.

    Arminius in reply to Ragspierre. | September 29, 2018 at 6:54 pm

    I have to agree with you here. There was no need for Trump to order the FBI to investigate. He could have merely asked the FBI director to use his best judgement if a supplemental investigation would be a wise use of the Bureau’s resources.

    Leaving the director free to repeat and expand on what a Bureau spox said when Feinstein first forwarded the Blasey=Ford to them.

    – The FBI only investigates violations of federal law within the statute of limitations.

    – Even though this is a thirty six year old allegation the Montgomery County authorities have publicly stated that if Prof. Ford files a criminal complaint with them they will investigate. It’s unclear if what she alleges was a crime in 1982. If they determine what she alleges amounts to attempted rape that was a misdemeanor at the time, with a one year statute of limitations. That was the state of the law until 1996, when the statute of limitations was eliminated. So they may not be able to pursue the case criminally, but the local, county and statehttps://legalinsurrection.com/2018/09/weak-republicans-deprived-us-of-a-victory-even-if-kavanaugh-eventually-is-confirmed/?replytocom=885803#respond law enforcement agencies are the only police agency in the world that can determine the validity of her claim.

    – The only thing the FBI can do in this regard is get statements from the accuser, the accused, and the witnesses to the alleged witnesses. Or as Sen. Biden put it 1991 when he lectured the judicial committee during the Clarence Thomas hearings that the FBI will not in that case or any other case draw any conclusions or even make any recommendations, the FBI investigation will amount to “He said, she said, they said.” This has not changed. Moreover, the committee already has that information in the form of public testimony, written testimony, and sworn statements.

    – Regarding other allegations, Ms. Ramirez has already publicly recanted her earlier claim. She did not make this claim to Congress, and providing false information to Congress is a felony, but on Facebook and in the media, which is protected by the First Amendment. Therefore there is nothing for the FBI to investigate. Ms. Swetnik claims to have witnessed multiple gang rapes. In fact, she claims to have been a victim of a gang rape and one of the nearly dozen drug and spiked punch-fueled gang rape parties she attended. Again, the local, county, and state Maryland authorities are the agencies that need to and have the jurisdiction to investigate these allegations.

    – It is irresponsible to request the FBI waste time and resources investigating these baseless allegations. Doubly so because the committee already has the only information that the FBI could give them, which means we would only be repeating the work already done by the Congressional investigators.

    – Therefore since Congress can’t give us any new information since the last time we refused to reopen Judge Kavanaugh’s background investigation, for the second time we decline.

    OK, that’s the statement I would make. But I think that if Trump just did what Flake asked, and just asked the FBI to investigate, they would have more tactfully declined. It was stupid for Trump to order them to investigate. There’s nothing for them to investigate.

    Except perhaps accusers making false statements to Congress in their written correspondence. Really? According to her attorneys Prof. Ford can’t get on an airplane?

    I would like to see FBI investigations, but into Ford and Swetnik and their attorneys. Publicly lying on social media and in the dinosaur media isn’t a crime so Ramirez is off the the hook.

Why was Flake even on the Judiciary Committee? McConnell must know that a weak Republican on a powerful committee is a hole that cannot be plugged. I can only assume that McConnell wanted that hole for leverage.

    Matt_SE in reply to stablesort. | September 29, 2018 at 8:20 pm

    That does seem like a rookie mistake, doesn’t it? And yet I keep being promised by establishment supporters that Mitch is an expert. Huh.

    Arminius in reply to gonzotx. | September 29, 2018 at 7:54 pm

    Gateway Pundit is not a reliable source. However, I did link to the CBS report, and it is accurately reporting what CBS is reporting. Which doesn’t imply that See B.S. is a reliable news source, either.

