Kavanaugh Impeachment Previews

It’s expected that Beer Bong Brett will be confirmed today, so what’s next? This may not be the end of the story.

House Democrats will open an investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct and perjury against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh if they win control of the House in November, Representative Jerrold Nadler, the New York Democrat in line to be the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on Friday.

Speaking on the eve of Judge Kavanaughs’s confirmation vote this weekend, Mr. Nadler said that there was evidence that Senate Republicans and the F.B.I. had overseen a “whitewash” investigation of the allegations and that the legitimacy of the Supreme Court was at stake. He sidestepped the issue of impeachment.

“It is not something we are eager to do,” Mr. Nadler said in an interview. “But the Senate having failed to do its proper constitutionally mandated job of advise and consent, we are going to have to do something to provide a check and balance, to protect the rule of law and to protect the legitimacy of one of our most important institutions.”

Josh Marshall:

But now there’s this: FOIA lawsuits by Senate Democrats and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) that have unearthed information “about potentially thousands of Brett Kavanaugh’s White House emails and other records related to the Senate hacking scandal from early in the George W. Bush administration and other controversial subjects that have not been disclosed to the Senate.”

Here’s the article. It’s not totally clear how much is really there. Read the piece to get your own sense. These emails are now approved for release, though White House could step in and say no.

However, if the Dems are the House majority they get subpoena power; seems to me they could get those records.

See also The Effort to Unseat Susan Collins in 2020 Is Already Underway.

24 thoughts on “Kavanaugh Impeachment Previews

  1. I hear the outrage about what was done to Thomas, to Bork and now Kavanaugh. Here's a hint. If you stop nominating perverts, we'll stop humiliating them. (Do note that Roberts was not "borked". IMO, because he's not got a graveyard of skeletons in his closet.)

  2. JAYZOOOS, Dem's!

    Can't none of all y'all play this here politics game?

    First:  For the House Dem's to continue going after 'sexual misconduct' at this time – tantalizing as it may be  – is pointless;  and frankly, counter-productive politically.  Drop this subject, and let the media's investigative reporters to continue to do their jobs.  And then, if/WHEN they find something worth hammering down the last coffin nails on KKKavenaugh's SC Justiceship – and his federal one too, maybe – THEN BANG AWAY AT THEM DAMN NAILS!

    Second:  "Can you say 'perjury,' Dem boys and girls?  (I sure as hell hope you can!)." 

    Lies.

    Mendacity.

    This, THIS, is what you go after "Beer-barfing Frat-boy Brett" with!

    Go through his testimony.  What you'll find is that even if you leave any and all talk of "sexual misconduct" completely out of his it, HE LIED ALL OF THE TIME!

    Also Three:  Temperment.  "OY! Such a sensitive boy, that angry, tear-stained goy is."

    Also Four: Redefine "Beer-barfing Frat-boy" Brett by pointing out his white male elitism and sense of entitlement:  the sense of entitlement that comes when your whole family is part of the white elite.

    Also Five:  Naked partisanship!

    Also Six:  WTF? 

    "The Clinton's," "George Soros," "vast left-wing conspiracy," etc…   

    Check the man's sanity!  Is KKKavanaugh an Alex Jones listener?  Does tRUMP's Stephen Miller whisper sweet horrors is his ear?  Or is he really like this?  SATSQ:  YES!!!

    Them's my two cent…  Uhm…  Ok, make that about 99 cents. 

  3. OT:  Did anyone else see Melania's outfit on her African "Shithole Country" tour?

    JAYZOOS H. KEEEEEERIST standing at the corner of Stupid Street and Evil Avenue!

    She's dressed this tour like the whole continent is a 1930's movie, set in the South African veld, and she's a rich rancher's wife. 

    LOLWCTT (Laughing Out Loud While Crying Through Tears).  😂

  4. Gulag, that's way more than 99 cents; its a hundred dollars as these democrats go. And worth every penny! 

    Dems really don't know how to play this hyeah politics game.  All they see is "women" and they are on the sexual misconduct stuff like dogs on a bone.  Exclusively.  Not to say it doesn't deserve attention.  The first clue was the "FBI investigation."  After that turned up nothing as it was designed to, which even Stevie Wonder could see, they were cornered by the GOP's phoniness.  Meanwhile, here's Brennan, from retirement, which was unprecedented, calling for Kavanaugh to be denied on temperament and naked partisanship.  That's what they should have been plumbing all along, in addition to the sexual abuse; that and the lies and perjury.  That's why the GOP hid thousands of documents!

