Home » Kavanaugh wasn’t merely borked

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Kavanaugh wasn’t merely borked — 23 Comments

  1. https://americanmind.org/essays/our-revolutions-logic/

    The Codevilla piece is a must read. One small part:

    “The revolutionary import of the ruling class’ abandonment of moral and legal restraint in its effort to reverse election results cannot be exaggerated. Sensing themselves entitled to power, imagining themselves identical with legitimacy, “those general laws to which all alike can look for salvation in adversity“—here the US Constitution and ordinary civility—are small stuff to them. Their ruling class’s behavior regarding Judge Brett Kavanaugh’ nomination to the Supreme Court has been a further, epochal step in this regard.

    The anti-Kavanaugh campaign’s power and significance lies precisely in the ruling class’s perpetration of an in-your-face hoax. Making someone pretend that your patent lie is true may be the most humiliating of assertions of power.

    The “resistance” succeeded in showing: if we can do this to this man on this basis, we can wreck anybody, as may be convenient to us. It showed Americans what today’s Progressive movement means for those it dislikes: “If they can do this to him, they could do it to me.” The campaign has been part and parcel of the resistance’s ever growing violence against the rest of America. This has changed America. Like lost virginity, it cannot be undone.”

  2. That list of Democrats voting to confirm consists of conservatives and political temporizers who commonly voted with the Republicans. You see eight Southerners and three others. Of the others, DeConcini and Dixon voted with the American Conservative Union about 35% of the time and James Exon about 50% of the time. Wyche Fowler was the only mainline Democrat on that list of 11, and he represented Thomas’ home state. Both Republicans who voted against were political temporizers. Robert Packwood made a particular point of promoting the abortion license during his years in electoral politics. The only Republican left in the Senate with a voting record like Packwood’s and Jeffords’ is Susan Collins. Sens. Donnelly, Manchin, and Nelson’s records approximate those of DeConcini / Dixon. No one’s anywhere near Exon.

    Thomas’ nomination was far more consequential than was Kavanaugh’s for the balance of opinion on the Court. He replaced Thurgood Marshall, a quondam public interest lawyer who had no conception of legal construction and interpretation other than ‘gimme what I want for my clientele’. Kavanaugh is replacing the Judge for whom he used to clerk. It may be that Kavanaugh is a threat in a way Kennedy was not because of distinctions of character and personality. Thomas Sowell tells of having dinner with friends in 1987 who knew Kennedy personally. They tell Sowell that Kennedy is an other-directed man who will be readily influenced by prevailing fashions in his social circle. I doubt you can shift Kavanaugh that easily.

  3. The anti-Kavanaugh campaign’s power and significance lies precisely in the ruling class’s perpetration of an in-your-face hoax. Making someone pretend that your patent lie is true may be the most humiliating of assertions of power.

    I can give you the name of a liberal evangelical on the faculty of Bethel College who swallowed this hoax almost whole. Motivated reasoning at work. Nothing coerced out of that man (or out of most of the Chrissy votaries, I’d wager).

  4. Clarence Thomas was confirmed on Oct. 15, 1991. At that time the senate was winding down their investigation of the Keating Five scandal about the S&L disaster. Three of the 5 senators, including DeConcini were part of a long term investigation, and on Feb. 1991 DeConcini and Riegle were judged that,

    their conduct “gave the appearance of being improper.”[41] DeConcini was especially faulted for having taken the lead in the two meetings with the FHLBB [banking regulatory board]. — Wikipedia

    The last findings of the Keating investigation were released in November, just after the Thomas confirmation.

    So I think DeConcini’s career was largely over. Still, it’s definitely a sign of the times that the partisan crossovers were substantial then, and almost nil now.

  5. Packwood and Kennedy are part of the reason why no one on the right (with the possible exceptions of Flake & Collins) believed that the Dems were introducing their “concerns” about Kavanaugh’s character in good faith.

