Are the Republicans in Congress smoking dope?

Perhaps I should ask, how long have the Republicans in Congress been smoking dope?

Grassley might not know.  But Sessions does.  I don't think the DOJ will take this up.  They might haul it out every once in a while for publicity.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Hatch office - again!

You'd think after that Ed Whelan business, Hatch's office would lay low for a while. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Julie Swetnick's NBC interview

Here if you want to see it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Unfit

"It will be a good thing," the president said of the bureau's re-opened background check into Kavanaugh, according to a pool report. Trump authorized the inquiry Friday after a dramatic meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, at which Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) joined the panel's Democrats in demanding a one-week investigation of allegations by Christine Blasey Ford ahead of a full vote by the chamber to confirm Kavanaugh to the high court.

[...]

"NBC News incorrectly reported (as usual) that I was limiting the FBI investigation of Judge Kavanaugh, and witnesses, only to certain people," he wrote online. "Actually, I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion. Please correct your reporting!"

[...]

The president also said he expects the investigation to be completed ahead of schedule, and emphasized that law enforcement officials "have free rein" to pursue whichever leads they desire to uncover the truth.

"They can do whatever they have to do, whatever it is that they do. They'll be doing things we have never even thought of," Trump said. "And hopefully, at the conclusion, everything will be fine."

  

It makes no sense to say "they'll be doing things we never even though of." He's so hard wired to make every claim something outsized that he does it not only as hyperbole, an exaggerated boast, but when it makes no sense.  What can the FBI do in an investigation that we've never thought of?  I guess we'll find out when they do it.

I wonder if it's true that Trump hasn't limited the FBI's scope. If it is, then I have to also wonder if he himself leaked - or cause to be leaked - to NBC that report that he was limiting the scope to certain witnesses and not allowing them to question why Kavanaugh's description of his drinking so differs from that of his acquaintances. Then he could once again point to the media as untrustworthy.  (A main goal of tyrants everywhere throughout history.)  Or maybe he was tossing those things out in a rant and somebody decided that's what he was going to do and leaked it. Who the hell knows with this fool?

At a rally Saturday evening in West Virginia, Trump's invocations of Kavanaugh served more to demonize congressional Democrats than hype the prospect of a majority conservative court.

“The entire nation has witnessed the shameless conduct of the Democrat Party. They’re willing to throw away every standard of decency, justice, fairness and due process to get their way," Trump said.

The projection is awesome.

“A vote for Judge Kavanaugh is also a vote to reject the ruthless and outrageous tactics of the Democrat Party — mean obstructionists, mean resistors," Trump added, lamenting attacks on Kavanaugh's character.

“I will tell you, he has suffered — the meanness, the anger," Trump said.

Yes, Kavanaugh is the victim here.

The president has maintained his steadfast praise of Kavanaugh, telling reporters Saturday: "I don't think there's ever been any person who's been under scrutiny like he has."

Projection and hyperbole. The two defining characteristics of Trump's lies.

I think Julie Swetnick goes on TV today. That should stir the already boiling pot.

Swetnick submitted a written statement to the committee in which she said she witnessed Kavanaugh spike drinks at parties where girls were then sexually assaulted. In the statement, Swetnick asserts Kavanaugh was present when she was the victim of a “gang rape” by multiple boys at one party. She described Kavanaugh as “a mean drunk” whom she witnessed acting “verbally abusive toward girls, including pressing girls against him without their consent," and, “Grinding against girls and attempting to remove or shift girls’ clothing to expose private body parts.

Poor Kavanaugh. Hasn't he suffered enough already?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Bread and circuses

Julie Swetnick, the third accuser of Kavanaugh to come forward, is going to have her MSNBC interview aired on Sunday.  Appropriately, the program on which it will air is called "The Circus."  According to the current plan, the Judiciary Committee will already have voted by then.

Richard Vinneccy, 63, [an ex-boyfriend of Julie Swetnick] suggested to [Politico on Wednesday] that he has "a lot of facts" to dispute the claims of Julie Swetnick, who is represented by attorney Michael Avenatti and came forward with her claims on Wednesday.

"She’s not credible at all,” he said. “Not at all.”

Vinneccy said he wanted to speak to an attorney before going into more detail about what evidence he has to disprove her claims.

  The Hill

I bet.

Politico reported that Vinneccy filed a restraining order against Swetnick in 2001. He told the news outlet that they dated for four years, and she later threatened to hurt his wife and their baby.

Avenatti told Politico that he did not know whether Swetnick had a restraining order filed against her, but called it irrelevant.

“I am disgusted by the fact that the press is attacking a sexual assault victim,” Avenatti said, according to Politico.

"Complete nonsense.This guy is a fraud," he told The Hill.

If it's true that she threatened harm to his family and he had to get a restraining order, I think that IS relevant. I wonder why Avenatti didn't know whether she had a restraining order. Here I've been thinking he's smart. Wouldn't a smart attorney have checked into client's background on something like this? What a world we have created.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Just deny, deny, deny

It's all he's got now.




...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Avenatti's client submits sworn afidavit

Once again, Michael Avenatti delivers.  Julie Swetnick's sworn declaration is reprinted here at NBC News.

Swetnick says she knew Kavanaugh and Judge as "joined at the hip" and that because of that, Judge would have "significant information concerning the conduct of Brett Kavanaugh during the 1980s, especially as it relates to his actions toward women."

She also says she attended "well over" ten house parties from 1981-1983 where both Judge and Kavanaugh were present, and at which she witnessed them both "drink excessively and engage in highly inappropriate conduct, including being overly aggressive with girls and not taking 'No' for an answer," including "fondling and grabbing of girls without their consent."  She saw them spiking punch at house parties with drugs and grain alcohol, so she avoided the punch.  (I wonder if she didn't warn other girls?  Somebody's going to ask her that.)

She says she saw them, and others, getting girls drunk so they could be gang raped.  She doesn't say she witnessed the raping, but she remembers boys lined up outside a room waiting for their turn, including Kavanaugh and Judge.  And then, she says she was a victim of a "gang" or "train" rape where Kavanaugh and Judge were present.  She says she thinks she was drugged with Quaaludes in her drink.  She doesn't accuse Kavanaugh and Judge of the actual raping.

Specific to Kavanaugh, she says she observed him at parties, "pressing girls against him without their consent, 'grinding' against girls, and attempting to remove or shift girls' clothing to expose private body parts."  She also says she observed him making "crude sexual comments" that were "designed to demean, humiliate and embarrass them."  ... "I also witnessed Brett Kavanaugh behave as a 'mean drunk' on many occasions at these parties."

She says other women told her the same behavior occurred in Ocean City, Maryland, "on numerous occasions," and saw that there for herself during "Beach Week."

She says she can name other witnesses that will attest to the truth of her statement.

So that they won't be so quick to call her a liar, she provides her background:

Will Fox interview Julie Swetnick?  Or maybe re-interview Brett 'Choir Boy' Kavanaugh?



UPDATE: