October 6, 2018

"Our Supreme Court confirmation process has been in steady decline for more than thirty years. One can only hope that the Kavanaugh nomination is where the process has finally hit rock bottom."

From the Susan Collins speech in the Senate yesterday.

I read that and thought, no, this is not rock bottom. There's more ahead, lower places to sink. Why wouldn't there be? Maybe the 2018 elections will punish the Democratic Party for what it did with the Kavanaugh nomination, and everyone will realize they'd better never do anything like that again. But to say that is to say, there is a lower depth, and they've got to get there before they'll see they've got to enter recovery.

Notice the connection between "rock bottom" and "hope": "One can only hope... the process has finally hit rock bottom." "Rock bottom" means more than just: at least we can't sink any lower. It means a confrontation with reality that shocks you into changing your ways.

On this notion of "hitting rock bottom" — no, don't go to Urban Dictionary! — I found an article (in NY Magazine) by Jesse Singal, "The Tragic, Pseudoscientific Practice of Forcing Addicts to 'Hit Rock Bottom'":
One of the many impressive things about Maia Szalavitz’s new book Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction, is how effectively she debunks various myths about addiction and how to treat it. In fact, the book’s main argument is that many people are misreading what addiction is altogether: It should be seen not as a disease or a moral or personality shortcoming, but rather a learning disorder. “Addiction doesn’t just happen to people because they come across a particular chemical and begin taking it regularly,” she writes early on. Rather, “[i]t is learned and has a history rooted in their individual, social, and cultural developments.”

Or, as Szalavitz put it to the Daily Beast: “If you don’t learn that a drug helps you cope or make you feel good, you wouldn’t know what to crave. People fall in love with a substance or an activity, like gambling. Falling in love doesn’t harm your brain, but it does produce a unique type of learning that causes craving, alters choices and is really hard to forget.”...

As Szalavitz explains, the idea comes from “one of [Alcoholics Anonymous’s] foundational texts, 12 Steps and 12 Traditions.” She pulls this excerpt:
Why all this insistence that every A.A. must hit bottom first? The answer is that few people will sincerely try to practice the A.A. program unless they have hit bottom. For practicing A.A.’s, the remaining eleven Steps means the adoption of attitudes and actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking. Who wishes to be rigorously honest and tolerant? Who wants to confess his faults to another and make restitution for harm done? Who cares anything for a Higher Power, let alone meditation and prayer? Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry A.A.’s message to the next sufferer? No, the average alcoholic, self centered in the extreme, doesn’t care for this prospect—unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself.

Under the lash of alcoholism, we are driven to A.A. and there we discover the fatal nature of our situation.
Since the first of the 12 steps an A.A. member must work through is to admit to “admit their powerlessness” over their addiction, it makes sense that the program would embrace a device like “rock bottom.” It’s only when your alcoholism (or other addiction) has gotten so bad you’ve been kicked out of your house by your spouse, have alienated all your friends, and are down to the last $50 in your checking account, that you’ll finally be able to realize just how far you’ve fallen — or something. Fully buying into the program requires desperation, in other words, and to “help” addicts get to that desperate point is to help them recover: “From this perspective,” writes Szalavitz, “the more punitively addicts are treated, the more likely they will be to recover; the lower they are made to fall, the more likely they will be to wake up and quit.”

Szalavitz explains that this is a totally pseudoscientific concept.... For decades, Szalavitz writes, programs like Phoenix House and Daytop used “sleep deprivation, food deprivation, isolation, attack therapy, sexual humiliation like dressing people in drag or in diapers, and other abusive tactics in an attempt to get addicts to realize they’d ‘hit bottom’ and must surrender.”...

[W]hen it comes to “hitting bottom” and so many of the other pseudoscientific approaches to fighting addiction, the actual goal — or part of it, at least — has always been to marginalize the addict, to set them apart and humiliate them. There’s a deep impulse to draw a clear, bold line between us, the healthy people, and them, the addicts. What clearer way to emphasize that divide than to cast them down into a rock-bottom pit, away from the rest of us?
American politics is shot through with us/them rhetoric and emotion right now. I don't know the way out, other than to resist it myself, as I continue my daily scribblings here. I like hope as much as the next person, but I don't think hitting rock bottom is the beginning of a path of recovery, and if I did, I'd need to believe that the Senate can't go any lower, and I don't think the musings of Susan Collins are going to turn anyone back.

It was a great speech, but why did we hear this from her so late in the process she purports to decry? Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage?

228 comments:

1 – 200 of 228   Newer›   Newest»
Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

Humiliation as a life-changing therapy. What could go wrong?

MadisonMan said...

Thinking this is Rock Bottom is wishful thinking.

Rock Bottom will be determined by the Democratic Party, when they win. AmIRite, Russ?

tim in vermont said...

Maybe the 2018 elections will punish the Democratic Party for what it did with the Kavanaugh nomination, and everyone will realize they'd better never do anything like that again.

Republicans were punished for impeachment, cost Gingrich his speakership. Don't expect Democrats to learn from that.

Shouting Thomas said...

The internet made this happen, and internet addiction is real. Everybody's prowling the net in search of a dopamine hit, and the hit gets bigger the angrier you are.

I think that over the long haul things will get better, not worse. We're forming a single global brain with each of us as a neuron. We're going through a period of extended auto-psychoanalysis as we try to reconcile our warring neurons.

The internet isn't even in its adolescence yet. At some point in the future, we will reconcile our warring parts. I did that individually as I matured.

You've led the way here, prof. Your employment of media to gather an audience and to encourage them to go at it has been a pleasure to watch. Especially for me, because I played my tiny role in the ant army of techsters that created the internet.

Anonymous said...

Trauma is the only true agent of change.

David Begley said...

Agree with Ann. We are not near the bottom. Why? The Dems are evil, craven and corrupt. They never quit. They are like Islamists that way. They are still pissed about losing in Vienna.

We may see French Revolution type activities. I hate to say it, but I’m expecting violence. Kavanaugh and his family will need tight security for years.

Clarence and Ginni Thomas cruise around America in a motor home during the summer. They meet regular people at KOA campgrounds. Those days are probably over.

There is a solution. CBF and her lawyers need to be indicted and punished. Otherwise it gets worse.

William said...

Sen. Kennedy (the one from Louisiana) said "we hit bottom on day one and then started digging".

Big Mike said...

Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage?

I can think of a couple of reasons. The first is that she’s worked with many of the people on the other side for years, and may have had a higher opinion of them. Only later can she realize that they had tried to play her for a fool. Related to that, she may have thought that with that much smoke there had to be fire somewhere. Nope, just a smokescreen.

rehajm said...

It was a great speech, but why did we hear this from her so late in the process she purports to decry? Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage?\


Yes this. Good on her for trying to right the ship at the moment of her choosing but she was the Senate's floppy weenie just a few days ago and this hasn't changed that.

Shouting Thomas said...

And my question to ponder for today:

Are women now too dangerous and crazy to screw?

A FB friend this morning suggested that everybody should wear a body cam so that all sexual encounters can be filmed for the record.

Back in the day in San Francisco, my gay men friends often told me (as they tried to seduce me so they could break my cherry butt): Why have sex with women? They're always saying no. If you screw men, you can have all the sex you want.

No wonder Althouse has been campaigning to faggotize all men! It's your only safety net, guys!

David Begley said...

“No wonder Althouse has been campaigning to faggotize all men! It's your only safety net, guys.”

Inaccurate, unfair and crazy.

Michael K said...



There are more than her lawyers involved,

This goes deeper than just her lawyers.

The first facet is a reality that Senate Security Officer James Wolfe was given, and leaked, a copy of the Carter Page FISA application on March 17th, 2017. This is important because it leads to context within the larger issue.

It is virtually guaranteed that James Wolfe received and leaked the FISA Application [SEE HERE]; however, not only was he not charged with the leak, not a single media outlet has taken the overwhelming evidence, reported on the leak – or questioned the DOJ or FBI about why Wolfe was only charged with lying to investigators in December last year.

