I guess football players have more integrity than BK.
They declined a Trump invitation.
4
Not sure why this wouldn't be a valid question: Is there any case scenario you can envision that might make you consider limiting or revoking Roe V Wade?
And the follow up: What about anything making legal abortions require so much fuss that many women might end up going past the trimesters during which abortion is legal, before they are allowed to obtain one? For example, the teenage illegal immigrant about which your ruling was recently overturned on appeal?
Kavanaugh is a questionable lawyer. His interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is that if the type of gun was not invented in the 1700s then there should be no restrictions on it since it is not conceived of in the constitution. Now, even to a layperson, this interpretation is incredulous. The right side up way to interpret the constitution is treating it as a living document and not what’s done is done. He will be a very bad choice for the nation, non-handshake with Mr. Fred Guttenberg aside.
5
It is amazing that a person educated in the 20th century can seriously believe that because something had not been in the 18th century, the Constitution can not apply to it. Mr. Kavanaugh seems to have used that notion against banning assault weapons (designed for no other purpose than mass killing, otherwise known as murder in civilian society). He will not be able to use the Constitution to decide on any modern invention or idea. The Republicans are trying to drag the US back to the 19th century when everything was sooo wonderful.
1
Yesterday Lindsey Graham commented: "“You can’t lose the election and want to pick judges.” But apparently if a Democrat is President you can WIN the election and still NOT pick judges. Witness President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland and how Republicans chose partisanship over Constitution.
Pat Leahy, our Vermont senator on the Judiciary committee, has been on the Judiciary Committee and seen more Supreme Court nominations than any other current member. He's a by-the-book, rule of law kind of guy -- who doesn't grandstand. When Leahy says that this is "the most incomplete, most partisan, least transparent vetting for any Supreme Court nominee I have ever seen,” you have to believe him.
Leahy said repeatedly yesterday that when he chaired the committee he worked bipartisanly with then Senator Jeff Sessions to get all the documents Republicans requested. The issue here isn't the number of documents, that's a red herring. For Kagan, Leahy said they provided 99 percent, for Kavanaugh it's 7 percent. And for all other nominees, the documents were processed by the National Archives, not a private Republican attorney with connections to Kavanaugh. Etc. etc.
Democrats were in the right yesterday to ask for time to read the documents delivered Monday, for a transparent and fair process that gives both all committee members and the American people access to all that is relevant in Kavanaugh's paper trail.
What are they hiding?
7
I do not think we in this country have experienced a greater discourse from the rule of law and decency than the trump administration and current Republican leadership. Now they are packing the courts. They refused Obama’s his rightful pick. Democrats should walk out from this sham process that republicans call their political process. The sooner trump is shown the door of his jail cell the better. Throw these bums out. Fraudsters who wrap themselves in our great flag. Call themselves lawmakers. Throw McConnell in jail with trump. For aiding and abetting a mobster. Kavanaugh is nothing more than a political hack that will prevent the Don from being prosecuted. Just as putin wants to,and is, fighting the Cold War again, the republican leadership is fighting the civil war again. Cheers to those protesters who have the guts to stand up to what is happening to our country.
9
Senators Harris, Booker, Durbin et. al. should simply not participate in this sham. Empty committee chairs, no acknowledgement this charade is the least bit valid, not even a vote to abstain. Pathetic. When the game is rigged, no need to play along.
5
‘Senator John Cornyn of Texas, [called] the opening of the hearing “mob rule.”’
The honorable senator from Texas is mistaken. A president who was elected by a minority of voters puts forward a nominee who will be approved by a body which represents a minority of voters, and no protest, no appeal to the wishes of the majority, can deflect them from this action. This is not “mob rule”. This is tyranny.
9
I assume Democratic senators have enough questions to keep this going to Nov. 6? I hope so. Kavanaugh is a clown, and the whole process is a joke by now. Republicans are strong arming the whole government into a pretzel, which they're about to slob on the mustard and eat it down yum. They've been doing it for 50 yrs! These hearings need to stop. Trump's judicial picks - at all levels - need to be put on hold until his name is cleared and ALL the American people are assured his presidency is legitimate. Right now it is not. And after the cloud over Bush II's election in 2000, which Kavanaugh played a part in! It's all a lot too much of corruption, cheating and mismanaging of this country by the right wing! I'm sick of it.
5
But what about Kavanaugh's attempts to delay the abortion request of a refugee/immigrant 17 yr old who has been granted permission for the abortion but the holding center won't let her go to a clinic without someone to act as parent or guardian to take her? He kept throwing questions re the timing of the abortion and delayed the process to the point that it was almost too late for her to legally get one. Finally the objections were overturned and she was treated. But then Kavanaugh wrote a blistering dissent. Doesn't this give a window into what he will do as a Sup. Ct. Just.?
7
OK, so what happens when (and I fear it will be "when", not "if") Kavanaugh is confirmed. . . and some months from now is the swing vote allowing Trump to get away with everything?
Where are the checks on the power of the Supreme Court?
Trump will not always be in power. Thanks to term limits (if not 2020).
What about term limits on Supreme Court justices? Why are they elected for life? What's the rationale for that?
If there were term limits on these justices, we could constantly get new blood and be able to deal with partisanship much better.
4
Small point given his impressive CV, wish J Kavanaugh would stop patting himself on the back for "...[t]hroughout my life...tr[y]ing to serve the common good, in keeping with my Jesuit high school’s motto, “men for others.” Because the evidence he offers seems not to conform to the motto's meaning.
He offers what is surely so: "...I have spent my career in public service. I have tutored at Washington Jesuit Academy, a...school for...low-income families. At Catholic Charities...I serve meals to the homeless...In those works, I...try to serve the least fortunate among us...I always want to do more and do better."
But consider the motto's origin. "Men [and women]for others" originated with then-Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr Pedro Arrupe who in July 1973 stated:
“...our prime educational objective must be to form 'men-and-women-for-others;'...who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ - for the God-man who lived and died for all the world; men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for others is a farce.”
Though his efforts are generous and surely accomplish much good for those affected, they do not approach realization of the elements of Fr Arrupe's motto.
Better to strike the reference; properly understood it detracts from his substantial accomplishments and allows the charge he's puffing.
1
and I quote, Mitch McConnell when President Obama wanted to nominate and even get a hearing or a meeting for his legitimate supreme court selection, :it is a presidents constitutional right to nominate a Supreme Court Justice, and it is the Senate;s constitutional right to act as the check on a president and withhold its consent" McConnell said this on the senate floor following the then president Obama's nomination of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland. So i would like to know, why were the members of this senate confirmation committe treated like civilians when they asked simply for more time than 12 hours to review the nominees submitted historical documents or his partial" resume", this is unprecedented, it is irregular. And the fact that Trump has pulled 100,000 documents out of potential review because of I would imagine not positive material. it is unjust and inappropriate to have the hearing take place. It is improper for any of the senators to act like any others were out of order when asking for more time, and it way out of line for this to be reported in the new york times and elsewhere as radical and over the line for senators to ask for a special vote in the beginning of the session to see if a majority needed more time, and it is way out of line to attack the protestors. This is what makes our country great freedom of speech and not the audacity shown by Mr. Grassley whom I hope has a medical exam soon. he was WAY out of line.
5
It is a real shame that excellent candidates for the Supreme Court and other Federal court positions should be involved in these nasty political hearings. Merriick Garland and Brett Kavanaugh are well educated , superb jurists. Their public humiliation as a rite of passage , to become a sitting Justice , is too much to expect of any decent self respecting individual...much less an accomplished senior judge. One can understand the necessity of fully vetting a candidate for an essentially tenured lifetime position. But really ....perhaps the best , most ethical approach for Mr.Kavanaugh , and one that might quell any comments from either side of the political spectrum, is to ask that his appointment be reconsidered after midterm elections...or after Trump’s resignation/impeachment. That would absolutely confirm his personal ethics.. although it is unlikely to ever happen...it would demonstrate for everyone his apolitical approach to life and the law. Hard to seem unbiased when you are nominated by a sitting President you may need to be ask to sit in judgement of...within a very short time frame.
7
So everyone thinks that the Constitutional Conventions at the founding of this nation were calm with only murmurs heard? So America is characterized by orderly debate? Hmm okay...Remember the Senate was the scene of most pornographically violent assault on a human being: the Caning of Charles Sumner by a fellow, er gentleman and senator, Preston Brooks. So now shouting by outraged citizens is soooo upsetting?!?! Please.
1
Kudos to Senator Chris Coons for his eloquent comments today in the hearing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buq0rIlZk9Y
He addressed the heart of the matter regarding the nomination Kavanaugh. If you missed it, it's well worth hearing his entire commentary.
3
Respect is a word that comes to mind in this instance & in many instances these days. This is a Supreme Court nominee hearing. It is important & requires thoughtful, intelligent dialogue.
Talking over one another, trading barbs, allowing attendees to interrupt proceedings, disregarding the rules of engagement, these are all the fodder of a crass reality show.
We cannot demand respect if we don’t give respect. Both sides of the ideological spectrum here need to remember the dignity of their office & the civility required for such proceedings.
Let’s at least attempt to act like adults & treat important events as something we have a responsibility to take seriously.
3
Another picture would have shown Condoleezza Rice sitting just behind Kavanaugh. Enough said.
5
Trump: "The Brett Kavanaugh hearings for the future Justice of the Supreme Court are truly a display of how mean, angry, and despicable the other side is. They will say anything, "
Funny how Trump is always accusing others of what he is most guilty of. Okay, it is not really "funny" as in ha-ha. It is actually a sign of mental disturbance and the extreme over-use of the defense mechanism projection, which has been described as "one of the most damaging defense mechanisms, as it can lead to heightened feelings of paranoia and anxiety."
The whole Kavanaugh nomination is fishy. Why should a U.S. President who is entangled in numerous lawsuits and under special investigation by the Mueller team for obstruction of justice, and ????, be allowed to nominate his personal Supreme Court justice who is likely to rule the president is immune from legal prosecution? It's called rigging the system & it is unethical
After Mitch McConnell's tactic of not allowing Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland to even be considered by the Senate, plus all the GOP maneuvering to ram the Kavanaugh appointment through without proper time to consider any relevant information, I think the Republicans have come to the unfortunate conclusion that they can only win by being underhanded and cheating in almost everything they do--from elections to legislation.
I can only hope there is some last minute bomb of information about Kavanaugh that is a Hail Mary pass and sinks Kavanaugh's nomination.
7
Those (Republicans) screaming "obstruction" have a very short memory. Remember Garland? The Unites States has fallen to new lows under this President. As a foreigner, it's simply shocking to observe how a country which used to be THE world power is slowly drifting into a third world country. The two most important long-term themes for any government are education and the environment. And going by the appointments in these two areas it's clear how important the administration views them. Yes, the economy is important, and jobs are crucial (and so is the ever increasing debt burden), but to make America great again, the government needs to invest into education and the environment (and infrastructure, but that's for another day....).
7
A most depressing day to watch the cynical re-writing of how a hearing for a Supreme Court Justice is conducted. I did not believe one word out of anyone who was Republican. Most despicable/deplorable or whatever, Lindsay Graham and Chairman Grassley.
Indeed, it can only be said there is only one reason Kavanaugh is the one Ultra Conservative judge who was nominated.... Executive power is not to be troubled with indictment or investigation.. Even I, a lowly citizen, know that only emperors, kings and despots are above the law. Why indeed the rush to confirm?
10
Flake, Corker, Collins, Sasse, Murkowski....Where are you? Your country needs you to step up and do the right thing. Protect the Constitution and vote down Kavanaugh.
12
We call what happened to day in the Senate: "Unprecedented." A SCOTUS nominee who wasn't on the first list, and wasn't on the second list of the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation who were going to lead Trump around by the nose so he could nominate someone who would overturn Roe, undermine unions, (and now protect Trump from Mueller and the Russia investigation) sat there and made notes - expressionless - as the Democrats made eloquent statements, or postured and auditioned for 2020, or tried to feign deference to their senior Republican colleagues as they took Mr. Kavanaugh apart at the seams.
The Republicans who control everything, read their prepared statements, chided the impotent Democrats, and went through the motions of a fair and impartial nomination hearing. They can afford to do nothing.
But our saviors, the contenders for the presidency, Mr. Corey Booker, fawned, complained, repeated himself ad nuaseam, and was unable to come to the point. Is this the best we can do for a Democratic president? We've got a Democratic candidate for governor in Florida - a crucial race - whose main qualification is that he's a minority and is being investigated for corruption by the FBI.
The country is going south (and I don't mean Florida) real quick. We need someone, anyone, to salvage what's left of our democracy, not someone to be the next "historic event."
2
They all danced around the issue of a President in legal jeopardy making a nomination as well as the extensive effort to hide and withhold records of the nominee. No vote should be taken until all records are released and all participating members able to evaluate and read such documents before intelligent discussion. Furthermore, the nominee should be asked if the confirmations hearings and vote should be taken, while the President is in legal jeopardy (an unindicted coconspirator in the Cohen trial) thereby opening the possibility of the nominee deciding a legal crisis regarding the same man that made his nomination WITH THE KNOWLEDGE of this potential conflict. In other words, the nomination is not made in a bubble, but with the foreknowledge of GOP legislators and the President, of this exact scenario playing out in the courts.
8
In a normal time, at a normal confirmation, I’d listen carefully to the nominee. I did so with Justice Roberts.
But the fact that Kavanaugh, nominated as a lifetime appointee, is not himself personally demanding that his own record be studied, not concealed or rushed through—AND that, for all his credentials, did not have the common sense and decency in that stunning moment of his entrance to shake the Parkland victim’s dad, Mr. Guttenberg’s hand, and simply say “I am so sorry for your loss” speaks volumes to his character—And the fact that he is in thrall to the NRA, who are funding his ads (and...why are we having political ads for a SC nominee?)
9
We see political ads for the supposed neutral SC Justices, because we are now a full on plutocracy, rule of many by the few. This is not sustainable, as witness 1929-1932. WWII saved the economy from that potential Hoover disaster; we do not have another global war on the horizon; we do have unlimited funding for the Pentagon officials; we seem to have enough money to send expensive small cohorts all over the world: Niger?! Our public school buildings are in disrepair, lacking the most current equipment; our teachers are underpaid, many with no benefits; our public infrastructure is deteriorating, e.g. the Inter-State Highway system, now on offer to the Saudis if they finance toll roads? Our dams are patched, not repaired; one collapsed in Washington State. We have more wild fires, and fewer men to man the lines; we are now using men from Australia and New Zealand to help us. We are such a big country, we won't notice the deterioration for a while; however, it will become evident incrementally. I saw it 9 yrs. ago on a trip from NYC to SF; State roads were often better than the Federal Inter-State highway. Congress people are paid for by big donors, because it costs a fortune to campaign. Public financing for national office would be a path to cleaning this corrupt system. As long as GE and GM et al can buy Congress, nothing will change. The old Grassley is a poster man for the corruption in D.C.
3
Republicans are utterly dishonestly ramming Kavanaugh down the nation's collective throat. There is not one honest move in this procedure. Documents are withheld, procedures bypassed, and dissent squashed. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's opening statement showing how Kavanaugh will usher in permanent corporate fascism to our nation should be plastered on the walls of the court. Republicans see their boy as the key to dominating government for the balance of the century. The protests are utterly justified. The nation is in grave danger from this appointment.
10
You have to wonder why anyone in their right mind would accept anything associated with Trump the contaminator of all he touches. Hubris? Should Kavanaugh do a Sessions on him, I wonder if Trump knows he cannot fire a Supreme Court justice.
4
Kavanaugh is a Catholic corporate shill; that is why he is hiding his opinion pieces written during his time in the Bush Administration. We are naive if we think we cannot fall as Rome did. We can fall, piece by piece.
3
"Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, called it 'mob rule.' " That is some chutzpah for a Republican mob that, e.g., denied President Obama's SCOTUS nominee even a hearing with nearly a year left in the presidential term, dumped many thousands of documents regarding Mr. Kavanaugh just before the hearing, refuses to stand up to Mr. Trump's repeated attempts to circumvent the law (as long as they're getting their tax cuts for the wealthy and so on). Abuse of power seems to be the Republican platform in recent years.
11
The GOP is contemptuous of every US citizen who voted for President Obama when they refused to hold a hearing for President Obama’s Supreme Court Justice appointee, Judge Garland.
10
These hearings serve no purpose. This wasn't quite as bad as the House's Strzok hearing, but close. Almost no coverage of the fact that this was a planned distraction (Durbin certainly didn't deny it). The press's bias is unbounded.
I don't know whether Grassley is right or wrong about the motion Blumenthal wanted to bring, If he was, they should of had a vote. But, if I were the Rs, I wouldn't be as patient and asked for an immediate vote on passing BK through without further questions. Game playing works both ways. I don't approve of either side behaving like this, not the Rs in the '90s with Clinton, nor in ignoring Garland (though that was legal - you don't have to have a hearing).
It shouldn't matter what BK's politics are. He's obviously qualified. No one is even trying to deny that. They can't attack his character either. They attack Trump, as if that is enough, They complain that he is conservative as if it is wrong for a conservative president to nominate another conservative. As if there aren't 4 left wing S. Ct. judges.
Not that Rs aren't often ridiculous too, but, the last few years the Ds and the left are on a dangerous path, where they feel their poltiical views justify anything (such as when they took over the house floor), even sometimes violence. Today, it was actually relatively polite compared to others on their side, but they don't have a right to disrupt. Not the protesters, not the Senators. That, and not BK is what the country needs to worry about.
6
Brett Kavanaugh just sounds like a guy who planned his life so he could get a shot at a Supreme Court appointment: He eviscerated a Democrat president, defended a Republican president, made decisions to attract ultra-conservative organizations, and he made sure along the way everyone knew he'd let a president off the hook for any crimes - Smart guy realizing what life choices he had to make happen before a Republican president would give him that shot at the highest court. Unfortunately, for this nominee, that Republican president is Donald Trump, an unindicted co-conspirator in a felony, who is also being investigated for aiding and abetting a foreign adversary - Anyway, it was a great life-plan, judge.
7
Justice Merrick Garland. Where was his fair and honest hearing to sit on the Supreme Court. did not President Obama have the right to nominate a justice to fulfill a vacancy on the highest court n the land. Did the Senate fail as to their duties of advise and consent? McConnell and the republicans need to answer that before you continue with this process.
Did or did not Judge Kavanaugh lie during his last confirmation hearing in front of this committee or is lying the new truth in America? One simple question: did you lie?
15
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse made the single most important and insightful opening statement of the entire day. I have been so busy watching the orange-clown show that I didn't realize that our justice system was being hijacked.
https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/whitehouse-reveals-kavana...
7
Opening statement by judge Kavanaugh was quite impressive. He seems eminently qualified and with vast experience. I hope the democrats keep their partisanship aside and evaluate the judge fairly on the merits of his candidadcy rather than their personal dislike of the president.
11
Merrick Garland.
11
We need to see his prior opinion pieces written under Bush. If he is "eminently qualified", then all his opinions need to be considered. He is a Catholic who does not affirm his religion will not affect his Decisions; we saw this movie with Scalia and Alito: Citizens United which gave corporations "personhood" by using a TYPO from an old Superior Court Decision: spoken word "corporation"; transcribed word in the record "individual"; error never corrected; that is why we now have GE defined as your next door neighbor, rather than as a multi-national corporation. That is a free Republic can devolve into a full on Plutocracy. It took years for non property owners to get the right to vote; it took even more years for women to get the right to vote. Gerrymandering and corruption in Congress can roll back those rights piece meal.
1
Give it a rest. Democrats have already investigated his merits (to the extent the GOP will let us) & lack thereof. That’s what he’ll be judged upon.
Good Theater but not much else.
Democratic Senators know they are 'showboating' and the Judge
will be approved regardless of their tantrums.
I wish the Democrats had a 'real chance' to block Kavanaugh but this hearing was like a two year old having a tantrum.
6
Sheldon Whitehouse is a competent Senator; his statement was on target. It was not a "tantrum"; it was a statement for the record as a corporate shill with hidden opinion pieces was shoved onto the SC. If you are not a rich member of the top 10%, your chump change $600/yr tax cut will end in 2027. The large corporate tax cuts are permanent; as necessary funding for infrastructure, education and health care maintenance diminishes, your personal and property taxes will increase to make up the loss of revenue. You will pay higher premiums for health insurance. "No man is an island", true words, JK, remember them.
2
If the Republicans wanted a more decorus atmosphere they should have treated the process with more decorum itself instead of hiding 90% of the Kavanaugh's documents and rushing his confirmation. You reap what you sow.
10
Someone put a tent on this circus. The childishly querulous manner in which the minority party is acting, and encouraging their lackeys to act, does far more harm than good. It simply reinforces the perception that our government is broken. Do the democrats really think this kind of behavior is going to win them converts? Wouldn't it be a better strategy to take the high road and let our President be the only traveler on the low road?
7
We are not a minority Party; we have more voters than the GOP; we need to get them all current in registration where they live; and then we need to get them to the polls. The GOP can mess with polling locations and hours; however, we can beat that if we get organized. There are more of us than there are Republicans. Obama left a decent government; he paid down a debt left by the Bush war for oil; he had no scandals. Trump has a corrupt Administration with most of his Cabinet either in jail, or under indictments. He is not qualified; he never pretended to be. He is a tool, with no interest in or knowledge of governance. He abuses the Emoluments Clause by renting rooms in his D.C. hotel to foreign dignitaries who are there to petition him for favors. He abuses the use of Air Force One by flying to private golf courses every weekend with Secret Service in tow. He keeps secret visitor logs at Mar-a-Lago so the public cannot see which rich lobbyists are constantly in residence. He is corrupt now; he was corrupt when he ran the infamous Trump U scam. He is incompetent; and his ties to Russian oligarchs via large loans make him a traitor to the U.S. 250M past loan as documented by New York Magazine, current 95M delivered to The Trump Organization via private plane. 345M is not chump change for Putin who controls those loans; he owns Trump.
3
Amongst GOPers, conservatives, Trump supporters, the President is far from the only traveler on his “low road.”
One more comment...PLEASE, folks read the opening statement by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse! He IS sounding the alarm bell on our democracy!
Please consider writing, emailing, calling or tweeting Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Jeff Flake! We need them to side with the Democrats in blocking Kavanaugh, whose installment in the Roberts Court would be the end of justice, with the exception of Conservative interests!
Pay attention! Please.
9
Here's the video. UNBELIEVABLE.https://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/20180904161438-senator-sheldon-whiteh...
3
Kavanaugh has no shame whatsoever. He fits right in with Trump and the GOP lackeys that have corrupted the entire political process.
9
The hearing for Kavanaugh was a circus brought to you by, Republicans! They STOLE the seat of Merrick Garland and are now shoving an ultra conservative down our throats....when SEVENTY ONE per cent of Americans support Roe v Wade!
Republicans are wrong and they know it. Hopefully they will ousted from office and thanks to Donald the Republican Party will die a slow and painful death!
NO VOTE on Kavanaugh!
13
Judge Kavanaugh will be confirmed. This president may very well get three SCOTUS appointments before his term is out. Presidential elections matter. The Supreme Court is just one important reason why they matter.
7
Sure, BUT Republicans blocked Pres. Obama's nominee! We, will do all we can to make sure Kavanaugh does not become a justice!
7
Kavanaugh is a pathetic fraud - watch the video of the Parkland father go up to him to shake his hand. Kavanaugh couldn’t get away fast enough.
But moments later he’s glad handing some sycophant with a smile on his face.
The guy’s never tried a case, argued an appeal or done anything that real lawyers do everyday. Instead he sits around conference room tables where ridiculous ideas are hatched (e.g., the Second Amendment protects the right to own military assault rifles and large capacity magazines because they are in common use).
A true hothouse flower bred in the mutual admiration society, a/k/a The Federalist Society, that has bequeathed us so many like him.
27
What's ridiculous is the implication that the 2nd Amendment doesn't protect semi-automatic rifles (military assault rifles have been de facto banned since 1986). That's the very thing they do protect.
2
Yeah! And why is it so hard to get a bazooka?! My 2nd amendment rights!!
2
I wonder what the parkland dad said to him...what was his purpose in confronting judge Kavanaugh other than to get a photo op for a political stunt? Also, dems are so gunned up they are accusing a staffer of his sending white power signals, even though she is of Mexican and Jewish descent... And now threatening her children. Dems have lost their minds. Oh, and please stop crying about merrick garland already.
5
Odd quote in this article, "Women will die if Kavanaugh is confirmed."
I suppose the speaker is referring to women dying from illegal abortions, is that right?
How much concern is there for the over one million female babies being killed this year by abortion? How about the other million who are male? Two million dead babies and people bury their heads in the sand.
People who speak like this are illogical and unethical.
6
It is not your call to force someone to carry to full term. What YOU support IS...fascism!
5
How about the (non-Christian) woman who died in Ireland last year of septic shock because she was denied a D&C for a week when she was miscarrying? It's not just illegal abortions, Mama.
5
In the first and, most likely, all of the second trimester, fetuses are not sentient beings. They don’t have thoughts or feelings. So, yes, one feeling and thinking woman is worth two million unwanted zombie babies. I understand why abortion upsets some people but the upset is based on sentiment and religion, not science- not reality.
I don’t think Kavanaugh will repeal Roe v Wade but a conservative court will let the States chip away at it. His record in siding with corporation vs the safety of their workers is terrible. He will vote to allow more money to infiltrate our already corrupt political system. He also seems to not mind corporations polluting our land and water. So, the conservative states will be polluted cesspools full of unwanted kids. Enjoy!
4
Kavanaugh will further the politicization of the Supreme Court as a right-wing criminal and corrupt corporate state entity of the downward spiral of American democracy into Inverted Totalitarianism. Inverted Totalitarianism where the government disregards the voting public interests and rights across the social/economic/civil spectrum other than the 1%. as irrelevant. Kavanaugh, as a Jesuit indoctrinated Roman Catholic views reality through the perverted lens views of is religiosity with his belief in the myth of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary as the revealed truth. This perhaps exclaims his alt-right views, opposition and denouncement of any government consumer, healthcare, women’s rights or progressive efforts to improve the lives of the average Americans.
