Maccabe memos about Rosenstein

[Aseahawkfan]

I do believe this attack on Kavanaugh may fire up the Republican base that had been fairly calm going into midterms. This dirty move to destroy Kavanaugh and paint him as some kind of serial sex offender with Hollyweird jumping in may have given the Republican base a fire to get votes. It was a real sleazy, space-cadet move by the Dems. You know I don't care for Trump, but we can't have people fired and denied jobs on the basis of evidence as flimsy and circumspect as Blasey Ford and Ramirez gave. It basically amounts to prosecution of High School and College drunken frat boy behavior. If we're prosecuting or punishing people for that, we're going to be punishing a lot of people on all sides of the political spectrum. If they had more recent evidence of impropriety by Kavanaugh, they had something. But 30 year old High School and College age behavior with no firm evidence is ridiculous.

[RiverDog]

All Trump did with his mockery was to stir up is base and to pour fuel on the fire burning on the left, increasing the political divide.

You may not believe it to be true but after he made that statement, Heitkamp is over 10 points behind the republican challenger in her polls and Manchin, Menendez and McCaskill have all lost significant ground in their midterm polls, too. Remember if the poll shows it is within the margin of error the republican usually wins based on the silent voters seen in the 2016 election.

I don't doubt that the polls have changed dramatically, but it is absolutely not due to Trump's mockery. It's only been a couple of days since his comedy routine and it takes a week for polls to reflect specific events. The obvious reason the polls have changed is from last week's dramatic hearing.

On another note, Collins has just laid out a very good statement on the Senate floor for voting for Kavanaugh. It would seem the votes are there for Kavanaugh but there is still time for something else to come up before tomorrow's vote.

Agreed, I thought it was a rational explanation of her intended vote.

Even though I am still not comfortable with Kavanaugh's expressed partisanship...and I do not believe him when he said his statements waere driven by his emotions, I feel those remarks were scripted....I support his comfirmation. In a perfect world, I would have rather it have been someone else that I could have more confidence in that he/she could discard their politics when they are wearing their robe, but he's one helluva lot better nominee than we would have gotten from HRC.

In the unlikely event that the vote does change from the results of today's procedural vote, it would IMO be to Kavanaugh's advantage. If the red state Dems see that it's a foregone conclusion that Kavanaugh will have enough votes, they might go off the reservation for political reasons.

[RiverDog]

I do believe this attack on Kavanaugh may fire up the Republican base that had been fairly calm going into midterms. This dirty move to destroy Kavanaugh and paint him as some kind of serial sex offender with Hollyweird jumping in may have given the Republican base a fire to get votes. It was a real sleazy, space-cadet move by the Dems. You know I don't care for Trump, but we can't have people fired and denied jobs on the basis of evidence as flimsy and circumspect as Blasey Ford and Ramirez gave. It basically amounts to prosecution of High School and College drunken frat boy behavior. If we're prosecuting or punishing people for that, we're going to be punishing a lot of people on all sides of the political spectrum. If they had more recent evidence of impropriety by Kavanaugh, they had something. But 30 year old High School and College age behavior with no firm evidence is ridiculous.

This is one of the few times I've agreed with Idahawk. I don't think there's any doubt about it, that the R base is much more outraged at the hearings than the Dems are over the nominee or Trump's treatment of their star witness. And it's not just the R base or Trumpies like Idahawk that are upset if both you and I are similarily outraged by the events of the past two weeks as neither of us voted for Trump. I had intended to vote for the Dem Senator in our state, Maria Cantwell, but the behavior of the Dems/libs on this issue has driven me back to the R camp, at least in the Senate.

If women are to take anything away from the events of this week, it's the notion that as stressful and painful as it may be for them, that they absolutely need to report sexual assault crimes, or any other crime as far as that goes, within a reasonable time. I think what Dr. Ford said, ie that it had tormented her for decades, is plausible and very believable. But if she were to have reported it within a few weeks or months, she may not have put herself through all those years of emotional stress that she claims that she went through, not to mention that a prompt reporting of the assault can prevent some other person from being a victim of the same perpetrator. IMO not reporting a crime because it is too personally painful is a selfish act.