Why? Why is that massive DC corruption story completely overlooked? What does that say about the fourth estate?


That story has vanished at about the time Blasey Ford arrived.

rhhardin said...

Collins is a woman dealing with the painful necessity of man-think in anything bigger than a domestic situation.

Men can do man-think in a few seconds and the issue is settled for them. There's no need to hit bottom. Go with system stability over feeling. It's not even a question.

AllenS said...

It was a great speech, but why did we hear this from her so late in the process she purports to decry? Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage? -- Althouse

She was just lately attacked by the Dems/wackos.

LINK TEXT

MayBee said...

Collins' Rock Bottom feelings were crashing against the shore of "believe all women". You notice how few outlets wanted to delve into the inconsistencies in Dr Ford's story, or even report on the factual material in the Rachel Mitchell's report. It's gotten to the point where that is seen as victim blaming and will apparently keep other, realer victims from coming through.
We've normalized saying awful things about men and white men. We are normalizing the idea that it can't hurt a man if we take away his college placement or a job he has earned because he is white and because he is a man it won't really hurt him. Boo-hoohoo, we hear. I'm sure the white man doesn't know anything about loss like *my* group does.

And I guess it fits because in many ways we've normalized taking drugs. But we want to look away from the people we're leaving in the aftermath.

Mr. Majestyk said...

The decline in the confirmation process will happen only when Democrats are punished at the ballot box for dragging the process down. And even then their crazy base might not let them stop.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

"Rock Bottom" is my favorite episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Lucid-Ideas said...

Larsporsena wrote "Trauma is the only true agent of change"

There is an old economics theory that i live by...

people only change when the cost of changing is less than the cost of staying the same

He's absolutely right.

My fear is that trauma, that rock bottom, will be warfare. We've all heard a lot about "civil war 2.0". You're not hearing about it for no reason.

But yeah. This can get worse. You can hit rock bottom and "begin diggin".

Browndog said...

It was a great speech, but why did we hear this from her so late in the process she purports to decry? Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage?

Great point.

I submit it may have something to do with the fact she, and other Senators cannot move around the Senate building without a wall of armed security. Also, the realization that she'll require 24 hour security for the foreseeable future.

When she said she hoped this was rock bottom, I didn't get the impression she thought we have reached it, but making a plea.

Karen of Texas said...

First and foremost, the addict has to be the one to internalize and process the desire to change. They have to want to walk away from the $hit$how they are the star of. The trigger for that is different for everyone. Matthew Perry (of Friends fame) went through filming of about 3 seasons of the show - my memory is fuzzy on that - for which he has no memory.

We aren't at rock bottom because no one wants to give up the gig. They are absolutely invested in their ideology and will not step back from the brink. There's more digging to do, more pliable souls who can be used for cannon fodder.

rehajm said...

...she’s worked with many of the people on the other side for years, and may have had a higher opinion of them. Only later can she realize that they had tried to play her for a fool.

Suppose for a moment the media broadly exposes and details the connections between Ford, her FBI friend, her attorneys and the Clintons to the general public (this is a hypothetical, of course). Given what DC is how likely is it that GOP Senators are just as naive about these connections and what they mean as their constituents? You don't have to crank up the cynicism dial to 11 to accept the idea that the whole show is a ruse produced and directed by both sides.

Fernandinande said...

So Kavanaugh AND Collins are both alcoholics?

Rock Bottom
Restaurant chain
Image result for rock bottom brewery
Menu nutrition
Brewery Nachos
1,020 to 2,090 Calories · Starters

David Begley said...

The shocking thing to me is that all the Dem Senators know CBF is lying and that this whole thing was a setup. And they all willingly participated in the destruction of an innocent man for their own political purposes. That is plain sick and evil. Same deal with Clarence Thomas. That’s when and why I left the Dem party.

Robert Cook said...

Of course, the Republicans would never do anything to besmirch or obstruct the process.... never!

Fernandinande said...

"Trauma is the only true agent of change"

What were the exact traumas behind the invention and adoption of, say, the telephone?

people only change when the cost of changing is less than the cost of staying the same

No trauma needed.

Mrs Whatsit said...

"It was a great speech, but why did we hear this from her so late in the process she purports to decry? Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage?"

Ann, this is quite unfair. You have been arguing all along that people should wait for the process to finish unfolding before they decide. You were very harsh indeed on people among your commentariat who thought that YOU had decided early, insisting that you and everyone else should wait until all of the evidence was in -- and, in fact, you went so far as to claim that those who believed you had decided early were "lying" about you. (I thought you had, too, based on a couple of the things you had written -- but I wasn't lying, just mistaken.) Anyway, Susan Collins does just what you insisted that everyone should do, and then reviews all of the evidence she considered over the process in explaining why she decided as she did -- and you scold her for that, too?

sykes.1 said...

I note as an aside, possibly related to the present topic, that the Madison City Council has voted to desecrate the graves of 140 Confederate soldiers who died as prisoners of war at Camp Randall. Desecrate is the only possible word for what they will do.

The councilmen who voted to do so are indecent. No moral society would tolerate their presence. But then we have just seen a corrupt, depraved, debauched Democrat party smear and slander a good man. The Democrat Party is truly the Evil Party, the party of evil people.

Anyone one who voted for any of these councilmen is himself indecent, and unfit for the company of decent, moral people.

Heartless Aztec said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MayBee said...

ps Nate Silver and Ronan Farrow threw their reputations away for this. They hit rock bottom for sure.

Heartless Aztec said...

To answer your question of why she waited is analagous to a train wreck. The moving parts are/were still in play. Everything has to come a halt and the wreckage surveyed, bodies counted, etc., before a coherent view of the tragedy presents itself. No sense jumping the gun until the gunsmoke has cleared...

Robert Cook said...

"The shocking thing to me is that all the Dem Senators know CBF is lying and that this whole thing was a setup."

How do you know the Dems know this? How do you know Prof. Ford is lying?

"And they all willingly participated in the destruction of an innocent man...."

How do you know he's innocent?

All you know are the "findings" produced by a cursory review, but that is not knowledge of what happened. Only Ford and Kavanaugh (and those who were there at the time) know what happened...and some or all of those there may not actually know what happened, including Ford and Kavanaugh.

Oso Negro said...

America is shot through with us/them politics right now because we have two incompatible visions of the country and what it should be.

tim in vermont said...

Comments like that out you as a partisan Democrat, Robert.

Robert Cook said...

"The Democrat Party is truly the Evil Party, the party of evil people."

Exactly what the Democrats think of the Republican Party.

Robert Cook said...

"Comments like that out you as a partisan Democrat, Robert."

Ha!

David Begley said...

Cook:

A caveman could figure it out.

tim in vermont said...

"and those who were there at the time"

Nobody named by Ford remembers any "there."

tcrosse said...

The Rock Bottom Remainders were a rock band:
"The band's members have included Dave Barry, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Cynthia Heimel, Sam Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Joel Selvin, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Barbara Kingsolver,[1] Robert Fulghum, Matt Groening, Tad Bartimus, Greg Iles, Aron Ralston[2] and honorary member Maya Angelou[3] among others, as well as professional musicians such as multi-instrumentalist (and author) Al Kooper, drummer Josh Kelly, guitarist Roger McGuinn and saxophonist Erasmo Paulo. Founder Kathi Kamen Goldmark[4] died on May 24, 2012.[5]"

Ralph L said...

Her speech would have been lost in the noise before yesterday.

Scott Adams sure liked it.

Shouting Thomas said...

Odd that my comment doesn't register and encourage response.

I'm the only one who's transcended party politics in my response, too.

You see, everybody's having a good time with the old: "Let's you and me fight!"

What a bore it is to decline the invitation, huh?

Bay Area Guy said...