4
So, this theater, this charade, is what you guys in the Senate call “democracy”? Why hold hearings at all if the outcome is clear before the fact? Just because there are cameras? No wonder people get tired of politics.
13
Republicans count on people getting tired of politics and not bothering to vote.
2
I listened to some of the hearings and found them pathetic and embarrassing. So much time wasted on sloppy effusions about Kavanaugh” family life, his coaching, his mum, and his pets, for all I know. What is the point of it? That he is a good man? I have no reason to doubt it - and no reason to care. He is to be a Supreme Court judge, not my next-door neighbor. He may be a new incarnation of Mr. Rogers but if he strikes down Roe, he is my enemy, regardless of his sterling moral qualities. Politics is about power, not about individual morality. If Democrats internalized this message, perhaps we would not be on the verge of turning this country into the Republic of Gilead.
24
For a believer in the dogma of American democracy and impartial American justice it is hard to grasp that we are watching the people democratically elected to manage the laws enthusiastically sabotage and violate those laws - all in service to a criminally corrupt and globally reviled ruffian named Donald Trump.
But it is what it is. For years now, since at least 2008, when McConnell declared the party's mission to make Obama a one-term president, Republicans have unabashedly cheated legal processes and arrogantly defied the will of the majority of voters. Now they are nakedly gaming the process of SCOTUS appointments. Their message to the people: "We make the rules. Get used to it."
That is a dangerous message. Republicans, and their boss Trump, are going to overplay their hands in their drive for power and money. A very ugly backlash is likely.
17
moderate Dem here (domestic/legal issues - different story on national security/foreign policy) -- the jurist is [more than] well-qualified, plain and simple. Dems, win the next election if you don't like it. agree with good bit Sasse AND Coons. like Flake, just don't rig the IC investigation by trying to change the rules (US v. Nixon) and the rule of law. no tyranny.
6
The Republican Party politicians have successfully debased the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the USA.
Step up and take a deep bow Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan.
5
Today’s hearing exposed the key weakness in Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination; he is first and foremost a talented politician and only secondarily a jurist.
He was nominated because of his association with the Heritage Foundation and a White House belief that on the Supreme Court Kavanaugh would form President Trump’s last line of defense against the Mueller investigation.
In the best of circumstances, Judge Kavanaugh would become a Supreme Koch Justice -- In the worst, an accomplice of the President's desire to trash the Constitution and secure for himself a "divine right of kings".
The 100,000 document cover up shows the White House is following a G.K. Chesterton strategy. "Where do you hide a leaf? In the forest". Surrounded by a forest of trivial memos are hidden a few leaves of deadly nightshade, compromising notes from Kavanaugh's White House days.
10
One might conclude, from the rah-rah panel, that the boy Kavanaugh has been a champion of the proletariat; but actually he has been a protected person, one of the inside the beltway class people who grew up in big privilege.
8
This would be a completely different hearing if Barrack Obama had hit the campaign trail in 2016 with a single objective - demonstrate that Mitch McConnell's opposition to a hearing for Merrick Garland was a stunning demonstration of useless, do nothing Senate, and an arrogant abuse of the Senate's authority in vetting Supreme Court justices.
In retrospect, there was not enough of a connection between Obama and Clinton for him to have taken such an active role, but the nation would now be substantially better off, not because of Clinton, but for the role Democrats would play in selecting justices.
5
I doubt that anyone posting on here has bothered to read any of Kavanaugh's opinions in depth. The way this went this morning calls to mind the Bork and Thomas hearings. When no questions on qualifications stick, go for the jugular and smear the nominee. Since none of this makes any difference and the Republicans have the votes, this posturing is merely a platform for Harris and Booker to present themselves as candidates for the presidency. How fortunate they are both on the committee for the TV exposure.
6
Do not be so sure the Republicans have the votes! Kavanaugh is polling worse than Bork did!
1
LOL polls don’t matter
These confirmation proceedings are beyond embarrassing. Chuck Grassley has no grasp, in addition to no compass about what's right or wrong or appropriate with regard to how to preside here. The Republican members of the committee couldn't be bothered looking any deeper than a surface review of what documentation has been obtained (much of it apparently has not been) - it's all OK with them because it's a nominee offered by a Republican president...they get their conservative-majority Court, nice and tidy - little or no vetting needed. Democrats decry the rush as unfair, and indeed it is. Trump gets to invoke Executive Power in eliminating what could be crucial documents from consideration. It all smells to high heaven. It stinks. Lots of talk about the light of day being the best disinfectant. This White House and this Republican Party need a whole lot of disinfecting - above and beyond the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh
8
You probably know about the case involving the 17 year old immigration detainee that had to fight for the right to an abortion. Abortion rights advocates are hoping to bring down Kavanaugh based on his opinion in the case. They are unlikely to succeed. But if the case is viewed as a child separation matter, Democrats may be able to topple the carefully coifed nominee. Here are the facts for your consideration:
The unnamed minor crossed the border unaccompanied by her family and was soon detained. When she learned that she was pregnant, her appointed attorney won for her the right to an abortion without parental consent. The request for a consent waiver was presumably made as a practical matter to comply with Texas law. Whatever their view of abortion, any judge could have ordered that be given the right to call her parents. That didn't happen. And what comes next is the kicker. The government apparently spoke to her mother -- why, I do not know.
Kavanaugh, without addressing the issue, signed off on a process whereby the child waived her right to parental consent while the government jumped in and did as it pleased.
Maybe this works. Maybe it doesn't. But there is little question that if Democrats can make a convincing argument that Kavanaugh signed off on government contact with a mother who had no contact with her daughter, the only question will be "Who's next?"
5
Just doing a little math here... Sen Grassley asserted that all 42K documents were reviewed by Republican staff members between the time of the document dump last night and the start of the hearings this morning. According to the Senate Judiciary Committee itself, there are 44 Republican staff members. There also are 5 bi-partisan staff members (a place in DC with bi-partisans!) and 12 "shared" staff members. Assuming all 61 staff members threw all-nighters, they each would have had to read, comprehend and vet 688.5 pages of documents in the allotted time - a page a minute with no coffee breaks, no bathroom breaks and no sleep. So who amongst us believes Senator Grassley?
135
You are surely right. But there used to be white lies and we used to give each other some slack. Those were the good old days
1
Math Lesson: It's not 42K pages of facts that actually need to be read. Legal documents are full of legalese. Likely fewer than 20k pages of actual information. So, 61 staff members read 340 pages in a night. Not a big deal.
1
I don't believe they were all reviewed because I doubt that all of those people were able to be called in on a holiday evening and show up at work, but you obviously have never worked on a document review in a law firm. A good chunk of the pages will be duplicates and junk that you would just glance at and set aside. Whole multi-page documents would be dismissed at a glance as irrelevant. The whole art of the thing is finding the needle in the haystack of stuff that actually matters, the smoking gun, if you will. If they really had only 689 pages each to review, that would only take a couple of hours per person.
Kavanaugh is a perfectly decent man who will be an outstanding SCOTUS justice.
Dems know this and are reduced to barking at the moon. Pathetic...
9
He is a perjurer who lied under oath. Only decent by Republican standards.
6
Just get this charade over with and appoint this right wing ideologue to the Supremes.
He will be in good company.
If and when the Democrats get control of things - time to up the Supremes to 11 members.
4
Actually, when Donald is criminally charged, the Democrats can invoke the 28th Amendment! Or impeach Kavanaugh! Also....the vote is very tight, all Democrats need are TWO Republicans how vote NO!
4
The Supreme Court has become nothing but the symbol of a one-party GOP corporate fascist state. What is the point of calling the United States a democracy when the Republican Party steals elections, when they conceal information that could well prove the unindicted co-conspirator Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court is a perjurer, when they defile the Constitution on a daily basis? We live in a country that has undergone a right wing coup leading to this one-party state. We are just like a Banana Republic with a selfish ignorant dictator Trump who is aided and abetted by a band of anti-American Republican traitors called the Republican Congress.
Those who stayed home in 2016 must go to the polls with every other concerned citizen in everty election going forward.
13
The Republicans' refusal to allow Garland Merrick his day in front of Congress and then to ram through Kavanaugh only heightens the mistrust many Americans already have for the executive and legislative branch and will diminish the majority of American people's trust in the Supreme Court as an impartial arbiter of the laws of our country. This court smacks of the court that existed before FDR was able to get some of the justices to resign by offering them a pension. In this age of information, we are watching the far right Republicans dismantle our government. It appears that there are no limits to what the right will do to recreate our country as they want it to be.
9
What do the hidden documents show? What are they hiding? Kavanaugh worked on the White House Attorney's staff. Obviously he was working on torture, denial of constitutional rights and due process, etc. all wrapped up in "Patriot Act" responses to 911. They are trying to head off opinions that would be exceptionally difficult for any reasonable justice to explain. Democrats should question him on these, then if he lies in his confirmation hearing, he is subject to impeachment.
9
"Democrats turned the opening into a brawl, ..."
A brawl – hyperbole or hysteria. I guess you haven't been to hearings in democratic foreign countries where debate and challenge, interruptions and heated moments are accepted (if not always welcomed) and assumed as par for the course in a democracy. This is a lifetime position, it is not a 4-year post, it has the power to affect the rights and freedoms of everyone to benefit a few, and for generations to come. In a burgeoning autocracy/oligarchy/theocracy 'brawl' may be the correct word to use – ideologically.
12
I'm sorry this summary ignores Sen. Cruz's speech at the Kavanaugh hearings. I heard a large part of it (I assume he had around 10 minutes), and I could hardly believe my ears: virtually everything he said about Democrats and Democratic policies, and it was plenty, was a slanderous lie, and virtually all he said about Republicans and their policies and Judge Kavanaugh (not very much) was an outright false whitewash. I have never heard such a display of utter prevarication (and nastiness). He must have run about 2 lies per minute, or 1 per minute if he went way overtime.
19
Very nice to see liberal Lisa Blatt rise above the overwrought, tedious Democrat partisan grandstanding and speak authoritatively to the unassailable character and qualifications of Kavanaugh. That must have been the most painful 10 minutes today for Democrats.
9
Please listen to The Daily for insights as to how Lisa Blatt stands to benefit from her endorsement of her mentor--she often presents cases before the Supreme Court and can expect more business after having demonstrated her close ties with (presumably, we all know the math will hold for the Republicans, there are alas no more Senator McCains) one of the Supreme court justices.
Yes, documents were withheld but what does it matter in practical terms? If the GOP majority votes as a block Kavanaugh is in. It's that simple.
4
Indeed, as all Dems in the Senate already confirmed they wouldn't vote for Trump's nominee; before he was even nominated.
3
No, they didn’t! Not all are committed. That is true for members on both sides. Release all of the documents, give them time to do their Constitutional duties by reading them, and proceed from there, if you must.
Frankly, I’m still concerned that a president who has been named as a co-conspirator felon is even allowed to name a nominee. And whatever happened to the McConnell rule? Midterm elections are in two months. Wait until after the People have spoken!
2
Don't bet on it! They are two or three Republicans who will likely vote NO!
If you missed it, google the opening Statement of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. DON'T MISS IT. This is the one you need to hear. This is the one that points out the most important recent consequences of a Republican dominated Supreme Court to date. This is the truth you need to hear.
9
Couldn't agree with you more Tracy. Powerful, Fact Based, and Frightening if this nomination is not defeated.
7
Thank you, Tracy, I did look up the statement by Sheldon Whitehouse! Wow....everyone should read it.
1
This is an illegitimate Court. It exists because the GOP refused to consider an Obama nominee and because of a stolen election engineered through blatant Republican collusion with a foreign power, the theft and misuse of Democrats' intellectual property, and unwarranted and inappropriate FBI interference, among other things. Gorsuch is illegitimate and the Court will only be further delegitimized by Kavanaugh. Whether he is appointed through this charade or not, anyone who thinks we are going to proceed in an orderly fashion going forward in this country, in which Dems will somehow meticulously adhere to the sorts of rules that Trump flaunts every single day, should have a head examination. Protests are the least you can expect. Get used to it. Don't want to play fair? Live with the consequences, because we are not suckers and enough is enough.
15
Joe,
Vis a vis "a stolen election engineered through blatant Republican collusion with a foreign power," please supply us with your proof. Wait, you have none.
3
Actually, it's more wait till Mueller's done. Won't be as long as you hope, either.
1
@1truenorth, the reality is that I'm done debating with Trump supporters. It has been many years since hard right Republicans have spoken to others in good faith and I am not listening to them anymore. I am not required to provide proof to any Trump supporter of what I say, and I will not factor into consideration what Trump supporters want, or think they can require of me, as I go about my life. That includes freely expressing myself. The Trumpies have crossed many red lines. So there is nothing they can say or do now to change my mind, or even to sway me. I don't trust them, at all. There is no debating with such people.
It's comforting to know that Coach K led his daughter's 6th grade basketball team to an undefeated season and a citywide championship in the local Catholic youth league (thanks, Sen. Portman, for emphasizing this important information in your introduction), because that's exactly what I'm looking for in a Supreme Court Justice. Let's just hope that none of those girls ever has an unwanted pregnancy, because they should know that Coach K expects them to deliver.
34
On the other hand, coaching children can be a very trying experience and to have successfully done so is a legitimate achievement.
2
@Margo, that's nice he was a coach. We do not need a coach, we need a fair and just jurist! That's not Kavanaugh!
2
I guess my take away was the unbridled political circus that was orchestrated by the angry democrats. The unprofessionalism of their complaint tactics and the protestors they had accompany them. Alas it will make Kavanaugh's appointment and SCOTUS status all the more meaningful. Welcome back conservatism!
13
I think it makes a great bookend to the illegitimate and unconstitutional way the Republicans rammed Gorsuch right down our throats. Suck it.
15
Some Republicans appeared defensive and unreasonable, using whataboutism to suggest precedence as a justification, perhaps, for how they appeared. If the document dump occurred as described, refusal to postpone the hearings was an abuse of fairness and rational thinking. I found their excuses and explanations poor arguments. If obtaining only 10% of the record of Judge Kavanaugh is accurate as described, Sen. Grassley saying, in effect, 90% is irrelevant was another abuse of majority power by both the Republican majority and the Executive Branch.
Having watched many previous confirmation hearings, the Republican Senate majority today is an embarrassment, crude (Sen. Graham should watch his language), obstructionist when they do not have to be, and are the main cause for concern of the future of our democratic Republic.
8
Fair who cares about fair when Roe V Wade is being discussed. Keep them barefoot, pregnant and ignorant. Back to the good old days of wire hangers. What have we become?
8
I'm sorry. I must have watched a different hearing. What I saw was a group of Democrats petulantly interrupting repeatedly and climbing all over each other to get on the record while their planted protestors screamed.
3
Oh, look, the Queen of WMD, Torture, and Secret Renditions is back now to school us all on truth-telling and the rule of law. That's rich.
Who invited her to the table?
Oh.
Figures.
So when history is already not treating you very kindly, you thought it was a good idea to come back and make matters even worse? As if you haven't already done enough damage to respect for the rule of law and the fundamentals of democracy in this country?
The worst thing about her is that she's not stupid, which means that everything she says and does is willful and intentional.
Well, enjoy your glass of wine for now, Cersei, because winter is still coming.
3
Have you seen what the nervous breakdown president did to respond to what could have been an uplifting and human moment, in spite of more Republican manipulation of the nominating process,
Did Trump chose to say something extolling the virtues and the humanity of judge Kavanaugh? Noooo, of course not. He went low, he went vicious, and he called dems "mean and angry" and "despicable".
Ghee, I wonder who is feeling mean and angry and who is despicable? Could it be our low life, utterly ignorant president? A psychological footnote for everyone on Trump. As he slowly absorbs and becomes aware of what people are saying about him, he immediately mirrors the observations and criticisms about him and projects them onto the other side. So it's not him that is mean and angry, and insulting and vicious. Oh no. Once again he is an innocent victim. Never mind in the same day he had already called Sessions what amounted to a Southern cracker. Oh no. He is innocent as the day is long and it is empathic and compassionate liberals who are "mean and angry".
My question is, how long does it take before people see through his blame game and mirroring the criticisms made of him back onto the Other? He is a sick, low life unit, going more dysfunctional every day. He chose to tear down dems, not lift up Kavanaugh. That says just about everything you need to know about this petty little tyrant crying victim. He is the Other he vilifies.
14
If you were considering to vote blue in November, remember this day. What a grotesque display, and after we were just lectured during the McCain proceedings that we all need to be more decorous. Revelatory and revolting.
12
Yes, vote Democratic! Get the anti-democratic (small d) Republican party out of power so we can have honest hearings, not manipulated by the majority party to squeeze through a bad nominee.
8
Fish still rotting from head down...
3
@Hank Thomas, fish still rots from the head down....
2
Don’t recall voting for the federalist policy agenda - do you?
Does anyone remember if Donald Trumps platform had any of the criteria that he is actually governing by!
This is what you run on democrats
Run against the agenda and the policy - not the man
11
The horror show of this hearing is the world Mitch McConnell has given us. While Harry Reid certainly made a huge mistake in dropping the fillibuster for lower court nominations, he was pushed into it by Mitch McConnell’s unprecedented obstructionism. Trump is the blunt object of national division and hatred, but Mitch McConnell will go down in history as the more purposeful villain of this story. Where in the Constitution, which he claims to uphold, does it suggest putting party before country? It doesn’t, as it wisely left parties, the bane of our national existence, out completely, but McConnell treats government like a team sport rather than a national enterprise for the common good. I wish I could see a de-escalation in sight, but how can McConnell’s harm to this country be undone to allow that?
10
With the Democrats in full cry for our barbarous abortion laws, with Lindsay Graham huffing and puffing for our barbarous gun laws, who can fail to see that this is one of the most preposterous spectacles on earth?
3
The real crime is that a president who has been criminally implicated by his former attorney actually has the gall to nominate a Supreme Court jurist that may very well hear his case when it comes before the court! If Kavanaugh is installed the Roberts 5 will be the Roberts 6 and the Moderate voice of Americans will be....silenced!
2
The Committee Democrats are, right out of the gate this morning, controlling the narrative of this Republican-directed hearing and the persona of the nominee. From the lack of procedural due process in unconscionably rushing this confirmation to the effective portrayal of Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court puppet for extreme right wing think tanks coupled with his expected future role as Trump's personal judicial "protector", there is a good chance that this confirmation for Republicans will only go downhill, even rapidly, from here. The vigorous and far-ranging questioning of Kavanaugh by all Democrats, and even by the departing Flake, will leave absolutely no room for error by this nominee. Nothing could possibly prepare him for the highest stakes exercise he is about to face in subsequent days.
2
I'm tired of being a Democrat and LOSING. For more than two years, Republicans have lied and cheated and behaved badly... and yet, they win. Most of the time. How is it that playing by the rules no longer allows for success?
13
They have won, recently, by lying and cheating. But ALSO because people have sat at home and NOT voted in each and every election!
Those who threw their votes away voting Green Party, have us Trump!
Those who sat home, gave us, Trump!
Those who voted for Jill Stein, gave us, Trump!
And now we may have a solid conservative court, for decades to come!
Thanks to all who didn't believe THEIR VOTE COUNTED! VOTE!
1
Strange to see the NY Time's photograph showing Kavanaugh's children. Didn't he expect the proceedings to go roughly? Why subject your young kids to this?
Perhaps he thought the Dems would go easy on him because his kids are there? Can he be that naive? Everything about this sham is an abomination. Especially after Garland's boorish rejection.
15
It takes a special level of hubris to think that it's the proper role of the judiciary to ignore enumerated rights (like the right to keep and bear arms) that you don't like and to create new "rights" out of thin air when you think "social justice" requires it.
4
A Supreme Court justice should not be a "pro-law judge." A Supreme Court justice should be pro-justice. Those are two entirely different things.
15
Law is our democratic attempt to get as specific as we can about justice. It holds us together, gives us something we agree to in common. Without law, "justice" can mean just about anything to anyone.
6
Do you seriously believe what you wrote, Nathan? A small percentage of the laws in this country have been written to further the interests of justice. A much larger percentage of laws are enacted to benefit one group or another, usually financially. The most critical function of the Supreme Court is to determine which of those laws violates the fundamental principles of the Constitution.
It's worth noting that upon becoming president back in 2001, Vladimir Putin promised a "dictatorship of the law," and that is exactly what he has delivered. Despots have relied on the "rule of law" at least since the beginning of recorded history.
3
From the chaos of the self-destructive absurdity of Trump's most recent tweets to the chaos of the protesters and their enablers and the hyper-partisan and irritating Democrat senators, I was actually once again thrown into despair about our government. But Kavanaugh came through, conducted himself with decency, and spoke about the most important things in a compelling way. At the end of the day, he rose above the chaos.
3
You must not realize we are fighting for the rights of women to choose, for the rights of Gays to marry whom they love, etc., for the very life of our democracy!
Yes, we will shout, be boorish. Nothing though was more boorish, than when McConnell refused to hold hearings for Merrick Garland, Obama's nominee! Republicans blocked him. And YES, we, Democrats are angry at the hypocrisy and the cheating and lying of the Republicans!
2
It is embarrassingly sad to hear many of my female friends voice their fear of loosing their reproductive rights. Seriously, girlfriends, get hold of yourselves! The sky is not falling, and undoubtedly, you will continue to enjoy your reproductive freedom. Brett Kavanaugh was raised by a feminist mother and will be a fine SCOTUS judge.
10
You need to wake up. He is a conservative Catholic. He will chip away at Roe until it has no relevance or outright over turn it. A woman can be judge but she can’t be trusted to decide about her own reproductive rights. Roe is dead. It is time to vote only pro choice and pass a constitutional amendment in support of reproductive rights.
8
Trump said he would overturn Roe v Wade (https://tinyurl.com/ycosqg8p). Trump also said women who have abortions should be treated like criminals (https://tinyurl.com/y7cnr9v6). You cited feelings, I listed facts.
Don't look up, the sky just might be falling soon.
6
Roslyn, he was not raised by a feminist mother, if he had been he would not have tried to block Jane Doe, an undocumented immigrant from having an abortion! Read up on this!
ALSO, Trump promised to appoint only "pro-choice" judges to the SCOTUS! He is hellbent on fulfilling his promise to the so-called-pro-life groups, girlfriend!
Kavanaugh is pictured sitting with almost a smirk behind a sign that has in it the word "honorable" - what a travesty. The word "honorable" should never be associated with him - he has not a shred of honor or decency in him. It's like a name board in front of Trump calling him "Honest."
12
I wouldn't have shook the guy's hand either. Nothing personal against the man, but you don't just walk up to someone like that in that setting. #getreal
5
Agreed. Nobody needs to be baited in that situation. Not an honorable or decent display on the part of the bereaved parent.
Is there any point to these hearings? Kavanaugh will be confirmed because all the Republican senators, after careful analysis, have concluded that their boss in the White House has once again picked the best person for the job, just as he did with his cabinet appointments, and the Democrats, although they represent a huge majority of the people of the United States, can't do anything about it and will just have to grin and bear it for the next thirty years. Too bad.
8
Not enough well-intentioned foresight has been bestowed on Harry Reid for laying out this "Nuclear Option" for the Republican take-over of the Supreme Court. Harry should be praised and is getting none. Poor Harry should not have purchased Road Runner traps made by ACME.
4
Our so-called government is a total sellout as we can clearly see and hear. After witnessing this sham hearing I have to ask us all; What do we pay taxes as nothing has been done for the real people of this so-called country and the Constitution is a joke to the GOP which has proved itself the most corrupt and destructive element of humanities history on this now failing planet as reality circles it's wagons around the selective-ignorance that fuels the GOP and it's selectively-ignorant supporters. It is truly embarrassing to live in this ridiculous country and watch it's intentional self destruction in the name of a fictional God otherwise known as the Dollar.
13
As a long time Democrat, I have never been more embarrassed by the proceedings by Democratic Senators and their followers today.
What an embarrassment.
Have they no shame?
I will never again allow a single elected Democrat to ever lecture me or anyone else on 'childish' behavior.
10
Huh???
How did the impassioned pleas of rational sound discourse offend you? I'm offended by discarding of regular order? Grassley, the biggest hypocrite in the room, demanded Kaegan body of work before proceeding with her confirmation. This stinks, it really stinks.
9
From the SCOTUS blog....the fact that document release has not become a major issue during the Kagan
nomination process indicates to us that the process has gone relatively smoothly. From a
logistical standpoint, approximately 171,000 pages were reviewed and released in a
sufficiently timely fashion to allow Senators (and their staffs) adequate time for review.
And it wasn't Grassley requesting more documents on Kagan, it was Jeff Sessions. And it wasn't because they were fishing (O.k. maybe they were), but more to the fact she had very few public writings; rare for someone being nominated for a lifetime appointment to SCOTUS.
Here's a quick read if you'd like to know the facts. It helps if you're trying to make an actual argument.
And yes...I object to petulant little children being cued by the Democrat Party leadership to scream and shout during a very serious proceeding. Childish...at best. Moronic...more likely.
Also...Kagan was approved 63-37. Ginsburg 96-3 and Sotomayar 68-31.
You think Kavanaugh is going to get a single Democrat Senator voting outside Party orthodoxy?
I'm hoping Heitkamp, Donnelley and Manchin realize their elections hinges on them not being tied and bound by their Democrat Party slavemasters.
#UnleashTheChains
It was embarrassing to listen to Kavanaugh. He writes badly and traffics in anodyne twaddle, like a Rotarian at a motel lunch meeting.
14
Hopefully, he's questioned on his time with Judge Alex Kozinsky, what did he know?
