In case you were busy working yesterday, the republicans had a white female prosecutor ask Dr. Christine Blasey Ford about her attempted rape accusations against Brett Kavanaugh. This represents the civilized section of the 8 to 9 hour hearing.
Dr. Ford's Account
At 15 years of age, she went to a pre-house party. Apparently start and last beyond her curfew. So party hadn't really started yet. She went upstairs to a bathroom. As she got outside the bathroom door, someone shoved her into a bedroom opposite the bathroom. After he or his friend locked the door, Brett Kavanaugh wound up on top of her, "grinding" on her while his friend Mark Judge kinda cheered him on, jumping on the bed himself occasionally. In fact, it was Mark Judge's jumping on the bed that made her and Kavanaugh fall off after Kavanaugh had his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. Having fallen off the bed, his weight off her she was able to escape into the bathroom across the hall.
At some point after she heard them go downstairs, she ran downstairs and out of the house.
She never told anybody.
(And neither did I when I had a much lighter(?) version of the same thing happen to me. As I recall, I told a couple of close friends in college some 5 or 6 years later. But I don't know that I've ever told and relived the details of what happened to me since. Actually, I doubt I've told the humiliating details to anyone.)
Dr. Ford said the worst moment for her as a teenage girl was when the Kavanaugh and Judge were laughing as Kavanaugh pinned her down. (Yep...That was one of the stand out moments for me too)
Dr. Ford was calm and rational and completely believable as she told the prosecutor again and again that she was not mistaking Kavanaugh for someone else. So believable that republicans could not afford to have their neutral sounding prosecutor question Kavanaugh when it was his turn in the hot seat.
Kavanaugh's Account
It wasn't me.
Apparently, he was too afraid to watch Blasey-Ford testify so he didn't hear what she said. (Afraid to even try to remember eh?)Kavanaugh "took the witness stand" (kidding) and gave a riveting performance that involved anger, outrage, and he got very near tears -- during a 20 minute grilling.
On a side note, keep in mind Hillary Clinton didn't flinch for 11 hours when she was being raked over the coals over e-mails or some such nonsense.And if Blasey-Ford had cried she'd have been labeled "unstable Mabel" and not "raw" and "open" like Kavanaugh has been.
The democrats tried to get Kavanaugh to live up to the words of his opening statement where he said he was open to an investigation. Democrat after Democrat tried to get Kavanaugh to ask that his FBI Background Investigation be re-opened. He basically refused, Lindsey Graham's performative outrage giving Kavanaugh cover enough to not come right out and say, "No."
During the hearing Kavanaugh was asked several times if he drank enough to forget what he'd done. He said, "No..."
However, "friends" common to Kavanaugh and his second accuser Deborah Ramirez, like Lynn Brookes and Dr. Elizabeth Swisher, have said during news interviews that this is not credible. He ran with the basketball team and he was a hard partier and hard drinker.
Reading between the lines, Kavanaugh was a ring leader in high school and college, which makes Kavanaugh's third accuser all the more believable.
Julie Swetnick, a Washington resident represented by celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti, said in a sworn declaration that Kavanaugh was physically abusive toward girls in high school and present at a 1982 house party where she says she was the victim of a "gang rape."
Neither Ramirez or Swetnick have had their claims investigated for congress' consideration. An organization representing Jesuits has withdrawn it's support for Kavanaugh, calling for an investigation.
The American Bar Association has called for an FBI Investigation into Kavanaugh as well.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/28/american-bar-association-calls-for-fbi-investigation-into-kavanaugh-allegations.htmlNone of this means a thing if the republicans have the votes.
Even if someone on the main panel (like Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona) votes against Kavanaugh, if the larger body of republicans votes for Kavanaugh, he will be a Supreme Court Justice anyway.
The only thing the GOP is doing now is taking the #MeToo- temperature of their base. To be specific, they are trying to see if republican women will abandon them at the polls in November if they support Kavanaugh.
I guess we'll see.
For the record, Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford are a heck of a lot braver than me. I'd would never have put myself through this.
Never.
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