Sadly, we have not hit rock bottom. The reason? We have one major political party (the Democrat Party) that has been hijacked by the Left who actively seeks to drive our country to the rock bottom. They don't believe in Western Civilization, the historical founding of the United States or the US Consitution. To them, that's all outdated, capitalistic, Judeo-Christian poppycock, created by white males to oppress women and people of color.

They certainly don't believe in National sovereignty. They want open borders.

They certainly don't believe in the rule of law or due process. They want ad hoc "justice."

They certainly don't believe in free market capitalism. They want big government socialism.

They don't even believe in Men & Women! They want a fluid, cis-gendered, low-level bisexuality, where everyone is confused about sex.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said it correctly when he said, "We're not going to make America great again. It was never that great." That is precisely what these powerful Leftist assholes believe. Thanks for your clarity, Andy.

So, while there are good citizens out there who still call themselves Democrats, & cling to romantic notions of JFK or Barack Obama, the party apparatus and the rich guys who fund it (George Soros, Tom Steyer, various Hollywood moguls) are anti-American assholes, who would love to destroy America from within.

And for the more sane, reasonable folks who work hard, pay taxes, save money, raise kids, and love America, despite her flaws and missteps, we say, "Game on, Baby!"

Robert Cook said...

"Cook:

"A caveman could figure it out."


But...that's who did!

MayBee said...

You have been arguing all along that people should wait for the process to finish unfolding before they decide. You were very harsh indeed on people among your commentariat who thought that YOU had decided early, insisting that you and everyone else should wait until all of the evidence was in -- and, in fact, you went so far as to claim that those who believed you had decided early were "lying" about you. (I thought you had, too, based on a couple of the things you had written -- but I wasn't lying, just mistaken.)

Mrs Whatsit has a point.

Rob said...

It was a fine speech, but awfully logical and linear. Where was the nurturing? The getting in touch with her emotions? The sisterhood? I’ve read the comments at the Washington Post. Susan Collins stands accused of betraying women, of not being a real woman. All you have to do is listen to the speech and you know—Susan Collins didn’t show her feminine side!

Michael K said...

obert Cook said...
"The Democrat Party is truly the Evil Party, the party of evil people."

Exactly what the Democrats think of the Republican Party.


No, I think for years the Republicans thought the Democrats were just wrong about economics. At one time, there was serious concern about loyalties, such as to the Soviet Union and its clients like Nicaragua and Cuba and North Vietnam.

Democrats for about 40 years have thought Republicans are evil. Most of that came about the time McGovern was nominated by the very far left wing of the party,

Fernandinande said...

Jordan Peterson's 12 AA Rules for Drinking

- Stand straight with your shoulders back while drinking.

- Treat yourself like someone you are drinking with.

- Make friends with people who make the best drinks for you.

- Compare your drink to the one you made yesterday, not to someone else's drink today.

- Do not let your children drink your booze without replacing it.

- Set your drinks in perfect order before you criticize the world.

- Pursue what is tasty (not what is expedient).

- Confabulate rather than telling the truth or lying.

- Assume that the person you are listening to might be less drunk than you.

- Be precise when you count your drinks.

- Do not bother children when they are drinking.

- Drink a beer when you encounter one on the street.

Ralph L said...

Scott Adams being slightly less meandering than usual

RMc said...

I read that and thought, no, this is not rock bottom. There's more ahead, lower places to sink. Why wouldn't there be?

Assassinations are next. Not just of public figures, but private ones as well. (You think it's bad now, when people are just getting unfriended and losing their jobs over politics? Just wait. You. Just. Wait.)

I'm so glad I'm going to be dead fifty years from.

Michael K said...

All you know are the "findings" produced by a cursory review, but that is not knowledge of what happened.

Now you are revealing yourself, Cookie. It was not a "cursory review" of Kavanaugh. Seven FBI background checks and 30 years in public life.

Blasey Ford will come out of hiding over the next few months as the details leak out, not from the media but from individuals.

Just like the 2004 Bush AWOL story.

Browndog said...

I feel duped.

After hearing everyone rave over what a great speech Collins gave, I thought--well, good for her. Then, When Scott Adams called it one of the greatest speeches of all time, I was compelled to watch it.

What I saw was a liberal woman making the case that Kavanaugh was really one of them--anti-corporatist, down with the pussyhats and woman's march, and won't stand in the way when we impeach Trump.

Fabi said...

Girthy Nadler is already discussing impeaching Kavanaugh. There is no depth to which the left won't sink. Republicans should avoid baseball fields for the near future.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Reached a bottom? No way. There no way the confirmation process has reached a bottom. When one of the 4 liberal justices needs to be replaced the Democrats will go all out evil to stop a Trump nominee. I expect there will be actual serious physical violence.

virgil xenophon said...

In the immortal words of Strother Martin "what we got here is failure to communicate." Of course the whole point of Boss Man Strothers comment to Neumans character "Cool Hand Luke" is that all concerned understood each other ALL TOO WELL, only that Luke wasn't buying into Strothers program; no way, no how, uh-uh. We as a society are much like that today: a nation split down the middle at loggerheads over almost every societal question. This all due in large part due to forty years worth of the "Frankfort Schools' " infiltration of our educational system at all levels. Now we are Balkanized by age cohort, educational & financial achievement, geography and, thanks to a shrinking middle class because of massive immigration (illegal and illegal) we are no longer a racially, culturally heterogeneous society. There is A REASON the term "Balkanized" has always been assoc. with negative, dysfunctional ramifications..

virgil xenophon said...

"Legal and illegal"

Shouting Thomas said...

I might be wrong but it seems to me that the prof was trying to stimulate a conversation about internet addiction and how it plays out in what we think are political debates, but might not be that at all.

Everybody seems to be assiduously ignoring that and re-iterating their already well known political positions.

That's kinda boring. The prof's topic is kinda interesting.

Night Owl said...

"Of course, the Republicans would never do anything to besmirch or obstruct the process....never!"

Of course they would... if they had a complaint, corrupt media to back them up. But they don't, so they can't. The reason why the Democrats are such scumbags is because so much of the media covers for them.

We are witnessing the destruction  of the Democrats' advantage as traditional mainstream media influence is overtaken by the internet. We are going to see continued calls for internet censorship by leftists who are desperate to regain their ability to control the narrative.

Humperdink said...

R. Cook said: "Of course, the Republicans would never do anything to besmirch or obstruct the process.... never!"

So I go to your link and am not surprised. There he is, Merrick Garland. How disingenuous of you, Cookie. Did the R's assassinate Garland's character? No. Did the R's say Garland was a sexual miscreant? No. Did the R's say Garland put pubic hairs on Coke cans? No. Has Garland reputation been destroyed forever? No.

You're part of the clown show.

Matt Sablan said...

I mean. What is lower? At least no one took a shot at Kavanaugh?

Rick.T. said...

We have a saying in the consulting business that “Hope is not a plan.”

And down South below rock bottom is catfish bottom.

Bay Area Guy said...

Here's the last honorable elected Dem, Joe Manchin - being descended on by your normalized Leftwing mob.

That's how these assholes roll. Not democracy in action, but loudmouth mob rule designed to intimidate.

MayBee said...


I might be wrong but it seems to me that the prof was trying to stimulate a conversation about internet addiction and how it plays out in what we think are political debates, but might not be that at all.


I don't know if that's what she was trying to do, but I do take your point about outrage addiction. Like any substance, some can handle it and some can't. But outrage is obviously a cheap and easy fix, and Twitter makes it easy to get.
CNN has become the outrage network. So it's not just the internet.

Robert Cook said...

"It was not a 'cursory review' of Kavanaugh. Seven FBI background checks and 30 years in public life."

I didn't mean it was a cursory review of Kavanaugh. I meant that it was a cursory review of the incident reported by Prof. Ford. In the few days after Flake's call for an FBI investigation, how could it have been anything other than cursory? In fact, how do we know they actually investigated the matter at all?

glenn said...