6
When it came to Merrick Garland -- universally considered a highly qualified judge -- Grassley said, "A lifetime appointment that could dramatically impact individual freedoms and change the direction of the court for at least a generation is too important to get bogged down in politics. The American people shouldn't be denied a voice. Do we want a court that interprets the law, or do we want a court that acts as an unelected super legislature? This year is a tremendous opportunity for our country to have a sincere and honest debate about the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system of government."
Ha! 45,000 papers dumped the night before. No one can peruse three or four thousand documents an hour.
Rushing this nominee through after stalling President Obama's nominee for almost a full year is not democracy. Giving the senators a week or two to look at the documents should be a minimal standard.
32
After stealing the last Supreme Court justice seat from the Obama administration using the excuse of an impending election that was months away , to insist on a through review of this man seems only fair at the very least.
17
I've studied Roe vs. Wade and I think it's unassailable. The reasoning is cogent and the conclusion correct: the state has no interest in a fetus until a certain stage of development (now viability).
And arguments against abortion are notoriously poor and cannot withstand the logic of Wade.
5
There are enough documents and enough evidence available publicly to answer any and all questions about Kavanaugh. His life's work is testifying for him. Just look at it and be satisfied.
Any other documents demanded by the Democrats would only be so much useless fluff to sort through.
If I was Grassley, I would tell the skeptical senators: "you can have all x-thousand additional documents, but I will only give you five hours to review them".
That would put an end to this unnecessary and pesky nitpicking.
5
In all the whining and complaining, remember who we have to thank for this, Senator Harry Reid.
He installed the "nuclear option" and it is now coming back to bite us all.
If you still needed 60 votes to confirm a Justice, we wouldn't be having this problem now, as there is no way Kavanaugh gets 60 votes.
8
You are kidding yourself if you think that the Republicans would not have eliminated filibusters for Supreme Court justices (and lower level federal judges) on their own. Harry Reid, without question a shrewd politician, to his credit realized what the Republicans were trying to do with judicial appointments and took the action necessary to get President Obama's nominees appointed to the bench.
2
Hoping that two or three Republicans side with the Democrats! The GOP, doesn't have the votes.
Fred Guttenbergon, first, my profound sympathy for your loss. Although I can see why Judge Kavanaugh couldn't speak with you, I can also fully understand your putting him on the spot. I also want him on the spot, and I'm grateful for your courage and strength in going to the hearings.
From what I understand, Kavanaugh words mean that it will require a constitutional amendment even to get semiautomatic weapons banned (and we all know that constitutional amendments don't happen). No one thinks that the writers of the Constitution intended for US citizens to have military weapons in their homes, let alone of a deadly nature that wasn't even conceivable in that long-ago time.
Therefore, Kavanaugh would leave us perpetually living in the kind of terror that these weapons subject our nation to over and over
"...in his dissent, Judge Kavanaugh argued that a ban on semiautomatic rifles should be unconstitutional because they “have not traditionally been banned and are in common use by law-abiding citizens for self-defense in the home, hunting and other lawful uses.”
The result of Kavanaugh's belief system is the USA being perpetually a nation of massive gun violence, and this alone is reason to keep him off the Supreme Court.
8
As a small-r republican, a social democrat, and a high-school debate coach, I particularly enjoyed Senator Sasse's eloquent attempt to explain what Americans (Congresspeople especially) have been forgetting for too long, the very central and fact about our republican Constitution that the first branch of the federal government, with all the enumerated federal powers to make federal law (and policy that isn't foreign) is Congress: that Congress is the place where the debate and the establishment of the majorities required in a democracy to make good laws should occur. He explained so concisely the unwarranted growth of the executive branch over several generations, that it was a real pity that he did not go all the way and recommend to Congress that it get back to making the laws and, while they are at it, impeaching presidents regularly for failing to execute those laws. And perhaps Senators can recognize that the majorities in the Houses of Congress do not nowadays represent the majorities of the American people.
121
Where the house of Congress represent the popular vote, sentiments and wishes, the Senate represents and dampens the popular vote to assure that the tyranny of the majority will not govern unchecked. Otherwise we could do with Wyoming and the two Nebraska our colonies and there is nothing the people from these states could do or say otherwise.
The popular vote would assure they could do nothing for us in California to siphon their water. Actually that's not a bad idea.
1
Ive been watching the hearing proceedings all day.
Human decency, rationality, civility in discourse are fundamental to the effectiveness and growth of our democracy...I'm scrolling and reading some of the comments. Shame. "A house divided will not stand."
The last time everyone laid down their agendas unfortunately i believe was 911. Everyone was humbled and able to see each other firstly as human beings ....
Putin's giggling and smiling himself to sleep every night I bet, as America allows itself to be torn down from the inside.
14
Oh yes, and Putin's puppets the GOP are having blast!
3
A president who in under investigation for very serious federal crimes should not be permitted to make appointments to the supreme court.
At the very least, in this case, trump could appoint someone (Kavanaugh) to the court who would rule in his favor on these matters. This is a very serious conflict, and does not serve justice. This SCOTUS pick must wait until trump is cleared of wrongdoing.
27
Keep calm, you all. He will be a fair and just SCOTUS judge. As a woman in academics and a feminist, I stand with Lisa Blatt. I totally support judge Kavanaugh.
14
Really? You are not a supporter of a woman’s right to choose? Wow. Just wow.
14
Come on. You are a totally anonymous person, we don't know that you are a woman, or an academic, or a feminist, or even an American citizen, so what weight does your claim of 'support' for Kavanaugh have? None, zero weight.
9
In his dissent, the judge makes a good point. The semiauto rifles indeed “have not traditionally been banned and are in common use by law-abiding citizens for self-defense in the home, hunting and other lawful uses.”
So one question that SCOTUS has dodged since Heller is whether semiauto, military style rifles are "dangerous AND unusual" or "in common use at the time, to use the Court's own words. I think its about time the court decided, since otherwise, the left and right will continue to battle this out.
Nowhere in the discussion in any state that I am aware of is the idea of a simple progressive licensing scheme. If you want traditional hunting rifles and shotguns, just pass a background check. If you want concealed carry and ARs, pass a higher level of scrutiny. But to people like Sen. Feinstein, its all or nothing. So what would one expect in return except all or nothing?
8
Why is a diverse country like the US still beholden to the whims of white men who find it overwhelmingly difficult to escape the superstitious doctrines of a religious text?
28
I couldn't help noticing the lack of minority's in the picture, c'mon !
5
They don't run the country.....
In general, I find Politics and Politicians unsavory. Most recently one Party committed two unalterable "strategies" - Data Dumping or Exclusion and the "Nuclear Option" and they were praised for them by supporters.
Now that these strategies have been utilized all Parties will seek to utilize them. Parties invoke the "revenge" game with glee.
Now the citizenry loves to invoke the "revenge" game.
Think before you support any unethical/unprecedented political practice.
2
I, for one, am hoping this detestable man is confirmed. Why? Because a corporation-loving, woman-hating, minority-incarcerating, environment-destroying Supreme Court will awaken and energize every sleeping, apathetic, progressive in this country for many years to come. The election of Herr Trump has already awakened the progressive left. This fellow -- the final straw that will break the back of the Court -- will keep all of us energized well into the 2030s.
9
Detestable? I’ll wager you don’t even know Mr Kavanaugh, and have never met him. You are judging someone shamefully. Is this all you have?
7
This is simple-minded.
First of all, women don't appreciate our rights being thrown under the bus so that you feel motivated to protest.
Second of all, the structural changes to our political and legal institutions that Trump's SCOTUS will be able to implement will make all of this energy pretty impotent.
4
Kavanaugh's confirmation - barring a miracle that blocks it - is helping Trump wield the hammer that drives the final nails into the coffin of what will no longer be the democratic United States of America. It will be a society ruled by a despot and supported by a bent and wildly warped court. The legislature has already proven itself useless.
10
Read Kavanaugh's opinions and sober up to the reality that he is an upholder of the law. It's unmistakable in his writings.
5
Very simple remedy, since the number of judges on the Supreme Court isn't in the constitution.
--After November, reduce the size of the court to 7, with the last two justices nominated being the ones to go.
--After 2020, bring the court up to 9. First justice to be selected: Merrick Garland.
8
Typical Democratic response when you lose an election - just move the goal post.
7
Are you confused?
I thought, during election years, that we were supposed to wait for The American People to Decide before appointing judges. At least, that's what the Republicans appeared to believe when Obama was president... I *wonder* why they've changed their minds now........
9
This is a ridiculous circus by the Dems and the far left fringe.
They don't have the votes, he will be easily confirmed and there is nothing else that can be done.
Anything else is a waste of time.
9
Yes god forbid they should be allowed to vet a Supreme Court justice....are you so abjectly partisan that you just don’t care?
8
That’s a nasty sinister way to view a Supreme Court nominee that supposed to be vetted by both parties, this is a democracy last time I checked, not a dictatorship!
8
And then there is Lindsey Graham. He chastises the Democrats on the committee by telling them that they have no right criticize the president's nomination of Kavanaugh. He states that if they want to appoint judges, then they should win elections.
Really?
Perhaps he might want to reread the history with Merrick Garland and Barack Obama. Evidently, many more rules changed when the GOP took control of the Senate than we were aware of.
Lindsey, we hardly knew ye.
29
The only significant rule change in the Senate came from Harry Reid. Blame him...the "nuclear option".
5
AZPurdue, no rules got changed after Merrick Garland. No Garland, no kavanaugh!
5
JA, as your wise leaders once said, "elections have consequences" and "try winning some elections".
4
Watching the hearings all day...Here we go,Trumps tweeting from the dark side again.... everyday he reinforces his lunacy and fears.
9
The real issue: Ok, ready GO: we have 20% of 100% of the papers which is 4% of the all the papers we requested which is 450,00 pages but 523,000 are actually duplicates so only 100,000 will be received/sent. But we didn't receive until last night 42,000 of the papers which minus duplicates is actually only 3 pages so you should have no problems reviewing those because in the same time you had to go over that we reviewed 1,867,021.5 pages in four hours because in the past it was 90% of all the papers but we recieved and in reality that is incorrect Because the 4% which doesn't cover the time before or after the 80% that was deemed unnecessary because it wasn't in the other 90% which, if you do the math marh and not the pseudo math you actually have 38.666% of the necessary papers which adds up to 18.5% of the 599,901 pages needed which is really 100% of part of the whole needed to make the decision. Or not. Depending on the numbers of pages sent/received. Got it? Good.
6
Please tell Senator Cornyn that the only mob rule is by the Republicans. They do rule as they control all three branches of government and act with impunity. It's a disgrace listening to Senator Grassley opining about the rules of the hearing and the Constitution. The Republicans are trampling the Constitution each and every day by just following the Executive branch. A total disgrace.
20
If this is how a representative democracy is supposed to work, then maybe its time we consider a new system. The patently obvious flaws, as evidenced by this confirmation process (and our current president), raise a foul odor that no peoples or county should have to endure.
12
This is a dog and pony show,
We all know that regardless of what is said and presented, or whatever ''gotcha'' questions, speeches and the like are going to reveal.
The final vote is going to be 51 republicans ramming through one of the most divisive nominees for the Supreme Court in the history of the United States.
This is wrong on so many levels, and it is going to change the direction of the country for generations to come - not for the better, but for less privacy, less rights, and more corporate and executive power.
A sad day in history.
16
"one of the most decisive nominees...in...history"??? If true, I guess we know who the single most decisive was, Robert Bork. And thanks to Harry Reid's nuclear option, the Dems can't even Bork him. How ironic.
7
errrr, make that "divisive"...
This is a dog and pony show,
We all know that regardless of what is said and presented, or whatever ''gotcha'' questions, speeches and the like are going to reveal.
The final vote is going to be 51 republicans ramming through one of the most divisive nominees for the Supreme Court in the history of the United States.
This is wrong on so many levels, and it is going to change the direction of the country for generations to come - not for the better, but for less privacy, less rights, and more corporate and executive power.
A sad day in history.
6
@funkyirshman, I agree..this is a sad day, the unfairness and politicizing of this process that should be above reproach, no shadow of impropriety...
The Washington Post prophesied it - democracy is dying in the darkness.
3
There is no way that this is one of the most divisive nominees in American history. Quite the contrary. Ordinarily, he would be confirmed with well over 90 votes. Unfortunately, these are not ordinary but highly divisive times.
4
This "fighting and protesting" is too little too late. The DNC rigged the election to elect Hillary- And we all know the outcome of that brilliant decision!
And before every liberal screams and yells, "Why did Hillary win the popular vote by 2.5 million!" 96% of the cast vote came straight from CA and NY - States she had already won in the electoral college.
Liberals want open borders and free healthcare - nobody works - we just smoke marijuana - herd goats and watch Netflix all day...
Not much of an agenda..
6
Yea and conservatives are all racists and homophobes...want to sit around all day trying to think up ways to stick it to poor people. And of course, pray at the feet of Donald Trump....be greedy and nasty, etc.
2
Murder - yes? A decent law abiding, upstanding man working hard for his country - no? The woman in the video holding the ridiculous sign is clueless and should bot be allowed in the room.
3
The left will need a better plan than they have shown in this hearing if they are going to effect Trumps next two nominations in the next 2-6 years.
11
This is a dog and pony show,
We all know that regardless of what is said and presented, or whatever ''gotcha'' questions, speeches and the like are going to reveal.
The final vote is going to be 51 republicans ramming through one of the most divisive nominees for the Supreme Court in the history of the United States.
This is wrong on so many levels, and it is going to change the direction of the country for generations to come - not for the better, but for less privacy, less rights, and more corporate and executive power.
A sad day in history.
1
"Divisive"? Only because it is not a liberal like you. "Elections have consequences"...or did you forget already???
2
As much as I dislike it, folks need to get used to Kavanaugh's appointment. It is going to happen. May the lesson be learned, although the right to protest is important and I support it, it is far too little and far too late. Trump clearly indicated what type of SCOTUS nominees he would pick prior to November, 2016. Protest loud. Protest often. Protest peacefully. But, most importantly, protest (by voting) at the ballot box in November, 2018 and beyond.
7
Democrats, particularly Superdelegates, should have thought of this day before nominating the only candidate that could possibly lose to Trump.
And no, I am not saying Sanders should have been nominated. What I am saying is that they should not have had a fixed primary season where other viable, real Democrats were discouraged from entering the race before it even began.
3
In the name of Merrick Garland and Obama's right to nominate a Supreme Court Justice, Democrats must take the time to review all documents and demand the release of whatever the Trump Administration is hiding.
No more Republican mockery of the Supreme Court nomination process. They are shameless on this point.
6
They are not shameless...just in control.
2
too many secrets in our government. Since even the Senate can't agree on the issue of privilege, release all and every document on all subjects, let the American public decide.
Every lawyer and every operative of our government should be proud of every action they take. If not, they shouldn't be doing or saying it.
1
@NYT, Multiple times here you are applying the description of "presidential aspirant" to Democrats who are speaking up. You are implying that this is the only reason they are speaking up. I guess it couldn't be that many folks feel this judge has extremist views? Many of us who are not going to run for president have been speaking up vehemently. I called my senator yesterday. How to do categorize me?
5
Perfect snapshot of 2018:
-GOP can barely control a standard process that should be easy and will need Hail Mary McCain replacement for 51st vote
-Impotent Dem showboating masquerading as a principled stance
-NYT giving coverage to literally 10 people who can afford to take a day off of work to play dress up in white bonnets as though they represent anything other than their own hunger to play a victim
...as the kids say “this is why we can’t have nice things”
4
Arturo, I would far prefer these silent women than the Nazis that Trump has been sending to his rallies and killing people, while Trump praises them as "good people".
6
The Republican Party has given up all pretense of responsible governance. We are in a full-blown constitutional crisis. If Democrats don't retake at least one house of Congress in November, democracy as we know it in this country is not likely to survive.
Vote, like our way of life depends on it. Because it does. And get everyone you know to vote. And everyone they know. This is one of the most important elections this country has ever seen.
10
Democrats once again showing they have no respect for law and order.
5
You can see that the words of John McCain have fallen on deaf ears.
4
Kavanaugh is already showing his contempt for the rule of law by allowing the confirmation hearing to proceed with, at best, negligible disclosure. And that’s the tip of his iceberg.
6
Nominees don't make or interpret the rules of the Senate. Would you really want them to?
2
In recent polls, more Americans oppose Kavanaugh than support him. Americans are getting tired of the Republican plutocracy ramming minority rule down their throats.
10
Hmmm...probably the same polls which had Hillary winning handily.
5
This isn't American Idol. Polls don't matter - votes do. That is a lesson that the Dems don't seem to be able to understand.
3
I understand why some witnesses should sit in court (but they should not be sitting behind the candidate) but that the nominee's child is also present is ridiculous! When is a child ever present at an applicants job interview? What is the relevance for the presence of ones children in such a setting? I also question the presence of a spouse.
Keep the silly family optic grabs out these and any other govt hearings.
Ah yes, the Dems are asking for a recess...complaining about the use of the Executive privilege (why is that even possible in this case?) and the committees Republican apathy about the WH not releasing thousands of files, etc.
But they know Grassley ain't budging, they know the Repubs ain't hearing even the slightest bit of logic in the matter of who and why all public files are not being released. The Dems know the Repubs are wholly immune to their own hypocrisy in the matter. That had Obama used an EO, they would have blown a few dozen gaskets, while FauxFox News would have shown us a level of rage never before witnessed on a quasi-news TV channel.
The hypocrisy stinks...made more foul by Grassley now claiming to not wanting a judge who rules consistently for a political POV.
Is he kidding us? How do these guys and a few women in the Repub party not recognize their contempt for the American public?
But here goes...
10
Kavanaugh is one part of Trump's multi-generation stranglehold on democracy - but so are the rest of the 100 plus federal judges Trump has the power to appoint this term. The ugly picture is a lot bigger than today's battle.
Let's stop talking about Trump as part of a political party and talk to voters - ALL of them - directly about what the majority of people agree on. Talk to:
Every company hurt by Trump's illogical tariffs and immigration jingoism...
Every voter who saw no real tax break or salary increase but now sees their retirement social security income threatened to pay back Trump's trillion dollar tax break for the wealthy...
Every voter angry that 77 million of THEIR taxpayer dollars has gone to Trump's 143 days at the golf course this term...
Every veteran livid that Trump, who cheated his way out of the draft and called STDs his personal Vietnam, deeply disrespected Senator McCain, a heroic, highly decorated prisoner of war...
Every man and woman completely grossed out that Trump had sex with porn actors while his wife and baby slept at home...
Everyone sickened by Trump bowing down low before the world's most violent, freedom-robbing dictators...
And ask them all, regardless of party affiliation, to VOTE DEMOCRATIC or at least VOTE ANTI-TRUMP to overturn Trump's stranglehold on Congress in November and VOTE Trump out in 2020.
10
"[Grassley] said Republican aides have already reviewed the 42,000 documents that arrived Monday night.
…
"A press officer for the committee, responding via the committee’s Twitter account a few hours later, said the majority staff had 'completed its review of each and every one of these pages.'"
Let’s see. The documents were given to the Senate Committee around 5:00 p.m. yesterday. Assume it takes 10 seconds to review each of the 42,000 pages. That’s 420,000 seconds, or just about 117 hours. The hearing was scheduled for 9:30 this morning; that’s 16.5 hours later. So, seven people, each reviewing a portion of the documents, could spend ten seconds on each one (with no time between documents, no sleeping or eating, and no breaks for the bathroom or otherwise) and finish the review before the hearings started at 9:30 a.m. today. That ten seconds per page would, of course, provide adequate time to review, think about and, where necessary, write down notes about each page. Easy peasy; no problem. Proof? The Judiciary Committee Republican staff did it in one quarter of that time!
3
Kicking and screaming democrats do not an effective party make.
8
Bringing up Republicans banning consideration of Garland is hilarious! It was Biden himself who blocked the administration before him, in exactly the same way. The hypocrisy is astonishing!
6
Mob rule, really? When Republicans prevented a sitting president from having his nominee even heard in front of the senate?
3
It is clear as I watch the confirmation hearing and the ongoing protests that the people do not support Kavanaugh’s appointment to the SCOTUS contrary to what Republicans claim. Then again, we know Republicans do not consider women as equal to men. Republicans do not consider the rights of women as worthy as those of men. This hearing is a sham.
Furthermore. his nomination has been railroaded without allowing time for his papers to be reviewed. I speak of the number of pages just delivered to the Democrats last night, not even 24-hours notice was given. This alone is without precedent.
Senate Republicans are not giving this nomination the gravitas it deserves.
3
Mr. Grassley LIED when he said that Republican aids reviewed 42,000 pages that arrived the night before. What a disgusting shove through, putting the hyper-partisanship and hypocrisy that defines the modern GOP on full display.
We will not forget Merrick Garland, and we will not forget this.
1
A president under an active investigation for collusion with a foreign power should never be able to make a lifetime appointment to the SCOTUS.
Ever
Regardless of party!
Said another way
What will be the recourse to remove kavanaugh once the SCO investigation shares its findings and DJT is caught red handed in his cooperation and coordination with the kremlin.
It’s not a matter of if- just when- the truth is revealed about DJT.
What then?
gorsuch should be relieved of his duties as well.
No appointments to the court until we hear from the SCO.
That would be the bi-partisan, grown up and right thing to do!
2
This sounds a little ridiculous. The dem's should act with dignity and do a normal confirmation process instead of kicking and screaming the whole way through.
7
It is unconscionable to proceed with a confirmation hearing for a SC judge nominated by an administration with so many investigations swirling around it. That in itself says all that we the people need to know about this administrations ability to select a suitable candidate for SC judgeship. These hearings should not take place until all investigations regarding these swamp creatures has played out to conclusion. Come On Mr. Mueller. Let's win one for Team America.
2
The senate is comprised of elderly people who seem barely able to keep a train of thought or speak with any fluency. I think this hearing is sham and the Democrats are being railroaded because they are too out of touch to fight with any mental vigor.
1
Here's what Republican logic, as expressed by Ted Cruz and others, would have sounded like if applied to the Nixon impeachment proceedings:
"President Nixon has turned over hundreds of hours of tapes made in the Oval Office*, and a few missing hours should be of no concern to this committee."
Of course they would say that.
(*the Watergate Tapes)
3
Judges Gorsuch and Kavanaugh can never be legitimate members of the court, because the president who nominated them is not a legitimate president — he’s a con artist and a criminal and, quite likely, a traitor.
4
Well, if that's what "Michael from Brooklyn" says, then I suppose Mueller can call it quits and send his staff home now.
5
Ted Cruz states, as many Republicans state, that "the people" voted for the current administration when in reality, "the people" voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. So, "the people" did not voter for the Trump's pre-election list of possible SCOTUS candidates. We are living under a regime not chosen by "the people."
4
After 200+ years you would think that the Dems would have figured out how the Electoral College system works.
Popular vote is like yards gained in a football game. Cute stat but mostly meaningless.
6
Go Democrats! Let freedom ring, let freedom ring, let freedom ring!
2
It's a beautiful day!
Dems fight back against the unfairness and immorality of the GOP.
Also, go protesters!
2
Senator Ben Sasse just spoke truth to power about Congressional abdication of its responsibility because all representatives care about is "getting re-elected over and over."
Sasse asks "Who represents the American people?" He describes Congress as "too lazy and risk averse" to do their jobs.
Ben Sasse: hero.
5
The outcome of these hearings should be academic: Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court should be defeated on the basis that he was chosen by an allegedly criminal president.
3
I'm sure that's exactly what you said about Justice Breyer when Clinton nominated him while Clinton was under investigation-- right?
4
Judge Kavanaugh wrote in 2009 in the Minnesota Law Review. " . . . 'Even the lesser burdens of a criminal investigation — including preparing for questioning by criminal investigators — are time-consuming and distracting,' Judge Kavanaugh wrote. 'Like civil suits, criminal investigations take the president’s focus away from his or her responsibilities to the people. And a president who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as president.'” (NYTimes July 10, 2018)
Kavanaugh wasn't talking about George Washington and the cherry tree, and to apply this standard to Donald Trump would be laughable. Trump-the-Tweetrer can't concentrate on the presidency even without such a distraction and to suggest that he could do an even worse job stretches credibility.
Is Brett Kavanaugh actually someone we would want on the Supreme Court?
1
“I wish I didn’t have to put up with this kind of stuff,” Senator Orrin Hatch.
Heaven forbid that the public's voice be heard during a public hearing on a matter of grave concern to much of the country. Particularly when you, and your colleagues, Senator, refused to hold an interview, a committee hearing, and a public hearing, let alone an actual vote, on a sitting President's nominee, who even this nominee considers eminently qualified for the Supreme Court. You took away a 60 member vote. Your party has held back documents. You have completely politicized selection and confirmation process of the Supreme Court and have thereby made it a bench of ideologues rather than independent jurists.
I wish WE didn't have to put up with this kind of stuff, Senator.
2
Too bad Sasha Baron Cohen never got to interview Coach K on his views on guns.
1
I am an Independent voter. It is clear to me and has been for some time that the Democrats at this moment lack the legal power to block Kavanaugh's nomination, regardless of merits. All of this hysteria is futile nonsense. Surely this energy could be used more positively elsewhere.
I am of Tom Friedman's view that at the present time, the worst Democrat is better than the best Republican. And so I will vote for every Democrat I can.
But boy, they sure make it difficult sometimes.
4
Far more important than Kavanaugh's two-faced behavior with respect to Roe v. Wade or potential charges being brought against so-called president Trump is the fact that Kavanaugh lied under oath in 2006. Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.) wrote in a letter to Sen. Charles Grassley: "We have already seen records that call into serious question whether Judge Kavanaugh was truthful about his involvement in the Bush Administration’s post-9/11 terrorism policies when he testified before this Committee during his 2006 nomination hearing," Republicans are trying to keep relevant documents sealed without precedent or justification for doing so. There is much for Kavanaugh to fear including possible perjury charges. We see that Kavanaugh fits right into Trump's circle of liars and frauds. No Congressperson, Democrat or Republican, should insult the American people by approving Kavanaugh's nomination - the nomination Republicans stole from Obama.