[Aseahawkfan]

This is one of the few times I've agreed with Idahawk. I don't think there's any doubt about it, that the R base is much more outraged at the hearings than the Dems are over the nominee or Trump's treatment of their star witness. And it's not just the R base or Trumpies like Idahawk that are upset if both you and I are similarily outraged by the events of the past two weeks as neither of us voted for Trump. I had intended to vote for the Dem Senator in our state, Maria Cantwell, but the behavior of the Dems/libs on this issue has driven me back to the R camp, at least in the Senate.

If women are to take anything away from the events of this week, it's the notion that as stressful and painful as it may be for them, that they absolutely need to report sexual assault crimes, or any other crime as far as that goes, within a reasonable time. I think what Dr. Ford said, ie that it had tormented her for decades, is plausible. If she were to have reported it within a few weeks or months, she may not have put herself through all those years of emotional stress that she claims that it did, not to mention that it can prevent some other person from being a victim of the same perpetrator.

I'm about in the same camp. Only difference for me is if women want to be considered as equals, they need to toughen up. If dealing with a drunken male being sexually aggressive has left her traumatized for this long, she needs to toughen the hell up because life can and will throw a lot worse at her. This isn't some kind of full on rape like they were making it seem like. This is some drunk 17 year old at a party getting too aggressive with a 15 year old, but in the end nothing much happened. This woman literally has so little memory of it that it's hard for me to believe it was that traumatizing.

The one thing I did spend time doing after Ford's allegation was reading all these sexual assault claims. And what I found so different was that all these women backing Ford knew exactly when their assault happened, where, by whom it was done, and there was none of this lack of information. They remembered it deep down inside them. I did not see any of that from Ford. Just some barely remembered event a drunken party that may have happened with no one else remembering much of it. No one at all could remember whose house it was at or even what party. That seems stupid. I think back to the parties I've been to and I recall where the majority of them were at and who I was with even at my age, which is near theirs. If this were real and that traumatic, she would have remembered.

Even now I recollect parties I've been to in my youth where strange events happened, who was there, who I was with, and the general area it occurred. Yet this woman couldn't even give as good information as I likely could for an event that supposedly traumatized her for 30 years. I'm not buying it.

I had no real interest in Kavanaugh until this BS case. I don't like the idea of this level of evidence being enough to torpedo someone's career while at the same time not liking the number of sexual assaults that seemingly go unreported. I just don't see anything that Kavanaugh did as much more than drunken frat boy behavior that I've seen men do worse to each other and not consider it sex assault. Seems we either need to go back to keeping males and females separate when young and in business or set up some new standards of reporting that need to be followed. This was just a show of stupid that I just can't support by the Democrats. If a person regardless of gender can just stand in front of Congress or a court making claims that we're not supposed to question or investigate just believe because of past ignorance, then we don't have a justice system.

[burrrton]

If the red state Dems see that it's a foregone conclusion that Kavanaugh will have enough votes, they might go off the reservation for political reasons.

I don't think so- not with as violent and harassing as the modern left has become. Mark my words: one of them is going to get themselves shot, either by the person they're attacking or a security detail.

I don't think there's any doubt about it, that the R base is much more outraged at the hearings than the Dems are over the nominee or Trump's treatment of their star witness.

Outraged? Try *infuriated*, and it's not just the R base- it's independents, too (myself included), from the polls I've been seeing drift through social media.

Dems abandoned all standards of decency and professionalism.

[RiverDog]

If the red state Dems see that it's a foregone conclusion that Kavanaugh will have enough votes, they might go off the reservation for political reasons.

I don't think so- not with as violent and harassing as the modern left has become. Mark my words: one of them is going to get themselves shot, either by the person they're attacking or a security detail.

I'm not saying that they will 'flip', only if there is a flip, it will be a D to the R side.

I don't think there's any doubt about it, that the R base is much more outraged at the hearings than the Dems are over the nominee or Trump's treatment of their star witness.

Outraged? Try *infuriated*, and it's not just the R base- it's independents, too (myself included), from the polls I've been seeing drift through social media.

Dems abandoned all standards of decency and professionalism.

Agree 100%. I've never been so disgusted with a process as I have with this frigging kangaroo court. And it all started with that bleepity bleep Diane Feinstein concealing information. As sensitive as she suppposedly is about woman's issues, she used Dr. Ford like a pawn in a chess match...and lost big time. Kavanaugh will be on the court and the Dem's blue wave won't be big enough to get your ankles wet.

