Sports metaphor & politics, and much else besides, 1, pre-Flake
[ By Charles Cameron — the crisis builds — everything up to but not including Sen Flake’s elevator epiphany ]
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virtually nothing you will see today at the hearing is going to surprise you.
this is the highest-stakes of high-stakes games and everyone is damned if they are going to lose it
— '((Adam (Elkus))) (@Aelkus) September 27, 2018
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Sen Graham acc BuzzFeed:
“Here’s what I’m more convinced of, my friends on the other side set it up to be just the way it is. I feel ambushed,” Graham told reporters, after Ford finished testifying…
Graham also dismissed the need for an FBI investigation, saying Ford had not provided enough detail to justify a search warrant or an arrest warrant. He also said an FBI investigation would take too long and he did not want to “reward” political gamesmanship.
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Getting back to symmetry:
The symmetry with her own parentage was uncannily exact, for Catherine and Seymour were themselves in an incestuous match, Catherine being Henry VIII’s widow while Seymour was his brother-in-law (the king had married Seymour’s sister Jane). ..
and just a little earlier:
What could have induced the normally modest queen dowager to have become an actor in these strange games?
both from p 36 of Shakespeare’s Lost Kingdom, by Charles Beauclerk
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A lot of people are pissed and exhausted after an awful day. As for me, I’m more determined than ever to fight this nomination, and to try to take the Senate back. I hope everyone who was glued to the hearing today knows that democracy is not a spectator sport. We need your help.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) September 28, 2018
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Sen Hirono to CNN re re asterisk:
I don’t know, but what I really want to hear from this administration, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders is, there will be an FBI investigation. That is what we need. And I think most people who look at this process, and want some monochrome (ph) of fairness, would agree that we should have an FBI investigation.
But they continue to stonewall. And I think that they’re doing a tremendous disservice to the public – American people, as well as, should he get on the court, there will always be an asterisk, and a cloud, over his name, and on his name. And I think that is not what we want to do to the Supreme Court.
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0/28/2018:
Sen. Whitehouse:
You do the basic blocking and tackling of investigation ..
The sand is running through Kavanaugh’s hourglass ..
Sen Cruz:
These aren’t pawns on a chessboard, they are real people..
We are living in a divided time. This country is divided right down the middle. In this polarized society we live in today, it’s almost tribalized. Where half of us wear one team’s jersey and the other half wear the other team’s jersey, and whatever we see, we see through the lens of our jersey ..
Sen Booker:
I’ve learned that, heck, from being a football player: between the whistles, you fight as hard as you can for that you believe, and if you want to call that partisanship, fine ..
This is not a partisan moment, this is a amoral moment ..
a time when the comedy {transcript} / comity [my guess} was deeper and greater
Sen Kennedy:
this is no country for creepy old men ..
Sen Klobuchar:
It’s not being run by we the people, it’s being run by we the ruling party ..
Sen Graham:
Somebody’s got to explain this to Trump, and I guess that’s my job.
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a note — I’ll tend to add “tribal” and “tribalizing” to my list of items to note since tribalism is a major issue for David Ronfeldt, even though it has recently become mainstreamed and is therefore now frequently mentioned. I shall be looking in particular for original or extended usages.
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Pres. Trump on Dr Ford:
WATCH: President Trump on Dr. Ford: "I thought her testimony was very compelling, and she looks like a very fine woman to me." pic.twitter.com/AqgtI8WIyO
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 28, 2018
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Stephanie was calling it quite rightly the other land. The lane here, instead of Yes or No, was Let’s find out more — and that’s the lane that Flake has opened up.
the thing about tribalism .. level of hardball.. churchill.. off the cliff .. [details when transcript available]
Stephanie Ruhle:
the third lane is not a No or a Yes, it’s simply leaving the door open..
Adam Serwer, The Confirmation of Trumpism
The accusations against Brett Kavanaugh — and his angry, defiant response — have made him a fitting champion for the party of Trump.:
The most important lie that Kavanaugh told, however, was in his initial testimony. Echoing Thomas’s broken promise to avoid ideology as a judge, Kavanaugh initially proclaimed that “as Justice Kennedy showed us, a judge must be independent, not swayed by public pressure … The Supreme Court must never be viewed as a partisan institution. The justices on the Supreme Court do not sit on opposite sides of an aisle. They do not caucus in separate rooms. If confirmed to the Court, I would be part of a team of nine, committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution and laws of the United States. I would always strive to be a team player on the team of nine.”