    Democrats lose consistently when they shouldn't because they are being outplayed consistently. They’re the Washington Generals to the GOP’s Globetrotters. Its got to stop.

  5. Well Judge Barf O Kavanaugh is done deal.

    McConnell is complaining about the 'mob'., since he knows the party of old white men is shrinking  like a sweater in a dryer.

    Proud member of the Vagina Mob.

  6. aj – We're gonna hear the word "mob" quite a bit over then next month. It's synonymous with "liberal voters".

     

  7. Bart Simpson

    "I didn't do it. No one saw me do it. You can't prove anything."

    Sounds vaguely familiar. Who do I know who also goes by "Bart"?

  8. The Rapes of Justice, and of Jesus, Compared

    This essay compares the sexual-abuse scandals of Judge Kavanaugh and of the Catholic Church. Here I call the former scandal ‘the rape of Justice’ because it’s about the imposition of an unfit judge upon the nation’s highest court. I call the latter scandal ‘the rape of Jesus’ because of the Biblical quote; “what you do unto the least of these, you also do unto me”. I am moved to make these lurid metaphors by the public passions of the time.

    These two scandals have much in common; in particular, both are three crimes deep. Both involve sexual violation; both involve mismanagement, and worst of all, both involve hubris.

    Both scandals are sexual; that’s obvious, and what most people don’t think past. In one case, three woman allege that a drunken degenerate privileged man-boy committed attempted rape, indecent exposure, and gang rape. In the other case, thousands of celibate yet pedophilic priests violated girls and boys. The proof of the priests’ guilt was settled in thousands of court cases. The proof of Brett Kavanaugh’s guilt was, for me, settled by the testimony of two character witnesses against him; Christine Blasey Ford, and Brett Kavanaugh.

    Kavanaugh and the Church had DARVO in common. DARVO means Deny, Accuse, Reverse Victim and Offender. It is the standard response of rapists to confrontation with their crimes. Kavanaugh and the Church did DARVO too; which I read as negative character witnessing, and unwitting confession.

    I find it odd that Kavanaugh’s crimes were public. Sexual assault is usually done in private, but he did it in while being cheered on by another lad, or a gang of them. This was male-bonding with the boys in his ‘hood. The performative nature of his misogyny would have made it easy to find many witnesses to his crimes, if the Senate had justice on its agenda. It also exposes the repressed homosexuality of dudebro love. In his skeevy yearbook entry, Kavanaugh bragged of the “Devil’s Triangle”; a threesome in which the two males involved are not to make eye contact, for that would be gay.

    Repressed homosexuality was also involved in the priest scandal, which mostly involved man-boy abuse. Note that the ‘conservative’ solution to the crisis of the Church is to repress its homosexuality even more. This brings me to the question of mismanagement.

    Both scandals were mismanaged. The men in charge tried to silence the scandals discreetly, but their attempts backfired. Omerta failed; what happened in the priory, or at Georgetown Prep, did not stay in the priory, or at Georgetown Prep.

    The Church’s bishops moved pedophilic priests from parish to parish; but the geographic cure often failed, for the priests re-offended. Payoffs and threats extracted silence from the victims, but that created more secrets to cover up. It was a positive-feedback loop of lies and shame; leading inevitably to the bubble bursting, in a positive-feedback loop of revelation and scandal. The Church tried to whitewash the priests, but instead the priests smeared the Church; a PR backfire.

    The Senate mismanaged the Kavanaugh scandal. They had reports of the allegations against him; and since a Justice must be above any hint of suspicion, they should have handled the matter discreetly. They could have called him into closed session; then told him that these allegations exist; that they do not fit the image of sobriety and morality required of a Justice; that also the Senate can easily prove charges of perjury; that perjury is a disbarment offense; so withdraw or else, for we can do this the easy collegiate way, with accusations of mere rape, or the hardball way, with proof of (*gasp!*) lying under oath to the Senate. The next day Kavanaugh would have withdrawn his nomination, in order to spend more time with his family, and the Senate could have nominated another reactionary.

