♫Pulling Out is Hard to Do♫
Sep. 18th, 2018 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogThe Republicans have themselves a genuine #metoo problem at the top of the judicial pyramid, and the schadenfreude is great with them right now. Their golden boy nominee for the Supremes, who seemed to have schmoozed (if not outright prevaricated) sufficiently to get his needed 50-plus-Pence votes, has now run into a blast from his past: a first-anonymous, and now named, onetime acquaintance of his from 30 years ago who claims he sexually assaulted her at a party.
It's taken a couple of days for the talking points to crystalize, but they seem focused now in two areas. Most of the judge's supporters aren't outright denying that he did something, or accusing the accuser of lying. They're even staying away from the "why did it take so long to come forward" line of attack. Instead, there's the "WiDiFiLi In Wait" argument and the "How Can You Ruin This Man's Life" point.
As to the first: apparently, Professor Ford wrote to Diane Feinstein, ranking Dem on the Senate Judiciary Committee, back in July, soon after Judge Kavanaugh was nominated. The outrage comes because she allegedly sat on the allegations for almost two months, not asking the judge about them or bringing up the issue in committee, because she wanted to sandbag the nomination, revealing it with not enough time for his confirmation to be rammed through before the midterms. There are two problems with this line of thinking. One: even if DiFi did, brazenly and politically, use a tactic to delay a nominee's confirmation until after an election? I want to hear any Republican explain their outrage about that to President Obama and Merrick Garland. They established the "anything goes" precedent, as far as I'm concerned. And two: at least one source is reporting that the ranking minority member wasn't the only one notified in July. An attorney also forwarded the allegations to Chuck Grassley, Republican chair of the committee, and has proof of its delivery. Clearly, Grassley knew something was up, because when word of this #metoo problem began to leak last week, his first reaction was to whip out (maybe I'd better rephrase that;) a statement from 65 women who knew the judge in that time period and said he was a really swell guy (maybe a new word there, too;). So I have no sympathy for their sandbagging, either.
As for whether these allegations will "ruin his life:" The fuck they will. Unless someone comes forward with irrefutable evidence like a stained blue dress or a 911 recording, he won’t resign, won’t be impeached, and he has a lifetime gig on the second most important appellate court in the country already. So he misses out on a promotion. Womp womp. Even if he resigns, it's too late to prosecute him for anything and he'll wind up with a cushy government pension and probably a lifetime slot on Fox News.
The hearings resume next week.
----
Closer to home, we have someone else who didn't pull out in time. My former Republican Congressman, still the elected representative of towns east of me from Clarence to suburban Rochester, was indicted last month on charges of insider trading. He refused to resign his seat, but until about a week ago was supposedly cooperating with Republican officials in their efforts to get him off the ballot at this late date, with a scrum of next-gen opportunist Trumpsters all lined up to take his place. (They auditioned for the Erie County GOP leader and the much less influential bosses from the district's other counties at a big meeting last month in Batavia- held, of all places, at a casino.)
But then yesterday, word came out that Chris Collins will NOT remove his name from the NY27 Republican ticket. To do so at this point, he'd have to die, move outside the state, or (this was the hat-hanger until yesterday) accept a nomination for a state or local office somewhere in New York, which would DQ him from running for Congress at the same time. Speculation abounded over how far this former Master of the Universe would fall: Eden town clerk, some remote county coroner, and then a couple of weeks ago, a suspicious opening! Our very own town clerk decided to resign to take a post at UB, which, if he ran for it and won, would put Donald J. Trump's first Congressional supporter in charge of issuing my dog license. (I'd have even voted for him, if I could've found a way to place the license tag right over Pepper's ass;) That rumor faded, but then there was talk about schmoozing some town board incumbent in his home town of Clarence to step aside for the good of the party. Alas, nothing came of any of it: the man is out on federal court bail, and his criminal attorneys apparently were afraid that anything causing him to change his employment or address might not look good to the Obama-appointed judge in charge of his case.