    If I were Trump I’d send White house lawyers to Rosenstein’s, Flake’s, and Wray’s offices first thing Monday morning, and question them to see if Flake lobbied Rosenstein and Wray before ambushing the President. Then have Rosenstein and Wray explain from a law enforcement perspective what exactly changed since the last time the FBI refused to reopen Kavanaugh’s investigation. Since it was a thirty six year old uncorroborated allegation the FBI announced that it was taking the only action it intended to take; they added the letter to Kavanaugh’s background investigation file. It was an uncorroborated allegation then, now we Prof. Blasey-Ford has provided a list of witnesses that can’t corroborate her allegation. So what’s different now? Since we already know the answer, nothing, did Flake, Rosenstein, and Wray agree to reopen the investigation anyway despite the fact the FBI refused to reopen the investigation on the same evidence earlier? And if so, what else did they agree to?

    I’d remind them of 18 U.S. Code § 1001 – Statements or entries generally. It’s not just lying or concealing material facts from the FBI that’s a crime. Then I would order Flake, Rosenstein, and Wray to hold a press conference and tell the world that the Congressional circus hearings provided no new evidence since the last time the FBI refused to investigate.

    Naturally, Trump can’t order Flake to do anything. But I’d say a good case can be made that because these three did not reveal to the President their prior coordination (conspiracy?) before going to Trump for a decision that is the very definition of concealing, covering-up, whatever, a material fact. And coming clean in public would be a good way, the only way, for Flake et al to avoid prosecution.

    When I mentioned circus earlier, I was thinking of the Circus Maximus where the blood baths that sated the lusts of the Roman masses took place before the Flavian Ampitheater (better known by the later medieval term Colosseum) was dedicated in 80 A.D. Trump needs to put a stop to this crap. Whether he will or not remains to be seen.

FFFFFFFlake!!!

Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins are RINO progressives that are just looking for an excuse to vote against Kavanaugh. If we don’t vote in enough conservatives to negate the influence of this two and force to leave to their real party then we’re truly lost.

    Ragspierre in reply to Ulises. | September 29, 2018 at 12:52 pm

    Just for the sake of honesty and history, there is no such thing as a “RINO”.

    Some of the worst Progressives in U.S. history were very open, strong Progressives and leaders of that movement. This would include Teddy and Tricky Dick, just to name a very few.

      Vladtheimp in reply to Ragspierre. | September 29, 2018 at 6:42 pm

      How did you miss Tomas Woodrow Wilson and his second wife who actually served as Chief Executive after his stroke?

      You also seemed to have missed Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor, unless you think she just saw to the laundry and dusting and was no force politically?

      Rather strange omissions from a list of some of the worst ‘Progressives in history.’

        Ragspierre in reply to Vladtheimp. | September 29, 2018 at 6:56 pm

        Sorry. I left off “Republican”. My error.

        I should have been more careful for the short bus readers.

        Some of the worst Progressives in American history were Republicans. As a matter of fact, they were leading lights in the movement.

        Republican is not a synonym for “conservative”. There are no RINOs. Just Republicans.

          Vladtheimp in reply to Ragspierre. | September 29, 2018 at 8:15 pm

          Maybe you should have been more careful period. The worst progressives have been Democrats, who actually felt the need to change their branding from progressive to liberal back to progressive.

          Improbable error for someone having such a high regard for their own impressive intellect. . . .

          Ragspierre in reply to Ragspierre. | September 29, 2018 at 8:36 pm

          No. Just respect for history, sweetie.

    Arminius in reply to Ulises. | September 29, 2018 at 8:20 pm

    In any case Murkowski can’t be a RINO however you define it as she’s an independent. So your beef is with McConnell for putting her on a committee where she’d have veto power over the President’s SCOTUS nominees. Why he’d give her any committee assignments other than the most harmless subcommittees r.e. the departments of transportation or education I’ll never know.

Cool your jets, peepz. First off, the FBI has exactly one goal that is to be achieved at all costs: safeguard the FBI. If they “find something” at this juncture, they’re going to have to admit THAT THEY FRAKKED UP **SIX** FRAKKING BACKGROUND INVESTIGATIONS prior to this one.