3
Judge Kavanaugh is clearly for eliminating a women's right to choose (an anortion), but he cleverly tried to make it impossible for the pregnant 17 year old to exercise her Constitutional right by attempting to run out the 20 week clock for having an abortion in Texas. It was a blatant and pernicious attempt to circumvent the young woman's right already approved by the Texas courts. And, when he was overruled, Judge Kavanaugh wrote a blistering dissent. He clearly will do what conservatives want by making it impossible for women to obtain an abortion even if Roe is not revoked. That is why a huge majority of women oppose his confirmation.
6
This is so sickening. Once again we are being railroaded into having another hyper-conservative justice on the Supreme Court. Why would this bogus hearing even be conducted now, except for the orchestrations of the sneaky Republicans?
A full release of documents? Why would you want that? It might reveal a Kavanaugh that nobody would want.
8
I hold lawful democratic elections responsible.
Can the live-coverage camera show the name tags of the speakers?
2
Nice dissertation.. How about responding and giving us specifics on how this hearing is "an affront to the Constitution and the American people" Just the facts and specific laws to back up your statement.
5
Funny how the Senate can't get through all the documents they got yesterday, but the FBI can get through 650,00 of HRC emails found on Weiner's computer in just a few days, and still come to the same conclusion they got even before they interviewed her about them. No one in the senate said that 650,000 was too much in such a small amount of time. Politicians go as fast or as slow they as they choose. Do these Senators insist on reading every page of every bill they vote on? Just how fastidious are they really? Such a circus, when they should know only the naïve or their own tribalists believe they want to work so hard. They know their questions, they know their vote, and they know they need to draw it out, in hopes of getting something from Mueller or get past the midterms. This is exactly the kind of thing that motivates votes for men like Trump. The hypocrisy on both sides is rank.
5
Anyone notice that the Chairman talked OVER the women Senators trying to make their points but allowed the men Senators to speak uninterrupted? ARRRRGH! This is what we’ll get as women’s rights with Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.
11
Kavanaugh ignores handshake from Parkland victim father? Zina Bash sits behind Kavanaugh ;smirks; and flashes white power sign? Republicans are at the bottom of humanity. Vote them out. Ray Sipe
15
The Parkland father identified himself. Kavanaugh looked like a cowardly deer in the headlights as he turned away. God help America.
2
Why did your update ignore Senator Whitehouse's incredibly powerful statement?
Readers see what the NY mis is blacking out:
Whitehouse Reveals Kavanaugh’s Pro-Corporate, Right-Wing Record in SCOTUS Hearing Opener
http://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/whitehouse-reveals-kavanau... …
2
So much for the unity/solidarity shared this weekend while honoring Sen McCain. What a shame.
4
Many Trump supporters used the SCOTUS seat McConnell stole as justification for voting for Trump. McConnell thus helped win Trump the election by using a SCOTUS seat that rightfully should have been filled by Obama during his last year in office as collateral in exchange for votes from people who believed Trump wasn't qualified by temperament or experience to be president.
That, combined with decades of gerrymandering, has yielded one bad SCOTUS pick--Gorsuch--and will likely yield another one, Kavanaugh.
But the GOP may win SCOTUS by lining up behind Trump at the expense of Congress and, if we're lucky, a Senate majority. Here's hoping an embarrassing impeachment hearing is also in their future, since even spineless congressman and senators have thus far refused to shut down Mueller's investigation, knowing that's a bridge too far for the American people.
4
What chutzpah for Grassley to talk about "unfair and unethical" after he and his Republican comrades-in-arms blew off Obama's nomination of Garland. The whole thing is a joke, a charade. No Republican or any of their supporters has a leg to stand on when it comes criticizing the protests.
11
I expected the session to become a fist-fight or even settling of accounts as in "Gunfight at OK Corral" in the Chamber.
As far as the issues pushed by the Democrats under the influence of their leftist radical wing -- 2nd Amendment rights and same-gender marriages -- they will be shooting themselves in the foot, if they try to make big campaign issues out of them. Who knows, given the role of the militant vegans and the loud-mouthed proponents of the politically correct, the Democrats may kneel before the extremists' demands to legislate the people's diet and manner of speech.
3
No doubt Putin is enjoying the whole pathetic show going on in the US, period. Watching us destroy our country from within, with help
From his own Manchurian president. Let’s hope we call out of this nose dive.
2
Democrats, especially Superdelegates, should have thought ahead to this day when they decided to tilt the table in favor of the only nominee that could possibly lose to Trump. And I am not talking about Sanders....he wasn't a Democrat. I am talking about any and all real Democrats, whose viable candidacies were suppressed before they even got started because "it wasn't their turn".
And don't tell me she got more primary votes than anyone else. In Russian elections, Putin also gets more votes than anyone else. Besides, many of states that Sanders won were based on caucuses, where no vote tallies emerge.
3
None of this would have ever happened if she got in. That's the only point any liberal needed in the end. And she was one of two ways to vote (that counted) at the endgame. Never mind the beginning. This way or her way. It's just a fact we wouldn't be here had people had any sense of the urgency.
Democracies are only as good as their (educated) constituents and Elections have consequences.
2
Vladi will be downing vodka shots all day as he watches his greatest adversary tear itself apart in a partisan frenzy. It is bad to see how far we have fallen, worse to broadcast it for all the world to see. Hate Trump as you will, he is indeed hateful. But must we punish the Republic to demonstrate how much we hate him? Punish Trump.
4
Go protestors! Scream for me while you’re at it!
10
This will make pure gold on GOP campaign ads coming up on a screen near you.
What you missed was that GOP Senators always let Democrat presidents have the nominees they wanted, unless it was a clearly unprepared person like one of Bush Jr's.
That is all gone now and no Democrat will have simple hearimgs for their progressive choices. But at LEAST the Democrats got to do it to themselves.
Before you force socialism here, go find us a place - just ONE - where the working class can afford the lives they looked forward to, including having kids.
3
The mob mentality that has evolved is getting increasingly dangerous. #mobrules
11
Yeah, let's all tweet #offwiththeirheads at the same time. That'll show 'em. (Laugh).
1
The Democrats should walk out of this hearing. They have all made up their mind's so what's the point - except to get some TV time. Most are shameless cowards who only care about the next election.
12
You misspelled "Republicans."
11
Cornyn knows about mob rule as a member of the mob, and as a loyal member of Putin's Puppet's Republican Congressional cabal. Furthermore, for Grassley to use the word fair, without regard for what he and Cornyn's GOP mob did to Judge Garland, and President Obama is to understand how a pathological lying sociopath operates without regard for the truth and victims.
8
Once again we see confirmation at the Kavanaugh hearing that democrats have no respect for law and order or the constitution.
9
“I wish I didn’t have to put up with this kind of stuff,” Senator Orrin Hatch said as one yelling protester was escorted out.
Wow. Senator Hatch wishes he didn't have to put up with DEMOCRACY. Any comments, Utah voters?
25
I wish he would go serve in politics in a banana republic or colony such as Morroco where the government can "disappear" protesters.
2
who are the young guys behind the Chairman Grassley? you can even hear what they re saying. America is doomed.
1
When the Trump administration is looking, sounding and operating more and more like a mob family, maybe a little bit of "mob rule" in an attempt to stop it is not such a bad idea.
5
Neither Gorsuch or Kavanaugh is an honorable man. Both have worshipped at the feet of, without a doubt, the most immoral and ignorant president (small p intentional). Gorsuch in particular had a moral obligation to defer to Merrick Garland. He did not do so. Let’s hope that history labels these power hungry disgraces as what they are.
12
Since Ted Cruz is now saying we should believe what Trump said in debates, I guess his father was really involved in the JFK assassination.
8
Great show but the guy is going to be confirmed. Maybe stop interrupting him and you may find out you like him.
3
Is it clear YET that issues directly effecting the lives, the very inhalation and exhalation of breath, of American citizens is being hidden only to protect one who is rapidly emerging as a common thug? This is our Supreme Court and the attempt to stack it in favor of the common thug, and not to insure that justice will be served, is shocking. This hearing should not proceed until our representatives have had ample time to review ALL relevant documents.
Just to say, that a sitting president should not be disturbed by legal proceedings against him if he is accused of criminal behavior while he is in office is completely absurd.
7
I was listening, and the Dems hardly moved "angrily." What a mischaracterization of the situation. It was polite and reasonable, while Grassley and his flunkies refused to follow procedure or listen to reason. Typical.
8
What a mockery Democrats and these demonstrators are making of this confirmation hearing. They are like children who are accustomed to getting their own way, and when they don't, throw a wing doozy of a temper tantrum. They cannot abide that Brett Kavanaugh is imminently qualified so they will do everything in the power to turn this hearing into a sideshow. It's nothing short of disgraceful and just shows the depth to which partisan politics has fallen.
9
Putin couldn't have said it any better.
6
It's the Republicans who are actively undermining criminal investigations in the FBI and DOJ. Yet you say Democrats are acting like children for blocking a criminal president from planting a judge that will allow him to get away with criminal acts as POTUS when they won't even release 60% of the available material for review? Moron.
10
And where were these noble sentiments when the nominee was Merrick Garland?
And it's "eminent ", not imminent, you're looking for, though sadly for our nation, Kavanaugh is indeed imminent.
4
This hearing is hilarious. The Democrats are truly unhinged. There is zero real reason to oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination. The reason Democrats are doing so is because his confirmation would mean that the Court would no longer act as a super-legislature. That would mean that the Democrats would have to win elections in order to implement their policies, which they are not very adept at doing.
14
It's about time the Democratic Leadership one-upped Trump. Its lashed fury against Kavanaugh is well-played!
Belligerence for belligerence, prez: How does it feel?
P.S.: I bet Merrick Garland is having a grand ol' day.
3
Watching Judge Kavanaugh walk away from Mr. Guttenberg's outstretched hand was to watch the last vestiges of civility disappear. Since when is it acceptable in decent society to disdainfully turn your back on a bereaved parent-- no matter your personal views?This shameful moment is of course largely symbolic. The outrages of this confirmation "hearing" are many and serious. Yet, the lack of basic empathy exhibited has to be noted, and abhorred.
7
So what are they hiding? We already know he’s pro torture (and apparently Democrats won’t even bring that up?), we already know he thinks Republican presidents are above the law while Democratic ones must detail their private lives in public - so what worse stuff is in those papers they won’t release?
8
I wonder what the US would look like now if Obama had not been a neophyte beholden to the Clinton politicos. I wonder what the US would be like now if Obama had prosecuted the war criminals of the Bush administration for lying to us about Iraq nuclear weapons, participation in 9/11/2001, and the use of torture? I wonder what effect Obama prosecuting the financial criminals of Wall Street for conspiring to play games with real estate and derivative swindles might have had?
I wonder.
1
Or what a big nothingburger this would be, as I’ve learned he could have used a recess appointment/vote to get Garland in. Yeah, too many should haves....
Recess appointment would have only been good for Obama's remaining term. We'd be back in same boat....
3
You don't seem to understand how recess appointments work. It would only have been good thru the end of Obama's term
I have the sound off while Ted Cruz works himself up to a fever. This is a circus. American Democracy is falling into a deep, dark pit.
1
why are we not seeing who is speaking?
I want to see who is saying what, and don't need to keep staring at Kavanaugh's face. SHOW THE FACES of speakers so we know who says what.
1
Brett Kavanaugh thinks that a sitting president should be shielded from criminal investigations.
That certainly means that if a president was actively committing crimes - say for instance aiding a hostile foreign power in subversive actions against the US, or accepting gifts and money from foreign governments - that Kavanaugh, as judge, would help the corrupt president avoid justice.
Most lawyers would call a person like Kavanaugh in that scenario an "accessory after the fact". A criminal.
Trump is criminally corrupt (morally too, but I won't go there). Congressional Republicans who are impeding the Mueller investigation are also corrupt. No surprise that they are "rigging" the SCOTUS appointment.
Brett Kavanaugh is not there yet, but he is clearly willing to become another corrupt Trump loyalist. He knows, and accepts, why he is Trump's top pick.
This is how the Trump Republican party governs. Be loyal to the boss. Get the power, get the money. Forget the law.
But the lawless pursuit of power among Republicans will ultimately cause lawless rebellion among the people. The signs are increasing, and they are ominous.
4
As Amicus writer and Supreme Court expert Dahlia Lithwick noted, "Donald Trump picked the judge who’s most inclined to say the president can’t be indicted. Pro tip: That makes him look guilty."
Kavanaugh is all for massive presidential powers. Trump could be a king with him as Trump's very own handy jurist.
In 2011 Kavanaugh wrote in dissent that if a president takes issue with an existing law, he can simply declare it unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
Where would our democracy be? Can you imagine an impulsive. vindictive president with this power?
Kavanaugh recently ruled against a young woman who wanted an abortion.
You readers who voted against Hillary----women's private and personal reproductive rights could be gone in a NY minute.
Read Kavanaugh's dissent as to a woman's self-determination in court documents here:
https://www.scribd.com/document/362508573/DC-Circuit-En-Banc
My decision for Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court is: No. Release all documents to ensure your nomination to the Supreme Court is a valid testament to the content of your character. In that way the American people can be assured you shall perform your duties that are consistent with the values and principles of the United States of America. What do you have to hide Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh?
2
On my. What? Not everyone agrees with my precious views? I'm going to scream, stamp my feet, throw a fit, wave a sign, dress up like character in a book I haven't read, and then pack up my participation trophies and move to San Francisco, where I won't be able to afford a closet to live in or food but they'll all think just like me. Won't they?
9
The fact that Republicans are willing to ram this through only underscores the suspicion by the American people that many members of the Repubican party are implicated in the web of criminality spun by the current occupant of the Oval Office, and that Kavanaugh will be the deciding factor in ensuring that those Republicans, along with that current occupant, will never have to pay for their crimes.
3
In the words of your Great One, "try winning some elections".
2
Enough with the screaming protests. Democrats need a simple, straightforward procedure to delay the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing until after the November elections. A good start would be to demand the hearing be stopped until the hidden documents are released and a reasonable amount of time is designated to review them.
The White House antics— dumping 47,000 pages of documents on the holiday afternoon before the hearings (the Republicans claim that they have read all of them is laughable) and withholding thousands more—don't make a lot of noise, but that's what should be protested.
Head for the White House, people.
1
It seems to me that's exactly what certain senators asked for today, in so many words.
2
Sen. Grassley really is afraid fo the truth. It's clearly apparent in his, and the G.O.P. hypocritical rush to judgment (or lack thereof).
I'm from California. And I don't like Kamala Harris. She's way to calculated and opportunistic. She sold us down the river over the San Onofre nuclear plant, siding with SDG&E to shift the cost of their carelessness from their shareholders to the rate payers they extort.
But in this context, Harris is right. And they need to listen to her and give the democrats time to study what is in those documents that the Trump people have no right to withhold once Bush's people gave the go-ahead.
Kavanaugh seems to be destined to be the first Supreme Court Justice to be appointed by Putin.
1
The Chairman is either lying about the rules regarding holding a vote on Sen. Blumenthal's request for an adjournment, or he doesn't know the rules of his own committee: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/rules #StopKavanaugh
2
One question: Will he recuse himself on any cases involving the obstruction of justice by Trump?
1
Forty years ago I was there that night when history changed, and Supervisor Feinstein became Mayor and moved us forward. Now forty years later we have a President who is a chronic liar with a muddled mind moving us backward and picking the wrong Supreme Court judges for our era.
Kavanaugh is yesterday’s judge. The majority of women want to continue to control their own bodies and they want guns off the streets. Kavanaugh as Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court is just as off-the-cuff and ill considered for these times as everything else Trump does from this oval office.
A Trump Judge is a tarnished choice, intent on colluding with this President who is pushing us back to 1965, when women and minorities were under the control of white men.
Senator Feinstein is the best person to stand up to Trump and push back harder.
2
So Republican Senator Cornyn describes the protesters at Judge Kavanaugh's hearing as "mob rule"? How rich! This from a member of a party whose leader specializes in holding rallies of the Republican faithful where the primary goal is to rile up the crowd and ratify their anger. Talk about the horde calling the rabble unruly.
4
To: Senator Orrin Hatch, If the Republicans did not play politics with Supreme Court nominees, you wouldn't have to deal with angry citizens. Don't you remember the refusal by your party to bring Merrick Garland up for a vote? How quickly your forget. Sorry, but the citizens of the United States haven't forgotten, so you get to deal with our anger and frustration.
7
The GOP was in control of both chambers when the Garland pick arose and they control both chambers still. They hold serve.
4
It's real simple: a president who has been implicated in a Federal Crime should not be able to appoint a swing voting Supreme Court judge who believes that the president need not follow the law.
7
A terrible day for America. His prior decisions, his view that a president should not be investigated for crimes is unacceptable for the Supreme Court. He is pushed by Trump whose crimes and abuse of power could become decisions in front of the court.
2
It is about time the Democratic Party stood up against the McConnell regime. It's too little and too late but at this point I will take the Senators' frustration FINALLY boiling at the temperature of me and my fellow voters who have fumed for years at the pointless worship of norms that McConnell and his enablers have been ruining with gleeful impunity for years. More, please, every day.
2
Protesting is the American way of life, if needed. And these days speaking up is necessary.
5
The resistance in full display. And it looks horrible!
Specially when so much was said about civility and respect to those with a different point of view during U.S. Senator's McCain funeral services. This is not looking good for democrat candidates seeking victory in the mid-term elections.
Judge Cavanaugh will be the next Associate Supreme Court Justice of the United States. Deal with it, I know it is hard, move on. To quote President Obama, elections have consequences.
6
Civility and respect?
These Republicans obstructed and disrespected President Obama at every turn, and refused to hold a hearing for Merrick Garland, violating the Constitution's "advise and consent" clause.
This Republican party is just like their standard-bearer Donald Trump. They are drunk with power, corrupt, and have no respect for the norms that hold our democracy together.
5
I hope you are hearing the shrieking voices of the women yelling in the background.
While I agree with you that Merrick Garland, should have had hearings, that fight is over. I hope you remember the hearing proceedings of Judge Robert Bork.
Democrats will pay dearly in the Midterm Elections. The resistance is tarnishing the proceedings.
5
Two quotes from this article:
"I wish I didn't have to put up with this kind of stuff" from Orrin Hatch apparently in response to the loud protests over this hearing ---
and the woman who shouted that she "... had to have a background check to work in a laundromat."
Her taxes Orrin pay your salary, health benefits, pension and who know what else. That's why you have to put up with it-- you work for her, them, us. Part of your job-- to listen the people who pay you to be there. Working for us--the United States of America.
7
Judge Kavanaugh wrote in 2009 in the Minnesota Law Review. " . . . 'Even the lesser burdens of a criminal investigation — including preparing for questioning by criminal investigators — are time-consuming and distracting,' Judge Kavanaugh wrote. 'Like civil suits, criminal investigations take the president’s focus away from his or her responsibilities to the people. And a president who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as president.'” (NYTimes July 10, 2018)
Kavanaugh wasn't talking about George Washington and the cherry tree, and to apply this standard to Donald Trump would be laughable. Trump-the-Tweetrer can't concentrate on the presidency even without such a distraction and to suggest that he could do an even worse job stretches credibility.
Is Brett Kavanaugh actually someone we would want on the Supreme Court?
2
Interesting how It didn't bother Kavanaugh when Clinton was president. In fact he seemed to relish distracting him, even to the point of penning a long list of gratuitous sex questions for him to answer.
2
After reading the few comments uttered by members (plural) of Mr. Trump administration, in Bob Woodward upcoming book, Mr. Kavanaugh "selection" for being a member of the Supreme Court makes his present confirmation hearing more farcical still. WHO and HOW this circus of power is going to be stopped?
2
Reality TV hits the Hill and it’s riveting until you remember this is our government in action. What struck me most was how many senators were up there who were already old when I interned on the Hill — 25 years ago. What are they all still doing there?
2
Kavanaugh will be rejected if his handling of the abortion for the undocumented teenager is seriously considered. He did not conduct himself as a judge but used his authority to prevent the girl from being able to have a legal abortion by running out the clock. His attempts were stopped by other judges which infuriated him. The man knows his law but he’s got no ability to keep his personal feelings aside from his professional obligations.
Feinstein’s insistence that semi-automatic rifles be banned is a serious but muddled attempt to improve control over guns used in homicides. Semi-auto mechanisms are common in legal guns made for civilian use. They are used safely by nearly all who have them and account for a small sliver of gun homicides. All she is doing is preventing more effective controls by making gun owners think that she just wants to eliminate popular gun ownership. She is helping the NRA have support and preventing meaningful registration and licensing which would help save lives. Kavanaugh’s position is not a problem, in that respect.
Democrats should ask Kavanaugh to voluntarily delay his hearing until the end of October when ALL of his documents can be examined.
If Kavanaugh has nothing to hide, he and Republicans should have no objection to this.
If Kavanaugh is so pure then he should willingly allow the process of justice confirmation according to past precedent instead of this hurried rush job.
If Kavanaugh has an ounce of the ethics, integrity, decency and if he truly believes in upholding rule of law and transparency (as is being portrayed by Republicans) then Kavanaugh should have no objections to voluntarily allowing his confirmation hearing to be postponed until all of the appropriate documents are made available and given time for appropriate review.
3
The American people voted for Hillary Clinton. May we all remember that it is the electoral college that voted for 45. I'm so tired of hearing "The American People" I, too, am the American People and I certainly did NOT vote for 45.
6
The Electoral College has been a key part of Presidential Elections for over 200 years. The fact that you only learned about it last year after your candidate lost the most winnable election in history does not make the Electoral College wrong or invalid.
2
A president whose only concern about the rule of law is that it should never apply to him or his family members should not be allowed to stack the Supreme Court of the United States with justices who will undermine civil liberties for all Americans for a generation.
3
Yes he should. It's called Democracy to be exact. And he won the election. If you don't like it - vote otherwise.
1
None of the questions, or protests, or delays will matter. They have the votes to confirm him.
4
Why don't just ONE of the Senators ask Kauffman what HE would do if he got 42000 new pages of evidence dumped on his desk the night before hearings? Would HE ask for a delay? Would HE object to a delay?
2
It's a pity that no one on the committee seems to be in any way exercised over Mr. Kavanaugh's "aversion to government regulation." I guess that would be the same government regulation that protects the public from being preyed upon by the nation's corporate oligarchs. Because we can have absolute confidence that Exxon, NationsBank and Apple have our best interests in mind.
Would that Democrats put aside the culture war long enough to go after a nominee for believing the constitution protects the wealth, health and safety of the few at the expense of the many.
This is America at our worst. 90% of the information requested by Democrats prior to the hearing has not been delivered and the Republicans insist that this farce proceed. I am appalled and ashamed.
3
None of this matters; he is guilty of what the Dems accuse him of; he will be confirmed.
Elections have consequences.
Thanks Bernie; any more bright ideas?
My impressions after watching the hearings: just why haven’t they released all of these documents to the Senators? What are they trying to hide? And why is Chuck Grassley refusing to allow a vote on the matter on the motion on the pretext that it doesn’t apply unless they’re in executive session? Even if there are thousands of pages that no one will read and which can’t affect the outcome, they need to be in the public record.
I also find the protesters grating and rather annoying, but it is a tribute to the system that the hearings continued on with them hollering in the background. May free speech always reign.
1
There’s plenty to be angry about in this country right now. Close, if not at the very top of my list, is what happened to Obama’s nomination of Judge Garland. I sincerely hope that Mitch McConnell’s legacy is forever tainted by that egregious partisan stunt, and that history books have an asterisk forever next to Neil Gorsuch’s name.
3
Of this I am sure..
Nominee kavanaugh would never condone a slimy release of documents at the last minute in his court.
So why should he condone and benefit from the practice now?
His silence and willingness to move forward is all you need to know about the DJT appointee.
This also means in a open setting we see that there is a nominee for the highest court in the land and he can be bought.
He will ingnore the laws and protocols for personal (a lifetime appointment) gain.
Dems need to simply walk away. Do not participate in this sham in public view.
Another DJT appointee who is for sale!
1
All great civilizations have a beginning, zenith and end.
The end typically comes not from outside forces but when those in power are corrupt. Sooner or later this “rotten at the core” phenomenon brings the end.
A compelling and timeless study of how this all works, ironically first published in 1776, is found in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by H.R. Gibbon.
All the actors, their roles, and their legacies going back well over a thousand years are indelibly written in history.
So shall it be with those who helped destroy American democracy solely for the sake of gaining and maintaining political power.
3
Who released the 42,000 pages on the Monday night before an Tuesday hearing, and why? If whoever-it-was didn't want them read, they shouldn't have released them; or if will to have them read, they release them earlier. It's not like the documents were all written on Labor Day 2018. This doesn't make sense given what I know of the story, so I'd like to know more.
1
Kavanaugh must be pressed by the Democrats to state his position on recusal from any issues related to the Mueller investigation/legitimacy/legality of the current occupant of the Oval Office. This must, must, must be part of the public record. Also at an appropriate time, term limits for judges must be considered. I for one do not want to live in a country stained with Trump long after he is gone from office (hopefully, very soon).
1
One can wear a flag on one's lapel, or two flags, why even THREE flags...and still be a villain.
With profound thanks to one William Shakespeare.
2
Orrin Hatch: "I wish I didn't have to put up with this kind of stuff." Does he mean, like, citizens voicing their concerns? Exercising free speech? Citizens that he represents as an elected official? Does the man know that he is a public servant? Or, does he think he's just there for his own benefit? I think we all know the answer.
2
Republican senators had better think carefully before blindly voting to confirm Judge Cavanaugh in lock step with Republican Leadership and Donald J. Trump. While confirming Cavanaugh seems like a no-brainer for Republican leaning states in 2018, their votes may come back to haunt them in 2020 when voters in those states discover that Cavanaugh maybe isn't what they were sold.