So Collins it is, and Collins it shall remain- in a district which is so red that he is still favored to win as an indicted felon over a decent Democratic opponent, one who has even taken on Governor Cuomo on more than one occasion. But those projections don't account for the massive increases in turnout seen all over the US this year, including in our own state's primaries last week. Blue came out in droves, and expelled several mealy-mouthed Republican collaborators from their long-held Democrat In Name Only seats.
Let's keep it up.
It's taken a couple of days for the talking points to crystalize, but they seem focused now in two areas. Most of the judge's supporters aren't outright denying that he did something, or accusing the accuser of lying. They're even staying away from the "why did it take so long to come forward" line of attack. Instead, there's the "WiDiFiLi In Wait" argument and the "How Can You Ruin This Man's Life" point.
As to the first: apparently, Professor Ford wrote to Diane Feinstein, ranking Dem on the Senate Judiciary Committee, back in July, soon after Judge Kavanaugh was nominated. The outrage comes because she allegedly sat on the allegations for almost two months, not asking the judge about them or bringing up the issue in committee, because she wanted to sandbag the nomination, revealing it with not enough time for his confirmation to be rammed through before the midterms. There are two problems with this line of thinking. One: even if DiFi did, brazenly and politically, use a tactic to delay a nominee's confirmation until after an election? I want to hear any Republican explain their outrage about that to President Obama and Merrick Garland. They established the "anything goes" precedent, as far as I'm concerned. And two: at least one source is reporting that the ranking minority member wasn't the only one notified in July. An attorney also forwarded the allegations to Chuck Grassley, Republican chair of the committee, and has proof of its delivery. Clearly, Grassley knew something was up, because when word of this #metoo problem began to leak last week, his first reaction was to whip out (maybe I'd better rephrase that;) a statement from 65 women who knew the judge in that time period and said he was a really swell guy (maybe a new word there, too;). So I have no sympathy for their sandbagging, either.
As for whether these allegations will "ruin his life:" The fuck they will. Unless someone comes forward with irrefutable evidence like a stained blue dress or a 911 recording, he won’t resign, won’t be impeached, and he has a lifetime gig on the second most important appellate court in the country already. So he misses out on a promotion. Womp womp. Even if he resigns, it's too late to prosecute him for anything and he'll wind up with a cushy government pension and probably a lifetime slot on Fox News.
The hearings resume next week.
----
Closer to home, we have someone else who didn't pull out in time. My former Republican Congressman, still the elected representative of towns east of me from Clarence to suburban Rochester, was indicted last month on charges of insider trading. He refused to resign his seat, but until about a week ago was supposedly cooperating with Republican officials in their efforts to get him off the ballot at this late date, with a scrum of next-gen opportunist Trumpsters all lined up to take his place. (They auditioned for the Erie County GOP leader and the much less influential bosses from the district's other counties at a big meeting last month in Batavia- held, of all places, at a casino.)
But then yesterday, word came out that Chris Collins will NOT remove his name from the NY27 Republican ticket. To do so at this point, he'd have to die, move outside the state, or (this was the hat-hanger until yesterday) accept a nomination for a state or local office somewhere in New York, which would DQ him from running for Congress at the same time. Speculation abounded over how far this former Master of the Universe would fall: Eden town clerk, some remote county coroner, and then a couple of weeks ago, a suspicious opening! Our very own town clerk decided to resign to take a post at UB, which, if he ran for it and won, would put Donald J. Trump's first Congressional supporter in charge of issuing my dog license. (I'd have even voted for him, if I could've found a way to place the license tag right over Pepper's ass;) That rumor faded, but then there was talk about schmoozing some town board incumbent in his home town of Clarence to step aside for the good of the party. Alas, nothing came of any of it: the man is out on federal court bail, and his criminal attorneys apparently were afraid that anything causing him to change his employment or address might not look good to the Obama-appointed judge in charge of his case.
So Collins it is, and Collins it shall remain- in a district which is so red that he is still favored to win as an indicted felon over a decent Democratic opponent, one who has even taken on Governor Cuomo on more than one occasion. But those projections don't account for the massive increases in turnout seen all over the US this year, including in our own state's primaries last week. Blue came out in droves, and expelled several mealy-mouthed Republican collaborators from their long-held Democrat In Name Only seats.
Let's keep it up.