    So why _this_ reactionary? The boy who raped coeds grew up to be a man who deceived the Senate; and though this Senate will not defend a woman’s autonomy, one would expect it to defend its own autonomy. What prompted the Senate to disgrace itself and the Court?

    They did so on orders from the President. Trump wanted Kavanaugh in particular, and none other, and why? Partly because Trump sympathizes with rich white rapists; partly because Kavanaugh waffled when asked about presidential self-pardoning; and partly because Trump does not like to correct any of his errors, for he believes that error-correction is a sign of weakness. That belief is hubris; and Trump’s desire for self-pardoning is a symptom of that hubris. So are his rapey tendencies.

    The Church, too, shows hubris, in its doctrine of papal infalllibility. If the Pope can do no wrong, then neither can his Church; so when it does wrong anyhow, then it must be made to seem to do right, even though creating this false seeming does more wrong. Thus the Church’s mismanagement of its sex scandal.

    Hubris is insane self-pride; the self-righteous belief in one’s own invulnerability. It denies any need for change, especially when the need for change becomes obvious. It is error-accumulation, and it leads to a positive feedback loop of exponentially-increasing chaos. Hubris has to destroy itself in order to save itself.

    And now what? No historian would end either tale here. The lies are exposed, the crimes revealed, yet the system carries on. Nothing to see here, folks, other than everything.

    Next up, change. But how? What is the bridge from revelation to revolution? When motive for revolution is sufficient, then what the people need are methods and opportunities. Suggestions welcome.

     

  9. NPR reports a Trump-like Idiot is ahead the Brazil elections. I really see a zeitgeist of surrendering liberties to semi-literate, Id-driven con men. Similar risks in parts of Europe. What to do? If the Dems can’t gain serious ground in November, it’s time to panic. My feeling is Kavanaugh will hurt the GOP big time in the House, but could make it a nail-biter for several vulnerable Senators. My advice to them — campaign mightily; DO NOT apologize for doing the right thing.

  10. House Democrats will open an investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct and perjury against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh if they win control of the House in November, Representative Jerrold Nadler, the New York Democrat in line to be the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on Friday.

    Maybe the FBI cold cases unit will reopen an investigation into Clarence Thomas so that the we can finally find out who put that pubic hair in his coke.

    Opening an investigation into sexual misconduct and perjury will just be a waste of time if it ever comes to pass. The damage is done…and the result will be a further loss of faith in the integrity of the Supreme Court. And to quote the lying scumbag responsible for tearing down that faith…"Sad, believe me!"

    I believe Anita Hill and I believe Dr, Christine Ford. Which means I believe both Thomas and Kavanaugh are liars.

  11. Swami, I say investigate, but with a special prosecutor. The FBI has just shown itself to be either breathtakingly incompetent or utterly compromised by fellow Republican and Yaley Wray (a drinking buddy???).

  12. The unseat Collins fund is at nearly 3.5 million of a 4 million dollar goal. Collins starts with a 1.7 million dollar war chest. She's starting at a 50% disadvantage and I think we can keep up dollar for dollar over the next two years. Collins essentially promised that Kavanaugh won't overturn Roe – but it's likely bordering on certain in the next two years the USSC will substantially throw authority on women's rights back to state authority (even if there's not an official reversal). Hers is a scalp we need to take and IMO preferably with a woman campaigning on the erosion  of women's rights and Collins being a sellout to her gender.