    By the way, in the category “subtle spin,” notice the difference between two ways of describing the allegations.
    (1) the usual formulation that I see even in right-wing sources (sloppy grammar) as well as left-wing (sloppy or stealth, YMMV):
    30-year-old allegations of sexual misconduct.
    (2) the correct grammar:
    allegations of 30-year-old incidents of sexual misconduct.

    The first implies that people were talking about it (your choice of accusations) at the time they allegedly happened, and the hint lingers that they might have been true, even though all of those hear-say “witnesses” have been invalidated.

  6. “So the plan for Kavanaugh, if necessary, was a kind of one/two punch—first the borking and then the Thomasing.”

    And now Trump is being “Kashoggied”.

    The Democrats have got to keep the pressure on. They must continue the attack, continue to flail away, slander and sucker punch.

    And lie.

    And intimidate.

    And shriek.

    The stakes are incredibly high: they must do whatever they can and whatever it takes to distract the American people from learning about the Obama/Clinton conspiracy to deny Trump the presidency and the related conspiracy to prevent him from governing.

    And the extraordinary conspiracy to cover it all up.

    They have got to make sure that this distraction continues at least until the first Tuesday of November 2018.

    The American people must not know. It must be airbrushed out of the narrative for as long as possible.

    As if it never happened.

    And should the American people somehow find out, the Democrats hope that after almost two years of non-stop demonization, they and their allies and supporters have so effectively demonized Trump, so clearly demonstrated his monstrousness, so successfully dehumanized him, that anything they attempt (or have attempted) to do in order to destroy him is / was / would be seen as perfectly, morally justified.

    As desirable.

    As necessary.

    Hence, the two-year (and counting) hate.

  7. It’s not just Roe, with regards to abortion. It’s both abortion and the follow on from that. If Roe is over-turned, the whole courts making up the law rather than the Senate or the States comes into question.

    Of course if there is a majority of conservative judges, then the Democrats will presumably back-flip and always have been against judges making the law.

  8. The Democrats realized that the Thomas accusations were too recent, as 14 women testified that no such thing had ever occurred in Thomas’s office. So this time, they found (or ginned up) an accuser for events so far in the past that there could be no witnesses who would come forth out of the woodwork. I think they expected that the witnesses that Ford alleged were present either wouldn’t be found, or would back up her story, or wound be discredited as drunks if they didn’t.

    Of course, the whole circus was pure stageplay, since the vote was exactly as it would have been (and everyone knew that it was going to be) on the day of the nomination — a straight party line vote with the possible exception of Heidkamp, Manchin, Collins, or Murkowski. Quelle surprise!

  9. The Democrats realized that the Thomas accusations were too recent,

    Disagree. The Democrats used who fell into their lap. I doubt the culture of the Democratic Party was so far gone in 1991 that the Democrats on the Judiciary committee would have tried to run with Christine Blasey. In the Thomas / Hill hearings, there was no doubt the two were acquainted and had worked in the same set of offices for 3 years. I’m wagering, however, that David Laufman has the answers to some unanswered questions, and that Blasey’s participation in this game was solicited. One hypothesis floated about Hill was that Susan Hoerchner (having confused Thomas with an attorney who worked at Hill’s previous employer) put contacts in the world of professional feminism onto Hill. Would wager that did happen and that the Hoerchner role was played in this case by Monica McLean.

  10. For the hundredth time

    Iago:

    Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
    Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
    Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
    ‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
    But he that filches from me my good name
    Robs me of that which not enriches him,
    And makes me poor indeed.

