The Nastier Nate posted:

how many dems are gonna vote for Kavanaugh?

Donkwich posted:

quote:

"I have deep concerns about this nominee," said Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York.

"If there was a political fight that needed a political foot soldier in the last decade, Brett Kavanaugh was probably there," Schumer said.

Schumer cited the nominee's work as a lawyer for independent counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation of President Clinton, and the 2000 Florida ballot recount.

"I think they're [Republicans] trying to bring up the battle that went on over the filibuster," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. "The issue of filibusters, quite candidly, and I'm a member of the Judiciary Committee, hasn't been discussed."

Matt Zerella posted:

https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1016488877928927232

holy poo poo lol

Donkwich posted:

Matt Zerella posted:

https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1016488877928927232

holy poo poo lol

Matt Zerella posted:

https://twitter.com/DavidKlion/status/1016481354744287239

Matt Zerella posted:

https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1016488877928927232

holy poo poo lol

FoneBone posted:

https://twitter.com/ddayen/status/1016491908632178688

Grondoth posted:

How can Trump pick a judge who literally says "actually you can't impeach the president" and have some motherfuckers go "yeah this is OK"

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1016507011943620613

FoneBone posted:

https://twitter.com/ddayen/status/1016491908632178688

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Chucking in the morning!

https://twitter.com/CBSThisMorning/status/1016498603366453248

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Chucking in the morning!

Rastor posted:

more like up-chucking am I right folks

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1016507011943620613

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Somebody's keeping score:

https://twitter.com/edokeefe/status/1016497935989735424

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Somebody's keeping score:

https://twitter.com/edokeefe/status/1016497935989735424

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1016507011943620613

ThndrShk2k posted:

Workers' Rights, Women's Rights and Voter's Rights.

Only women and voters are workers to Bernie, I thought I knew him better than this

quote:

Senators spar over judicial nominee

Kavanaugh denies involvement in wiretapping, detainee policies

Tuesday, May 9, 2006

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee laid out sharp partisan lines Tuesday in debating the qualifications of a top White House aide nominated for a prestigious judicial post.

It was the second time since 2003 that Brett Kavanaugh has appeared before the committee, where his nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has languished.

Democrats pressed for a new hearing to question Kavanaugh over what role he might have played in the administration's secret wiretapping program of Americans suspected of terrorist ties.

The nominee told the committee Tuesday he dealt neither with Abramoff nor with the wiretap issue.

He also denied developing legal policy on the physical treatment of Iraqi and other Muslim detainees held in U.S. military custody, which critics said amounted to torture.

Kavanaugh worked at the White House when those polices were developed, which came to light after his initial appearance before the committee in 2004.

"I am not, and have not been involved in rules about [enemy] combatants," Kavanaugh said Tuesday.

quote:

Kavanaugh Confirmed U.S. Appellate Judge

Friday, May 26, 2006

WASHINGTON -- White House aide Brett Kavanaugh won Senate confirmation as an appellate judge Friday after a three-year wait, a new victory for President Bush in a drive to place a more conservative stamp on the nation's courts.

Bush said Kavanaugh would be "a brilliant, thoughtful and fair-minded judge."

Confirmed on a 57-36 vote, Kavanaugh had been warmly praised by Republicans but widely opposed by Democrats who had briefly threatened to filibuster his nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The Kavanaugh vote marked the latest in a string of confirmations for conservative appellate court nominees in the year since a centrist group of senators agreed on terms designed to prevent a meltdown over Bush's conservative picks.

Kavanaugh was not mentioned by name in an agreement announced by the so-called Gang of 14, but his nomination was pending at the time and he figured in the discussions. More recently, the seven Democrats who were members of the group had intervened in his case, calling for a second Judiciary Committee hearing into his appointment. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the panel, agreed, defusing any threat of a filibuster designed to block a vote.

Still, Democrats highlighted the American Bar Association's recent downgrading of its rating of Kavanaugh from "highly qualified" to "qualified."

"It's clear that he is a political pick being pushed for political reasons," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Judiciary Committee's top Democrat. "This is not a court that needs another rubber stamp for this president's exertion of executive power."

The White House and Specter said Kavanaugh's Ivy League education, a Supreme Court clerkship and other work have prepared him well to become a federal judge. Specter's committee approved the nomination along party lines.

"It is hardly a surprise that Brett Kavanaugh would be close to the president because the president selects people in whom he has confidence," Specter said.

The filibuster threat softened after Specter granted Democrats' request for a new hearing at which Kavanaugh testified. The nominee told Democrats he played no role in the White House formulation of policies on detainees, domestic wiretapping or any relationship with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Kavanaugh was an assistant to independent counsel Kenneth Starr during the impeachment probe of President Clinton, and he worked on behalf of the Bush campaign during the election recount in 2000.

quote:

Federal Judge Downplayed Role in Detainee Cases

June 26, 2007

One of President Bush's most controversial judicial appointees, Brett Kavanaugh, may have been less-than-forthright with Congress at a crucial hearing last year to confirm his appointment to a seat on the powerful federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.

Kavanaugh told senators in May 2006 that he "was not involved in the questions about the rules governing detention of combatants" during his time as a White House lawyer. Now, it is clear that Kavanaugh took part in at least one White House conversation about detainees.

During last year's confirmation hearing, Illinois Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin asked Kavanaugh about William Haynes, who helped craft harsh interrogation policies and was later nominated for a judgeship.

"What was your role in the original Haynes nomination and decision to renominate him?" Durbin asked. "And at the time of the nomination, what did you know about Mr. Haynes's role in crafting the administration's detention and interrogation policies?"

Kavanaugh replied, "Senator, I was not involved and am not involved in the questions about the rules governing detention of combatants, and so I do not have any involvement with that."

In fact, in 2002, Kavanaugh and a group of top White House lawyers discussed whether the Supreme Court would uphold the Bush administration's decision to deny lawyers to American enemy combatants. Kavanaugh advised the group that the Supreme Court's swing voter, Justice Anthony Kennedy, would probably reject the president's assertion that the men were not entitled to counsel. Kavanaugh had worked as a clerk for Kennedy. That meeting was first reported in The Washington Post. NPR independently confirmed the details with multiple sources.

Today, Kavanaugh has life tenure as a judge on the D.C. Circuit appeals court.

Durbin now says he feels "perilously close to being lied to" at Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing.

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Somebody's keeping score:

https://twitter.com/edokeefe/status/1016497935989735424

Fleetwood posted:

quietly yearning for Bernie

SKULL.GIF posted:

lol Booker and Harris beat Gillibrand to the punch