the Kavanaugh nomination for the Supreme Court wil go to a preliminary vote soon, but a final vote won’t happen until Sunday NZ time.
The Hill: Bitter partisan battle over Kavanaugh enters final chapter
The Senate will take a pivotal vote Friday on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as the battle over President Trump’s pick enters its final chapter.
Four senators — three Republicans and a Democrat — remained undecided on Thursday, though two of them signaled a sense of satisfaction with the FBI’s investigation of sexual misconduct allegations that threatened to torpedo Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Senate Republican leaders plan to hold a key procedural vote Friday morning, setting up a confirmation vote for Saturday afternoon. Friday’s cloture vote is scheduled to happen at 10:30 a.m.
That’s 6.30 am NZ time.
If senators vote Friday to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination, as expected, they will have to allow another 30 hours for procedural debate, putting the final vote in mid-afternoon the following day.
Kavanaugh went to the extraordinary length of writing an op-ed. Fox News: Kavanaugh, in op-ed, decries ‘vicious’ attacks while saying he ‘might have been too emotional’ at hearing
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh penned an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, decrying what he described as “vicious” attacks against him while admitting he “might have been too emotional” during his hearing on Capitol Hill last week.
“I was very emotional last Thursday, more so than I have ever been. I might have been too emotional at times,” Kavanaugh wrote. “I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said.
Some have said that this sort of emotion is not good for a judge, and others have questioned Kavanaugh’s partisanship – Reuters: Kavanaugh does not belong on Supreme Court, retired Justice Stevens says
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said on Thursday that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh does not belong on the high court because of “potential bias” he showed in his recent Senate confirmation hearing.
Speaking to an audience of retirees in Boca Raton, Florida, Stevens, 98, said he started out believing that Kavanaugh deserved to be confirmed, “but his performance during the hearings caused me to change my mind.”
Stevens cited commentary by Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe and others suggesting Kavanaugh had raised doubts about his political impartiality when he asserted that sexual misconduct accusations he faced stemmed from an “orchestrated political hit” funded by left-wing groups seeking “revenge on behalf of the Clintons.”
However partisanship in judicial matters appears to be an accepted norm in the US.
The four editorials listed at RealClear Politics give an indication of the division over the nomination.
- Washington Post – Vote ‘No’ on Kavanaugh
- New York Post – End the Farce and Confirm Kavanaugh
- New York Times How Kavanaugh Failed, and Why He Should Not Be Confirmed
- Investor’s Biz Daily – Dems’ Total War Against Kavanaugh Backfiring Spectacularly
Many have taken sides and put reason aside to defend their entrenched positions.
Whichever way the votes go today and tomorrow a lot of people are likely to be very unhappy.
In a number of ways this nomination has been an indication of how much of a mess politics, democracy, and increasingly the judiciary, has become in the US. And there is no indication it will go anywhere other than downhill from here.
One thing that Donald Trump has already achieved as President is the most huge amount of division imaginable, and he gives every indication he intends to continue to play his game that way.
I’ll update this post today as the results of the first vote become known
Your NZ 
Trevors_elbow
/ 6th October 2018Trump is at fault? Yeah right
Cant be the Dems tactics… cant be their sponsored attacks on him since he won the GOP nomination contest. Cant be the biased media or the PACs handing out money and instructions to get radicals on the street protesting….
It’s all a total organic natural reaction to Trump.
If the smear campaign around Kavanaugh hasnt opened your eyes Pete…nothing will.
Gezza
/ 6th October 2018I can’t imagine him not being voted on to the Supreme Court. The posturing by a few “uncommitted” GOP senators is no doubt for show more than anything else – with polling going on frantically to see if they’re losing any female votes) and sufficient doubt has been thrown on the credibility of his accusers to make it a safe proposition for them to toe the party line (Anything the Democrats oppose we’ll approve) and give him the thumbs up.
Aljaz tv late last night showed video of different hordes of angry red-faced Democrat radfems howling for blood & screaming threats in various locations including the Supreme Court. Ordinary people have had enuf of this shit.
Kitty Catkin
/ 6th October 2018I don’t blame him for being emotional; who wouldn’t be ?
Gerrit
/ 6th October 2018History repeats. Remember Clarence Thomas? Again trumped up sexual harassment charges that did not bear to the truth in the light of the day.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/it-was-just-awful-the-clarence-thomas-hearings-in-the-words-of-those-who-were-there/2016/04/07/662eda1a-f120-11e5-85a6-2132cf446d0a_story.html?utm_term=.749c71ed699d
As for Trump being responsible?
Nah, he is certainly opened up to greater public interest and scrutiny the cesspool, but a cesspool it has always been.
More murkiness from the cesspool. FBI handling of the Ford polygraph and Keyser support letter.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-05/blasey-fords-fbi-polygraph-buddy-pressured-woman-mystery-groping-party-change-story
Kitty Catkin
/ 6th October 2018The only bit of the Thomas case that I remember was that he supposedly left pubes in a book for her to find, which seemed so unlikely that it was impossible to believe….yet Anita Hill (?) is still being seen as a heroine/survivor.
Pete George
/ 6th October 2018Sadly this debacle has primarily been about the upcoming elections.
David
/ 6th October 2018The media,s reputation is shot, Avenatti,s future political ambitions are over, the Democrats going nuclear and ridiculously over the top reactions have according to recent polls stuffed their chance of taking the Senate.
The Republican voter is now motivated, the Republican Senators seem to have grown a spine and perhaps now will drive through some laws. Booker,s presidency bid is over, Fienstiens legacy is now awful so its probably a toss up between Harris and Warren in 2020.