  13. At present, I don't have any ideas on how we should proceed.  However, I do believe Collins has to go.  I never have liked her anyway.  Not only being a sellout to her gender but also to all of humanity.  It isn't only women who suffer but men because this sends a message that they can do what they want with women and get away with it.  This  goes against the natural instinct of men to protect women.  You cannot say they protect their mothers, wives, daughters but all other women are prey.  That does not make sense and does not allow men to nurture their higher nature.  This stupid childish notion that "boys will be boys"  is just an excuse.  I can understand pranks that do no harm like stringing toilet paper over a house or statue or whatever on Halloween but preying on women just because they can is not a prank.  It causes real psychological harm.  As Dr. Phil says, it changes who you are.  As a woman, I know what it feels like to know any male could potentially harm me simply because he is bigger and stronger.  Fortunately, the men in my life are not like that.  I remember an incident when I went  on a tour to Egypt and something happened that caused some of the women to be afraid.  I came upon the men in our group talking about the incident and heard one of them say:  "We will just form a protective circle around the women".  This made me feel so good.  I  do remember our tour guide who was an anthropologist told us that it was safe for women to go out on their own around the hotel to explore.  This was in Cairo and Egypt is predominately an Islamic country.  We hear so much about the evils of Islam but I'm not sure you could say that about a big city in this country.

    I can't vote to remove Collins but I hope the women in her state step up and do the right thing. 

  14. Funny: Sen Collins asked Kavanaugh about Roe v Wade and he answered it was settled law. Feinstein just tweeted that when she asked the same question he would not answer.

    Collins was totally played because he needed her vote.

  15. Collins was totally played because he needed her vote.

    Collins wasn't played. She played, or at least tried to play her constituents with some ramblings disguised as reasoning. When you spend 45 minutes offering a justification on why you voted the way you did, it kinda has an air of insincerity about it. She claimed she believed Dr. Ford's recollection as truthful but only up to the point where it was politically inconvenient to believe her. What kind of bullshit is that?  How can you pick and choose which elements of somebody else's truthful recollection of events are truthful ? It's all or nothing.

    I've never paid attention to Susan Collins, but now that I've seen what a dishonest political creature she is..I've got her number. I hope the people of Maine turn her out of office at the first chance they get.

  16. Swami: " Collins wasn't played". I agree she wanted to vote yes from the jump, and I still believe Flake was in on the game as well with his "tearful" call for this phony investigation. He played the game. They all know what Beer Bong Brett did, the fact is they don't care, it was 35 years ago, to them its just the youthful indiscretion of a georgetown prep party boy, he's part of the establishment, he's a judge now! Deep down I think the entire country knows that Dr. Ford was assaulted by Kavanaugh and his buddy, half of us just don't think that sort of thing matters, you can put Collins on that list.

  17. Mothers, do you want to protect your sons from future accusations of sexual assault? Then raise them right! Keep them far away from prep schools, frat houses, football locker rooms, and other vile dens of drunkenness, debauchery, and entitled violation!

  18. uncledad  .. I also believe that Flake was in on the game. There's no way he could have been sincere in calling for an investigation and then find the investigation that was presented as acceptable. The whole process reeked of being a sham. It's things like that that lead me to conclude with certainty that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted Dr, Ford.

     I don't doubt that it was a drunken episode that Kavanaugh just couldn't admit to for reasons I can well understand, and his best chances of getting away from accountability for what he did was to deny it ever happened. 

     I've had many drunken episodes in where I wouldn't want to face the public exposure of the things I've done. And I think Kavanaugh found himself in a situation where his withdrawing the nomination would be an affirmation of his guilt. Had it be another president he could have spared Kavanaugh of the ordeal and saved his reputation by saying it was all a conspiracy dreamed up by the left.

    The thing is that people don't need an arbiter to tell them what the truth is and what to believe.. My experience and observation tells me from what I've seen is that Kavanaugh doesn't possess the integrity, honesty, and the virtues of good character to serve on the Supreme Court. He's proved and shown himself to be a liar!

  19. Swami: " Kavanaugh doesn't possess the integrity, honesty, and the virtues of good character to serve on the Supreme Court". I agree 100% but I think it's worse than that I think the republicans know Dr. Ford was assaulted by the new associate justice, they just think the fact that they believe that abortion will be outlawed is worth the price. Plus he's a nice white boy and it was 35 years ago. I wonder how long it will take the christo-facists to realize the GOP has no intention of an out-right ban.

    In related news:

    It looks like the GOP is looking to kick Murkowski out of the Reich. Maybe the Democrats could offer her a place in the caucus, or an even-up swap for Manchin!

    https://apnews.com/93cee785826a467a9f5bad4bcb75980a

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