In the next few days Susan Collins is going to learn who her friends are and what her enemies will do to prevail.

Night Owl said...

@Mrs. Whatsit @7:51, I agree. We got this shitshow because our politicians believe the woman's vote demands it.

Michael K said...

In fact, how do we know they actually investigated the matter at all?

More important, how do we know it happened at all ? No date, no place.

Robert Cook said...

Humperdink, the Republicans obstructed the process and refused to convene hearings or entertain the slightest intention of allowing anyone Obama picked to replace Scalia to be appointed to the court. The Republicans would be (rightfully) enraged if the exact same circumstance were to occur with the party affiliations reversed.

Michael K said...

Cookie, you should read the article on HuffPo by that Georgetown professor who wants to emasculate all men because she really was abused as a child.

She knows the dates, the places, she knows what her uncle was wearing.

That is what PTSD looks like,

Matt Sablan said...

Cook: there was nothing else to look at. Ford and Kavanaugh testified already. They double checked the named witnesses. Ford chose not to give the FBI documents to further the investigation. They did all they could.

Also Garland being pocketed by the Senate is not unprecedented despite what the historically illiterate told you.

cacimbo said...

Obama referred to Republicans as enemies, so it isn't the us/them rhetoric used by politicians that has changed. It is media's portrayal of events that has changed.

Collins is a politician.Had she given this speech previously it would have received zero coverage. But she strung them along long enough that they had to cover her.NPR has made their resentment obvious, noting the length of the speech (45 minutes) in every report.

Robert Cook said...

"More important, how do we know it happened at all ? No date, no place."

We don't.

narciso said...

clearly the times, has not reached the bottom of the mariannas trench,


https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/10/the-week-in-pictures-presidential-alert-edition.php

Michael K said...

The Republicans would be (rightfully) enraged if the exact same circumstance were to occur with the party affiliations reversed.

OK, Cookie, now I know you are not in good faith here.

Democrats filibustered Miguel Estrada and Janice Rogers Brown for years so that Bush could not appoint the first Hispanic and the first black female justices.

Estrada's wife committed suicide.

End of conversation with you except to mock you.

walk don't run said...

Our lefty friends are all idealists who are absolutely convinced that their vision is not only always right but absolutely right. Remember how often O and his friends would talk about being on the right side of history. When you believe you are absolutely right it is only a short journey to reach the conclusion that "the end justifies the means". Thats what happened in this case and that is why lefties continue to justify what they have done to BK and the country. There is nothing more dangerous in any community than a group of individuals who are convinced beyond doubt that they are absolutely right. They can justify anything to achieve their rightness. Thats why we definitely have not reached "rock bottom".

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I didn't mean it was a cursory review of Kavanaugh. I meant that it was a cursory review of the incident reported by Prof. Ford. In the few days after Flake's call for an FBI investigation, how could it have been anything other than cursory? In fact, how do we know they actually investigated the matter at all?

Apologies if this has been already covered, but it's my understanding that in Maryland there is no statue of limitations on sexual assault. Perhaps Dr. Ford can go file a police report and initiate an investigation.

Matt Sablan said...

See. Ford could have helped the FBI. Instead she obstructed their investigation by withholding documents and letting her legal team pressure Leland Keyser. I don't see how we can say the FBI wasn't thorough when they talked to the material witnesses except the accused who had submitted a statement and the accuser who was not cooperating and actively sabotaging the investigation.

narciso said...

our host, who attended law school, when there was at least a pretense to fairness, assumes the same from those who present such information, but more often then not, from gitmo to Iraq to the us atty matter to Sanford and ferguson, they have discarded that premise,

at gitmo, lanny davis's shop, levick, in Iraq's case, the archive of documents from the regime,

The Crack Emcee said...

Ann Althouse said....

"No, this is not rock bottom. There's more ahead, lower places to sink. Why wouldn't there be?"

Because y'all could wake up, from what you're trapped in, one day. It could happen.

White people is edumacated, so we'll see.

Shouting Thomas said...

Score for this post:

Internet addiction and dopamine hits win.

Everybody rants on as usual with opinions we've read a million times.

Addition is powerful!

Browndog said...

Apologies if this has been already covered, but it's my understanding that in Maryland there is no statue of limitations on sexual assault. Perhaps Dr. Ford can go file a police report and initiate an investigation.

As the prosecutor explained, there was at the time of the alleged offense, and it was a misdemeanor that carried a max sentence of 1 year.

The Crack Emcee said...

BTW - I'll tell you guys the same thing I tell my Liberal friends:

You're all guilty of making life into a trip to Hell for innocents.

Until y'all decide to back-off, and stop making those "enemies" some are so fond of seeing in their fellow countrymen, you're all cultists to me.



virgil xenophon said...

Bay Area Guy@8:02/

RE "ad hoc justice": You should read Thomas Sowells' book "Cosmic Justice" wherein he deeply explores the SJW types mentality/philosophy on this score.

Humperdink said...

Hump said: " Did the R's assassinate Garland's character? No. Did the R's say Garland was a sexual miscreant? No. Did the R's say Garland put pubic hairs on Coke cans? No. Has Garland reputation been destroyed forever? No."

R. Cook responded: "Humperdink, the Republicans obstructed the process and refused to convene hearings or entertain the slightest intention of allowing anyone Obama picked to replace Scalia to be appointed to the court."

You are trying to create an equivalency here Mr. Cook. It will not fly.

Additionally, the Dems could have obstructed this nomination in a political fashion, but the ever insightful Harry Reid took that tool away.

stlcdr said...

The us/them should stay, as long as it stays in politics (which, unfortunately, it hasn't). By having a stale mate in government, we are left to get on with our lives - and as the past year or so has shown, we are good at it.

Women's power (sic) cannot be established through government control.
Minorities are just like everyone else and you can't get a leg-up through government.
Immigrants are welcomed, just not illegally.
The rest of the world can go do what the hell they like, but don't tell us what to do, we make our own decisions.



Mazo Jeff said...

Why it took so long for Sen Collins? Because it took a thoughtful consideration of the nomination. Compare that to schumer's 15 minutes.

Robert Cook said...

"Democrats filibustered Miguel Estrada and Janice Rogers Brown for years so that Bush could not appoint the first Hispanic and the first black female justices."

They were not Supreme Court picks, and were only two of many successful Bush picks for federal judgeship. Bush managed to get two of his picks onto the Supreme Court (Alito and Roberts). There was, as I said there would be, outrage on the right over Estrada and Brown's nominations being blocked.

Unknown said...

Scenario for the next world war. The republicans keep the Senate. Ruth Bader Ginsberg does an Anton Scalia. President Trump nominates Amy Barrett to replace Justice Ginsberg.

mezzrow said...

White people is edumacated, so we'll see.

You say that like it's a good thing, Crack. Depends on what people have been taught, no matter who you are. Everybody thinks he knows his own history.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Judge Garland Merritt failed to gain the consent of the US Senate as required by the US Constitution. It was politics and by the rules. The real reason he failed to be approved by the senate was the voters elected more R's than D's. If you don't like it then I suggest, as President Obama put it, "Go Out There And Win An Election".

Matt Sablan said...

I mean. Blocking people for racist reasons shouldn't be made equivalent to blocking Garland based on the Biden rule.

JAORE said...

"At least no one took a shot at Kavanaugh"

Yet.

And I'd be very worried if I was a yes vote on Judge K, especially before the vote was cast.

Matt Sablan said...

See. This is actual whataboutism. The two things have a barely superficial resemblance. But people will try and draw false equivalency.

Ralph L said...

Interesting theory at Am Thinker:
FBI investigations normally begin at 18, so they had to make BK 17, putting CBF at 15, so she had to "forget" how she got there and back.

Me: They thought Forgetting the day and place would help bolster the near total memory lapse in addition to preventing an alibi.

DeepRunner said...

Susan Collins hit. It. Out. Of. The. Park. yesterday. One of the best speeches I have ever seen. Low on emotional tugs, high on reason and fact.

