September 21, 2018

Kavanaugh is "a great intellect, a great gentleman, an impeccable reputation, went to Yale, top student, went to Yale Law School, top student, so we're going to let it play out, but I gotta tell you...."

"... he is a fine, fine person, so — and he's got tremendous support, I can tell you, just like Neil Gorsuch, who's now on the Supreme Court has tremendous support. So, we'll let it play out, and I think everything's going to be just fine. This is a high. quality. person."

Said Trump, last night in Las Vegas:



Here's the whole rally:



Trump was rallying for the incumbent Senator Dean Heller, who wouldn't even say he was voting for Trump right before the 2016 election. Last night, Trump said:
"I didn’t like him; he didn’t like me. And as we fought and fought and fought, believe it or not, we started to respect each other, we started to like each other, then we started to love each other. And the fact is, he has been a tremendous supporter ever since I won the election. He’s always been there. We can count on his vote. I mean Wacky Jacky will never vote for us, folks. She’s wacky."
"Wacky Jacky" = Jacky Rosen, the Democrat trying to unseat Heller. I have no idea what's supposed to be wacky about her, but "wacky" certainly does rhyme with Jacky, who has the nerve to oppose the stellar Heller feller.

By the way, if you laughed at "went to Yale, top student, went to Yale Law School, top student" because it seemed like idiotic repetition, it's not. Kavanaugh went to Yale as an undergraduate. Trump is ticking off stages in Kavanaugh's fine, fine career. So put aside that Kavanaugh man of straw.

69 comments:

rhhardin said...

All of Trump's moods are calculated. He's a negotiator.

Phil 314 said...

Reminds me of “We have top men working on it right now...Top men”

Sebastian said...

Kavanaugh is a fine, fine person. As solid as they come in the federal judiciary.

So, what'll it be, Althouse: do you support such a person, and therefore candidates for office who would vote for him, or does your concern for women's rights cause you to oppose him, support the Dem depredations, and vote for, say, Baldwin?

BUMBLE BEE said...

But he's no "wise latina" and that's for sure!

BUMBLE BEE said...

Cruz is warming up in the bullpen as RBG fades in the late innings.

MadisonMan said...

In other political races, I note that Slate despairs of La Donna's run in Florida. It seems Shalala cannot speak Spanish. And that's a hindrance in a Hispanic-full district. Surprisingly.

rhhardin said...

So, what'll it be, Althouse: do you support such a person..

Women can do all the intellectual stuff men do but use their intellect for woman stuff because it's more interesting to them.

Birkel said...

Cruz is polling above 50%.
Any incumbent not at or very near 50% has a relatively low chance of re-election.
Heller is in trouble.

rhhardin said...

I like the Kavanaugh has to testify first condition. No woman will see that as unfair. Last wordism.

Bob Boyd said...

Kavanaugh may be all those things Trump described, but his skin color...I'm sorry, I just can't even...
And that dick!

AllenS said...

we started to love each other

Was that bold face in the original quote? Also, where does the quote end? If you added the bold face, shouldn't you say so?

AllenS said...

I love me some Trump.

Tommy Duncan said...

Blogger rhhardin said...

"I like the Kavanaugh has to testify first condition."

Subsequent CNN headline: "Kavanaugh fails in hearing to address Ford's revised claims."

Bay Area Guy said...

Trump has an effective way of speaking that connects with folks, but it doesn’t translate well on paper.

Not a big deal, though. The event, the oratory, the responsive audience and film footage are way more important.

TreeJoe said...

I read the other day that Keith Ellison, a congressman and deputy chair of the DNC, has both abuse allegations and now medical records posted.

Yesterday. From 2017 abuse allegations.

CNN? Last article from August saying Ellison denies the allegation.

NBC? Last article from same day in August as CNN saying Ellison denies the allegation.

ABC? Last article from same day in August as CNN and NBC saying Ellison denies the allegation.

Note: All three articles from CNN, NBC, and ABC so far have the SAME HEADLINE from August 13th....