Nice try -- except that many Republicans voted Republican in the last election precisely to get the opportunity to seat at least one Supreme Court justice.
2
Pat Leahy's words, as spoken in these hearings, are words to be heard.
Hope everybody's listening, hearing, and comprehending.
1
Republicans are relying on Americans not remembering the lies the Bush administration used to manipulate this country into a war in iraq that we learned was based on a conspiracy of the inner circle of the administration.
That's a big chunk of criminal behavior and war crimes that have been dodged for a decade that Kavanaugh was centrally part of. Let that information become part of the public record instead of muffled innuendo and bad things might well happen for those involved.
It's much easier to sacrifice soldiers and civilians than politicians.
1
Trump has been accused by his former lawyer of being a co-conspirator in a felony. He is a subject of the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in our election.
Trump has absolutely no business appointing a Supreme Court justice who may very well have to make a ruling on whether a president can be subpoenaed and indicted.
2
This is not an us vs. them moment. I have been listening to the 1st day of the hearing and two things struck me- 1. Both the D and R senators are talking about "our side". If the Court is not suppose to be political there should not be sides. 2. I am sure Kavanaugh is qualified, the point of issue is the timing of the hearing, both in terms of up coming indictments and the midterms. The level of disagreement would not be as high if this was not rushed.
1
I wonder what Kavanaugh is really thinking -- is he humble, scared, agitated, driven, inpatient, intimidated?.....if he is elected will he become more authoritarian and angry or will he remember how many people are against him and will he act w fairness, accountability and compassion?
4
Kavanaugh, a republican partisan as much as jurist will lie through his teeth just as Alito and Gorsuch did. He will try to appear as though butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, but ultimately is another tool of the federalist society and the rest of the "right wing conspiracy" to control our Courts.
THEY are the real "activist" judges! The biggest hypocrites in black robes we've had on the bench.
To the fools who don't bother voting or who vote for republicans this is partly YOUR doing. And we will be paying for it for decades to come.
Time to end life time appointments for judicial positions, especially SCOTUS. A twelve year appointment which would cover 3 terms of US presidents is plenty. If need be an optional additional four year term pending approval of the Senate could be incorporated.
Our judicial system is broken! Bought and paid for by groups such as "citizens united", PACs such as Mercer's and Koch's. Republicans know that they can't win elections fairly and demographics don't bode well for them in future. So they WILL do anything they can, no matter how underhanded and hypocritical to retain power... and block Democrats from a fair chance. We NEED to stop then this November. Then take whatever actions a required to right our sinking democratic Ship of State.
13
Call it what you want... we all lose in this... with the high courts going bye-bye, there's nothing left to champion in our system. It's all corrupt now... bought by the highest dollar with no regard to popular benevolence. Tell me it's not... you know it is... and you're feeling like it's all a tremendous waste of time... the voting... the constant championing of progressive causes...
Apparently it is...
We know what we want... we know what's good for us... we know we aren't getting it... and we're going to simply let it happen because we feel powerless to stop it.
And maybe we are...
This is no hyperbole... every election from here on out is "the most important election of your life". If you're not voting because of apathy, or it's just "the lesser of two evils..." remember that not voting is the same as voting for the most evil... and that every vote counts... even in this hyper-rigged environment... that's why "they" don't want you to vote. Because the few people that vote, the more restrictions on voting, the less likely the popular, and sane ideology will rise to the top.
We're going to lose the Supreme Court... it's already gone... stolen. Just remember who stole it... the republicans... and remember why it happens... not enough of 'us' voted.
Vote. Just vote.
7
Under the heading "About those documents," there's a period missing at the end of the first paragraph (following the word "nomination").
Additionally, one paragraph mentions that Mr. Trump's tweets were sent on a hot day, which "kept him from departing for his nearby Virginia golf course." It adds color but in my opinion undermines the point by implying something about Mr. Trump's character, unrelated to the topic of the article.
If we survive this onslaught the children and grandchildren of those women disrupters will say with pride, ''That's what she did for our nation" with pride.
4
How many people NOW up in arms, hand ringing, dressing as handmaids, holding up signs etc. failed to simply vote and vote for the candidate with the best shot who was pro-choice (Hillary)?!
An informal review of my "Progressive" friends reads -not many.
It's not about getting a "perfect candidate" - it's about keeping the causes you believe in from going fully in reverse. That was and is at stake.
Liberals - at their bumper sticker slogan best when it's too late.
5
Ignatius, Please tell us how you KNOW that these protestors did not vote. And please remember that Clinton got more than 3 million more votes than Trump.
2
Trump won electorally by only 77,000 votes in three states (and he had help from a foreign adversary.)
Hillary won the popular vote by 3 million.
A lot more people voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump.
2
Judge Kevanaugh should request that the hearing for his nomination would commence after all relevant documents are made available by an independent Third Party. Absent that, Kevanaugh's nomination will always be tarnished because every one will rightly conclude that there must be something in his professional records that cannot see daylight.
7
The fascists in 1933 Germany came to power by political appointments and using the legal processes in place at the time. Then, when they had the power, they started the legislative rules and national laws to exclude those opposed to them. We are facing similar fascistic tactics in this country today:
Ultra-Nationalism
Disdain for Human Rights
Identification of "Enemies and Scapegoats"
Blatant Militarism
Rampant Sexism
Obsession with National Security
Religion and Government Intertwined
Corporate Power Protected
Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Rigged Elections
7
We have democrats showing the world their disrespect for the law, constitution and their country with this abhorrent behavior at the Kavanaugh hearings.
Their actions will ensure a second term for Trump.
2
The childish and disruptive behavior of the 'opposition party' (Democrats) would be tolerable if they actually were standing up for principles. But they are not. They are only taking the opportunity to promote themselves as disruptors, get airtime on the national news, and try to energize their far left base. Principles don't figure into their actions at all.
I never used to understand how an American could be ashamed of their country, but as the socialist-left reveals more of their playbook, I can honestly say that I am ashamed to be a citizen of the same country as these people.
4
Love it or leave it baby.
1
WOW. We obviously don't live in the same country!
1
I like the cinematic quality of it.
We need a Spalding Gray to cover the news.
This comment was deleted by the Times, for what I'm guessing was an offense to republicans. Someone please enlighten me about what is offensive in the post.
I have no doubts that Kavanaugh will be forced onto the court by republicans, so Democrats should remember this. The republicans stole the Gorsuch seat. There is no amicability or consideration when it comes to working with these republicans. They gave none to you as Democrats. They are not going to give any. Make sure republicans understand that if and when you take back the House and the Senate and hopefully the Presidency, that you are going to pay it back in spades by any maneuver or procedure that is possible. Raw power is all that republicans respect.
6
NOW is the time for every American who values OUR democracy to take action to stop this attack on OUR U.S. Supreme Court.
I do not tweet but NOW is the time for #NO Kavanaugh.
Call your Senator right now and tell them to resist and/or vote NO. Here is a link to their phone numbers:
https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Forward this information to everyone you know. WE THE PEOPLE must not let this stand in OUR United States of America.
Not now. Not ever.
8
Tweets and Petitions are meaningless. Your plea sounds exactly like the Internet Neutrality outrage - a cause that was likewise lost despite plenty of petitions, tweets and phone calling. All for naught.
There is an institution in Democracy that is meant to directly get your voice heard. It's called VOTING. Not enough people who claim to be outraged now obviously did that when it counted. The time was in 2016.
Unfortunately some people obviously think a tweet is louder than a vote.
3
Schumer should ask Kavanaugh to request a delay, on due process grounds. Let’s see how he handles a Constitutional issue in real time.
18
To this observer, Judge Kavanaugh's most troubling view is that a president of the United States ought be held above the reach of law because being forced to answer a subpoena would be distracting and cause the president's job performance to suffer.
For the moment, let's leave aside the question of how much better trump's leadership and his administration could get if he were above the reach of law.
Instead, let's focus on what recourse Mr. K would allow to the electorate if a president broke the law. Apparently, the sole recourse would be to suffer four years until a new general election could be held.
Meanwhile, the republicans would be trying every dirty trick in the voter suppression book to keep their boy in office.
8
Why in the name of God aren't the Democrats walking out of this sham hearing?
11
What good would that do, Vexations? They are making strong points - on the record - and when we elect Socially Conscious democratic/independent Women and Men in November and 2020 they can remove him if WE can't get him thrown out now.
He is NOT acceptable.
1
Americans are watching and taking note
16
hmmm, if only Harry Reid hadn't gone nuclear. This was a predictable as sunrise.
12
How’s changing the filibuster rules Bach in 2013 feel now Mr Reid?
11
You don't think McConnell would have gone nuclear anyway, regardless of what Reid did? Of course he would have.
No, I don't. But once Reid (a vicious partisan) opened the gate, McConnell was going to make him pay for it.
3
Democrats are unhinged. They are becoming ineffectual and soon to be irrelevant. They sound like they did not get their participation trophy in the last election.
10
It didn't break out, it was orchestrated by people who can't win an argument.
7
If the Senators on the Judiciary Committee (and the American public) do not have access to all of the documents that have been requested, including the documents relating to Kavanaugh's experience as the White House Staff Secretary, a position he says was the most formative of his career, the credibility of both the Supreme Court and the Judiciary committee itself will be in jeopardy.
Republicans are accusing Democrats of having made up their minds before questioning Kavanaugh, even though the Republicans are publicly stating that they expect the nominee to be confirmed, and that they will vote for that confirmation (before the questioning has even started).
So remind me again, who are those who have their minds made up in advance?
15
Imagine your reaction if conservatives in the senate and in the audience had the same babyish tantrums as the liberals.
But there is no point imagining it, because it would never happen.
12
Trump throws so many "babyish tantrums" every single day (and holds such frequent mob rallies for his screaming "base") that Senate "conservatives" can sit back & let him do their tantrum-throwing & screaming for them.
1
Ben Sasse's analysis of our conundrum was eloquent and incomplete enough to be, in reality, a fundamental distortion. Senator Sasse complains that our current situation reflects a failure in the legislative branch: that legistrators in Congress and the Senate, mindful of staying in office, punt their authority to the executive (and the bureaucracy it is supposed to manage) and the courts. But a more honest analysis would focus on what incents legislators to behave this way. But I don't think he wants to confront the cause: that political office is indirectly bought during the "money primaries" and that the Supreme Court has, in fact, with decisions like Citizens United blocked any way out. Empirically, legislators largely choose the policy preferences of their large donors (even in a post-factual world, which largely have to do with making them even wealthier. The positive-feedback loop is breakable only through regulation -- an tha, the Supreme Court has ruled is not permitted. So the spiral will continue until unavoidable calamity. Sasse can talk all he wants legislators doing the right thing, but like all employees they respond to their incentives. Perhaps he himself is the selfless publlic servant he positions himself, perhaps not. So instead of arguing for the perfect, the enemy of the good, perhaps he needs to argue for the imperfect -- and get someone on the Supreme Court who is more likely to short-circuit a spiral that will lead, inevitably, to violence.
Somewhere in the world, where there exists truth, reality, logic, honor, and reason - where politics, illusion, and manipulation do not rule the day - Judge Kavanaugh, with nothing to hide, nor any political allegiances, would speak up and request that his confirmation hearing be suspended until such time all pertinent information about his record can be reasonably reviewed by the Senators.
Surely that would be a winning move for Kavanaugh himself, would speak to the integrity of the man, would support the Senate in its decision-making process, and would honor the American people… perhaps even restore some faith in our system of government.
Call me crazy, but I am not so old as I do not remember a time when the scenario described above…was the rule, not the exception.
14
I've been watching this for a while but I admit I haven't been watching this non-stop. It seems to me that the Democrats who represent us, are really pressing about Roe vs. Wade. So now I have a question for you officials who are supposed to be representing us: Why?
This is not only about Roe vs. Wade. While that decision is important it is NOT the entire ball game! Get with it!
Most Republicans want to roll back society to October 18-1929 while a great many think it should be rolled back to March 19, 1852.
Ask him:
Do you believe that there is a valid reason that an American female should have the same basic education as a male?
Do you believe that any person who does not have the same color of skin as your wife should be entitled to the same basic education as you were?
If there is a child born within the USA should they be considered American Citizens regardless of where their parents where born? If not, what qualifies any person to be an American Citizen?
In your opinion, what determines bravery? For example, is it defending the USA or is it honoring the constitution and it's amendments?
If five people are hired for the same position and their work history is the exactly the same, who should make more; The white male, the white female, the person with an athletic scholarship, a person of color, or an immigrant from China?
If an American Male can get a vasectomy on demand why can't a woman get an abortion on demand?
4
Having to respond to legal process might cut into our President's valuable two days of golfing per week that he has averaged in his presidency. Judge Kavanaugh will protect his golf time.
6
If any of the protesters didn’t vote for Hillary, I don’t want to hear it. The battle for this Supreme Court seat was held on November 8, 2016, and you either voted for Hillary Clinton, or you voted for Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
5
Thank you. Progressives don't seem to get what was at stake. The whole "Resist" movement is a bit too little too late. But they do love jousting at windmills don't they? Love an underdog.
(Note I am very Left too - just have real ire for otherwise "smart" people who let this happen - she lost in many important states by the Bernie/Stein margin)
2
The Democrats on the committee were pathetic. Why the valiant but poorly prepared and weakly worded opposition? Not having all of the background paperwork turns this hearing into a monkey trial. The Senate is supposed to be deliberative body and it is prevented from deliberating by not having the materials to consider. A nomination to the Supreme Court is supposed to be carefully considered. Grassley said that his staff read through the additional 43,000 pages since their release. Simple math shows this was not even time to flip through the pages as if reading a pulp novel.
The Democrats should have said that the committee in its hasted is turning its back on the Constitutional principle of checks and balances, said that they were voting against the nomination as there was not sufficient time or seriousness given to the background information, and walked out.
3
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/us/politics/brett-kavanaugh-clinton-s...
Looking at what he suggested be done to a sitting President, Clinton, demanding the investigation be as rude and invasive as possible, I wonder if he would be as...
Nah, he is just another Clarence Thomas, willing to do anything to strip workers of rights, as long as that helps his rich corporate friends, and whatever needs to be done to take away privacy rights, especially the reproductive rights of women.
Trump would never have nominated him otherwise. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump demanded a loyalty pledge of him, as he did Comey.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
3
Judge Kavanaugh's thinking and intent to support Republican issues after confirmation could not be more transparent. He will answer all the questions in a manner typical of those well schooled in the legal system, vague and subject to interpretation. However, if confirmed the country will pay the price. America will no longer be America as the questions that are about to be answered by the Trump court will result in changes that cannot be reversed.
3
It is all too clear that the tribalism which infects our politics extends now to the Supreme Court. The ultimate example is Bush vs. Gore. What can we do? If a prospective justice deviates from the political mean an inordinate percentage of the time, remove them from consideration. Or make their appointments totally separate from the political process, as it is done in Norway and France. All this pretense over umpires versus activists is sickening. Everyone has an axe to grind, but especially the overrepresented ultra wealthy.
2
So much wisdom has been expressed by Sasse and Blumenthal.
We do have a constitutional malfunction -- created by a rogue president -- taking place in the Senate right now. If not for that rogue, this candidate's very interesting theories presented long ago in writing would not be creating such a furor.
But the crazy legal problems facing Trump, and his announced disavowal of all traditional interpretations of presidential power, have pushed this nominee to the edge of a volcano. It won't go away by pretending this is business as usual.
There is no alternative to directly questioning this nominee on specific issues that may come to the court, and that cannot be done without reference to his concealed writings. The nominee's answer don't have to refer to this specific situation, but they do have to fall within the range of declarations of constitutional principle that have been observed by all previous nominees.
Failure to address those issues will leave a permanent stain of illegitimacy on the Supreme Court and on the Senate. It is time to slow down, ignore the politics, and do it right.
3
I was surprised to not see Trump sitting in the back row throwing spitballs.
Today's revelations of his hidden pathology only elevate the need to separate this candidate from him.
1
Partisan grandstanding at its finest. Even if the hearing were cancelled for months to provide time to review the new documents, not a single Democratic Senator will change their vote to support Kavanaugh.
6
This is not a legitimate nomination
RESIST !!!
4
A travesty of a confirmation process, with masses of likely significant documents withheld and likely less significant documents dumped, with the deliberate purpose of precluding not just a proper review of the nominee but, more pointedly, to prevent the public from soon learning about Kavanaugh's past and present agenda. This is not "advise and consent." This is controlling news cycles for the duration of the media's limited attention to the Court.
Democrats, when next they have control, need to respond in kind, by moving to pack the Court with two new Justices to offset those placed by an illegitimate, criminal President and a GOP Senate that has unscrupulously abrogated its Constitutional duties, starting with its refusal to hold hearings for Garland. Alternatively, it's time to consider another step as a warning to all future nominees of either party pretending to be above it all: Gorsuch and Kavanaugh should be impeached for conspiring to subvert the Constitution, acceding to and aiding and abetting the most partisan of machinations, to secure for themselves a lifetime appointment at any cost. It's delusional to expect norms will mend if they are unilaterally followed. Trump's GOP has emerged as an aspiring totalitarian white nationalist party for which the ends justify any means. The GOP has more than proved itself deaf to appeals to higher ideals. It will respond only to sustained defeat at the polls and the exercise of brute strength in the halls of Congress.
2
This entire presidency is a scandal. Trump is under investigation, and is brazenly abusing his power and obstructing justice. It is absurd that he be permitted to select a Supreme Court justice under these circumstances. The integrity of the highest court in the land is in jeopardy. Contrast this situation with the blatant violation of the Constitution inflicted by McConnell regarding Garland.
5
I don't know about before that but at least since the Thomas charade these hearings and investigations are such a joke. On side asking mealy mouthed questions to try and put their choice in a positive light, the other side asking more challenging questions they do not ask of their choice. I thought blocking any hearing on Obama's choice was a new low. But a lower point has been reached. Submitting 42,000 pages of documents the night before a hearing, blocking access to 100,000 more is quite incredible. Clearly they are not concerned about the qualifications of Kavanaugh. Clearly they are not concerned about the American people. Their concern is pushing their own agenda forward at any cost. Regardless of where one sits in the political spectrum all should be at minimum concerned about these gross violations of procedure and policy. Refusing hearings, hiding documents, protecting nominees, what a disgusting way to conduct what should be the business of the American people.
2
The Republican Party is a seditious mob subverting the Constitution and undermining democracy in pursuit of one-party tyranny. The president was illegitimately elected with a clear minority of the votes and the conspiracy of a foreign enemy. The executive branch is rife with criminality and corruption and illegitimacy. The Congress was elected through massive gerrymandering and does not represent the consent of the governed. The Supreme Court is a kangaroo court with the seating of an illegitimate justice selected through seditious, extra-Constitutional means. Our government is a corrupt, illegitimate fraud taking relentless action against the Constitution and the people. The time for massive, coast to coast civil disobedience is now.
3
The true colors of the radical left are on clear display. You did not see this kind of vitriol and temper tantrums from the right when Kagan and Sotomayer were nominated and those were two atrociously bad SCOTUS picks.
4
“I wish I didn’t have to put up with this kind of stuff,” Senator Orrin Hatch said as one yelling protester was escorted out.
Let's give the illustrious senator a one-way ticket to Russia or China!
2
In the recent past, Republicans believed a President should be denied his Supreme Court pick, because an election was happening within a year.
Today, they allow confirmation to go forward, with a President the majority would like to see impeached, with 6 different obstruction of justice cases in progress, shortly before an election that likely would change Congress. By their own rules, they should not support this nomination. Instead, they play dirty tricks, like hiding 42000 pages of documents until the day before - and pretend they'll magically be able to read them.
I don't expect Republican politicians, after all they've done, to have any sense of honor nor decency - but I'd hope some Republican voters retain some belief in fairness to demand better than this, and tell their representatives so.
4
Politics as usual. The dems are as hopeless as the republicans. Whatever is in the documents, it won't change the result, nor will the dems get them, nor does it matter in making an assessment of whether the guy is qualified. It is absurd to make accusations about how he is going to decide cases as that is not the standard. The New York Times, its readers and the Democratic senators can play to their base and toot their shrill dog whistles, but to no avail.
4
Ha! Ha! Ha! "Lordy," as James Comey would say; I hope the Dems do walk out of these hearings. It would give the voters a clear view just how dysfunction Democrats have become prior to the mid-term elections.
1
The first thing the good people of this country must do is VOTE, VOTE for Democrats to take control of the house and senate.
The next thing we must do is VOTE again in 2020 for a Democratic president.
If Donald is found guilty of conspiring with Russia, the next thing we must do is impeach all of his nominees.
Lastly, we must investigate and prosecute all members of the GOP who are found to be guilty of obstructing justice and acting as co-conspirators to Donald.
1
Kavanaugh's hearing has quickly shown that he's on the wrong side of the debate: his regard for law is warped and wholly self-serving.
This reactionary conservative should NOT be confirmed to the Supreme Court.
2
These hearings are a sham, a disgrace, a fraud. Shame on the republithugs for their coercive and deceitful actions to railroad this nomination. If confirmed, Kavanaugh's ascension to the Court will only serve to further degrade that instituion into an assembly of partisan hacks intent on making the already powerful even more so. Roll over founding fathers. Your antecedents have betrayed you.
2
The Democrats would be well-served to approach this haring in a clinical manner, not as a bunch of frustrated lawmakers intent on making this hearing as distasteful to everybody by shouting and whining. This is a fight we are not going to win unless there is a closet Democrat among the Republicans in the Senate.. We'd be better off focusing on how we're going to get control of both houses (especially the Senate) in 2018, and if not then, 2020.
1
Grassley heads the Judiciary committee yet he does not have a law degree.
He's the first non-lawyer ever to hold that position.
Kavanaugh has never tried a case in court.
This is typical of the GOP.
Only the best.
What a laughingstock this country has become.
3
Keep at it Dems and protesters! We cannot afford to be complacent. Too much is at risk. If there is nothing to hide about Kavanaugh, why hide the documents? Keep asking! Keep grilling!
3
I have seen 5 year old children negotiate over a toy that several of them want to play with act better than the adults who lead our country. I would watch these proceedings if I was into inflicting pain on myself. I wish the filibuster still existed so that the members of this committee did not feel like ending the hearing on the nomination before it started was their only recourse. But then I remember it was the Democrats that ended the filibuster was it not. As they say, what comes around goes around. The incivility and rancor that now exists between people of differing political views sickens me to my core. In the words of Shakespeare, "A plague o' both your houses!"
2
Mob rule? If there is mob rule by anyone, it is by the GOP in denying a hearing on Garland and attempting to ram through Kavanaugh's confirmation without time for legislative review of documentation related to his past. (What are they hiding?) The GOP would never have allowed this had the tables been turned. It's time the Dems showed some spine, showed that they will take no more of the GOP's damaging antics ! Funny, though, how the word "mob" has been raised twice within the past week or so with parallels being drawn by so many between Trump's loyalty requirements while thumbing his nose at the rule of law and norms of America's governing past.
2
Unless a miracle occurs, the GOP has already fixed the fight. This is NOT how Democracy is supposed to work, unless living in a Banana Republic is acceptable in the "New Age GOP".
2
This mob mentality is getting out of control. Kamala Harris is already out of control and out of line. #mobrules
3
Because Harry Reid did away with the filibuster and chose not to take the judicial high road, expecting HRC to be the next POTUS, the (D)s have only themselves [Harry Reid] to blame.
Just as the (R)s crowed when it was initially done and the (D)s are doing so now. The partisan divide must allow for the filibuster to return to a 60 vote majority in the Senate for legislation to pass.
2
Little to no doubt that Mr. Kavanaugh will be confirmed & the court will be irreparably skewed right for many years. This is what happens when you don't take elections seriously - once Trump is gone (and hopefully behind bars), we will still be stuck w/ HIS people and HIS judges.
Really disheartening considering his illegitimate presidency to begin with.
3
What's wrong with vigorous debate, challenges, opposition, even protests and interruptions – surely that is par for the course in country with democratic ideals.
Or are democratic ideals are on trial here: transparency, openness, access to information, right to question in full knowledge, non-partisanship, loyalty to country not party or person? The rule of law can be used for good, bad and ugly, surely it is worth knowing (imperative in a democracy) – unruliness and all – where this lifetime position with such a tremendous amount of power to change people's lives will take the country.
Good. It is past time that we, the people, rise up and stop the removal of law from the Supreme Court. I for one will support ANY measure the people use, including as Trump has said, "the exercise" of their second amendment right to stop this takeover of our country by the fascistic right wing.
1
This unruly behavior exhibited by both the Democrats and the protestors was disgraceful. They certainly did not win any brownie points from the American public by this display of mob rule.
If I had been planning on voting the Democratic ticket, anyone who participated in this unseemly behavior would never get my vote. This is good news for the Republicans though as they will probably have the support of many of the voters who watched this bizarre behavior. They are sure to win seats and keep the ones they already have. The Democrats will regret this childish behavior. Do we want those who behaved this way to govern our country? Absolutely not.
4
Sen. Cornyn seems to like 'mob rule' just fine when it comes in the form of mafia-like contempt for procedure, full disclosure, and a total lack of transparency. John Cornyn is a ready, willing and able stooge, unable to distinguish Russian Trolls from regular Americans: It came from Twitter, and it notified Cornyn that he interacted with content published on the platform by Russia-linked Twitter accounts that attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election. According to the social media platform's company blog, that would make Cornyn one of 677,775 people in the U.S. who followed, retweeted or liked content from one of the 1,062 accounts Twitter identified and suspended after finding the accounts led to "a Russian government-linked organization known as the Internet Research Agency."
Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article195800104....
2
Any understanding of a divided country, no better example of this divisiveness then at the Kavanaugh judicial hearings, listening to a divided senate. Compounded nationally, it's with great angst that anyone can hope for the nation to survive this present administration. Even the prospect of a presidential removal, either by an impeachment trial, resignation. or voted out of office, this nation remains in dire distress to it's unpredictable future.
Kavanaugh immediately showed he was unqualified for the position during his obsequious acceptance speech. He is a proven liar and can be nothing but a toady for our profiteering President.
2
The Democrats are trying their best to get hold of all the relevant data. What they may not realize is that our government is no longer a democracy but a fascist dictatorship.
3
It is a circus, the Roman kind where people die either now or for years to come. Releasing 42,000 pages the night before? If GOP staffers read them, WHEN DID THEY GET THEM?
Jon Kyl just got named to fill McCain's seat. Was that a reward for shepherding Kavanaugh thru the confirmation process?
This is a judge we can do without ESPECIALLY when so much of his recent work is being hidden from us.
1
Is it too much to ask of our country and our elected representatives, that anyone nominated for a lifetime appointment, receive at least 60 votes, and thereby move us just that much closer to ending this rancorous civil division? If every justice on the Supreme Court is approved by a party line vote, then we will have a court dominated by party affiliation. Is that good for America or just good for ideologues? The Supreme Court is quickly losing its function as an independent check and balance on the other branches of government and we shall pay a very dear price for that.
2
Maybe Dems should just let the senate cmte pass him through with no debate; just a vote by GOP members to close and go to a full senate vote. Then the GOP can close debate do a vote of the full senate with no debate.
While it would put one of the most political judges in history on the SCOTUS, it would certainly help Dems come November to show off more GOP abuses. Maybe the 53% of white women who voted for Trump; but half of which don't want Kavanaugh; would have their come to Jesus moment and put some thought into their vote this time.
1
Democrats' complaint that they haven't seen certain additional documents is a fraud. They've already gone on record saying they'll reject Kavanaugh. There is no chance they will suddenly review these documents and then vote in favor.
3
What a shame this whole circus is! There is no doubt in my mind that Judge Kavanaugh will be confirmed because of our corrupted Republican leaders. Truly a sad moment to our once great nation. Everyday, since 49's installment, I have watch our democracy die little by little, day by day, and I wonder what I should teach my son? To lie, cheat and rob others, so he can prosper in this new world dynamics.
1
Had the last Supreme Court justice not been stolen, then perhaps this nomination would not be contentious. But there is no way now to change the past. Our government committed theft. It is part of history now. Kavanaugh may be already decided, but not be the way forward.
1
As I listened via radio, I pumped my fists for every involved voice shouting dissent
protesting the total mockery of justice
These hearings represent.
Democracy will prevail!!
1
It's my understanding that Congress determines the number of Supreme Court Justices. Dems, when you take the house, and I pray the senate as well, please raise the number to 11 and seat 2 liberals.
2
Kava
Another gift from the Bushes that will keep on giving or paying off
like Thomas, Alito Roberts and the Iraq war
Only two days after John McCain's burial, it's clear that the Republican party has no interest in actually honoring McCain himself or his ideals and even acknowledge his appeal that Congress return to "regular order." Far from it, we can see Mitch McConnell's scheming laid bare: In March 2016, McConnell was happy to block Merrick Garland's consideration by claiming "The American people are perfectly capable of having their say on this issue, so let's give them a voice. Let's let the American people decide." For Republicans, expediency and winning transcend everything else, and we are all the poorer for it.
2
The lies that came from Cruz are simply astounding. The man has zero integrity and no shame... What a shill.
1
The document excuse is ridiculous. Democrats announced months ago they would not vote for Kavanaugh. The politicization of the Supreme Court nomination process by the Democrats is sickening. Their only issue with him is he reads the Constitution instead of making it up as he goes.
4
It is Democrats who eliminated the filibuster in judge nominations. Now, paying the price. Democrats baked the cake and Republicans are eating. Sounds fair to me. Democrats’ shouting voices do not communicate the message, people would only remember shouting. Ask questions unrelated to nomination to get some free publicity heading to midterm election. Ask about President’s tweets on indictments of Congressmen Hunter and Collins before elections. He may not answer, but senators keep asking the same question each time putting different way. Always be at their best behavior. How you ask the question matters. An example, ask him if he thinks Trump is an idiot, he says no. Then, ask him if his tweets amounts to an idiotic behavior. He probably says no. Then, ask him, so you think they make sense. The target should be Trump and not Kavanaugh. He is going to get his confirmation. Why target him, target the guy who nominated him. Make the best out of the situation.
Shameful charade.
2
The Supreme Court will be forever tainted through the actions of the Republican Party and Trump, its respect and standing diminishing. If Neil Gorsuch and Kavanagh, if confirmed, had any integrity, the former would have stepped aside instead of sitting in a stolen seat, and the latter would cry foul at the White House attempt to control access to, and hide information – demanding the hearings be postponed until, in accordance with democratic ideals and the apolitical nature of the court, a just hearing can be had.
2
All those who oppose proceeding at this time should exit the chamber. Show the charade for what it is.
1
His handling of the undocumented teenager’s case will end his nomination. Any sober review of what he
did makes clear that he was deliberately running out the clock on her ability to have a legal abortion with ridiculous delays. Other judges stopped his play and the girl had the abortion. He is a clever but fundamentally unsuitable person for the Supreme Court.
Once again, Kavanaugh represents the "poster child" for the idea that elections have consequences that go far beyond the next election or even the next President. Kavanaugh represents the ideal Federalist Society/corporation friendly judge that will make it much more difficult to turn over laws that will be forthcoming in the current administration and if somehow all the pundits are wrong and the Republicans retain the house in the mid-terms, America will have its laws turned back 100 yrs.
The last time this happened was during the Lochner/Federalist Society courts commencing in the late 1800's in which it took a depression and FDR to finally turn the corner on human decency and unlock the grip of the wealthy and corporations who chose to block the New Deal at every stage.
FORTY YEARS America, that is how long it took so remember that going forward.
1
Conservative or liberal does not make any difference, but interpretation of the constitution and the sense of requirements of the current population in the Nation are important. SCOTUS can and cannot make life easier and amicable for the people. SCOTUS will have to stand above people to watch the righteousness of the Nation. And never a vassalage of the administration.
We found negative comments against the two honorable women Justice in the SCOTUS. Our reaction is that fortunately those 'two liberal abortionists females' in SCOTUS know what is childbearing and not any of the rest in the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States). We say we need more women in the SCOTUS irrespective of the their familial history or their political lineage.
Finally
Kavanaugh will skew the direction of the court solidly in a conservative direction.
1
Neither "here" or "there": Today's Republicans are NOT Conservatives. Today's Republican's, conducting the Supreme Court nominee process, act like Fascists.
2
This weekend, Senator Jeff Flake, Republican member of the Judiciary Committee who is a critic of President Trump, tweeted "Decency Wins" following Senator McCain's funeral. Decency does not win if there is no change in behavior. The Republican handling of Kavanaugh's documents is indecent. Senator Flake and Senator Sasse, another Republican Trump critic on the committee, could end this vile procedure by voting with the Democrats to postpone the hearing until the documents have been thoroughly reviewed. Without doing so, these two senators in particular, are full of hot air - all talk and no action. They are contributing to the decline of our democracy.
1
When I watched the Kavanaugh hearings this morning, I was disgusted, especially since they occurred the weekend after we celebrated Senator McCain's life. The demonstrations in the hearing are disgraceful and reflect the broken discourse that exists in our body politic. Even Kamala Harris added her rudeness to the mix by interrupting Senator Grassley rather than wait to raise a point of order. In fact, although many Republican Senators decreed the rudeness, not a single Democratic Senator mentioned it. Rather than engage in courteous dialogue, bullies have to stand up in the room to shout, seeking not to communicate but merely to interrupt and disrupt the hearings. Why not. It is how many of these folks behaved on campus where colleges encourage, or tolerate them to shout and disrupt speakers who espouse any philosophy which they find objectionable. I cannot recall any Congressional hearing where demonstrators actively disrupted the hearing on such a regular basis. These demonstrators should be ashamed of their childish behavior.
2
A position on the Supreme Court is so important that action must be taken when someone so lacking in character is doing the nominating and his underlings, like McConnell, insist on pushing things forward before there can be proper review. Reviewing a judge's record is just prudent and anyone saying otherwise or insisting on pushing their nomination through is the one who is politicizing the nomination, not those protest it.
Can anyone doubt that after Trump's problems with Sessions' recusal that he has gotten a blood oath promise from Kavanaugh that he will block any attempt to hold Trump accountable for his crimes now or also probably any time in the future.
We know Kavanaugh has no problem lying based on his previous testimony denying any involvement in the decision to allow torture under Bush so I guess that we shouldn't expect the truth from him now.
Reduced to screaming like children. Embarrassing and sad. This is what got you liberals Trump. Keep it up, you will just get more.
73
Yes, they should have emulated the classy style of Donald Trump or entered into a chant of "lock him up!"
3
Seen a Trump rally lately?
People get excited when they feel their interests are at stake.
2
It's called Freedom of Speech - protected by the First Amendment. Protected as much as Trump's screams and rants IN ALL CAPS on Twitter. #SAD, Sparky.
4
Time to impose term limits on all of 'em. Three or four terms for senators; twenty years for the justices. lengthen the term of Congress people to four years of which they can serve five.
Create a rule that Congress people have to wait five(ten) years before becoming lobbyists.
And all of us need to be much less greedy.
228
Better, I was thinking, to impose term limits based proportionally on how many citizens get to vote for them. Wyoming's Senators would have a term of one month, California's the full 6 years. A term limit of 20 years for Justices would be a maximum based on the total of citizens represented by the total of senators who voted to confirm.
1
Or....Nancy Pelosi could do what Paul Ryan did and limit his Committee Chairs to a fixed # of years as Chair of their Committees.
That's why the Republicans have a deep bench for a generation to come and Democrats have 70-80 year old leaders who just can't seem to recognize when it's time to move aside already.
Pelosi could fix this in 5 seconds.
The fact she chooses not to says a lot about her.
The fact Democrats don't demand this of her says a lot about them.
The best term limit is our vote.
Why are we holding hearings for a man nominated by a president who is now an un-indicted co-conspirator in federal election fraud and is possibly committing treason by doing Putin's bidding?
If a duly elected president can't be allowed to appoint a replacement in his final year for no known constitutional reason, then a criminal and potential traitor is surely unqualified to do the same.
Period.
1
John McCain was buried on Saturday. The one week show of bipartisanship and comity is over. We're back to the new normal.
Democrats are so partisan and deceitful, they never showed up to read the documents they have, they have already decided to vote agains the judge yet scream for more documents they are not going to read. These people are just liars and frauds, besides being national embarrassments.
2
A sitting president who is subject of investigations whose possible outcomes and fallouts may ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court in the fairly near term should not be qualified to nominate a justice to sit on that same court.
John Cornyn, the senator from my state, is exactly right. This is mob rule.
The REPUBLICAN MOB.
1
Kavanaugh's views on Roe v. Wade need to be established, because there have been cases presented to the SC as challenges to that ruling. Will he honor established law? He is a Catholic ideologue; will he uphold a woman's right to privacy which is the basis for Roe v. Wade? His views on Executive powers also need to be established. Does he consider those powers akin to those of the old French Court, or does he believe in the right of Congress to advise and consent?
1
The blocking of Garland and ideological criteria used to inform selection criteria for Supreme Court Justices means that the highest court in the land has become a pure extension of hegemonic political control, with justice itself often a secondary consideration.
10:58 am.
This is a complete Charlie Fox Trot, as they say in the military. Substitute circus if you prefer.
A.) The documents that are currently the subject of debate were withheld because trump declared Executive Privilege. That's like pleading the 5th. It's not done when everything is transparent and rosy.
B.) The Republicans have already rammed through one Supreme Court appointment and they are hell-bent on doing the same with Kavanagh. trump is determined to remake the much maligned justice system in his own image any way he can.
C.) God help us all.
1
I'm so proud of the deems for once. There are now playing on the same level. The GOP as they relate to SCOTUS have been shameful. Garland deserved a hearing and appt. Go Deems!
1
Anyone who working for the government be it local or on the national level must submit an application with pointed questions about their background. If anyone has lied or misrepresented the information on their employment application is subject to discipline up to including termination. So why is it this Judge who clearly lied to congress when he was nominated for federal judgeship allowed to keep his position?
1
I'm ecstatic to see such outrage from concerned citizens, who are performing their patriotic duty to remind our "leaders" of their congressional duties. The hearings must be adjourned until these documents are given their due diligence. Several key court decisions hang in the balance.
2
This process is broken. If Obama had done anything like this, the Republicans would have been screaming. But it's okay for them to stonewall Merrick Garland and refuse to provide the documents that were requested through proper channels. Yet, they have the unmitigated gall to act with imperious anger when the only thing the other side of the aisle is trying to do is to get information.
2
Sadly we see why Republicans keep winning. The Democrats at this hearing look like wacky, undisciplined mob, and I say that as someone who voted for Bernie Sanders. A few more spectacles like this and the GOP will probably come out on top in the mid-terms.
3
"Lisa Blatt, a self-described “liberal Democrat and a feminist” lawyer who has advocated Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation", who is, of course, bought and paid for by Arnold & Porter, the law firm for which she works. Arnold & Porter have as clients the likes of BP (which A&P defended following the Deepwater Horizon spill), Exxon Mobil, Monsanto, Novartis, Pfizer, and Philip Morris. (Blatt’s own attorney profile boasts that she helped to overturned the “reinstatement of $10 billion verdict against client Philip Morris in a ‘lights’ cigarette case.”) A&P also represents businesses rather than workers in labor disputes and specializes in breaking up class actions. So, Blatt's credentials are from BigLaw and corporations.
111
That's a silly condemnation. That's disenfranchising any lawyer that happens to have represented any corporation. All law is "big".
The many lawyers in my family would hate to believe this because they have a posted ethic about being independent professionals. Do you remember when the American Bar Association would not fully qualify Haynesworth and Carswell? Nevertheless, there are lawyers and lawyers, and there have always been.
Seriously. a self-described "liberal Democrat and a feminist". Once upon a time words had meanings....
1
Kamala Harris should back off. She is doing no service to Democrats. Which is definitely fine for many of us.
2
I hope Kavanaugh, the likely appointee, will consider how he would deal with a daughter having been raped, required to bring child to term and raise it. No, it won't be his daughter but likely it could be many other daughters having to deal with the evangelical mindset in rural America. It would likely be a stretch of imagination to expect an elitist both in culture and education to consider what life is like outside the ivory tower. Ironically, he is precisely the "pointy head intellectual" that George Wallace, the alt right original, decried.
3
Both political parties, their supporters and the partisan news media have increasingly embraced a scorched-earth, win-by-any-means necessary culture in my lifetime. All parties involve chip away at the integrity of our institutions every day. With that being the case, I think there are several points worth mentioning. a) All parties involved suffer from a sort of hubris that either blinds them to the reality that the following year, following election cycle, et al., they will be the on the other side, trying to pass a nominee or whatnot, and facing an all-out-guerillia-style-assault from the opposition. b) They similarly seem to suffer from a shortsighted, misplaced confidence that in a bare-knuckle drag out brawl, they will emerge victorious. This might be what psychiatrists call optimism bias. c) Related and most important, given this trajectory, none of us should be surprised when all of this pearl-clutching emoting, theater, hyperbole, feigned outrage and crisis fabrication ultimately does result, at some point, in a real crisis, perhaps a significant one.
How many times can and should young people hear that our governing institutions have no legitimacy; our political opponents have no legitimacy; and our laws have no legitimacy; until they accept it?
Spoiler alert: In an all-out brawl, the military wins.
3
no the scorched earth policy was enacted by the GOP especially under Mitchy in the senate stop equalizing both parties
2
Democrats, if they get to the questioning, are expected to aggressively press Judge Kavanaugh on his positions on Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights case in 1973; the scope of executive power; same-sex marriage; and several other issues for which Judge Kavanaugh, if confirmed, would very likely shift the ideological leanings of the Supreme Court.
I am concerned that lazy journalism sites threats to Roe v. Wade, the abuse of executive powers and threats to same sex-marriage as the preeminent concerns Treats to voting rights, workers'rights and affirmative action are relegated of honorable mention as"and several other issues." No mention is made of these basic rights that are treated by billionaire right wing extremists of who underwrite the work of the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation. The New York Times and the Democratic Party fail to address the full gravity of the situation. Judge Kavanaugh stand ready stands ready to do the bidding of plutocrats who would slam shut the doors of the High Court to "the lower orders." The Times and the Democrats in Congress need the talk about broader picture, about the overturning of constitutional rights that will be upended by Kavanaugh's deciding vote.
1
“I wish I didn’t have to put up with this kind of stuff,” says Orrin Hatch.
Now you know how we feel, Mr. Hatch.
3
Is this nominee good for the country, the people, our laws, and the non-partisanship that our courts should follow, or just another lackey for Trump and the GOP?
I will concede that all presidents nominate those who have the same party affiliation, or leanings, if you will, and many are from the opposite side.
But, given that McConnell, in his punishment of that uppity black man that was President, failed to act on many Obama appointees, it is no surprise the Democrats have acted in the manner they have.
Lastly, given the history of the Trump appointees, one must question the qualifications of the potential justice.
1
Too bad Kamala Harris did not fight for justice for Kevin Cooper while she was AG, opposing advanced DNA tests that could exonerate him.
1
Your headline creates a false equivalence between women practicing civil disobedience to reject the nomination of Kavanaugh and Republicans who are destroying our democracy by ramming through a hand-picked judge for SCOTUS. The whole process has been anti-democratic, from the denial of a hearing for Merrick Garland to the Federalist Society's list of approved judges, to Trump and his continued obstruction of justice. Mob rule versus traditional hearings? Senator Cornyn is a Trump flunky who only cares about his own power and wealth. Smash the Patriarchy! I'm proud of the women who are protesting. If I could be in DC this week, I'd join them.
6
Christine
I wish I could "Recommend" your Comment a million times. You speak the truth. Thank you.
1
Doesn't matter. Even if Kavanaugh was somehow blocked, the Dumpster will just nominate another in a long line of cookie-cutter ultra-right wing Federalist Society-approved candidates. They've been indoctrinating these drones for years and have no end of them in their factory.
3
Impotent Democratic senator protests were on display this morning. You want to do something Dems, then collectively get up, walk out of the hearing, and don't come back till you get all the requested docs.
No quorum, no hearing.
2
These proceedings are a joke and an affront to the Constitution and the American people. The elephant in the room is Senate majority leader McConnell, a master of underhanded judicial maneuvering, who should be held in contempt for pushing this despicable travesty forward. If Kavanaugh had even a smidgen of integrity, he would request that the hearings be postponed to at least the new year.
5
If Judges Gorsuch and Kavanaugh had any integrity at all, they would both have refused to accept a nomination to the Supreme Court until Judge Garland was granted a fair hearing.
5
If un-elected religious leaders can enable their believers in Congress to use the police, courts and prisons to force their religious views on the entire population, are we a democracy.? Overturning Roe vs. Wade would do just that.
6
What a farce! Individuals seeking the nomination can say anything they want, oh yes, Roe vs. Wade is settled or whatever... Then, they get on the bench and revert to al; their previous prejudices, opinions and such.. How is this process democratic, open, honest?
2
Hatch: "If we could just get the politics out of this..." Well, yeah, see, there's the rub.
4
42,000 admittedly relevant documents (they were provided after-all) but nobody has time to look at them before the hearing starts. Kangaroo court. If Kavanaugh had any guts he would demand a delay himself so that his confirmation would not be tarnished by this cynical document dump.
2
If Brett Kavanaugh truly had judicial temperament, then he would be the one asking for the release of his records!
Ingrid from Brooklyn
3
They aren't his records.
It has been said that when Fascism shows up on our shores it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. It looks like it will also be wearing a black robe. it is not lost in meaning that "robe" and "cloak" will be used interchangeably. Your rights will be slowly eroded and the perpetrators of the destruction of liberty will be done mostly without your vote.
4
Mr. Kavanaugh should have intervened and suggested that it would be fair for the Democrats to get the documents and time to review them.
Doing so would have helped him. Now he looks as an accomplice.
5
Funny, we get Trump's hate rallies every week where the press is threatened and calls are bellowed to lock up his opponent. But when the majority speaks out and ruins this sick show then Hatch and others are stunned. When do we get it through our heads, to the GOP more than half the population of the US are, as Eric Trump said, not even people. Think this is loud? Wait until Roe is overturned.
3
I didn’t know the Democrats had a full spine between them but I’m glad they found it today.
3
The shouting down from the gallery by Democratic plant protestors and the constant interruptions by the Democratic Senators on points they know are out of order under the rules is quite hard to take. If this was a courtroom, these ruffians would be quickly found in contempt, cuffed, and dragged to a holding cell to face justice. Its just disgusting. Kavanaugh was at the top of his class at Yale, clerked at the Supreme Court for the very justice he his replacing, and was federal appellate judge for 15 years - with his judicial philosophy an open book. Sickening spectacle.
66
"An open book", yet for some reason known only to the Republican leadership 1000s of pages of documents covering nearly 3 years in the Bush White House are being withheld and another 42,000 pages dumped on Democrats at the last minute, to consider the nominee by a president under criminal investigation believed to have lied to a Senate committee last time he appeared in this venue. You are quite right, it is a sickening spectacle.
8
If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
3
An "open book"? Senators were only allowed to review 7% of his records. George W Bush hired 50 lawyers to comb through all of them and this paltry amount is all they felt are able to withstand scrutiny. What are they hiding?
6
Mr Lee, do you have an actual question to ask Kavanaugh? Or do you just want to continue to instruct him how to avoid answering any actual questions the panel might present? An absolute disgrace.
5
The GOPs reprehensible theocratic denials of our Constitution are destroying our most basic rights.
3
No confirmation hearings for Kavanagh until Mueller finishes his investigation. You want to appoint someone? Appoint Merrick Garland.
25
For the most sacred of their duties, the advise and consent of a Supreme Court Justice, the Republicans have again spit on our Democracy. Did anyone believe Mitch McConnell when he claimed he wanted voters (just not those who voted for Obama) to have a say? The midterms are only two months away and is he delaying this vote? Now they want us to believe they have reviewed all of the just released Kavanaugh documents?! These bloody blatant lies are a stench on Republicans' reputations. It will not wash out easily.
11
So we're supposed to be satisfied with Grassley's assurance that *Republican* aides have reviewed these documents? That's ridiculous.
13
But remember, Congressional Republicans don't need facts. "Reviewing" documents is easy when you have no need to understand them.
1
There's just one thing to understand: the Dems don't have the votes, so this is all bread & circuses for the Rachel Maddow crowd.
2
There will be but one way to repair the court and perhaps the country once a Democrat wins the presidency in a couple of years and the Senate goes blue: Add another seat to the court -- make that two, to compensate for Merrick Garland, push the nominees through in a month, and let the party of greed and wannabe dictators holler to high heaven. One can dream, because all I have left now are nightmares.
11
Have to laugh at the Republicans saying that the importance of documents is the length and now the content. It's like saying reading the Manhattan phone book (remember those) was the same as reading "War and Peace" as they were about the same thickness.
4
Was there ever a phonier issue than the Democrats' staged tantrums over documents from Kavanaugh's time in George W. Bush's time in the White House? According to the NYT's crosstown rival, the WSJ, by Monday NO Democratic Senator had looked at the documents that have been made available.
If Democrats have changed their minds about executive privilege -- which was used by Clinton and Obama -- then they should be straight with us and say so. Well?
7
@Ian Maitland. That is, historically, not only disingenuous but intellectually dishonest. (Not that intellectual honesty is common currency for Republicans.) Historically executive privilege has applied to the president in question. Asserting executive privilege over documents from a previous administration is not merely a rarity, it hasn’t been litigated. Moreover, as you well know, the entire question of this nomination is tainted by a nomination withheld by Republicans for nearly 10 months on the grounds, invented and nowhere indicated in the Constitution, that the president in question had no right to make such an appointment. In the intellectual dishonesty department, Republicans are fond of citing the “Biden rule,“ which didn’t even apply.
There is of course something deeper going on here — the clash between those who want permanent one-party rule of the entire government (aligned with an oligarchy), otherwise known as fascism, and those who believe in the fundamentals of republican government and democracy. Many experts in the field, two of them notoriously working for the American Enterprise Institute, a Republican thank tank, have already described today’s Republican Party has nothing less then a radical fascist insurgency. So be realistic: none of this has to do with an opportunistic, butt-licking, craven little creep called Kavanaugh. Once this guy’s confirmed, you can kiss the republic goodbye. Not that you care. Indeed it’s your goal. By the way, you’ve won.
2
These Republicans are corrupt to the core. And it appears Sen. Grassley is leading the corruption in this case.
7
News flash "Democrats finally grow a spine". Awesome!
6
Kavanaugh is a deeply flawed SCOTUS candidate. His nomination is more unpopular with US citizens than Bork's. 71% of the country do not want to see Roe overturned. Kavanaugh attempted to slow walk the decision to allow the teen to have an abortion AFTER another judge gave her the go-ahead. His plan was to dely her past 20 weeks, and when his delay tactics didn't work, and his decision was overturned, he wrote a blistering dissent--using the "abortion on demand" dog whitsle. He lied to the senate on his last confirmation--saying he had nothing to do with torture discussions in the Bush administration. After going after Clinton like a rabid dog, he now demures about pressing a busy president to be held to the law. Democrats must do everything they can to stop this nomination.
14
You've created a new verb, "to demure". Kind of interesting; it sort of fits. Did you actually mean to do this?
The word is "demur," and it has been a word for a very long time. It means "to object," or "to hesitate because of doubt."
These comments are hilarious. Kavanaugh will be confirmed. He is legitimate. The Democrats lost the election. Elections have consequences
5
You apparently only care about elections that go the way you want. President Obama was denied the opportunity. Dems should return the favor.