Like Althouse, I don't think we have ended sideshows like this one. So long as extremists, zealots, and Spartacus are here, I think you can always go lower.


gg6 said...

I don't find the Collins speech "great" at all. On the contrary, I find it self preening and 'deeply shallow'. She herself could have and should have aired these feelings way earlier in this twisted process - instead, she willingly played the drama queen in LUV with the spotlight and the spectacle of her own spectacle. Everyone of her conclusions are boiler plate PR, the expected and the ordinary adding up to nothing much at all - with one exception. She salutes all the usual PC flags - including the 'sincerity' of the "survivor" Blasey Ford but has little or nothing to say about this woman as an "accuser" - except to bathe her in sympathetic pathos. As to Kavanaugh? She gives a freshman summary of his judicial record and spends one blasé sentence at the end on his life spent as a 'family man'. Not a peep about the possibility that it's HE, not HER, who was the REAL victim and (hopefully) the 'survivor' here - a survivor of an 'assault' far more egregious than the one Ford claimed. She cries out that "we have forgotten the common values that bind us together as Americans." 'Forgotten" my ass - they were deliberately and quite possibly criminally violated.
She ends with a hymn to her pal Feinstein (another 'victim' she suggests; the Blasey Ford who "never sought the spotlight" - a victim, yet again! and the sanctity of #metoo (cough, cough). Not a single f...g peep about the damage and destruction done to the accused and his family.
Collins, you are a full of shit drama queen and part of the problem.

Cassandra said...

It was a great speech, but why did we hear this from her so late in the process she purports to decry? Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage?

Why do people have to declare which side they're on before the process is over? I loved Lindsey Graham's passionate denunciation of these dysfunctional, abusive hearings. But there's also room for people who take a more deliberate (cruelly neutral?) approach.

Whatever happened to actually taking it all in, taking time to sort emotion from logic and evidence, laying out out a clear, coherent position, and then explaining it to the public. She reminded us of how the process is supposed to work.

I've been critical of Collins in the past, but this was a fine speech - eloquent, well reasoned, dispassionate, even-handed. More light, less heat.

Roughcoat said...

Odd that my comment doesn't register and encourage response.

Not odd. People just don't want to talk to you. You're the angry blowhard at the end of the bar people move away from.

The Crack Emcee said...

mezzrow said...

"Everybody thinks he knows his own history."

True. I look at all this #MeToo shit through the lens I've been using since October 2005 - here's an example from 2008 - and it's still working pretty well to keep me ahead of the game they're playing. Everybody else can be shocked: I lived through it and survived already.

Now I show it to you like a tour guide.

Robert Cook said...

"You are trying to create an equivalency here Mr. Cook. It will not fly."

No, I don't think they're equivalent. I think what the Republicans did was worse. They refused even to consider anyone Obama would have picked in his last year in office. They were determined to hold that pick for themselves. They usurped the President's constitutional power and obstructed the constitutional process.

Also, I don't know that "the Democrats" did anything here, in terms of plotting and scheming to ruin Kavanaugh's reputation. Ford made her allegations known, and so they had to be heard. You may claim, as others have, that Ford and the Dems schemed to fabricate a story to take out Kavanaugh, but I don't believe that. I don't believe she would subject herself to this public scrutiny and vilification if she did not actually believe her claims to be true. (I don't know if they're true, or, if true, whether they are accurate as regards the persons involved, but I think she believes they are.)

Mazo Jeff said...

What is really scary to me is that thousands of law students and their professors would abandon the concept of "due process". Maybe Mr. Shakespeare was being either thought provoking or prophetic!

Matt Sablan said...

Cook: Blame Biden. He made the rule.

mikee said...

Robert Cook, you ignore one important detail in your analysis of the delay in Obama's last year. The winner was supposed to be Hillary. Trump, please recall, did not stand a snowball's chance in Hell of winning the presidency.

The Republicans were indeed snubbing Obama by their delay, but they were also kowtowing to Hillary by doing so. Hillary would have had a Supreme Court pick on her first day of office, courtesy of the Republican Senate majority. I can't think of a nicer gift to a new president, by the Senate, than that.

Mike Sylwester said...

That was the first time I heard Susan Collins speak at length.

Now I understand why Maine voters keep re-electing her.

The Crack Emcee said...

Robert Cook said...

"I don't believe she would subject herself to this public scrutiny and vilification if she did not actually believe her claims to be true."

You give people (not just women) too much credit. This is why evidence - and knowing what good evidence is - is so important:

Only suckers trust right now.

Matt Sablan said...

Cook: other people have put forward false claims before. They didn't even have the promise of veneration by their political friends and a cool million in go fund me dollars to sweeten the pot. Why do you think it isn't possible someone would do a thing that has been done before?

Robert Cook said...

"Cook: Blame Biden. He made the rule."

Oh? So when Biden opens his facehole and utters nonsense, it becomes a rule?

AMDG said...

It cannot be said enough. For the Progressives, a lie in pursuit of power is not just acceptable, it is encouraged and is considered as sacred as the Eucharist is for Catholics.

These people (people like Senators Harris, Sparticus, Stolen Valor, and Boff) are nothing more than Alex Jones with better publicity.

I have been a pessimist about the future of the Republic ever since Obama’s re-election. If the mind set that drives these people come to power it is over.

Matt Sablan said...

Ford was originally promised remember her name would be kept out of it too. It wasn't until Graham and others demanded to know details about the accusation her name came out. Her name was redacted from what was given to the FBI. Only friendly journalists were given that information.

n.n said...

First, good for Republicans to stand for constitutional rights. This is where the Party first made inroads into human and civil rights.

Speaking of scribblings, where are the mice?

Mike Sylwester said...

Shouting Thomas at 7:23 AM
The internet made this happen, and internet addiction is real. Everybody's prowling the net in search of a dopamine hit, and the hit gets bigger the angrier you are. ... We're forming a single global brain with each of us as a neuron. We're going through a period of extended auto-psychoanalysis as we try to reconcile our warring neurons.

That a good insight for me.

Matt Sablan said...

Don't blame me. I'm from Delaware but I didn't want him as our Senator.

Humperdink said...

Hump said:"You are trying to create an equivalency here Mr. Cook. It will not fly."

Cook responded: "No, I don't think they're equivalent. I think what the Republicans did was worse."

Worse than what Kavanaugh, Kavanaugh's kids, and Kavanaugh's wife were exposed to? You are a sick man.

Matt Sablan said...

Reid and Biden are the unexpected goofs who gifted two seats to Republicans because they're to stupid to think an election cycle ahead.

The Crack Emcee said...

Melania's giving the press an interview.

It's surreal.

Is she the luckiest woman on the planet or what?

virgil xenophon said...

Night Owl/

"Teh Left" doesn't/won't have to call for govt regulation of the "innertubes"; they are already hard at work inside Google, twitter, facebook, etc., altering algorithms, shadow-banning and censoring everything in sight unless called on it. Unless and until there is a wholesale lefty personnel housecleaning (fat chance) inside those organizations, we are fighting a lost cause.

Michael K said...

Cookie is a fool, best ignored.

Try to engage and you get nonsense.

Koot Katmandu said...

"It was a great speech, but why did we hear this from her so late in the process she purports to decry? Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage?"

I liked her speech I am glad she decided as she did. However, I am with you in questioning why so late? Was it just typical senate grandstanding timed for max effect? I hope not. Was it true outrage at the process? Why defend DiFi and not call her out for holding the letter? In the end she did the right thing but it looks like it was really a tough call for her. That is scary too.

Kevin said...

Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage?

Where was this speech when Kavanaugh was immediately oppposed?

Where were the people saying that if others had already made up their minds they didn’t need to participate in the deliberative process?

You get this behavior when you legitimize it, to use the word of the day.

Robert Cook said...

