By Ed Diokno
Views from the Edge
Updated by AsAmNews
The hypocrisy of the Republican Party was on full display Thursday… and now the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court could be in trouble.
The Senate’s Judiciary Committee voted today to advance Brett Kavanaugh to the full Senate. The committee voted despite riveting and credible testimony from Prof. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused the justice-to-be of sexual assault when both were in high school 36 years ago.
But here’s the surprise.
Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) threatened to vote Kavanaugh’s confirmation down unless the FBI begins a time-limited one week investigation into Ford’s allegation. The Republican leadership has agreed and a White House official now says President Trump will order a one week FBI investigation. The vote in the full senate on Kavanaugh’s confirmation will be pushed back one week.
Earlier on Friday, Flake was confronted by a protestor.
President Trump today called Ford’s testimony “something he hadn’t seen before” and called her an incredible woman. He said he would abide by the decision of the Senate leadership.
In the middle of the Washington cultural and political brouhaha were two Asian American senators, Kamala Harris, D-CA, and Mazie Hirono, D-HI.
During the committee’s vote to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination, both Harris and Hirono were among those Democratic senators who walked out in protest.
“Democrats are not being heard. They’re pushing through this process. This is a failure of this body – to do what it has always said it’s about, which is be deliberative,” said Harris.
“I’m here standing with my colleagues because it’s very clear that the Republicans will break every norm, every rule, to get this person on the Supreme Court,” said Hirono. “Where he will be there with a cloud – he will weaken the court, and this has got to stop. So I walked out. I’m not going to participate in this charade anymore.”
For a full year, the GOP-dominated Senate refused to hold a hearing on Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, but are now willing to rush to a vote to seat Kavanaugh despite the dark cloud of sexual misconduct still hanging over his head.
“The credibility is there for her. So I believe her,” Hirono told The New York Times earlier this week.
“This whole idea that the Republicans have, that women just sit around making these things up, that is not borne out by the reality,” she added, referring to the dozens of comments from Republicans questioning Blasey Ford’s story. On Thursday, Hirono chastised sex-crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell brought in specially to grill Blasey because the 11 Republican men on the committee didn’t want it appear that they were ganging up on the woman victim. Hirono criticized the Arizona prosecutor for “asking these questions all to undermine the memory and basically the credibility of” the accuser.
“Mr. Chairman. is it your intent to cede all Republicans’ time to your prosecutor rather than they themselves ceding their time to her?'” Hirono asked as she targeted committee chair Chuck Grassley.
“Yes,” Grassley replied.
Hirono then said, “We all know that the prosecutor, even though this clearly is not a criminal proceeding, is asking Dr. Ford all kinds of questions about what happened before and after, but basically not during the attack,” Hirono said.
In contrast to the hired prosecutor’s attempts to weaken Blasey’s claims, Harris used her five-minutes to sooth the “terrified” California psychology professor. “You are not on trial,” Harris told Ford. “You are not on trial.”
“You have passed a polygraph and submitted the results to this committee. Judge Kavanaugh has not. You have called for outside witnesses to testify and for expert witnesses to testify. Judge Kavanaugh has not. But most importantly you have called for an independent FBI investigation into the facts. Judge Kavanaugh has not and we owe you that,” Harris said.
Her powerful closing statement, Harris told Ford, “You have been a true patriot in fighting for the best of who we are as a country. I believe you are doing that because you love this country, and I believe history will show that you are a true profile in courage at this moment in time in the history of our country.”
In the afternoon, Kavanaugh didn’t give any ground, giving an angry, tearful statement, almost shouting his statement in stark contrast to the Blasey’s sincerely emotional and soft-spoken statement and responses.
Kavanaugh took the Trumpian approach to controversy by doubling down and going on the offensive, rudely interrupting the senators’ questions and throwing the question back to the Democrats.
He strongly denied the allegations of Blasey Ford and the three other women who claim to have seen Kavanaugh dead drunk and belligerent. Except for Blasey Ford, none of the other women, including a key witness, Mark Judge, to the alleged assault on Blasey Ford, were brought in by the senate committee for questioning and/or corroboration of either Blasey Ford’s or Kavanaugh’s statements.
He consistently avoided answering Democrat’s questions if he would ask for an FBI investigation to move the incident(s) beyond the he-said, she-said situation facing the committee members.
In the end, probably no votes of committee members changed, Blasey Ford came off sounding sincere and credible and Kavanaugh came off as emotionally unstable, petulant and a sure bet to bet his nomination will go to the full Senate as quickly as possible before another woman might come forth with a story of Kavanaugh’s earlier days … and before the Midterm elections when the GOP might lose the majority in the House and/or the Senate.
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RE: pERSPECTIVES: Hirona: I believe Her; Harris: You have been a true patriot.: Appalling and disgusting. These Repugnican Congressmen have no spine, no morals, no integrity. They sicken me. This country has tumbled down the mountain of what’s best and right for all into the mud of sin. And they call themselves Christians.