Poor Kavanaugh wants to run for SC judge

Quote:

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, declined to comment specifically on Collins and Murkowski, saying the pressure should be placed on all senators, "but particularly the Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee."

During a news conference Thursday to voice support for Ford, Hirono also predicted Republicans' treatment of the professor could backfire in the midterm election if voters think she is being mistreated.

"I hope the women of America — as well as the men, by the way, because why should it just be the women who care about fair treatment? It's men. It's all of America," she said. "I think there's a lot more attention being paid to how this whole thing is being handled."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/kavanaugh-accusers-offer-to-testify-puts-key-republicans-in-a-bind/ar-AAApZw9?ocid=UE13DHP

“It somewhat stretches credulity, let’s put it that way,” said Hirono in an interview for the latest episode of POLITICO’s Off Message podcast. “I think he didn’t want to lie about it, so one way you get through that is saying, ‘I don’t remember.’”

If Kavanaugh’s nomination fizzles and President Donald Trump has to name a replacement, Hirono says he better find someone whom she considers less of a conservative ideologue, or else prepare for Senate Democrats—especially if they win a majority in November’s elections—to keep the court seat vacant until after the 2020 election.

“I think we’ve had those kinds of vacancies before, and we certainly had over a one-year vacancy with Merrick Garland,” said Hirono. “So the world does not come to an end because we don’t fill all of the nominees.”

Hirono is short. She is quiet. She’s not much of a tweeter. She’s not running for president. She doesn’t have an outsize personality in a chamber bursting with them—her hobbies include making her own paper and folding origami cranes. She does pottery, too, but says she lacks the patience to use a wheel.

Yet the unassuming senator has become Democrats’ firmest pillar of resistance on judicial nominations, refusing to vote for cloture for any Trump nominee and asking every man who appears before her at a committee hearing whether he has engaged in physical or verbal sexual assault as a legal adult. Nominees “can lie,” Hirono said, explaining why she’s made that her standard question, “but they better hope that nobody that they did this to will come forward.”

“Legal adult” is the phrase Hirono used when she asked Kavanaugh the question two weeks ago. She says her wording was carefully chosen because juvenile records often remain sealed. And though Kavanaugh answered no, and the incident is alleged to have happened when he was 17, she’s not ready to write it off.

“Seventeen is not exactly a baby, either. These are serious allegations. She has a very credible story. I believe her. And now we have to do more than say, ‘Well, look at the timing!’ and ‘Well, it’s all politically motivated!’” Hirono said. “This has to be taken seriously.”

Seriously, to Hirono, means another hearing on top of the one now scheduled for Monday, when Kavanaugh and Ford are both expected to testify. In a letter put together to rebut the allegations, 65 women who knew Kavanaugh when he was in high school vouched for his character. “I think we probably need to question 65 people, ‘How well did they know him?’” Hirono said.

Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Texas Sen. John Cornyn and others who doubt the Kavanaugh allegation and complain about its timing are revealing more about their own “lack of understanding of how difficult it is to come forward with a story like this,” Hirono said.

Stopping him still seems unlikely, for all the Democratic action, she acknowledged. But that wasn’t the point of taking an aggressive posture at the Kavanaugh hearings.


“What we accomplish is letting the American people know that I framed this as part of a concerted effort on the part of the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation to pack our courts. And they’ve been doing this for decades now, preparing the way, and they now have a willing president who is going to pick names off their list,” Hirono said. “So the American public needs to know that court-packing is going on. … And I hope to enable everybody to connect the dots. That they better be voting at the state legislative level and the governorships for people who are going to provide the kind of protections that maybe they will no longer be able to expect from the Supreme Court.”

Hirono won’t criticize Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, for sitting on the letter about the Ford allegations for weeks. She won’t criticize other Democrats for taking a more reserved approach that hews to old Senate decorum.

“I don’t bang them over the head about some of the things that I do,” Hirono said. “I figure they have to figure it out for themselves.”

I've been really impressed by Senator Hirono

Her's has been the most irrational voice in this entire affair.

All men need to shut up?

Her's has been the most irrational voice in this entire affair.

All men need to shut up?

How is that any different then me declaring that all women need to shut up?

If I were Kavanaugh and I was innocent of the accusations, I would want, no, I would demand an FBI investigation as well as a polygraph test. That would be the only way to clear his name. It's a big if, and he's a big lying MF!

What the hell would Ford gain by lying. Nothing. And what would Kavanaugh gain by lying? Everything

Kavanaugh can clear up the whole thing by insisting on an FBI investigation, or at least taking a polygraph test. The FBI could find the truth in a couple of days. Have the FBI interrogate Mark judge while reminding him of the penalty for perjury, and he probably fold like a paper fan.

You're kidding, right?

What the hell would Ford gain by lying.

Nothing. And what would Kavanaugh gain by lying? Everything.

Kavanaugh can clear up the whole thing by insisting on an FBI investigation, or at least taking a polygraph test. The FBI could find the truth in a couple of days. Have the FBI interrogate Mark judge while reminding him of the penalty for perjury, and he probably fold like a paper fan.

Ford has nothing to gain by lying, and Kavanaugh has everything to lose by telling the truth.