CBS? Last article from SAME DAY in August as CNN, NBC, and ABC saying Ellison denies the allegation. Again, near identical title...

....

So here we have credible abuse allegations, one year old, against the deputy chair of the DNC with published medical records.

And articles from the classical major news networks have no update in 5 weeks except to represent Ellison's point of view that he denies it.

Meanwhile, all 4 have wall to wall front page coverage of Kavanaugh.

....

If I was a victim wanting to speak out, I certainly wouldn't do so if it was against a democratic politician.

gspencer said...

"'Wacky Jacky' = Jacky Rosen, the Democrat trying to unseat Heller. I have no idea what's supposed to be wacky about her"

Ah, being a contemporary Democrat is as wacky as it gets. And if you're Democrat "leader" you've been breathing it long, hard, and slow, absorbing every molecule of the intoxication.

The hysteria that once griped Salem only lasted about 15 months (Feb.1692-May1693). Arguably this Trump Derangement Syndrome is even worse, not only because of its greater duration, but also because of its incredible extent.

Sydney said...

He reminds me of a friend of mine from New York City who always speaks in superlatives. People aren't just smart, they're geniuses. They aren't just good looking, they're gorgeous. It must be a regional thing. Here in the Midwest, we don't talk like that. We down play people's good qualities. I think Garrison Keillor played on that well in his Lake Woebegone stories.

Jess said...

He packs stadiums, and they're filled with the people that make the United States function. That should warn anyone with extreme liberal ideas that the producers are tired of supporting those that jeopardize their future with ridiculous ideas based on a failed political belief.

Michael K said...

The Kavanaugh nomination is a group therapy session for white women of a certain age (How old are you Ann?) who are still trying to get over adolescence,

Tommy Duncan said...

Some things you won't hear on Morning Joe:

"In fairness to Cavanaugh..."

"The lack of the most basic details is troubling..."

"The timing of the accusation raises questions..."

"Today we'll examine the credibility of Professor Ford's accusations..."

"Let's take a few moments to examine possible motives..."

"Why did these accusations come to light after the hearings were complete?"

"What is Diane Feinstein's role in the timing of these allegations?"

"Do we really care about a 36 year old 'he said, she said' involving teenagers in high school?"

traditionalguy said...

As a connoisseur of Trumpianity, last night's speech was Trump at a new level of relaxed self confidence. Something has happened that allowed him to rest and enjoy his accomplishments like a sabbath. My guess is that his intelligence operatives have finally boxed in the British Intelligence operatives that were allied with Obama, Soros and HRC to eliminate Trump and his Deplorable America First Movement from the face of the earth. As soon as Kavanaugh is confirmed, Classified documentary proofs are going to be released and the Attorney General Sessions' year of work product unsealed. It has all been done since the Saudis flipped on Alaweed and disclosed to Trump our enemies who had secretly working for them the last 30 years.

wishfulthinking said...

Well yes. Living here in the Florida district that Dems are trying to flip with La Donna. I can assure you that every old and middle aged Cuban American living in this district will get their millennial sons daughters and grankids that are eligible to vote for Salazar. After all, she has been endorsed by Ros Lehtinen, the first Cuban American elected to Congress. We are not about to roll over and die under La Donna's millions. I have never before volunteered for any political campaign. I am now.

Andrew said...

I think all criminal trials should be like this. Let the accused make his statement defending himself against...whatever he can figure out he's being accused of. Then the prosecution can explain what really happened, fill in all the details, and prove the defense has no merit. Why did no one think of this before?

The Crack Emcee said...

I've said all along, this is just drama, so welcome him to the court already.

Unknown said...

This is T's reality show. We just live in it. Most love it, because we see ourselves and our feet of clay reflected in his. Ok, so his line of groupies is shorter than Mick J's and JFK's. We're envious. Even those with a full Chromosome set who would jump at either chance. To say nothing of the yo'ng-uns in the Nunnery across from Hart.I've one calendar with Members crossed off that I'm going to give to the Renwick to hang.A pity I didn't find their notebook with dates, descriptions and related.

Mary H said...

Kavanaugh's wife has been receiving death threats at her job as a town administrator. US Marshals are investigating. The family has had round the clock protection since the nomination, never mind the issues (and threats) since the Blasey Ford accusations broke.

BUMBLE BEE said...

An accuser without any documentation, believe her. Wimmin love the gossip. The state of "journalism", wimmin high and low love them lotta gossip. Sing it George..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogghq9Cj4Fo

Cassandra said...

The demand for Kavanaugh to testify first is stunningly ridiculous and unfair. For a party that loves to fulminate about norms and precedent and the rule of law, the Democrats sure are eager to disregard all three.

No, the Senate isn't a court of law. But this woman has accused him of sexual assault and even attempted rape. According to them, these are "serious, credible charges". Yet from what I've read (please correct me if I'm wrong):

1. She hasn't bothered to contact the folks with actual jurisdiction over this kind of case (Montgomery County in the People's Republic of MD). There's no statute of limitations in Maryland for felony sexual assault.

2. She hasn't made *any* kind of statement under oath.

3. She hasn't even been interviewed by law enforcement yet! That should be the FIRST thing to happen to establish that this is an actionable, credible claim.

Now she wants Kavanaugh to testify in public and under oath, before she's even laid out the actual complaint with any specificity, talked to law enforcement, or taken any of the steps the law provides for handling these types of cases.

This whole thing reminds me of the DNC hacking, where a crime was committed, but the DNC *refused* to allow law enforcement access to their server. We're supposed to believe this is the most horrible crime ever yet.... they don't even trust their OWN administration to investigate? And then they turn around months later and act as though the FBI/DoJ (yanno, the folks the DNC didn't trust even when Obama/Lynch were running things) are beyond criticism and exempted from oversight?

I don't want to hear any more whining about norms being violated. This entire hearing has been one long violation of civil norms, aggravated by the Dem's favorite tactic: blurring the lines between penalty or tax (ACA mandate), counterintel and criminal investigations (Mueller investigation), criminal and civil offenses (this mess, where they talk about it in criminal terms but no charges have been filed and they want a lower burden of proof than either criminal or civil law would dictate).

As with the DNC hacking, the actions of the Democrats have been utterly inconsistent with both the gravity of the alleged offense and with their own insistence that we take this whole thing seriously.

I don't know if this guy did anything wrong or not, but I do know her actions and those of her supporters (who should know better) have all but destroyed her credibility in my eyes. And absent any kind of forensic evidence or witness testimony, her credibility is all she's got.



Seeing Red said...

I didn’t like him; he didn’t like me. And as we fought and fought and fought, believe it or not, we started to respect each other, we started to like each other,


Honesty.

Leland said...

Christine Blasey Ford is a fine woman too. Her parents to a good Prep school, which prepared her for a career in academia with a PhD.

So let's quit treating her as some fragile victim that deserves to have the Bill of Rights thrown out, so she can make a serious criminal charge against another person.

You don't get special protection to make accusations.
The accused doesn't get forced to prove their innocence before you even fully state your allegation.
The accused doesn't have to leave the room when you present your case.
The accused gets to confront you, with their lawyers, and challenge your allegation.

Deal with it, buttercup.

Mr Wibble said...

Seeing Red said...
I didn’t like him; he didn’t like me. And as we fought and fought and fought, believe it or not, we started to respect each other, we started to like each other,


Honesty.


There's a certain level of respect in saying, "I didn't like him, we butted heads, but we've come to an accommodation." Pretending that everyone is buddy-buddy and no one ever fights or has any sort of conflict is what weaklings do, because they think it will make them liked.

cf said...

I have personally thrived in these many years of expanding freedoms for American women, so it is sobering to see how poorly our women in power are "leading". A few examples:

Hillary's righteous "what difference does it make?" moment. (No Man could have gotten away with that Silly female pass. It should have disqualified her for any position right then and there)
Silly pussy hats -- who thought that was a great idea?
Sen. Gillibrand's disregard for Due Process for Franken
Now this overwrought drama.

The woman's movement needs it's reformation.

I am voting for Men Men Men now, and for the women who love them.

tcrosse said...

So far, Jacky Rosen's campaign has been doing a level-headed job of portraying Dean Heller as a spineless but amiable doofus, Trump's lapdog. That's as may be, but I'll vote for him anyway.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Wait a minute.. did anyone of these historical paragons of truth and champions of fairness leave to drown? History as told by carlos slim. As Zappa said "Hello America".

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

You could support the radical extreme anti-free speech left. They like abortion.

traditionalguy said...

Speaking of greatness, last night's NFL debut of the Oklahoma's QB who took last years Heisman Trophy and went #1 in the NFL draft to Cleveland was amazing. Mayfield came in his first game after 25 minutes of Cleveland being its usual total failure in everything and being down 14-0. And then his aggressive stable leadership instantly transformed the Browns into Trumpian style Winners. They won 24-17. And the Jets QB who was supposed to be so much better than Mayfield at the Draft was turned into a hopeless wreck.

There is a lesson somewhere in that. Maybe it's that Kavanaugh needs to become the Aggressor. The President and the world awaits his debut under fire from the Fake news Media. This time Trump rests while Judge Kavanaugh becomes their target for barrages of fictional slander.

Michael K said...

Imagine the uproar when it is time to replace RBG. That will make this circus look tame.

The fact is that Roe v Wade is the Dredd Scott decision of the 20th century.

It needs to be reveres and abortion politics returned to the states where they belong.

The Commerce Claus has been similarly abused but abortion is going to lead to civil war if the emotions do not cool off.

I am pro-choice but abortion was legal in California before the Court got involved. Let the states, which had already begun to deal with it, work out the politics. This has nothing to do with law. It is culture.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

But he almost killed an elite 15 year old professor who has students who think she is a disaster and a crazy unstable quack.

Michael K said...

And the Jets QB who was supposed to be so much better than Mayfield at the Draft was turned into a hopeless wreck.

Darnold, like Mark Sanchez, needed to stay in school before turning pro. Both left early and their careers, at least Sanchez's, was disappointing.

tcrosse said...

The fact is that Roe v Wade is the Dredd Scott decision of the 20th century.

It is politically essential to the Democrats that Roe v Wade be continually under threat, as it presumably has been since 1973.

CWJ said...

"I like the Kavanaugh has to testify first condition."

I predicted this in the comments when Althouse first reported that Ford would appear. I'm sure I was not alone.

Hagar said...

The previously unheard of concessions Senator Grassley has offered Ms. Ford, including that she can testify from California by teleconference rather than in person before the committee, are for Senator Feinstein and her cohorts for political reasons rather than for Ms. Ford, but still set a bad precedent.

Hagar said...

Roe v. Wade is a political banner slogan, not a real cause.

Molly said...

(eaglebeak)

As I understand it, Accuser Ford's demands (conveyed by her super-Dem lawyer) are as follows. She will testify if:

1. She is not questioned by a lawyer, only Cttee members.

2. Kavanaugh is not present at the time that she testifies.

3. Kavanaugh has to testify first.

Curiously, these demands undercut basic tenets of American law, whereby:

1. The accused is able to confront his accuser.

2. The accused always responds to the charges previously laid out--no accused ever "goes first." If the defense went first in any court case, it would be an exercise in futility--defending against a case the prosecution hadn't made yet.

As for demanding to be questioned only by Cttee members, that's because Ford knows that they will be afraid to be court-of-law tough on her, for fear of losing votes in November.

Conclusion: Ford's lawyer is a terrible lawyer, but a terrific Democrat obstructionist.

Molly said...
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Molly said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AllenS said...

It's easy enough, Molly, to delete one of the comments. I've had to do it numerous times.

CWJ said...

You know, Kavanaugh has gone first. He categorically denied it happened. Her turn.

mccullough said...

Trump is light years ahead of the other comedians in the US. Jon Stewart’s show looks more outdated and stale than the Dick Van Dyke show.

Trump is very funny. Great timing and cadence. He’s great at these rallies.

Cassandra said...

So let's quit treating her as some fragile victim that deserves to have the Bill of Rights thrown out, so she can make a serious criminal charge against another person.

....without having to endure any of the ickyness of initiating a criminal complaint :p

But... but... she's simultaneously every bit as tough, intelligent, and capable as a man, yet she deserves special concessions because she's a fragile flower who can't possibly be asked to summon the courage or strength to fight for what she believes in! Won't someone protect her from these bad, scary white men?

Good Lord :p

Jason said...

"then we started to love each other."

The Old Man and the Seat.

Bruce Hayden said...

Voted for Heller for the House,band maybe Senate, but not happily. I want to apologize in advance to the Mormons here, but Heller is LDS, and that means that he will tell Gentiles whatever they want to hear, then do what he wants. I saw that when he was my Representative, and was moving up to the Senate. As a constituent, I wanted to meet with him on the AIA (American Invents Act), which was the biggest change to the patent system in better than a century, bought and paid for by big tech and Pharma companies. Tried when he was in the House, then Senate. I was repeatedly assured that he was still thinking about it, but didn't have time to meet. Turns out he did have time to meet with a bunch of lobbyists from IBM, Google, etc, but not a Republican constituent who lived 20 miles south of him in NW NV. And he had, most likely, sold his vote months earlier.

William said...

I'm sure many will agree with me when I point out that Hillary is incapable of telling a falsehood. Yet the record shows that Hillary somehow or other got the story wrong about dodging sniper fire. If someone as honest as Hillary can make an honest mistake about something as traumatic as sniper fire isn't it at least possible that Professor Ford, with the passage of time, exaggerated some boy's drunken fumblings into an attempted rape or is not accurate as to the identity of that boy.

Qwinn said...

The point of these absurd demands is that they be rejected, so that Republicans can then be labeled as obstructionist hateful bullies silencing poor victim Ford, which the media will make sure is the only version anyone hears.

So if Republicans agree to these insane demands, they set a terrible precedent that Democrats will abuse forever. If they don't agree to the demands, then they're bullying a woman and silencing her.

Democrats see this as a win win for them. They couldn't care less about their damage to the social fabric or rule of law or civil norms or destroying an innocent man.

They're beyond evil now. And it's not just the politicians and activists, it's the Democrat voters too. The politicians and activists fully expect the Dem voters to either be so stupid as to fall for the bullshit, or to play along and pretend otherwise even if they don't. And they're right about that. They will. They don't even consider honesty a virtue anymore.

TestTube said...

So...This accusation of Jacky being wacky...

Are there witnesses or corroborating stories to this wackiness? As of now, it appears we only have Trump's, and maybe Heller's word on this. That is, of course, more than what Feinstein has on Kavanaugh, but still...pretty thin for now.

Furthermore, is this wackiness sufficient to disqualify Jacky?

On one hand, this wackiness (or, to be fair, alleged wackiness -- nothing has yet been proved, and we, dear fellow commenters, should be friends of due process) is occurring either in the present or very recent past. This indicates that wackiness is an existent character flaw in Jacky -- not some youthful phase that has been outgrown.

On the other hand, we must question whether wackiness -- even severe wackiness, as Jacky's wackiness is alleged to be -- is a disqualification for public office.

No, dear commenters, we shall not bring Trump into this. First of all, there is some question as to whether he is actually wacky, or if his wackiness is substantially an act -- a part of his public persona, as it were. He seems notably un-wacky when he has to be. We wish to address a more serious scenario: That of uncontrollable and extreme wackiness.

Happily, such a scenario exists -- a scenario that is both recent and well documented.