"Robert Cook, you ignore one important detail in your analysis of the delay in Obama's last year. The winner was supposed to be Hillary. Trump, please recall, did not stand a snowball's chance in Hell of winning the presidency.

"The Republicans were indeed snubbing Obama by their delay, but they were also kowtowing to Hillary by doing so. Hillary would have had a Supreme Court pick on her first day of office, courtesy of the Republican Senate majority. I can't think of a nicer gift to a new president, by the Senate, than that."


That's one analysis, and not entirely implausible, (though I think you're granting the Republicans a generosity they do not have and have never demonstrated).

Rather, I think the Republicans were hedging their bets, refusing to let Obama fill another Supreme Court seat in his last year, hoping they might actually win the election and would have that pick for themselves. (At the very least, it was their last chance to fuck Obama.) If Hillary had won, yes, they would have had to face a Democrat president replacing Scalia, but, had they done so while Obama was in office, it would have been a certainty. They were holding out hope for the long shot and it paid off for them.

Phil 314 said...

Cookie,
You do realize that the Rebuplicans had a Senate majority in 2016. So to “hear” Merriltt Garland would have still led to a “no” vote. Do you think that would have changed the Presidential vote outcome?(the only other reason to conduct hearing)

MayBee said...

When people invoke Merrick Garland, they are admitting what was done to Kavanaugh was an attempt to stop his nomination.

Garland took the nomination knowing he was never going to be voted on by the Senate. I think if you asked him if he preferred no vote to what Kavananaugh went through and then being voted down, he would take exactly what happened.

You can call it brutal political power, but ti wasn't brutality against humanity.

Big Mike said...

@Crack, she is fortunate.

Gramof3 said...

https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/10/05/the-true-story-of-kermit-gosnell-and-his-victims/

Phil 314 said...

Professor,
Shouldn’t you get some sort of revenue for Crack’s advertising?

Phil 314 said...

Does Hardin turn into ST when he drinks too much?

Matt Sablan said...

Eh. I think it was to spite Reid more than Obama.

Matt Sablan said...

If it came to the floor Republicans would have confirmed Garland.

Lost My Cookies said...

To your last question, maybe she was hoping she wouldn't have to?

Diogenes of Sinope said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike Sylwester said...

Shouting Thomas as 8:02
Odd that my comment doesn't register and encourage response.

You did not wait even 40 minutes for a response.

I responded positively to your comment, but later than that.

Matt Sablan said...

The political fallout was voters deciding to elect Trump.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Republicans avoided most of the political price by not moving forward with the Judge Merritt Garland nomination. It was a political choice. The Democrats knew Judge Garland would never be confirmed but the D's wanted the political theater to use again the Republicans. Voters decided to put R's in charge of the senate, so no hearings.

Robert Cook said...

'Cookie,
"You do realize that the Rebuplicans had a Senate majority in 2016. So to “hear” Merriltt Garland would have still led to a “no” vote. Do you think that would have changed the Presidential vote outcome?(the only other reason to conduct hearing)"


They wanted to fuck Obama and they wanted Obama to know they were fucking him. Also, if they had voted "no" on Garland, Obama would have come back with another prospect. If they continued to vote "no" for each prospect named by Obama, they would have made their intentional obstruction more obvious, (not that it wasn't glaring at the time).

Why do you think they refused to consider Garland, given they did have a majority?

campy said...

"No, I don't think they're equivalent. I think what the Republicans did was worse."

Of course you do, since you're a partisan hack.

Amadeus 48 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
virgil xenophon said...

mezzrow@8:41

That's the trouble with "balkanized" politics, i.e., just like the miserable history of the real Balkans, everyone brings his own idiosyncratic history book/cultural baggage to the negotiating table..

Humperdink said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amadeus 48 said...

Ford told a story full of emotion. Her accusation is uncorroborated and suspiciously incapable of refutation (no time, no place, cited witnesses have no recollection). Also, Ford's personal history has been blanked out on the internet. I have nothing to go on other than that. Why would she be credible?

If you look at the past thirty years, the out of bounds hits on Supreme Court nominees (Bork, Thomas, and now Kavanaugh) have all come from Democrats. Until now, the GOP has played nice with Democrat nominees (Garland wasn't taken up, but he wasn't smeared). Is that going to continue? I hope so. But the Dems have pushed this button too often. Kavanaugh has a long an unblemished history as a public servant. He has conducted himself impeccably as a federal judge. Collins's speech is a thoughtful reminder of what senators in both parties should be considering in their role as advisors who must give consent to these appointments.

I hope we have hit bottom here, but this escapade needs to have negative consequences for Democrats to avoid sinking lower. That some Democrats are vowing to impeach Trump and Kavanaugh is not a good sign.

By the way, when I was in college in the late 60s, "boofer" was slang for a fart. I saw David Post, a law professor from Temple, saying on the Volokh Conspiracy that Kavanaugh should be impeached for lying about the meaning of "boof" and "The Devil's Triangle" in his high school yearbook. This is madness. This is not promising for a reconsideration of these confirmation processes.

When Ruth Ginsberg falls from the twig, then we'll see what rock bottom is.

MayBee said...

Why do you think they refused to consider Garland, given they did have a majority?

Because Scalia died, and if a Republican majority senate can't even keep the Democrat off the court to replace Scalia, what point was it to vote for Republican senators? It was their jobs at stake.
That was the political calculation.

Robert Cook said...

"...you're a partisan hack."

Ha! Partisan for whom?

Humperdink said...

If it came to floor vote, I think Garland would have been approved. The R's didn't discover their testicles until November 2016. They were minuscule then, but have grown since. Not sure why. *cough*

Amadeus 48 said...

Cookie--In 2016 the Republicans took Joe Biden's advice and applied it to Garland, and now you are complaining. There's no pleasing you, is there?

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Obama could have withdrawn Judge Garland and nominated other candidates, in fact he could have done that repeatedly. BTW the R's didn't care about who nominated. The cared about putting another liberal Constitution is a living document advocate on the Supreme Court for decades. If, somehow, President Obama nominated a strict US Constitutional textualist she would have sailed through.

Doug said...

It was a great speech, but why did we hear this from her so late in the process she purports to decry? Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage? -- Althouse
She's a Northeast Republican ... that's a democratic who doesn't like primaries.
She's back-stabbing opportunist with no fixed moral compass. She had her finger in the wind. Now she wants to sound Solomonic and deliberative.
She can't be trusted any farther than I could throw a floor safe.
With her speech pattern, I remain firm in my belief that she is a stroke victim.
Hurray for Sen. Collins! Heroine of the Kavanaugh debacle! What a strong conservative woman!
Bullshit.

Ray - SoCal said...

Crack,

You remind me of an onion, with lots of layers.

I can see how your ex wife caused your anti new age attitude.

Good article on Scientology.

Ray

Kevin said...

Collins may very well have been saying this before yesterday but nobody paid any attention. The hour that people focused on watching her give that speech was probably more attention than she’s gotten in the whole rest of her career.

Ann Althouse said...

"If you screw men, you can have all the sex you want."

It's a dangerous myth: The man always wants it.

Imagine how shocked some women would be if the men they forced themselves on began reporting sexual assaults.

Michael K said...

When Ruth Ginsberg falls from the twig, then we'll see what rock bottom is.

Yes, Amy Barrett will require body guards for her children.

Ray - SoCal said...

The link on the book on addiction was interesting.

The problem is as Crack has pointed out, a lot of the so-called science on the mind, is junk. It’s driven by ideology, usually new age.

It can’t be replicated, and psychology is full of this issue. This causes me to question any time the term proven is used for research on the mind.

Ann Althouse said...

"November 9, 1978 Odell — Tom came by, mad. He said, “I thought we were friends.” Then he said that friends have sex, and it doesn’t matter whether I want to or not. I should just do it because he wants to. Before he left he told me that I’ll never find anyone to love. To hell with him. I’m saving myself for marriage."

Sedaris, David. Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002) (p. 26). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.

Michael K said...