5
Unfairness and failing to do your job (read: Republicans' refusal to cooperate with Obama at all, as well as their refusal to even *pretend* to consider Judge Garland) have led to these consequences. And no Republican has had enough of a sense of honor, let alone the morals, to stand up and object to the strong-arming of Democracy.
4
Irony: the "Handsmaid Tale" protesters, who apparently think Kavanaugh will usher in some new dystopia for women, protesting at the same time as the hijab-wearing Linda Sarsour, an advocate for the type of Sharia system that forces women to cover themselves!
2
"...in a speech he made at a law school after serving in President George W. Bush’s White House and then becoming a judge, [Kavanaugh] said that the distraction of preparing for questions by criminal investigators would make a president do a worse job, so presidents should be excused from that burden until after they leave office."
Because presumably preparing for his defense (or, Heaven forbid, telling the truth...???) would take a lot of time away from the President's duties of the job of being President of the United States?
But playing golf in NJ or FL and traveling back and forth (on our dime) every weekend to do it don't..??
5
This is a travesty. Also, why does he drag his kids to all of this? They should be in school.
4
What a great moment for artificial intelligence!
dont leave out that Kavanaugh lied to the senate in his last confirmation hearing!!
6
When the trump trials begin and the fake president is being charged with high crimes and misdemeanours it will be less calamitous if the SCJ he himself had appointed has a hand on the hanging rope.
1
That's the fear, though (one of them) -- that he won't convict trump.
1
Republicans push their right wing hate and greed down America's throat. Say NO. Trump attacked DOJ and Jeff Sessions over the arrest of Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter. This is obstruction of justice. Investigate. Ray Sipe
6
*Garland, I mean.
Sorry, but the Republicans' anti-American tactics are that infuriating.
2
Mob rule, huh? I'd call it free speech. What do you call the level of cheating that took away the constitutional right of our first black president to nominate a supreme court justice? What do you call keeping documents from those that are supposed to be vetting this nomination? They know the majority of Americans are against this nominee's appointment to the supreme court and they do not care. They are going to make the most of having usurped the office of the presidency and abuse their, hopefully brief, level of power. Normal order, be damned. November 6 cannot come soon enough.
32
Trump is a duplicitous racist misogynistic politician who will do and say anything that promotes himself.
8
After Garland, the GOP hasn't got a leg to stand on when it comes to comity and process. Like Trump, they kill the baby and then complain that people aren't nice about it.
15
I was waiting for someone to say to BK - as Dick Durbin of Illinois just did - Step up. He owes it to himself, as he considers standing and accepting the highest pinnacle of his own profession, all politics and issues aside.
BK needs to face an enormous question: do you want to be the justice with an asterisk next to your name, like an olympic athlete who wins under suspicion of doping. He's too young for that kind of failure. He should be offended that he has been asked by the Trump Administration to be anything less than completely open before this committee.
4
Trump's American theocracy smells suspiciously of Stalin's and Hitler Nazism.
But then again most Americans were brain-washed to believe discriminating old primitive patriarchy' lunatics garbage as religion in politics, law enforcement and business/aka fascism in a multi-ethnic and multicultural multi-gender society = "good". As "good" as good Christian Nazis and Islamic terrorists all NRA-armed with legal guns in the most gun-homicidal "Christian" nation on Earth, one is made to believe with fake news and real fake-politics.
Today, we are witnessing the U.S.A' first real significant full political decommission and political demise into a full blown corrupt NRA-Republican-Mafia-led "gods squads" police state of an hyper-militarized nuclear religious theocracy aka Nazism. Congratulations all you oh-so "civilized" primitive religious fundamental barbaric Putin' and Trump' NRA-Republican-Nazis.
You are utmost near to your deep fall into Earth's Abyss now.
Your sick puppies of NRA-Republicans' mindless tribal corruptions is as limitless as their religiosity aka their uniform mental illness.
Best
A.E.
Projectheureka LLC;
1
Protests. “Mob rule” is what Republicans are demonstrating by dumping 42K documents after 10 last night on Democrats and denying Democrats 90% of documents requested. Mob rule is what Trump demonstrates when he claims “executive privilege” to suppress the release of 100K documents. Mob rule is what the entire Republican Party is guilty of when they abandon any semblance of civility, of tradition, and of law to wreck the healthcare, bankrupt Social Security and Medicare, steal $2trillion from our treasury, kidnap children on our borders, deregulate finance and polluting industries, cleave to the NRA and gun madness, institutionalize racism and normalize Nazis. Mob rule is evident in every Trump rally. Mob rule is what Republicans do best.
12
The Mob here is the Republican mafia, aiding and abetting Trump's criminal administration, hijacking the judicial process.
13
This is all making for great theater for T.V. and the chance for both sides to prove their political stripes (right and left) ; but at the end of the day the "Fix is In!" Everybody knows how this is going to end. The Republicans are going to ram this through no matter what the facts may be. Kavanaugh only has to sit there and smile pretty for a couple of weeks; while the G.O.P. shoot down every objection the Democrats make; come Hell or high water. It is yet another pathetic Washington KABUCKI dance designed to make it "look" like this is all fair and legitimate; while the reality is yet one more example of the G.O.P.`s total lack of respect for due process; and their maniacal lust for power and bending America to their right wing agenda no matter what. So enjoy the show people; but do not doubt for one second how it will all end.
5
What makes this confirmation hearing so galling is that the GOP stole one seat on the Supreme Court last year and now are ramming another through without the barest concerns for what this will do to the reputation of the Court and the reputations of these two Justices. There will be a political price to be paid by the Republicans for this charade and it will collected over the lifetimes of these two Justices and through the tattered reputations of these complicit Senators.
24
two reasons he should not be confirmed: he lied to the Senate in the last confirmation hearing, and a president under investigation should not be able to appoint a justice who would likely rule on executive privileges. Especially since K is on record as viewing the president as above the law (unless it's a Clinton).
The republicans are obstructing justice on the largest scale ever seen in this country. Why can a law suit not be initiated by the democratic party to get all of the documents from the White House?
30
If feelings on both side of the aisle are running high, it's no wonder: for the Republicans (especially their evangelical wing), NOTHING is more important than changing the makeup of SCOTUS to reflect their extremist views. They're there, with Kavanaugh, unless a couple of Republican Senators vote their conscience and not their Party.
Democrats are justifiably angry with the way the GOP has completely politicized the Justice selection process. The Garland theft will live in infamy as a partisan sandbagging of this process for pure political ends.
Kavanaugh is the spawn of a corrupt process, as was Gorsuch. The Supreme Court's independence has been sullied beyond repair for generations to come. And to think that the person who set all this in motion is without a doubt the worst President in American history, highly unpopular, corrupt, brazen, authoritarian and unhinged. A singularly low point for our citizens who believe in the rule of law and country over Party.
13
In the sham immigrant abortion case last fall, it was ACLU and Planned Parenthood lawyers pushing the idea that there is an absolute right to abortion. It is THAT proposition that Kavanaugh challenges, and there is absolutely nothing not "mainstream" about that view, since even the late and ungreat Harry Blackmun wrote in Roe et al. v. Wade (410 US 113 at 153) that: "appellant and some amici argue that the woman's right is absolute and that she is entitled to terminate her pregnancy at whatever time, in whatever way, and for whatever reason she alone chooses. With this we do not agree."
So, yes, Judge Kavanaugh was quite in line with no other than the lionized HFB.
1
I believe the ACLU and PP were operating entirely within Texas law which limits at 20 weeks; Kavanaugh was attempting to delay it past that to take away her rights.
Kavanaugh is the only candidate from the GOP's judicial bullpen who has no interest in overturning existing legal precedent(especially Roe Vs Wade). Why are we squandering legal capital on this?
This isn't a presidential election year, give them their nominee and thank your lucky stars it wasn't any of the religious loonies Trump had on his short list since the nuclear option will get whoever he chooses confirmed anyway.
4
Sen.Whitehouse and others have presented the facts which undercut that fairy tale.
2
It is a lifetime appointment and a nomination by an unindicted co-conspirator.
2
They have? I've been watching the while time and have yet to see a single citation backing that assertion.
He stiff armed the Bush Admin 8 times despite being appointed by them. He found for labor unions and LGBT rights multiple times.
He's as good as it's gonna get from the current GOP.
Mr. Kavanaugh, do you believe the treatment of Merrick Garland by the Senate leadership was in keeping with the `advise and consent' role envisioned by the Framers?
23
Merrick Garland legislated from the bench to the detriment of then 68,000,000 gun owners.
In 1986 Americans traded several key 2nd Amendment rights for a set of privacy protections included in the McClure-Vollkmer Act. This included restraining the government's ability to keep invasive databases on gun buyers. When Janet Reno and the FBI tok it upon themselves to use the then new National Instant Background Check System to amass an illegal database of gun owners and buyers Merrick Garland didn't apply the law. In fact he encouraged them and created a Gestapo-like subculture withing the DoJ/FBI/ATF that had to be shut down by the Inspector General on 9 separate occasions.
Garland couldn't even pass the "giggle test" after such partisan and unconstitutional shenanigans.
Garland was less fit due to his partisan antics than Bork!
It most certainly was. They advised the President to take a hike and refused their consent.
1
Merrick Garland never received the courtesy of a hearing thanks to the Republicans, so imagine if the roles were reversed today. All of the Senate members should be ashamed for being so partisan...who is thinking about what's best for the people in America?
13
In case anyone was wondering how long the call for civility that we heard during the McCain eulogies would last and how seriously it would b taken, we now have an answer-not at all.
7
The Republican Senators are acting like Mafia . McConnell and gangs have no shame. They forgot what they did to Merrick Garland. What kind of democracy we have? Why they are hiding Kvanaugh's record ? The bullying tactics of Trump and the Republican senators are not acceptable in America. We are not Banana Republic. The highest court in the country, the Supreme Court has lost its credibility. The citizens of this country have no respect for it. The Supreme Court has become a extreme right wing anti people organization connected to the Republican Party. If this is the confirmation process, who will respect this judge?
12
Mob rule??
This is authoritarian rule, no question, being meted out by an authoritarian regime intent on establishing its will over all long established american justice systems. It is nothing more or less than a flagrant and deliberate power grab undermining one of the three pillars of our democracy.
15
Senator Cornyn complains of "mob rule" when his own party disdains law and disrespects due process. Don't want "mob rule," Senator? Then don't tempt revolution. Don't continue to sell out our nation to corporations and international oligarchs. Re-read that Constitution you swore to defend and uphold. And if you all can't bring yourselves to do that, make retirement plans. Beto will be Texas's junior senator in 2019, and you will be out two years later.
15
The beginning of this hearing has been fascinating to watch. It would have been funny if it weren't tragic seeing a majority in the committee, senators elected by less than 20% of the voters, trying to steamroll Kavanaugh through the hearing so that he can get to the Supreme Court and do the bidding of their owners. As the meeting erupted in protests, Kavanaugh surrounded by his perfect family appeared to lose his smile and even blush at times. How embarrassing. If I were him. I wouldn't want to explain this circus to my children. At what price the glory! The right wingers voting in lockstep and with no shame are willing to nominate him and put him in the Court. They will probably succeed but something precious will have been lost in the process. This is how Banana Republics are made. What a shame.
9
Rachel Maddow did an excellent factual review of some of Kavanaugh's decisions last night. Every American should watch it. He abused his power by reneging on Supreme Court precedence, he lied under oath at his last hearing, he supported torture but lied about it under oath and he does not believe a sitting criminal president can be prosecuted in a court of law. He is a partisan hack that never should have been appointed a judgeship. Period.
25
One day Republicans may have to face the realization that the unprecedented “pandemonium” within the chamber is a reflection of the chaos on Pennsylvania Avenue.
It’s not mysterious.
5
Gotta think a certain amount of ... disingenuity in Sen J Kennedy's R LA telling CNN anchor this morning that the senator's staff would have read and summarized the 42,000 pages delivered last night. How? By having worked through the night, said the senator. No offense but even a small horde of very bright folks unlikely to have been able to do that.
4
This country really needs to do a peaceful breakup. I have zero feelings of solidarity or fellow-citizenship with the shrieking snowflakes that seem to dominate the scene. The snowflakes can have the coasts, and the normals can have the heartland and the gulf coast.
3
The SCOTUS hearings are a sham, the entire process is a farce. It makes a mockery of the American system. If you want an in-the-flesh definition of the word disingenuous, look no further than the opening remarks of Senator Grassley and his Republicans sycophants. They have sold their soles to the far right; it does not matter to them that they will put a man on the Court whose views in some important areas do not represent the majority of America and whose rulings will often be astoundingly predictable. Kavanaugh will be installed on the Court through a procedure not dissimilar to that by which we were awarded the most unfit and abhorrent president in our history.
9
This process is a mockery of a travesty of a sham. Another instance of the withering of democracy in the Trump era. The Democrats on the committee must shine a light through the darkness, and the voters must speak loudly in November to save what is left of democracy.
3
This hearing should not even be taking place. A document dump of 42,000 pages after hours on a holiday allowed for no time to review and the other 100,000 plus pages concerning the nominee's opinions now considered executive privilege documents without executive privilege having been asserted is obstruction of due process. This nominee was hand picked by the Federalist Society for reasons not consistent with an objective examination of the law, but to disrupt settled law and the Chairman should consider this as well as the rushed hearing, especially since Merrick Garland was not even provided a vote with 10 months left in Barack Obama's term. The Republican majority are moving the nation to the threshold of tyranny with activity of this nature and ignoring the process that has been respected by all for almost 230 years. Watching these hearings is sickening.
414
Amy Klobuchar told Chuck Todd that she read all of those documents.
Interesting, because if it took you 30 seconds to read each document, it would have taken her over 2.5 years to get through them all...and that's without sleeping a wink or even taking a potty break.
So...since she's read them all and T-Bone didn't read any of them (like many in NJ...T-Bone doesn't know how to read), maybe D's should defer to Amy Klobuchar and let her handle the Al Franken style questions for Mr. Kavanaugh.
Now THAT.....would be worth watching.
Robert, the same democrat senators complaining about the lack of some documents are the same senators who already said they were against Kavanaugh and would vote no. If they are already voting "no", why would they need more documents? This is beyond a farce.
1
Nonsense!! All the democrats announced they were voting "NO" no matter what so these additional documents are a ploy to delay and stop the hearing. Nothing else!!
1
The GOP is pushing to keep more than 100,000 Kavanaugh memos from consideration by the duly elected senators of the United States. The process is a travesty that undermines the constitutional duty of the Senate. Hopefully at least some fair and independent-minded GOP senators will speak up and decline to support Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court until the full record is reviewed by the Senate.
7
The democrats didn't bother to read the documents they had and 100% have already announced their plan to vote "no" without regard to the document content. what are they going to do with more unread documents?
1
We know what they have on Kavanaugh: legal opinions supporting the creation of black sites and private military contractors that operate beyond the law, rationales for extrajudicial killings, waterboarding and torture. We also know Kavanaugh is implicated in the Mueller investigation and may well be named as a co-conspirator. These are exactly the reasons why the GOP is fast-tracking this process; with a compromised supreme court justice they can start to change the ways the country functions to give themselves more power regardless of legal precedent and the constitution. This is another very serious attempt to subvert the rule of law in America at the highest levels.
13
Over the weekend, Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican member of the Judiciary Committee who is openly contemptuous of Trump, tweeted "Decency Wins" following Senator McCain's funeral. How can decency win if that funeral did not inspire decent behavior? Republican abuse of power in this hearing is indeed indecent. Senator Flake and Senator Sasse, similarly critical of Trump and a Republican Committee member, should ACT , not just talk. This obscene hearing should be halted until adequate documentation has been provided along with time for review.
11
How can you consider confirming a person, a lawyer, who committed perjury in his interview for his current job? These candidates do not commit to anything. Judge Bork may have been a nightmare but it was clear where he stood . Maybe the next Democratic President will submit two more judges and balance the court. The number of Supreme Court judges has varied through the years.
5
Clarence Thomas, rammed through because Joe Biden refused to hear Anita Hill's next witness. Was that an act of fright? And now we suffer with the silent right wing rubber stamper. May the Democrats be as noisy and obnoxious as the GOP.
That the Senate is holding these hearings means that the democrats may only be able to object in principle, because a simple majority gets him confirmed. The alternative would have been to simply delay the start of the hearings in the first place; but now, I believe it may be too difficult to stop the far-right freight train of audacity for this nominee.
1
The protestors are engaging not in an act of dissent, but of selfishness in delaying this process, which believe it or not, is for the Judiciary Committee representing the whole nation, not just for them and their closed minds. It's hard to have respect for anyone who doesn't want to let the other side even speak before rushing to judgement. That being said, those on the committee wanting to review the documents just released should have that time granted to them.
2
You're not kidding! Reminds me a lot of Tea Party Town Hall meetings. Remember how they followed the rules of order and let everybody have their say?
"Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, called it 'mob rule.' " That is some chutzpah for a Republican mob that, e.g., denied President Obama's SCOTUS nominee even a hearing with nearly a year left in the presidential term, dumped many thousands of documents regarding Mr. Kavanaugh just before the hearing, refuses to stand up to Mr. Trump's repeated attempts to circumvent the law (as long as they're getting their tax cuts for the wealthy and so on). Abuse of power seems to be the Republican platform in recent years.
6
A talented, ethical, constitutionalist is being battered by the Democratic machine. That machine has become the most obstructionist political machine since Mayor Daly's machine helped steal the 1960 Presidential election from Richard Nixon. These shenanigans have been going on since Socrates and Aristotle. It dosen't matter in the long run. He will be confirmed, so jump up and down, cry foul, scream, cry, go to your safe room. Do whatever you need, get it out of your system, breath, slowly, calm down.
1
Interesting viewpoint. I was thinking this is much better than the Republican Obstructionist machine that refused to act on the Merrick Garland nomination in favor of letting "the people have a say".
1
How about some "regular order?" (Whatever he would have done at this time and place), John McCaine's reminder use of that phrase casts a shadow over these proceedings.
What to watch?
Grandstanding, grandstanding and more grandstanding,
and then he’ll be confirmed mostly along party lines.
Your better off watching something else.
Sure feels like a different America than the one in which I grew up, but I was just a kid then.
1
We'll--the good guys, I mean--still lose, because the Democrats ain't got the votes. Because we--I mean those of us who didn't vote, or voted Stein, or voted Bernie anyway--didn't show up.
But it's still vital to let the bad guys, by which I mean Trump and the current GOP, know that they've been in a fight. And to bear some witness to the truth.
I wouldn't even worry about the shrieking from the shabby likes of Tucker Carlson, or all the lies we'll now have to hear about how, "I was gonna vote Democratic, but mob rule." You'll hear that no matter what; and if they'd done nothing, we'd hear about what wimps.
Good going, Chuck Schumer.
3
I fear that his confirmation represents the most dangerous obstacle to social justice and the environment emerging from this administration.
4
This is a confirmation hearing for a politician, not a judge.
3
Let these hearings serve as a grim reminder of how tenuous are our rights if we don't get out the vote in Presidential elections.
This man will be confirmed and within the next three to five years, many of your rights, taken for granted, will disappear for the next decade or longer.
To those who complained she was a "weak" candidate, how does Secretary Clinton look to you now?
This November, sadly, will come too late for your rights over the next decade or longer, but better late than never.
4
How can anyone generate millions of documents in one life ?
The posturing has begun.
Meanwhile, could we please have a Constitutional Amendment
outlawing Automatic Rifles and Pistols ?
1
Too soon. They are sticking with "Thoughts and Prayers"
1
The simple fact that 45 is refusing to let Democratic legislators read all of Kavanaugh's papers is all anyone needs to know. There is something toxic about this man that they want very badly to hide - as if what we know already is not toxic enough.
4
I hope one of The senators asks him how he feels about Merrick garland never even getting considered by the GOP even though he was nominated with far more time before an election
3
The Handmaid’s Tale involves a coercive society in which fertility has been nationalized in the interests of the asserted common good. In short, the state subordinates individual rights to the perceived needs of society as a whole.
Kinda like socialism...
1
When the political realities make Kavanaugh's confirmation a foregone conclusion, at least the grassroots can produce some dramatics to let it be known this farce doesn't sit well with many Americans.
3
Glad to hear about the protests.
The fact is, the current cowardly Republican party is shaping courts AGAINST what most Americans want: reproductive rights, climate change mitigation, worker protections, campaign finance reform, strict gun control.
However, since Democrats can't do a thing other than protest, we are about to take the first formal step toward being a theocratic autocracy.
And the sane and rational among us do NOT want to her the whining that is sure to come from the trump base, Bernie Bros, and third-party voters once they find themselves on the receiving end of their own respective convictions.
The only soluton is to vote blue in November and create and amend laws that leave no room for a theocratic, corporatist interpretation.
7
I am beginning to think it is going to take another civil war to right the unjust representation of the majority of people in the United States.
That sparsely populated states like Wyoming or Kansas can have equal Senate representation to states like California or New York is ludicrous. The majority of people will not be represented in the eventual confirmation of Kavanaugh.
That the popular view is that Trump and Republicans are not defending the Constitution is a threat to our Republic. Trump is likely a criminal who is being enabled by a party with an obvious agenda.
That Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society can easily get partisan judges on the bench and that Mitch McConnell could block the privilege of a sitting president means that one third of our government's checks and balances has been hobbled.
President Obama offered an olive branch to Republicans by selecting Merrick Garland, an unbiased and accomplished judge with no controversy attached to his name.
The Republican agenda is no longer hidden. It is an in-your-face promotion of rich, white, men. There is no equal representation under the law. The GOP has stolen it.
There will come a breaking point, and it will come soon. This is not our president, not our government, and not our way of life.
6
Sad to see the American people so full of hate and so divided and unable to work together. How does one people see the same situation so differently? There is so much question over the legitimacy of the Trump presidency, on both sides of the aisle. Coupling that with the way Obama's SC nominee was ignored, a real patriot would step down from this nomination and insist that the investigation into the 2016 election finalize before moving forward. Wouldn't it be nice to see everyone coming into the current judiciary branch wanting justice?
225
He's not a patriot. He's a careerist.
2
Justice, schmustice. This isn't about justice. This is a bout due process. Wouldn't it be nice to let all facts matter and let democracy just take its course.
2
A real patriot would say, thanks for thinking of me, but not until my equally qualified colleague Merrick Garland gets a vote.
1
The chair of the judiciary committee should start the questioning after the opening statement by Judge Kavanaugh. There is enough in the public domain long before the nomination to study. Those on the committee that feel unprepared to start the questions can do so later over the course of the confirmation hearing. They could also use some of their time allotted first on basis of what is known and do the rest when they feel prepared to do the rest of the questioning. What is counter productive to our democracy is not accepting the results of an election won fair and square and not vetting the nominee on the vast information that has been available. The stalling can be done at the time of taking a confirmation vote not now.
2
This election was not won fair and square, as you say. It was the closest election in history, and won on a technicality. They should have thought about accepting the results of an election when they blocked Merrick Garland's nomination.
2
The GOP is trying to whitewash Kavanaugh's history by refusing to release 100,000 documents evidencing his attitude toward the law. For example, even though he testified in 2006 that he had nothing to do with the Bush White houses role in torture, Kavanaugh urged the Bush administration to ignore a law McCain and Congress 's affirmation that this country would not endorse or engage in torture. Such a man should never be appointed to the Supreme Court who would disregard not only US law but also international law forbidden crimes against humanity. So not only is Kavanaugh a scofflaw, and a hypocrite, but he is a perjurer as well.
The GOP always gets on its high horse about following the law and not "legislating from the bench"; but when it comes to laws that they don't agree with, like the law against torture, they feel free to substitute their own political point of view.
226
Ah, yes, Gina Haspel, a known torturer, now head of the CIA. Torture is once again de rigueur in the US.
McCain must be turning over in his grave.
1
So much for the messages delivered at Senator McCain's funeral. Apparently they GOP contingent merely showed up and didn't bother to listen.
Rest in Peace, Senator McCain. Be glad you aren't in Washington any more.
2
I am so disgusted with the GOP I can hardly write a comment at this juncture. They continue to embarrass and defile their own party while they blatantly manipulate the rules of order. Their president is under scrutiny for cries against the state, and yet they allow him to abuse his executive powers to block the free flow of information regarding Judge kavanaugh's record to the senate. We witness the end of the Republic.
7
The Repubs continue their legislative charade. They've tossed aside decency, integrity, and the Constitution along with it. Give them what they deserve: The Garland Approach. Ignore this pick.
3
Cornyn should know mob rule when he sees it; it's what the GOP does best.
The should just give Kavanaugh the Garland treatment, at least until somebody reads all the documents pertaining to this candidate. Ah, but that makes too much sense.
What does it matter anyway? He'll be confirmed and we will have one more chink in our democracy, with a right wing court, a radical alt-right presidency, and a catatonic tea bag right congress. That's the GOP for you.
Vote! While you still can.
5
Garland was an activist judge who legislated from the bench and lent the color of law to illegal DoJ activity. He ruined his career chances when he let the DoJ off the hook for violating the McCalure-Vollkmer Act.
He couldn't even pass the "giggle test" after that..
We can live with an 8-person SCOTUS. We ought not, however, countenance the appointment of a lifetime position for the highest court in the nation by a president that is, for all intents and purposes, an (un)indicted co-conspirator in election fraud, a potentially Kremlin-compromised president with seriously dubious connections to Russian oligarchs. We cannot allow Trump to appoint a Justice that may provide him with the ultimate "out" should evidence mount to the point an impeachment proceeds under the aegis of the Senate and Supreme Court. There is no need to fill the 9th seat until after the full SDNY's investigation into Cohen's tranche of information is completed, and Robert Mueller's investigation is finished. Everything that can be done - including Democratic Senators using every means to stop this appointment (hopefully with Senators Flake and Collins) - should be done. If there was ever a time for an open revolt in the Senate, it is now.
