Kavanaugh Scandals - BREAKING!!!!

Updated with the correct spelling of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's name.

Normally to say it's been a wild week and a half would be a statement of exaggeration at points.  However, with the recent news in the confirmation hearings and scandals of electoral vote winner Donny's SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh it might be understating things.

Yep, within 10 or so days Kavanaugh's hearings went from seeming clean and wrapped up to a mountain of drama as several women have accused Kavanaugh of attempting to sexually assault them back in the 80s.  First, it was Christine Blasey (now Dr. Christine Blasey Ford) and her claim that in high school Kavanaugh and his friend (conservative writer Mark Judge) reportedly corralled her into a bedroom where they put on loud music as Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth while trying to take her clothes off and get on top of her.  The reported assault was foiled only when Judge reportedly jumped in and toppled all three of them to the floor, giving her a chance to escape.  First mentioned by Dr. Ford during a therapy session with her husband in 2012 she had reported it to her Senator (who happened to be CA Senator Dianne Feinstein, currently on the Senate Judiciary Committee) and her Congressperson when his nomination was announced but decided not to go public until the media somehow found out through leaks and tracked her down.  Upon hiring a lawyer she had taken and passed a lie detector test.

Over the weekend an article in The New Yorker by Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer reported that while in college at Yale Kavanaugh reportedly took off his pants and tried to shove his genatalia into the face of a female student named Deborah Ramirez, who was forced to touch it as she pushed him away.  While Ramirez admits she doesn't remember all the details there are some people who remember it happening and others who knew her back them who claim she was always truthful, almost to an fault.,. In addition, the story came to Farrow and Mayer's attention because their mutual classmates at Yale were e-mailing about the incident in July.

ON top of that there was Michael Avenatti's claim that he's representing a third woman who may have a similar claim to Ford and Ramirez., as well as reports of possibly a fourth woman coming forward on a similar topic.

Meanwhile Repubs in the Senate are almost hell bent on pushing Kavanaugh through with the Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R, IA) calling for a committee nomination vote on Friday morning, less than a day after Ford's scheduled testimony.  Democrats on the Committee would like the FBI to reopen an investigation but the Repubs are adamant that it's unnecessary.

The sad thing is that, while the Repubs and Kavanaugh talk lip service about getting to the truth their actions make them appear to have made up their minds in favor of Kavanaugh and not  even having the appearance of caring about sexual assault as an issue.  This is made even more clear by electoral vote winner Donny's doubling down in support of Brett while claiming he wants to get to the truth.

The latter is especially twisted given that Donny has the power to ask the FBI to reopen the background check.  Him and the Senate could say to slow down the process and let the investigation occur.  They did it for the accusations made by Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991 and it reportedly took three days.  By not doing this, the Repubs are giving the appearance of caring more about getting a conservative majority on the Supreme Court in case the blue wave of the Democrats gets them out of power in one or both houses of Congress in the midterm elections than any desire for the truth.

Why is Donny doubling down and not asking for an investigation, even if it could prove that Kavanaugh is telling the truth?  A whole post can be written on that but I have a feeling it's a combination of his lust for unchecked power via a Justice who'll give that to him as well as his antipathy towards the FBI playing as much of a role as anything.

What's sad though is in their quest to push Kavanaugh into a lifetime appointment on the US Supreme Court it appears that things got overlooked (case in point; Kavanaugh's recent admission that he had a calendar form 1982.  If that's the case why the fuck wasn't that in the vetting?), if not corners being cut.  Given the gravity of this position a just and remotely sane world would do the smart thing and delay the hearings until they can (to steal a quote from electoral vote winner Donny) "find out what the hell is going on."

However, the Repubs don't wan to do that.  They've hired a "female prosecutor" for the questions to ask Ford Thursday (even though she and her lawyer requested that there not be a special questioner here, which has some wondering if she'll show up or not) rather than own up to the stuff they want to ask as they thinly veil their plan to protect Kavanaugh at any cost (they even refuse to let Deborah Ramirez appear at a hearing).  While we don't know the truth it appears that the GOP Senators don't care and would rather rally around their judge than do what's best for the people.

And by not investigating we may never really know the truth - and that's the saddest, asn most nauseating part of all this.