Imagine how shocked some women would be if the men they forced themselves on began reporting sexual assaults.

We are seeing an astonishing amount of sexual abuse of young teen males by adult women, especially teachers.

Woman don't even acknowledge it is happening.

Ken B said...

I just want to point out the folly of those on the right decrying RINOs. It was RINOs who stood up, who were adult and fair.

Robert Cook said...

"That some Democrats are vowing to impeach Trump and Kavanaugh is not a good sign."

It shows their spite and stupidity. If Trump were to be impeached, we'd have hard right religious nut Pence! OMG! Beyond that, it would be an open usurpation of the voters' choice for President. The political damage to the Dems would be irreparable. If Kavanaugh were impeached, Trump would propose another right wing judge. Where's the gain? The Dems can't give up their fantasy that the Rooskies somehow worked their evil Roosky power to usurp Hillary's Presidency and install their Manchurian Candidate in office. I wonder what the trigger word or phrase is? "Pee-soaked bedsheets?"

This stems from Hillary's own personal disbelief that she simply couldn't have lost to the de classe oafish con man Trump! (Well, I think she can believe it, but she refuses to acknowledge it to her public.)

Doug said...

Now I understand why Maine voters keep re-electing her.

Because Mainers are gullible hicks?

Robert Cook said...

"Cookie--In 2016 the Republicans took Joe Biden's advice and applied it to Garland, and now you are complaining. There's no pleasing you, is there?

No, there isn't, not with the two wretched, disreputable parties who constitute our present political system.

Michael K said...


Blogger Ken B said...
I just want to point out the folly of those on the right decrying RINOs. It was RINOs who stood up, who were adult and fair.


RINOs finally joined the team. They were more concerned with their virginity re Trump but finally figured out he was fighting their battles better than the squish politicians had been fighting.

"Welcome to the fight" as Victor Lazlo said when Rick gave him the exit visas.

Michael K said...

Cookie is holding out for the communists.

Kevin said...

It was RINOs who stood up, who were adult and fair.

The Conservatives stood up long ago. It was the RINOs who finally acknowledged what others had long been saying— this time.

We’ll see how long it lasts.

Doug said...

Ann Althouse said...
"November 9, 1978 Odell — Tom came by, mad. He said, “I thought we were friends.” Then he said that friends have sex, and it doesn’t matter whether I want to or not. I should just do it because he wants to. Before he left he told me that I’ll never find anyone to love. To hell with him. I’m saving myself for marriage."

Sedaris,David


God! It never ends with this faghag.

MayBee said...

Althouse said: Imagine how shocked some women would be if the men they forced themselves on began reporting sexual assaults.

Exactly right. I've been trying to picture the first two Kavanaugh allegations with the genders flipped. An older teenage girl pushes a boy into a bedroom and begins to grope him. A drunk college freshman girl takes her top off in the face of a freshman male. Would anybody call that assault?

I feel like I'm the only woman in the world who can't stand the whole boobs-for-mardi-gras beads thing. But start arresting women for that, and put them on the sexual offenders registry for the rest of their lives, and maybe we will re-find empathy.

Ralph L said...

If Hillary had been elected, they would have confirmed Garland before Jan 5 (old Senate). Her choice was bound to be worse.

Amadeus 48 said...

"It was a great speech, but why did we hear this from her so late in the process she purports to decry? Why is she only willing or capable of saying these things when she's looking back on the wreckage?" -- Althouse

It is pretty obvious that Collins was waiting until the very end because she wanted to see where everything came down. There were new developments every day. If the Democrats had teased out further investigations, a bunch of new "witnesses" would have been put forward. Ford was ready with a new floor plan for the attack house that would have straightened out some inconsistencies (see her hearing testimony where she offered to draw it up), and there were new corroborating witnesses before undisclosed waiting to be interviewed. But that didn't happen, because Flake and Collins knew what they wanted to be checked out by the FBI, and they stuck with it.

Collins's timing gave maximum impact to her speech.

Humperdink said...

"I just want to point out the folly of those on the right decrying RINOs. It was RINOs who stood up, who were adult and fair."

Who stood up? The conservatives have been standing the whole time. The RINO's have been weathervanes. I am not holding my breath they will stand forever. Being weak-kneed has been their trademark.

Darrell Harris said...

Regarding the last week, Graham's outburst was the id to the Collins' ego. Both Senators expressed the same basic sentiment, but in different ways. Collins' speech opens the door to a more critical public analysis of Ford's claims, as well as the genesis of those claims getting aired so late in the confirmation process. Trump and Graham couldn't do that on their own.

What I found more interesting about Collins' speech was that she gave her assurance, based on conversations that she had with Kavanaugh, that in her considered opinion he would vote to preserve Roe v. Wade on the basis of stare decisis. Perhaps I never really paid attention to other confirmation hearings, but I've never before heard someone lay down that kind of marker after referencing closed-door conversations with a nominee. She hedged her bets at the same time by saying that Breyer et al, who were nominated by Republican presidents under fears that they would strike down RvW, didn't. If it turns out that Kavanaugh ultimately does vote to repeal in the future, she can simply say that she was just as wrong on predicting the future as those earlier critics were.

Amadeus 48 said...

Cookie--I respect your point about the two major parties. Neither is very inspiring, and it gets down to a personal choice about the lesser of evils.

Thanks for clarifying your point of view.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

On this notion of "hitting rock bottom" — no, don't go to Urban Dictionary!...

I heard that hitting rock bottom was a drinking game...

William said...

I'm glad that she found the courage to come toward. We should heed and believe what she said.

Seeing Red said...

Collins didn’t do this for free. What’s she going to get? Head of a committee?

Hagar said...

Cookie is not a communist. Communists kill, and Cookie is not a killer.

Amadeus 48 said...

Darrell Harris--I don't think you mean Breyer--Roberts or Alito maybe?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Brett Kavanaugh Will Be Confirmed, and Liberals Should Blame Michael Avenatti
Sen. Susan Collins called the Swetnick story "outlandish." It might have given her cover to confirm the judge.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Tester(D) of Montana was a NO vote.

Voters - wakey wakey.

Amadeus 48 said...

William--Who "she"? If you mean Collins, I agree. If you mean Ford, not so much. If you mean Althouse, well, that's why we're here.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

On the Merritt Garland issue, look it was just a job interview. Senate looked at his background and references and decided not to interview Garland.

The Crack Emcee said...

Ray - SoCal said...

"The problem is as Crack has pointed out, a lot of the so-called science on the mind, is junk. It’s driven by ideology, usually new age."

Did anyone else see the latest Pew Poll? We've crossed the rubicon.

Idiocracy.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

If it came to the floor Republicans would have confirmed Garland.

Exactly.

Team R used the Biden rule. Funny how the rules and goal posts can be used when the other team has the football, huh leftists?

Darrell Harris said...

Amadeus - you're correct, of course. Breyer was nominated by Clinton. I meant other nominees.

Ralph L said...

"hitting rock bottom"
I assumed it meant butt-slamming ice skaters.

The Crack Emcee said...

Ann Althouse said...

"Imagine how shocked some women would be if the men they forced themselves on began reporting sexual assaults."

I like that as an option. In the old days, if I turned a woman down, I had to deal with being verbally abused, being called gay, or even physically attacked - calling for help never occurred to me.

Today, I'd probably be like Jerry Seinfeld was, with Kesha on the red carpet. "Whoa, whoa, whoa - Hey - Watch it now!"

If not, dial 9-1 and wait...

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Robert Cook is the least partisan hack commenter we have. If he lived in Portland I'd buy him a beer.

Traditions matter, and shitting on them for short term political advantage makes things worse for everyone.

There's two ways out of the Supreme Court mess. One way is to overturn Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and send abortion laws back to the states. They can have whatever laws they want. Then the Court doesn't matter.

The other way is to pass a constitutional amendment granting each President two picks, and term-limiting justices to 18 years. Make sure the Senate has to vote in a reasonable amount of time!