14
Trump rejected McConnell's advice because it is crystal clear where Kavanaugh stands on all the big issues. Trump doesn't want a David Souter historical legacy that would embarrass him the rest of his life, so he rejected his sister's advice to appoint her colleague on the Third Circuit, who wouldn't have been as controversial and has a limited paper trail. Now the circus begins which is payback for not considering Garland and is designed to intimidate the only three Republicans that matter: Collins, Murkowski and Paul. And the three vulnerable Democrats: Donnelly, Manchin and Heitkamp. Kavanaugh's paper trail as an advocate in the Bush White House would like sour the two female Republican's who claim they want to preserve Roe vs Wade and Paul on torture. But they really don't need to see those document because what is clear from opinions is that he will vote to weaken Roe case by case until it's non existent.
2
So, what does anyone expect? There is no possibility for a centrist judge, so challenging the process is the only way to be heard. It's sad. Is it the beginning of the end of our democracy? Let's hope not.
I'm curious what parliamentary procedures are available. This hearing is a mockery of government and should not proceed. It should have never even happened. A foundational tenet of American law is to rule with the consent of the governed.
You. You folks sitting there in that room, trying to pretend this is normal, you do not have my consent. You are unworthy of the office. Shame on you.
6
Sen. Dick Durbin just said it like it is. No holds barred. One could see Kavanaugh scribbling furiously. Can't wait for Durbin to put Kavanaugh on the hot seat.
4
Is overturning Roe V. Wade really pro-life? Prioritizing the 'unborn' before the born puts others, including babies at risk. And what about protecting our Constitution and rule of law? Here, I lay out my arguments:
https://michaelchabler.com/2018/08/17/the-supreme-court-and-a-question-o...
Grassley and the Republicans are hiding behind the so called “Ginsberg Rule” where Ruth Baden Ginsburg stated that she would not render a judgment in the hearing on previous Supreme Court delicious that may again come before the Court. But Ginsburg made extremely clear in that very hearing that she steadfastly supported women’s reproductive rights. Therefore Kavanaugh may well punt on Roe v. Wade that he still must state his views on women’s reproductive rights just as Ginsburg did. That is the real “Ginsburg Rule”.
This system is so corrupt and manipulated that it is beginning to undermine the entire Supreme Court. More and more the justices just look like political hacks appointed to a lifetime position to do the bidding of whatever president imposed them on Americans. Republicans stonewall, Democrats whine. It's sickening.
2
At least Kavanaugh is getting his hearing, unlike Gorsuch.
Republicans have absolutely no leg to stand on. Hypocrites, the lot of them.
4
Tell us again where in the Constitution it says that SCOTUS appointees are entitled to a hearing. Hint: nowhere.
2
On Sunday DJT stated:
“Russia-er if you are listening please release the 42,000 documents on judge kavanaugh!
I am sure you will be rewarded mightily.... by mitch mcconnell!”
On Monday (a national holiday) they magically appear!
Dems, independents and all other grownups should simply walk out.
No arguing, just walk out!
Next to do:
Vote in November!
3
Hooray! At last the Democrats are fighting back.
3
From local town hall meetings to the Senate and public political gatherings, democrat leftist mobs shout and scream to stop any debate.
2
MEMO TO KAVANAUGH
Unless and/or until the Constitution is amended to state otherwise, every American who is accused of committing a crime shall be promptly arrested and prosecuted for said crime. To suggest otherwise is nonsense, pure politically motivated, NONSENSE.
2
This is proving to be a great party piece for the "resistance". Fantastic. As Frank Bruni suggested in a recent article, this inexcusable, childish behavior cements Trump support. From what I've seen today, the president should gain or recover about a million votes because of these clownish protesters. You want to see a blue wave? Look no further, because you won't see one in November. Keep it up!
1
I have a solution to the abortion issue. Ban it. Then send the child care bill to all registered Republicans Including voters. They can feed them and raise them. While we are at it if th y want to ban same sex marriages then any republican that cheats on their spouse shall be banished from society. It is what their god would want.
1
Named for life has always been a deep flaw in the process. It has never been as glaring as it is now. Why would any senator not want all records read and discussed unless there is much to hide. In this day, in this country, truth is mired in the dark cloud under which we are living.
3
Quit crying Liberals. You lost the election so just accept it. Democrats should be ashamed of themselves. They look terrible and are coming across as babies. I am an independent and these kind of actions are not good.
2
This is the first supreme court hearing I've watched. It's kind of surreal, watching a man (Orrin Hatch) read prepared statements in 72 point font about Kavanaugh being a basketball coach and enjoying pasta with ketchup while police forcibly extract citizens from the room.
It's so surreal that Republicans pretend that the Federalist Society hasn't vetted every policy belief Kavanaugh holds, and they pretend that Trump didn't publically announce that he would only appoint candidates that would kill women's right to abortion.
It's so surreal that everyone is pretending that Justices are impartial, neutral arbiters. It's surreal that this broken process legitimizes the fact that, for the next 15 years, the law will be "interpreted" by people who have pledged to defend America's oligarchs at the expense of individual rights.
It's so surreal. I've been an avid news reader for my entire adult life (approx 12 years), and the Supreme Court hearing process is so broken that everyone who writes about Supreme Court hearings uses the same label for the process: Kabuki theatre. Everyone knows how this is going to end. Even though Dick Durbin has bulletproof evidence that Kavanaugh committed perjury in his 2006 Appellate Judge confirmation hearing, that will probably be little more than a footnote.
This is grotesque.
571
In 2020 the president and all of Congress will be under Democrat control. Several months thereafter Clarence Thomas may suffer a massive heart attack and will be replaced by a liberal justice. Balance will be restored.
There is a "Supreme Court of Justice" which oversees our behavior; its rulings may be found the the Bible.
Fully agree. It is unlikely, to be sure, but SC justices can be impeached. Once the Dems regain control of Congress and begin investigations, who knows?
Kangaroo Court here we come.
Senator Cronyn referred to mob rule. He could easily mean the Republicans who behave like mobsters without regard to providing ample time to review documents, without turning over documents, and by following the lead of the mobster-in-chief, Mr. Trump.
5
Democrats started this when they set out to destroy people like they did to Bork and tried to do to Thomas.
1
I support the Democrats reviewing every document they can. If chaos is require, fine. I support reviewing every document and interviewing every witness required to expose white-collar crimes committed by politicians, bankers, lawyers, and CEOs, then bring them to justice in courts not controlled by their friends.
24
It doesn't take chaos. It takes 51 votes now thanks to the Democrats. The Democrats don't have 51 votes. Super simple math
Stonewalling Garland was wrong, and so is this cheap attempt at retribution. One side or the other has got to step up and declare peace or we will continue to watch our government unravel before our eyes.
4
It's always expected of the Democrats to declare peace but the GOP has essentially declared war on our democracy. Sitting back doesn't work.
3
What you want is not peace but capitulation. No, absolutely not. NO nominee should be considered until Garland gets a hearing.
1
Mr. Grassley . . . said Republican aides have already reviewed the 42,000 documents that arrived Monday night.
No reason not to believe him. 42,000 documents in one day - child's (er Republican senators') play.
5
Reading so much is a sure cure for insomnia. Remember how few Democrats read or understood the over 3000 page long Affordable Care Act they passed even though they had months to argue about it.
Note to cynical New Yorkers on the New York Times coverage team: I'm expecting my senator, who was the Attorney General of the most populous state in the Union and the largest state economy, to be combative and aggressive, because Kamala Harris represents a state that is four square opposed to banning abortion, and voted overwhelmingly against Trump in the 2016 election. I do not appreciate having her substantial litigation skills and her quite obvious faithful representation of California put down to some kind of 2020 presidential race grandstanding. I'm sure the people from New Jersey feel the same about Senator Booker.
Enough of the "I've seen it all" cynical New York reporting attitude. You haven't. Adam Liptak is tweeting about having covered 5 SCOTUS hearings before? That doesn't even take him back to Harriet Myers, let alone Robert Bork.
Let's get one thing straight: New Yorkers who want to diss our representatives with cynical comments should remember where the racist baby with the inability to govern and the talent for causing chaos, who's mired up to his ears in mob boss crime and Russian spying, comes from. He's from your turf, not ours. If anybody wants to be cynical about presidential material it's the whole rest of the country. What New York City produced is a blight on the presidency. New York environs Justice Sam Alito is just as likely as Brett Kavanaugh to vote against abortion and in favor of a Muslim ban. In fact, on the latter, he already did.
16
Your Senator is rude and unladylike. A real no-class act as one would expect from Kardashian land.
It's obvious that the will of the American people continues to be of minor consideration by our GOP senators who appear more than willing to accommodate their self-absorbed President; in fact, the will of the people is a consideration distant from big money and the political aspirations of the actors involved. How far we have fallen and "Yes", the whole world is watching.
19
The "will of the people" was expressed in 2016 and your side lost. Live with it.
1
Resistance to the majoritarian mob is the core function for which the Senate was created.
A lot of questions will be thrown at the controversial Kavanaugh, but the difficult task will be to determine just how loyal he is to trump, as trump demands unmitigated loyalty from all who associate with him, and how capable Kavanaugh is in arriving at independent judicial decisions.
It's something we have to do these days; this nation is heading toward a fascism led by trump and his followers who have taken over the Republican Party. The Supreme Court is the last bastion we have to preserve our democracy. If that falls to the egomaniacal, mendacious trump, then we enter into a new period in our history in which government is under the control of one unstable man, his Twitter feed and the Right Wing media that he controls.
So lawmakers will question Kavanaugh, but they need to determine how much Kavanaugh understands the particular gravity that surrounds his appointment at this moment in our history.
96
It's a lifetime appointment, as you know. So why would any SC justice worry about what the person who appointed him thinks?
2
Although I'm not a Democrat, Booker, Harris, et al are absolutely correct that 15 hours is not enough time to digest an additional 40000 pages of documentation released. Although I disagree in the manner in which the interruptions occurred, adjourning and reconvening seems to be the most prudent way to ensure that whatever available documents are thoroughly examined.
244
But what recourse do they have? They've been asking for materials since his nomination. The White House is under investigation on how many fronts now? Republicans mockingly undo democracy as we know it. McConnell is simply evil.
I wish I was in DC; I'd be happy to be arrested in the hearing room because real people's voices are finally being heard when all formal avenues of redress have been blocked. Unusual? Well....consider the context. We live in unusual times, to put it mildly.
263
They could try winning some elections, as Obama once said.
2
All you had to do was get Hillary elected. As Barack said "elections have consequences.
1
“Lisa Blatt, a self-described ‘liberal Democrat and a feminist’” works at Arnold and Porter - defender of huge corporations and conservative agendas, including on a daily basis ending for those same huge corporate clients sexual harassment, equal pay, and sex discrimination cases brought by average every day women against them. Arnold and Porter on her bio brags about her work “in overturning reinstatement of $10 billion verdict against client Philip Morris”, work for GlaxoSmithKline, and the Washington Redskins so they could keep using the “Redskins” logo. You know – liberal agendas. Self-described is correct because no one else would describe her that way. This shows what a charade this is if that’s the best “liberal” they can get to support him.
12
Absolutely "mob rule" by the GOP zombies who think that they can play hardball and no one else can, perhaps the dems, expecting a blue wave have gotten a spine, the ghost of Marrick Garland's nomination may be a haunting!
6
It lives! Our creation lives!! Here I had thoughts the Dems were dead all these years!
4
Ask him about what happened to Gorsuch. Over and over and over.
4
Gorsuch was confirmed. How many times do they need to ask about that before you understand?
Abuse of power: So it's ok to grant a FOIA request to disclose a democrat's security clearance information to her republican opposition to abet her losing her next election?!
And now trump uses executive privilege to withhold information regarding kavanaugh's past decisions/opinions to aid him in winning his nomination?
What does the next chapter of this Orwellian story we're living hold for posterity?
6
John Cornyn just said the Democrats have already said they are opposed to the Kavanaugh nomination. Perhaps if some Republicans looked at the Kavanaugh record closely, instead of being held in lockstep with Trump, they would join some Democrats in voting no. Thinking is a two-way street. Or it used to be.
8
Democrats, rightly, are stating, on the record, that they protest the withholding of 90% of Judge Kavanaugh's record and that what is available is no basis for reviewing such an important nominee.
Democrats should follow up by leaving en-masse and not returning until the hearing is adjourned so the missing documents are made available. Otherwise, this nomination will remain a travesty and will put into question the legitimacy of his appointment to the land's highest court.
---
www.rimaregas.com
15
Here is what I just sent to Senator Grassely through the comments section in his website:
You did not follow rules in even granting a meeting with Garland Merrick and, of course, would not consider a vote on his nomination because you knew if you waited it out past the election you might have the chance to put in someone with more conservative views. Now you handle the Democratic senators' objections in the opening session of the Cavanaugh hearing with that same skewed and biased approach. Your responses to their motion and concerns were manipulative despite your grand statements that you were being fair and even-handed. You should not have this kind of power over our land. I am deeply resentful and very disturbed at the use of your power to advance your own party's agenda. Unlawful and unfair despite what you say.
13
If Kavanaugh is the stellar boy scout the shills of the Republican party would have us believe, then release the papers and respect the democratic process. With Trump citing "executive" privilege, it only shrouds his qualifications and suitability, and leaves open the question of his fitness to sit in such a place of honor.
Of course the Republicans have demonstrated over and over again their allegiance to their big, deep pocketed donors over the people they claim to represent. Kavanaugh's appointment isn't really about overturning Roe v. Wade; that is merely the disguise for their efforts to vastly deregulate as much as possible as big wet kiss to those who line their campaign coffers.
196
Grassley.... one of the many shameful faces of GOP hypocrisy....
9
The Democrats have no leader anymore and are acting like poor losers.
5
We all know how this will end. He will be confirmed and there's not one thing the Democrats can do about it. While Trump and the GOP are in office, the continuing downward spiral of American values and the trampling on our Constitution continues until nothing remains. It may take a generation to undo the damage Trump's blow torch has done to America. Sad.
7
These hearings should be postponed until all of the documents are released and reviewed.
That being said, trump's tax returns have still not been released.
Unbelievable...no, wait...unbelievable is the new totally believable regarding the current administration.
14
When Trump is impeached will all of his court selections be voided?
If not, this is all absurd. He (Trump) should not be allowed to have such power over the direction of our country.
I'd like to see Democrats in congress rallying against any and all decisions trump makes that will have a permanent imprint on America, until Mueller's hearings are complete.
13
No president should have such vast power. I have no idea what the historical comparisons might be... And perhaps it's time to get rid of the electoral college as well.
One thinks there is settled law and all of a sudden things get major upset.
A key issue going before the SCOTUS is that of beachfront property access/land ownership in CA.
Government of, by and for [ALL] the people seems to be perishing rather rapidly.
This is so painful to watch, mostly because Kavanaugh will probably become the next Supreme Court justice, barring something crazy happening.
3
I am so outraged by this I cannot even speak.
My daughters will be finding new homes in a country that respects them.
We've been here since the mid-1800s and now it's time to go find a new home.
DEPLORABLES
5
Republicans no longer deserve any respect in any office. They have chosen the path of fraud, deception, and anti-rule of law with their gerrymandering of voting districts, voter suppression laws, and denial of Constitutional process due President Obama for Supreme Court nomination.
Every step and every process should be handled as if the Republicans are the enemy of the state which they are. No matter how much Democrats try to show respect to the process and people, the Republicans will always act like a disease of democracy. You can heal democracy but there no in healing the disease that the Republican Party has become.
I hope the Dems treat this administration and the Republicans with all the fury that democracy and this country deserves!!!
9
Dick Durbin is right, today's confirmation hearing is not an example of "mob rule", it is democracy in action. This is an example of the people, for whom every Congress person and Supreme Court Justice works, having a chance to have their say. This is the right of people in a democracy.
5
This is beyond disgusting. The Republicans are such horrible liars. Only Merrick
Garland should be at this hearing and only he should be confirmed. This is an
outrage against our Constitution. Will somebody please begin the Impeachment of the criminal known as Donald J. Trump?
8
This isn’t complicated.
If you want to know now how Judge Kavanaugh will rule in a particular case,
just ask yourself what Donald Trump would do if he were sitting on the Court in Kavanaugh’s place.
Beginning with the question of whether Presidents are entitled to shoot people down on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.
9
The faux outrage would be humorous of the subject was not so serious. When Democrats were in charge, they played the exact same game.
3
The Democrat party is showing its true colors today. They are a group of angry, rude and mean spirited people who act like children when things don't go their way. Using every delaying tactic under the sun will not succeed. In the end, Kavanaugh has the votes to be confirmed, and the petulant whiners on the left will be sent back to their corner for a well deserved time out.
3
I see. And what were the Republicans when they denied Merrick Garland? What is Trump?
4
Sickening that Kavanaugh used his own daughters to try to paint a certain image of himself, walking in, smiling meekly, holding their hands. Also revolting is that he is subjecting them to this kind of contentious theatre. It is truly shocking and horribly disheartening to see the rule of law, and democracy in America, being assaulted and eroded in this way.
15
Never give up hope, people. Once this sham is over and this sleazy political operative is on the SCOTUS bench, start doing two things:
1) deligitimize SCOTUS by ALWAYS referring to it as the "Stolen Supreme Court," "Corporate Supreme Court," "Republican Supreme Court," and so on and,
2) immediately start pushing for the number of justices to be expanded when the Democrats regain power.
4
Review the rest of the documents, then if things are found there (likely) impeach him for misleading the Senate during his confirmation hearing.
4
I'm looking at this man who wants to be on the Supreme Court and am happy to know that with him, the Court will lose any semblance of being a just and/or impartial arbiter in our social struggles. Trump is obvious, the GOP is obvious, we know the history of the 1920s and 1930s, so we're beyond that. It's the illusion called the Supreme Court that needs to be done with once and for all. I'm grateful to this man for doing the job very soon.
1
For the Senate Democrats on the committee, they can really make a name for themselves by challenging Kavanaugh. They need to fight him. As for the rule of law, Republicans keep saying that Kavanaugh is mainstream. It all depends on the definition of mainstream. A separation of church and state is Constitutional, yet Kavanaugh has not respected it. Thus, I don't think that his views can be considered mainstream. He is very far to the right. His nomination represents Trump's interests. Justices should be above the fray and presidents repeatedly nominate people that are part of the fray. It is not right and Senators have the chance to make it right.
5
In case you're wondering why you've never seen anything like this before, Mr. Grassley, it might (possibly) have something to do with the moronic decision to remove the 60 vote requirement for SCOTUS nominees.
If you take an extremist position and remove the bipartisanship of the nomination process, you can't really complain when the other side flatly refuses to take part.
It's a little too late now; Republicans have opened Pandora's box. I would be shocked, really, if Democrats didn't vote to expand the ranks of the court at the next possible opportunity. The only situation which might make amends and prevent such an escalation would be to re-implement the 60 vote requirement, toss out Kavanaugh, and force Trump to nominate a centrist. Republicans should seriously consider the threat to their apparent goal of stacking the court: would they rather have a 6 judge Democratic majority or a 4:4 with one centrist?
4
This is not terribly surprising. Unfortunately, politicians on both sides nowadays act like spoiled children. Where is the seriousness and the decorum that one should expect from the US Senate. Note sadly that I can no longer say "would expect from the US Senate."
5
If Kavanaugh had any integrity, he would refuse to be considered for the Supreme Court until the cloud is lifted over the President who nominated him. Furthermore, that Trump is facing so many scandals right now is a far more legitimate reason to deny him the honor of naming someone to the court than Mitch McConnell's claim that Obama, in the last year of his presidency, could not put forward Merritt Garland as a nominee.
It's disingenuous for the Republicans to complain about the protests; they deserve a forceful reckoning with their flagrantly manipulative attempts to alter the process.
416
If he had any integrity he wouldn't be a republican nominee.
3
Did you move to Clinton NY to honor Bill And Hillary Clinton?
How nice.
You think if the shoe was on the other foot, Democrats would demur?
I don't think so. These are Democrat rules that were put in place by Democrats.
If you want to be mad at someone...get mad at Harry Reid and the Senators who actually voted for the nuclear option.
If you'd like a list of those Democratic Senators...I'm happy to share a list.
Otherwise...you might be wise to remember that Republicans clearly said "you will regret the day you did this.'...which..if memory serves me...is today.
1
You don't lose elections and then get to pick your SCOTUS. He'll be confirmed next week and Trump will have appointed two conservative SCOTUS Justices. As far as I'm concerned, anything else he does is icing on the cake. He's accomplished his mission for me.
The mob they fear is the majority of the nation gerrymandered out of control of our government.
It's a majority that is growing day by day and they know it is coming to claim its lawful seats.
21
democrats never read the documents they were provided and have 100% decided they will oppose the candidate. They will be outvoted and the candidate confirmed. The pretend outrage is another symptom of TDS.
2
Dumping 42,000 pages of documents to review the night before should invalidate the hearings. Sure sounds fishy to me. Why don't the democrats just get up and walk out?
18
Haven’t heard a buzz about these 147,000 from the people demanding Hillary’s E Mails. Wh is is more important.
They never read the documents they had, and when offered an opportunity to read classified documents, not a single Democrat showed up!! WHY? Because they already decided to oppose the candidate no matter how good he is. They are faking the outrage and it is just laughable.
2
They don't walk out because if they did, they would not be able to make their speeches, which is the only reason the Dems are there. They already lost the vote. Now they're just running out the clock, and preaching to the MSNBC-converted.
3
Why are the Republicans so determined to rush through this unvetted nominee? Why would they allow a man who has lied under oath to become a member of the highest court? What do they have to hide? Why is Grassley demanding to pre-screen the Democrats' questions? Will Kavanaugh be able to see those questions in advance? Will Kavanaugh be the judge and jury for the president's legal problems? And, of course, why THIS nominee and not Judge Garland (his superior)?
With so many unanswered questions, why is this process--of utmost importance--being rushed?
7
The entire process of this nomination, with 42K pages dumped the night before the hearing, and 96% of it unavailable to the public, stinks to high heaven. The Republicans have lost any remaining credibility, and are pushing a hyper-partisan agenda at great disservice to America.
12
If Judge Garland could not be considered because we were so close to a presidential election, how, pray tell, can Judge Kavanaugh be considered, when the president for whom Judge Garland's nomination was railroaded is now the subject of a criminal investigation?
71
Senator Cornyn - the Boston Tea Party was "mob rule" too. It's what happens when people get fed up with tyranny. Get used to it.
107
Current trends projected forward into the long term will lead to a new Constitution. Current leaders are so very irresponsible that they are undermining the system itself. All it would take is for states to request a Convention, and over half of them already have. It is not beyond the realm of possibility, and becoming ever more likely if these trends continue.
I'm not predicting that. Trends can and do change. But we do need to see where this trend goes.
That may feel righteous to type but I assure you, if you're on the wrong end of the mob you'll have a mighty different feeling about the necessity of police and law and order.
2
The honorable senator from Texas is mistaken. A president who was elected by a minority of voters puts forward a nominee who will be approved by a body which represents a minority of voters, and no protest, no appeal to the wishes of the majority, can deflect them from this action. This is not “mob rule”. This is tyranny.
Not releasing 100,000 pages of Kavanaugh's record, with Trump citing "executive privilege," is fishy. This should be enough to delay these hearings, but it isn't because Republicans have all the power. Trump is hiding all kinds of information from the American public, which began with his tax returns. The excuse for this, as you'll remember, was because he was under audit. What about now? No one is demanding them any longer because we have move on to bigger controversies. He won't sit down with Mueller. What is he hiding? The truth will eventually come out. He can't hide forever.
9
Come on people, it’s so obvious ... trump picked Kavanaugh because of the judge's view that a sitting president cannot be indicted, to wit his words: "the country loses when the President’s focus is distracted by the burdens of civil litigation or criminal investigation and possible prosecution.”.
It’s a tacit assertion that the President is therefore above the law. This unprecedented judicial positioning actually taking root in the nation's highest court is not only insidiously ominous but frankly a current and present danger to democracy worldwide.
This appointment should be rescinded or temporarily postponed until the president's legal contretemps are decided.
13
The only thing that surprises me about ending up with a hard-right SCOTUS is how long it took to get to this point. Self-described "socially liberal/fiscally conservative" suburban voters have made a deal with the devil for the last half century, voting for candidates beholden to the religious right. What did they expect? Now Roe v. Wade will be overturned, environmental regulations will be thoroughly gutted, gun control will be negligible. Were those tax cuts worth it in the end?
10
We know that Trump carefully paid off women to ensure information about his affairs was not known to voters before the election. Is it any wonder than people do not want a repeat of such calculated and dispositive withholding of information.
Judge Kavanaugh, knowing the importance of evidence on which to make sound decisions, should himself request a recess to allow the evidence to be reviewed. This seems right and essential considering the importance of the decision to be made.
5
The Republicans have made the Supreme Court a joke. It is illegitimate once the Republicans wouldn't consider Garland. Further, two appointments by a President who is an un-indicted co-cospirator to crimes committed for his own benefit is corrupt, when this Congress should've already been considering impeachment.
There is no authority to this court beyond force. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh will be tainted until their own deaths. Sadly, without reform, America will just be corrupt in the meantime.
11
We can go back in time and wonder when and where this partisan divide over a nomination began. And and of those historical starting points is arbitrary. In general though, the most recent action is the one that tends to have the strongest influence over current behavior. And, in that sense, clearly the Democrats are doing this in response to Mitch McConnell's irresponsible decision to freeze Merrick Garland's nomination. He and his fellow Republican Senators are primarily responsible for this mess.
3
Trump stole the 2016 election with the help of the Russians, and now he wants to hijack the Supreme Court with the help of the Republicans, who are also in bed with the Russians. He has trashed all of our sacred institutions and rendered the United States a banana republic. Our only hope at this point is Mr. Mueller. Please save us!
9