Watch Brett M. Kavanaugh's full opening statement

This is well worth the time to watch (though I confess, I did so at 1.25x or faster).

There’s a lot of buzz about him showing “anger,” but there is nothing at all like rage in this speech.

If indeed Kavanaugh was being falsely accused of attempted forcible rape, exactly why would we expect him to not be angry?

The reasoning from some is that it makes him seem to lack a judicial temperament.

And I guess there’s a bit of real anger later on in the hearing, during the back and forth

But, Goldberg or somebody pointed out that “judicial temperament” is what you need when you’re adjudicating, not when you’re trying to defend your name against against the sort of accusations he’s been hit with.

And he already has years as a judge demonstrating judicial temperament in his work.

I recall the Lord Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple with a whip and flipping the tables, Twice! There is such a thing as righteous indignation. The Senate dems have acted despicably through out this process by initially calling Brett “evil” before any of the false charges were levied, and then they called “evil” those who were complicit in his nomination before the false charges even came out. Ford never mentioned Brett in her 2012-2013 therapy sessions when she first recalled this event 30 years after it occurred. She conveniently remembered it was him two months ago, 36 years after the event allegedly happened. She lied about not being able to travel by airplane in order to delay her testimony, when in fact she has traveled all over the world by airplane. She said by name that there were three witnesses at the party, all of whom denied it under oath including her best friend who is a liberal democrat. She doesn’t know how she got there, where it was, when it occurred, how she got home, but she does remember she only had one beer that night and the names of Brett’s two friends. The prosecutor, Mitchell, from Arizona doesn’t believe the case is credible and she would not prosecute it. At best Ford appears to be psychologically unstable. Perhaps she was assaulted in her past by someone, somewhere, sometime. If so, she should be pitied and prayed for. I don’t have much confidence in repressed memory syndrome which itself is a dubious diagnosis. The other charges appear laughable.

Heard a female leader of a ladies group that deals with sexual assault and who herself had been personally raped suggest a way to “Feinstein Proof” your sons from false accusation. 1. Take your sons regularly to a good church in order to learn to treat all people with dignity and respect. 2. Do not drink alcohol. 3. Do not date women who drink alcohol. 4. Live in such a way while in High School that you will have a strategically important position when you are an adult. 5. Stop believing women solely on the basis that they are women.

Total depravity affects men and women. No one is exempt. Both sexes are capable of lying, deceit, sexual sin, criminal behavior, etc. Proverbs warns about Kings coming under the influence of intoxicating beverages. Brett would do well to heed that admonition. The only thing that gives any credibility at all to these false charges is that Brett was a frequent drinker in High School, College, and beyond. This is a stain on his character and credibility. That’s why the dems are pressing so hard on this issue. It’s the one area in the man’s life that has not been exemplary. Alcohol with teens and college kids is often a sinful and devastating influence. These “parties” which promote alcohol consumption open the participants up to all manner of evil. It removes their good judgment and loosens them up to do things that they would eventually regret. I was disappointed with the way Brett promoted drinking in his public testimony. He of all people should know the folly. Just ask his friend Mark Judge.

I can go for avoiding drunkenness in part because it does open one to false allegations, and of course also leads to lots of bad decisions that lead to true allegations, but it’s worth noting here that Clarence Thomas was put through his “high tech lynching” without alcohol being involved, and while alcohol was certainly served at the infamous party hosted by the Duke lacrosse team, some of those persecuted by persecutor Mike Nifong were not even there. And for that matter, since no fewer than four people argue that there was no party at all such as is alleged by Christine Blasey Ford, arguably alcohol doesn’t have anything to do with this one, either.

Rather, if the four denials and persistent use of politically driven ploys are indicative, what’s going on here is a plain and simple political assassination attempt. You cannot avoid it by never having a sip of wine or beer, and you cannot avoid it by following the Pence Rule. When it serves the left’s purposes, they will do this to you, and the only appropriate response is to make them pay, heavily, for pulling this stunt. Senator Tom Cotton is getting started with this by proposing investigations of Senator Feinstein Nifong and her staff. Hopefully it ends with censures, or better yet indictments, of a few people to send a message that this kind of nonsense is not going to be tolerated.

I think it’s obvious when we consider all the false witnesses and false accusations against our Savior, that there is no way to live an exemplary life that will prevent false allegations, when one who lived a perfect life was subject to them. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do our best to live exemplary lives and teach our children the same. However, in no way will it prevent false accusations. Kavanaugh’s being too fond of alcohol certainly made it easier for his accusers, but even if he were a teetotaler, that wouldn’t have even slowed them down much, let alone stopped them.