    Othello Act 3, scene 3, 155–161

    No, i dont think anyone has brought up the worst parts of this… I know from first hand, it destroyed my life from end to end… turned down juliard, went to bronx science ,won state fair, and had a really great career… when it was over, i was alone, career unrecoverable, people continued to hate, background searches still cause issues, went chapter 13 so never had a home, went homeless, was told by the custody judge i have no rights, lost venue illegally, paid twice child support for the same kid to insure his future, never went on vacation, stopped dating (by the time i did marry, my employer a very iberal college took it upon themselves to basically torture me, and deny me raises and promotions, so my wife and i are barren), the relationship i had with my son is something very different, i only got to play catch with him once, never taught him anything, only saw him summers…

    the best part is the officer who tried to frame me was angry at her, but since she showed up before arrest, i got all the pain and no one to sue, or get recompense or anything.. completely destroyed…

    i can go on
    but since that…
    been killing time till time kills me
    just trying to make things ok for my mom, and my wifes family
    and hope, god does not torture me with a long life… (but he will)

    no, i could give you the ins and outs and all that
    and most of us, well, we have NO ONE on our sides or discuss us
    in fact, you try to bring it up, and cause your just a nobody now, a never been, not a been who is falling, you have no voice, you are nothing…

    its like screaming in space…
    so loud, but no one can tell

    my inventions and designs lay un done..
    my artwork exists for no one to see
    my photography stolen and on the net making money, but not for me
    my career is just being used and treated bad for the autism that gives me the skills that they want so badly (sad part is they get tax money and instead of givbing me raises, pocket that too… neo has watched this for over a decade… (i guess all you have left is pity) )

    if you want to read about this in the past, you have to know when the words changed… dumbed down.. to insults… before it was called libels…

    Defamation, calumny, vilification, or traducement is the communication of a false statement

    some of what neo talks about is not what its labeled its under “False Light”…

    The feminists practice and are familiar with famacide!!!

    i give neo two places to find it, or anyone else
    Ballentine’s Law Dictionary
    Black’s Law Dictionary: 2nd Edition

    Slander has always been womans greatest weapon…
    having the power to destroy small men, and take down lords and ladies.

    you guys should read the letters about essex, elizabeth, and secretary of the time… changed history… not that anyone reads that or cares… otherwise i would have someone to talk to about these things…

    have great day

  11. I think Clarence Thomas’s speech helped him. He really did a great job and made it very difficult for several people to vote against him without thinking of the black men who had been genuinely, literally lynched based on false accusations.

  12. from African-American activist attorney Florynce Kennedy

    Diversity schism. Certain African factions are known to lynch and hang necklaces with care on their competitors.

  13. Art Deco,

    “Thomas Sowell tells of having dinner with friends in 1987 who knew Kennedy personally. They tell Sowell that Kennedy is an other-directed man who will be readily influenced by prevailing fashions in his social circle.”

    Sounds like the very image of an Ayn Rand second-hander.

  14. Richard Saunders on October 18, 2018 at 5:55 pm at 5:55 pm said:

    Of course, the whole circus was pure stageplay, since the vote was exactly as it would have been (and everyone knew that it was going to be) on the day of the nomination — a straight party line vote with the possible exception of Heidkamp, Manchin, Collins, or Murkowski. Quelle surprise!

    * * *
    All of that agony for so many innocent people, because the Dems found out they couldn’t buy Collins with a blatant bribe, and neither party could count on the votes of any of them until the bitter end.

  15. The roadkill in this case: Kavanaugh’s wife and children, who now have security personnel shadowing them; and Mark Judge, whose addle-pated employer got spooked and fired him. Are Blasey, McLean, Laufman, Schumer, and Feinstein feeling the least bit guilty about that?

  16. He really did a great job and made it very difficult for several people to vote against him without thinking of the black men who had been genuinely, literally lynched based on false accusations.

    May have swung a few votes. Or not. Again, the Democrats who voted for him were (bar Wyche Fowler) people who voted with the Republicans frequently if not usually.

  17. Art Deco…a conformist…someone preoccupied with social status…someone who’s self-worth is dependent on how other’s think of them.

  18. Art Deco — I’m wagering, however, that David Laufman has the answers to some unanswered questions, and that Blasey’s participation in this game was solicited.

    We don’t disagree. That’s what I meant by “ginned up.”

  19. Julie— Through a convoluted set of circumstances, I represented Kennedy briefly just before he joined the Supremes. He was an asshole then, and I don’t see that he changed any on the Court.

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