Seeing Red said...

Why is Anne limiting her statement to men reporting women? It might be a small subset but what about LGBT?

Etienne said...

Bottom line: rock bottom in politics is called a revolution.

You say you'll change the Constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head

You tell me it's the Institution
Well, you know
You'd better free your mind instead

Fabi said...

"They wanted to fuck Obama and they wanted Obama to know they were fucking him."

Reggie Love must have been jealous.

The Crack Emcee said...

Seeing Red said...

"Why is Anne limiting her statement to men reporting women? It might be a small subset but what about LGBT?"

I've been there, too, and I gots to tell you gay men - when it comes to courting straight guys - it's gon' take a LOT more than dinner.

Etienne said...

After about 20 Amendments, it's best if the Constitution is just disposed of and a new one take its place.

After all, 20 corrections is like an F in law school.

Dust Bunny Queen said...


"The problem is as Crack has pointed out, a lot of the so-called science on the mind, is junk. It’s driven by ideology, usually new age."

Crack said: Did anyone else see the latest Pew Poll? We've crossed the rubicon.

Idiocracy.


Indeed. Idoicracy.

I did look at the Pew Poll and the link to describe what "New Age" beliefs are when you posted it before. I really have had no idea what was meant by New Age other than a suspicion it had something to do with snake oil types of thoughts and cults.

"Specifically, four-in-ten believe in psychics and that spiritual energy can be found in physical objects, while somewhat smaller shares express belief in reincarnation (33%) and astrology (29%)."

I think that Veganism should be on that list too :-)

I suppose that people can believe in all sorts of things that cannot be proved and which are harmless. After all, there are many people who believe in God or a God or Gods. None of which is provable or only provable by death (reincarnation).

As long as those things are harmless, don't interfere with the normal operation of living, don't cause people to spiral out of control....and those "believers" stay the hell out of my face about it, it isn't any of my business.

HOWEVER, when those people who believe these (to me) impossible things start making decisions base on these impossible idea that negatively affect our lives...and they do and they are......it is time to take some action, regain a balance and control.

Ralph L said...

it's gon' take a LOT more than dinner.

There's a reason it's called "trade." Just ask for a six pack, too, then close your eyes and think of England.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

General purpose spiritual cleanser

JaimeRoberto said...

The Republicans didn't hold hearings on Garland because they weren't confident that they could keeps a few senators from voting to confirm him. McCain, Flake and a few others probably would have defected.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Maybe the 2018 elections will punish the Democratic Party for what it did with the Kavanaugh nomination, and everyone will realize they'd better never do anything like that again. But to say that is to say, there is a lower depth, and they've got to get there before they'll see they've got to enter recovery.”

“What the Democratic Party did with the Kavanaugh nomination”? Just what did they do? Not reporting this to the FBI immediately? Yes that was a mistake. But what are the depths to which the Democratic Party has sunk? For someone who has been getting bashed for weeks now because you said you believed Blasey Ford early on, even before I believed her, this comment just doesn’t make sense, or seems disengenuous, sort of like trying to bail yourself out of the trouble you got into with your conservative commenters.

Night Owl said...

Robert Cook is the least partisan hack commenter we have.

My complaint is that he's often not nuanced enough. I'm pretty cynical myself, but I can discern degrees of ugliness, and what the Dems did to Kavanaugh is several degrees uglier than what happened to Merrick Garland.

I reserve the bulk of my anger for the media, rather than the political parties, because I believe the only reason the Dems pull these last minute dirty tricks is because they know the traditional media will never call them on it. If the GOP tried a stunt like this the media would destroy them.

The media keeps the GOP in check, but they have thoroughly corrupted the Democratic party by tilting power to them for decades*. The Dems will not hit rock bottom as long as they have money coming in.
____

*Some might say that the danger with Trump is he's so good at manipulating the media that he might become too powerful. But I'm not too worried about that because he has so many enemies within the swamp, they'll keep him in check. Plus, he's old.

hombre said...

Noting from its headlines the indefatigabilty of the NYT’s effort to destroy everything conservative, I reread an email from an old friend, a very experienced political operative who said:

“[The claim that the media is an arm of the Democrat Party is an inversion.] The truth is that the Democrat Party is the political arm of the media complex.

The Leftist project in all of its dimensions is carried out by the media - news, entertainment and now Internet / social media. Anyone inclined to resist that project (including but not limited to Kavanaugh, who incidentally I don’t even like and did not expect to be a Justice any better than Anthony Kennedy) has the media as his or her primary opponent. The Democrats join the media in the political theater, where they of course are also funded by the entertainment media.”

Interesting perspective. The Democrats would be unlikely to undertake their unhinged, unethical and criminal behavior without the advance approbation of the media.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Hitting Rock Bottom is a thing that alcoholics and drug addicted persons need to do before they accept that they have a really big problem and begin to fix it.

Rock bottom for an alcoholic generally means the dissolution of their marriage, family, health, destruction of their job, loss of everything. All of this is terrible for the person and their family. Given the realization of their rock bottom status, the individual can begin to claw their way out.

When SOCIETY hits Rock Bottom.....and we ARE headed there, it is more than terrible. It is horrific because everyone is going to suffer, not just the individual as in the AA person. People suffer and DIE. Institutions are shredded. Morality is lost.

It takes years for a person to claw their way up from Rock Bottom. It takes generations and sometimes never for a society to recover.

If a society does recover, it is guaranteed to be unrecognizable to those who survive.

Night Owl said...

“[The claim that the media is an arm of the Democrat Party is an inversion.] The truth is that the Democrat Party is the political arm of the media complex.

It is an interesting perspective. Either way, our first amendment is being abused by the Democratic party as a weapon against conservatives.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Oh, let's not put limits on America. The conservatives can get us to sink much lower!

What are they taking the wealth tax cut debt to currently?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“Collins didn’t do this for free. What’s she going to get? Head of a committee?”

If, as seems likely, Republicans increase their majority in 2018, Collins loses her value as the potential spoiler. So she is wisely hoarding some chits to maintain her future relevance. As with every other senator, her vote is pure political calculation. No senator is voting their conscience here. Not a single fucking one.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“It is an interesting perspective. Either way, our first amendment is being abused by the Democratic party as a weapon against conservatives.”

Oh, please. You sound like a prog. The only way to abuse the First Amendment is to restrict it. Conservatives have failed spectacularly to build a media voice. That’s on them.

Yancey Ward said...

Only a strong rebuke on Election Day is likely to prevent us from finding out this isn't rock bottom. If there are no political consequences, then the Democrats will repeat this past month's libel campaign and intensify it. Only next time, they will be a bit more careful about it and ensure that the accuser has some "witnesses" lined up before going public. Ford, Ramirez, and Swetnick apparently expected some support from friends, but fortunately, most people are fundamentally honest still and weren't willing to lie to back them up for political reasons.

Original Mike said...

”Blogger Diogenes of Sinope said...”On the Merritt Garland issue, look it was just a job interview. Senate looked at his background and references and decided not to interview Garland.”

Exactly right.

rcocean said...

The people who are causing these hearings to "Hit Rock Bottom" are leftists/Democrats who DON'T CARE that they are "hitting rock bottom"

They only care about one thing: Stopping the Republican nominee.

So, you have all these center-right types bemoaning the crassness, stupidity,and weirdness of the SCOTUS nomination process. But so what? Its not the center-right that dragging it through the mud.

Its the Left. That's why all this talk about how "We" are doing this, and "We" are doing that is BS. Its not "Us" its the Left.

rcocean said...

The Left always makes it clear the means justify the ends. And they're willing to be civil and play by the rules UNLESS its something really important, in which case that all goes by the board.

Feinstein has never apologized for sitting on the Letter for 4 weeks, or leaking it to the media, or refusing to give Grassley a copy of the letter until the very last moment, or constantly moving the goal posts, or breaking Senate norms and traditions.






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