What has started to bother me more and more recently is that we live in a society that is increasingly slanting things to drive an agenda. Yes it has been happening for quite some time. But this situation just continue to exemplify the issue, as both sides become entrenched, we slant evidence and then drive the public to convict as rapidly as we can. It is getting a bit scary. This situation has exemplified how we take what someone did in their youth, 40 years ago, and then analyze it to death and view it through the lens of today. We are quick to change “evolve” our views and then convict all of history through this single slice of time.

I will be interested to see what the FBI report states. I hope they keep it focused with what is at hand, and don’t turn it into a “witch hunt”. I do not want to defend a Supreme Court nominee who sexually assaulted someone. I am sure the indiscretions of his youth will highlight some things. As someone growing up in the 80’s if you think think that drunken high school parties were an oddity or that what took place by both boys and girls was upstanding, everyone is kidding themselves. There is a reason why movies such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High portrayed the culture at that moment. We need to be vigilant in teaching our children on how their actions have consequences and have the hard talks with them.

This has turned into a circus by both the liberals and the conservatives. It is a shame that something as distinguished as this post, tears into an individual and tears into the fabric of our society. Thousands of people in the media have been digging and digging for something, with nothing really turning up. The best we can find is that he was an angry drunk when he was a kid. That probably speaks to about half of the people who drink. My guess is that the FBI report will not really find anything. This just further highlights why public service is just not worth it anymore. This was clearly highlighted in the last presidential election. The fact that the greatest country on earth, that has the arguably the greatest minds, with a job opening for the “most powerful person in the world”, could at the end produce Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as the forerunners, should clearly be seen. Who wants to hold public office with these fiascos. Just not worth it.

I am just waiting for the day when we start going back to elementary school and look at who shared their crayons.

How have the conservatives turned the Kavanaugh hearings into a circus?

I believe Kavanaugh has been investigated by the FBI before, maybe more than once, though not with these particular accusations as a focus… And I doubt they were interested in his high school days. (I wonder why.)

[Joe Whalen]

How have the conservatives turned the Kavanaugh hearings into a circus?

Do you want me to start with Trump or with Grassley shutting down their own questioner, or somewhere else?

I’m all ears. How have the conservatives turned the hearings in the US Senate into a circus?

I’ve never had a security clearance, but I’ve been interviewed by the FBI because of friends who did need one, and yes, they would be very interested in high school arrests and felonies. Kavanaugh has been through this no less than six times already, if I remember correctly.

The case here, though, is that for whatever reason, this allegation came out now. My take is that the Democrats have purposefully made it a zoo, and Dr. Ford has gone along for the ride. That impacts my estimate of her testimony, and I am wavering between “she’s wrong but sincere” and “she’s deliberately lying.” The longer this goes on, the closer I go to the latter.

Having attended a number of parties in high school, I don’t have to imagine the kind of behavior that takes place there. As the sober, designated driver at the party I saw my share of debauchery and excess, and I saw guys take advantage of inebriated girls. While I did not witness girls being raped, I did witness what is now considered sexual assault. Sadly, many of these girls would repeatedly attend these types of parties, get drunk, and again be taken advantage of. I don’t know how to categorize this behavior without coming across as victim blaming, but I always wondered why they would continue to attend these parties after being taken advantage of night after night.

Anyway, while we do not know whether Judge Kavanaugh actually did the things he’s accused of, I believe it is certainly possible and likely probable that he did. The “star athletes” in high school that partied were usually the most drunk and the most active in the sexual assaults. The girls liked to be around them, and they took advantage of that.

“Anyway, while we do not know whether Judge Kavanaugh actually did the things he’s accused of, I believe it is certainly possible and likely probable that he did.”

If I am ever wrongfully accused of something, I hope you are not on the jury that would decide my fate. What credible evidence of guilt has been presented that would lead you to think he probably sexually assaulted a woman? So far in this case, there hasn’t been anything credible.

Perhaps it is true that the QB gets the girl, as CW notes, but when one looks through the statistics about sexual assault, it’s about 3% of men doing almost all of it. Remembering back to my high school experience—a school of about 1600 students—the top athletes constituted significantly more than 3% of males. (22 starters in football, 5 starters in hoops, ~12 top wrestlers, ~ 12 top swimmers, ~20 top runners, starting 11 in soccer, etc..) So even if sexual assault was only top athletes, that still doesn’t mean that we can assume a top athlete was involved in sexual assault.