Would do wonders for their credibility, amirite? Oh, FFS, it wouldn’t. So they’re going to say “no evidence, kthxbai” no later than Tuesday. (Wednesday if they have a mandatory training day on Monday.) If that means throwing the Democrats under a bus, the FBI will merely note that they went crunch like everybody else.

    Close The Fed in reply to TheAbidingDude. | September 29, 2018 at 8:11 pm

    Abiding Dude, that was funny. :^)

    You’re right, of course. But the FBI can service both their bureaucratic needs and the needs of their Dem masters by simply dragging this “investigation” out interminably. They can announce on November 7th that they got it right the previous six times, and there’s no evidence Kavanaugh committed any crimes.

    And then the Democratic-controlled Senate can take up his nomination, if he hasn’t withdrawn by then or been assassinated.

Let’s look at this in a positive light, because if the Dems really do have the ability to have porn lawyers to drag a hundred thousand dollar go-fund me pages through a Yale parking lot and do what they’ve done to Kavanaugh, we are already sunk.

But maybe we are all just Generals fighting the last war, believing that the past results guarantee future performance.

I could be wrong, but why not be optimistic? This whole show is starting to remind me of a Las Vegas hustle, where the a drunk newbie with tons of money stumbles to the table and keeps losing until he’s down to his last chips and yells,”double or nothing!”.

    Vladtheimp in reply to elle. | September 29, 2018 at 7:11 pm

    I don’t see any ‘positive light’ coming out of this profile in embarrassment:

    What is the positive for the Rule of Law?

    What is the positive for regular and fair process?

    What is the positive for competent, qualified and honorable white men, be they fathers, brothers, husbands, who seek public service?

    What is the positive for competent, qualified and honorable white men, be they fathers, brothers, husbands, who seek advancement in the private service?

    What is the positive for the Supreme Court?

    What is the positive for truth?

    What is the positive for good Government?

    What is the positive for Judge Kavanaugh and his family?

    What is the positive for the future of our republican form of Government?

    There are no net positives in this shameful episode – certainly no positives for the future unless there are severe consequences for Feinstein, the pitiful Dr. Ford, Ramires, Swetnick, the Creepy Porn lawyer, Flake, Murkowski, Collins and the Democrat media.

    I would sit out the Mid-Term elections to punish the Republicans for their cowardice if the result would not to be turning over the Nation to Democrat Marxist. Identity-Obsessed Terrorists – never support terrorists, directly or indirectly – and undermining President Trump.

    To paraphrase Kurt Schlichter, Democrats are not going to like it when everyone plays by their new rules. . . .

      Ragspierre in reply to Vladtheimp. | September 29, 2018 at 8:37 pm

      You seem real obsessed with that “white men” thingy…

      What about the rest of America…???

        Arminius in reply to Ragspierre. | September 29, 2018 at 9:24 pm

        The rest of America isn’t hated for its skin color and sexuality. It’s only OK to hate white men because they are white men. And it’s OK because the “marginalized groups” who are calling the shots believe their hatred and desire for revenge is justified.

        The #MeToo and #BLM movements are the new KKK. “We believe the victim” so we don’t need evidence before proceeding to the lynching. And if you want to see evidence that’s just proof you’re a n***** lover. Or, as the #MeToo crowd would put it, a rape apologist.

        What about the rest of America? The rest of America will be well served by a system of justice that doesn’t base their decisions on skin color and gender and is dubbed credible by how well the accusers testify with the proper amount of tears and quavering voices. But instead on evidence.

        Arminius in reply to Ragspierre. | September 29, 2018 at 9:35 pm

        It isn’t the “white men thingy” I obsess about, Rags. It’s the Lavrentiy Beria standard of justice I obsess about. That was one of the things that irked me about the Zimmerman/Martin case. The state of Florida can hardly be said to have a justice system. They have a conviction rate that that falls just short of North Korea’s. I’m open to persuasion but not when the purported victims don’t demand reform but simply demand that the unfair system be used against their officially designated racial enemies.