In 1997, a campaign was mounted to elect Daffy Duck president. You can read about it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daffy_Duck_for_President

Daffy Duck is widely accepted as possessing the character trait of wackiness that is both extreme and uncontrolled. Numerous incidents are documented in print, film, and video. Yet we see that he was considered fit to run for the President of the United States, receiving the backing of such notable pillars of the community as Bugs Bunny and Chuck Jones. Even the United States Post Office enabled to his campaign by specifically commissioning a book on Daffy's efforts.

Let us leave aside the question of whether the United States Post Office should get involved in a political campaign. In this time of partisan turmoil, we should not stir up additional bad feeling. It was over two decades ago, and ultimately, the campaign was unsuccessful (Perhaps due to being run in 1997, when no presidential election was actually held.) Water under the bridge, as it were. Let sleeping dogs lie, and all that.

What is important is that a notably wacky citizen ran a significant campaign for president. This being the case, we cannot disqualify Jacky merely for being wacky. Just as the Biden Rule and the Reid rule were legitimately used to derail Merrick Garland's nomination, we must apply the Daffy rule to allow Jacky's wackiness.

rhhardin said...

If Kavanaugh speaks first, he can apologize to her and then Ford can say if she accepts it.

It's romcom porn for women.

MacMacConnell said...

Senator Feinstein has always known as a reasonable and serious left of center level headed Democrat respected by both sides of the isle. With her post hearings hailmary disclosure of the letter she sat on for six weeks, she has spread her reputation in front of her in the committee room , jumped upon the desk, hiked up her skirt, pulled down her panties, spread her cheeks, grunted, and dropped an El Sombrero #5, two bean burritos extra sauce, side of Mex chili with beans and two fish tacos dump on her reputation. Senator Gillibrand ate it.

Chuck said...

Just before Trump's Vegas speech, I was watching a number of left wingers on television all remark along the same lines that one of the frustrating things in their battle to try to kill the Kavanaugh nomination is that Trump had been so disciplined and so quiet on the subject.

I thought that they were essentially correct. It was forcing me to do some rethinking of Trump. Thinking that maybe the guy really did have some political calculation and some discipline.

And in truth, his Vegas comments about Kavanaugh were rather mild, and not entirely Trumpian.

One of my many opinions about Trump is that he does know how to repeat previous successes when he sees a winning formula. And he saw what a winner the Gorsuch nomination and confirmation was. And how he almost screwed it up with the kerfuffle over "demoralizing and demoralizing." I think Trump learned to back off those things. Here's hoping it is a lesson learned that he can actually execute.

rhhardin said...

Gillibrand is doing a nice job of representing the intellect of women everywhere.

LA_Bob said...

the stellar Heller feller

Althouse has a great future as a speechwriter for Donald Trump.

LA_Bob said...

And he had, most likely, sold his vote months earlier.

That really is demoralizing.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Wacky Jacky. Heller feller. Clever. Ann fan.

Ann Althouse said...

"So, what'll it be, Althouse: do you support such a person, and therefore candidates for office who would vote for him, or does your concern for women's rights cause you to oppose him, support the Dem depredations, and vote for, say, Baldwin?"

I'm in cruel neutrality mode.

gahrie said...

I'm in cruel neutrality mode.

Pretending to be neutral in this case is almost as bad as making the last minute allegation in the first place. Responsible, rational adults have a duty to condemn this whole farce as corrosive and destructive.

JaimeRoberto said...

Wacky Jacky is a fishing boat in SF. Maybe Trump has gone fishing on the Bay.

JaimeRoberto said...

Now that I think about it, it's Feinstein who's been fishing in the Bay.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

i'm quite impressed by Kavansugh-- how this young rapist was able to turn his life around, become a model citizen and establish an impeccable reputation. Kudos!
I think he deserves a chance.

tcrosse said...

Dean Heller's campaign has unleashed the nuclear option against Jacky Rosen. His new ads not only link her to Hillary Clinton, but they actually show Hillary, have her speak, and ... horror of horrors... have her laugh. That Hillary laugh will do Jacky in.