[idhawkman]

Agreed, I thought it was a rational explanation of her intended vote.

Even though I am still not comfortable with Kavanaugh's expressed partisanship...and I do not believe him when he said his statements waere driven by his emotions, I feel those remarks were scripted....I support his comfirmation. In a perfect world, I would have rather it have been someone else that I could have more confidence in that he/she could discard their politics when they are wearing their robe, but he's one helluva lot better nominee than we would have gotten from HRC.

In the unlikely event that the vote does change from the results of today's procedural vote, it would IMO be to Kavanaugh's advantage. If the red state Dems see that it's a foregone conclusion that Kavanaugh will have enough votes, they might go off the reservation for political reasons.

I understand your position on temperment and Murkowski made the same point and why she won't vote "for" him. That said, I think the important thing to remember is the temperment he has displayed in the last 12 years on the bench as a better indicator of his judicial temperment than a 30 minute response to being accused of one of the most heinous crimes possible for a judge and for watching what his wife and kids had gone through for 2 weeks.

I know we've both said that he is a better man than we are because we both would have been even more vociferous in our defenses.

[burrrton]

I'm not saying that they will 'flip', only if there is a flip, it will be a D to the R side.

I see.

Kavanaugh will be on the court and the Dem's blue wave won't be big enough to get your ankles wet.

I'm not 100% convinced of this yet, but yeah, there's no way it's going to be close to what it would have been had they not lost their minds.

[burrrton]

I understand your position on temperment and Murkowski made the same point and why she won't vote "for" him. That said, I think the important thing to remember is the temperment he has displayed in the last 12 years on the bench as a better indicator of his judicial temperment than a 30 minute response to being accused of one of the most heinous crimes possible for a judge and for watching what his wife and kids had gone through for 2 weeks.

I know we've both said that he is a better man than we are because we both would have been even more vociferous in our defenses.

I read a perfect summation somewhere: When questioned as a potential SCOTUS justice, he behaved like a potential SCOTUS justice. When questioned as a wrongly accused rapist, he behaved like a wrongly accused rapist.

[Sox-n-hawks]

This is just Sexual Mcarthyism. Smoke and mirrors by the Dims.

[RiverDog]

Kavanaugh will be on the court and the Dem's blue wave won't be big enough to get your ankles wet.

I'm not 100% convinced of this yet, but yeah, there's no way it's going to be close to what it would have been had they not lost their minds.

As a rule, the party out of power does well in the midterms, mainly because the party in power sort of rests on their laurels. If the Dems would have just left sleeping dogs lay, they would have no problem taking over the House and at least holding their own in the Senate. Trump had given them plenty of reason for their base to be motivated.

But the hearings have really stirred up the pot, and the continued protests and demonstrations is keeping the issue front and center and the memory of that hideous confirmation hearing fresh in everyone's minds. For once, I'm in agreement with Idahawk (who no matter what, is always predicting great things for Trump and the R's). I think that the losses for the R's in the House will be minimal (less than the 23 needed to flip it) and that they will pick up seats in the Senate. But we'll see.

[burrrton]

Say hello to Justice Kavanaugh.

Confirmed at 4:01pm ET.

[RiverDog]

Say hello to Justice Kavanaugh.

Confirmed at 4:01pm ET.

Yep, 50-48, virtually the same as the procedural vote with the exception of Murkowski voting "present" as a courtesy to Sen. Daines of MT so he could attend his daughter's wedding.

[idhawkman]

As a rule, the party out of power does well in the midterms, mainly because the party in power sort of rests on their laurels. If the Dems would have just left sleeping dogs lay, they would have no problem taking over the House and at least holding their own in the Senate. Trump had given them plenty of reason for their base to be motivated.

But the hearings have really stirred up the pot, and the continued protests and demonstrations is keeping the issue front and center and the memory of that hideous confirmation hearing fresh in everyone's minds. For once, I'm in agreement with Idahawk (who no matter what, is always predicting great things for Trump and the R's). I think that the losses for the R's in the House will be minimal (less than the 23 needed to flip it) and that they will pick up seats in the Senate. But we'll see.

I sure hope you are right on this Riv. The hardest times in my life have been in Democrat administrations. I won't go into details here but suffice it to say, I'll never vote Democrat because of it.