          Ohio Historian in reply to Arminius. | October 2, 2018 at 9:12 am

          Sorry, upvoted you by mistake when I reached for reply. I decided that you must be the expert on FL law being racist because you said so. Let me remind you that FL was a Democrat state for over 100 years, so being a racist state is totally believable.

        Vladtheimp in reply to Ragspierre. | September 29, 2018 at 11:45 pm

        Obsessed? My comment was addressed to alleged ‘positives’ coming from this Democrat orchestrated Identity Politics lynching of a White Catholic Male, and how white men and women should realize its potential future impact on their fathers, brothers, sons and husbands – was that too nuanced for you to grasp, Honey?

          I upvoted you because I don’t disagree with what you wrote, but I think you misunderstood my point. My point was that I am beginning to think that Trump is hustling the left in the same way that a dufus with lots of money gets hustled in a casino. Trump would certainly have seen the move a gazillion times. Pretend to be a losing fool so the other guy thinks he’s on a major winning streak and gets more and more reckless with each bet until the moment he realizes he’s been hustled.

          Arminius in reply to Vladtheimp. | September 30, 2018 at 9:18 pm

          It’s called sandbagging, elle. Anyone who’s ever drag raced (I’m talking about the quarter mile race in cars, not cross dressing) knows the concept. You pretend your car is slower than it really is until the real money is on the table.

          On the track it’s not that easy to do as people can tell just by the sound of the engine whether or not you’re really pushing your car to its limits. Usually. I knew a guy who raced a Ford Pinto, with the standard Pinto 2.3 replaced with the Turbo 2.3 Pinto engine from the ’84-86 Turbo GT Mustang. I believe the engine was built in a Ford plant in Brazil. Anyway, it had sufficient foreign content that he could race in the import class against front wheel drive foreign cars like Civics, which were just starting to become popular but are basically built wrong for drag racing against rear wheel drive cars like this guys Pinto because of the weight shift to the rear end when you launch.

          You could also adjust the waste gate on those 80s Ford turbo cars with a simple aftermarket dial inside the car. Let’s say it came from the factory with 8 p.s.i. of boost. He’d run it at that for the first couple of races, and barely lose. And it sounded like he was really trying to put his foot through the firewall, because he was. That was the best his car could do at that level of boost. Then he wants one more race, and the real money comes out. And he dials it up to 18 p.s.i. and blows the other guy away.

          I suspect that is exactly what Trump and the GOP Senators are doing to the the Dems. Always be careful what you ask for, you just may get it.

          This is, I know, contradictory to what I said earlier in the comment thread. But since I made that earlier comment a couple of new data points have emerged that indicates the Dems may ultimately regret demanding an FBI investigation. And that Prof. Blasey-Fords lawyers may really regret asking that the investigation not be limited in time and scope.

    Arminius in reply to elle. | September 29, 2018 at 9:05 pm

    I hope your optimism proves correct.

    Actually, and I don’t know why, your analogy reminded me of a bar a friend of mine and I went into just off of Oakland, CA’s Jack London square. It was a beautifully decorated place, and the wait staff was extremely nice and friendly. We were also the only two customers in the place, and as soon as we walked in we knew why. The place smelled like a sewer. According to the staff tidal action had eroded under the bar and the water in the SF bay is essentially a sewer. We managed to have a drink before stink drove us out.

    Maybe that’s a good analogy for Washington D.C. Beautiful public buildings. Nice bars and restaurants. In most cases nice and friendly wait staffs. And the place stinks like a sewer.

Ohio Historian | October 2, 2018 at 9:07 am

Flake and Collins are RINOs. They are both big-government leftists. Murkowski is NOT a RINO; she is an “independent” if you remember that she ran as an independent after she lost the primary. She is a self-centered, me-first, ignoramus.

None of them are true Republicans in the name of what the Republicans were founded for, which was standing for small government and individual responsibility.

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