Pete George
/ 6th October 2018David
/ 6th October 2018A very good speech from Senator Collins, a dry sober look at the facts of the allegations but also refreshingly s politician who has taken her responsibility seriously and looked at his judicial record and read his published articles and taken the time to understand them and how she thinks it will fit with the constitution. She is a wobbly shaky lady.
She covered the fact he ruled in favour of Obamacare covering pre existing conditions, his position on Roe v Wade is the courts precedent should remain, that while he was nominated by Bush he ruled against his policies several times. While he is conservative and he is replacing a conservative he is no bible thumping hang m high.
Patzcuaro
/ 6th October 2018She may think the next cabs at the rank are worse.
David
/ 6th October 2018Seriously the speech is worth listening to, probably the sanest part of this disgraceful process.
Pete George
/ 6th October 2018She also praised the #metoo movement and says that “we must listen to survivors”.
Kitty Catkin
/ 6th October 2018Indeed we must, but we must also show discernment about who really is one.
Pete George
/ 6th October 2018Pete George
/ 6th October 2018Collins, Manchin say ‘aye,’ all but cementing Trump’s pick for Supreme Court seat
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/collins-manchin-say-aye-appearing-to-cement-kavanaugh-confirmation
Patzcuaro
/ 6th October 2018Kavanaugh passes next hurdle 51-49 with Democrat Manchin voting for and Republican Murkowski voting against.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12137971
Corky
/ 6th October 2018I think he will be selected, but he’ll probably be a shadow of what he could have been. Maybe even become liberal in his decisions to stop himself being publicly humiliated and shamed again.
The filthy Left have done the damage.
Patzcuaro
/ 6th October 2018The Right always seem to have dirty hands.
Corky
/ 6th October 2018The RiGHT in this case have been found guilty of nothing…unless Jo Bloggs has told you secret information I’m not privy to?
Pete George
/ 6th October 2018The Republicans have been as manipulating and as partisan as the Democrats.
Corky
/ 6th October 2018In what way? Who started the ball rolling?
MaureenW
/ 6th October 2018Most of the front-page antiTrump stories since his election have been dreamed/up or financed by the democrats.
The US political divide currently looks like an episode of Road Runner. Sorry to say the Dems have the Wile E Coyote part .
We’ll see what America thinks in a month.
David
/ 6th October 2018Hey, how have the Republicans been badly behaved ?
Patzcuaro
/ 6th October 2018The Consultant
/ 6th October 2018Graeme Keyes on Donald Trump…
Democrats would never tried to have destroy Kavanaugh with unsupported accusations if he’d been nominated by a GOPe like President Romney.
And Romney (or any other GOP President) would have pulled the nomination by now, thereby rewarding the tactics. This is why even the “Never-Trumpers” who voted 3rd party are writing articles about how they’re buckling down to vote GOP in November and probably Trump in 2020. They’ve finally realised that to the US Left, they’re all Trumpers anyway (or Deplorables).
Patzcuaro
/ 6th October 2018I’m not sure you are right.
Patzcuaro
/ 6th October 2018Which of course makes you a leftie?
Alan Wilkinson
/ 6th October 2018I don’t believe that at all. I think he will judge cases on their perceived merits without partisan influence and certainly not favouring Democrats. He has nothing to lose from doing so.
Gezza
/ 6th October 2018You just better hope nobody shows up with corroborated testimony that he stole an apple off a neighbours tree when he was 5. He’d have no hope then.
Pink David
/ 6th October 2018“One thing that Donald Trump has already achieved as President is the most huge amount of division imaginable, and he gives every indication he intends to continue to play his game that way.”
That division has been there for decades. Trump is different only in he is serious about fighting for the people who elected him.
Pink David
/ 6th October 2018Just to add, one of the most amusing things about this is MoveOn.org has been a force behind these protests, a political organisation founded by a blow job, and how people should just ‘move on’….their agility in changing from sexual abuse does not matter, to it being everything is quite impressive.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 6th October 2018Not to mention the now loony Left ACLU abandoning all their principles and demanding mob justice. What a pack of idiots.
chrism56
/ 6th October 2018Interesting how the Democrats have changed from supporting the FBI being a bastion against Trumpism to being dominated by Trump. All because they couldn’t find any dirt the Democrats hoped would be there.
The FBI were in a no win situation, as discussed here which was written before the report came in.
https://observer.com/2018/10/fbi-kavanaugh-investigation-minefield/
One the dust has settled, I think this will be seen as an own goal by Democrats, giving a rallying call for the Republicans without helping their own base.
Blazer
/ 6th October 2018Trump has disrupted U.S politics where typically Wall St owns both parties.
He wants to live so he knows he has to be careful dealing with the money changers.
Zedd
/ 6th October 2018Does anyone really think the Republicans will vote ‘NO’ against MrT.. Zeig…
oops; avoiding the godwins..
The Consultant
/ 6th October 2018<a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorReid/status/403615847190921216"<Senator Harry Reid Twitter
No, No. Thank you Senator Reid. And minor props to Senator Schumer in 2017 with Gorsuch. How many times did McConnell beg him not to filibuster that perfectly ordinary nominee?
Kitty Catkin
/ 6th October 2018Why on earth would anyone called Flake not change it to Blake ?
Alan Wilkinson
/ 6th October 2018Trump’s public mocking sank Ford and the Democrats:
How Trump, Republicans carried Brett Kavanaugh
Alan Wilkinson
/ 6th October 2018https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12138141
Gezza
/ 6th October 2018👍 I was waiting for that other shoe to drop.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 6th October 2018From Khrushchev or Iraqi journalists?