Why everyone should be angry at what Feinstein did re Kavanaugh, and why everyone is not
There are many things wrong with the accusation against Brett Kavanaugh that Diane Feinstein publicized recently. The vagueness of the charges, their antiquity, and the suspect timing, to name a few.
But the one I want to focus on now is the anonymity of the accuser,
There is a reason why one of the pillars of our legal system is that the accused—in a court of law—is given the right to face his or her accuser. This is true not just in sexual crimes but in others as well, and it’s even true when a child is the purported victim, although sometimes there are special ways in which children are protected from having to face their alleged perpetrators.
Anyone who bears legal witness against someone is identified and subject to cross-examination and the other tools in the lawyers’ kit. The purpose is not to be mean to victims, although the process can indeed be very stressful. The purpose is to protect the rights of the accused, which is considered (or used to be considered) one of the most important principles of American law.
I’m old enough to remember when even rape victims in cases that went to trial had their names published in the newspapers, which is a different but related issue. Then, in the 1970s, the movement to pass rape shield laws came to fruition with the passage of a host of such laws by the 1980s. These laws protected alleged rape victims in trials from having their own sexual history dragged out and used against them except in limited circumstances.
However, when these laws tried to make it a violation for newspapers to publish the names of victims, they ran afoul of the courts who mostly considered such laws unconstitutional. However, to this day, newspapers are reluctant to publish such information, as a courtesy, although they sometimes do. Of course, the scandal sheets and internet sites are not so reluctant, if they can manage to find out the information.
But all of that is about legal proceedings and rapes or sexual assaults that meet the criteria for court proceedings. The accusations against Kavanaugh very clearly do not. So why is Feinstein protecting the accuser’s identity?
Because PC practice now dictates it, as a mark of great sensitivity. That’s pernicious, because it elevates anonymous gossip to the status of news. Not only is the accused unable to confront the accuser, but the public is unable to evaluate a single thing connected with the incident. That leaves the space wide open for people to project whatever they wish onto the story, and for politics to rush in to fill the gap.
That’s Feinstein’s intent, of course. And everyone—right or left, man or woman, Democrat or Republican—should be calling her out for it. But of course they are not.
But this isn’t just a case of someone publicizing this story. This is the case of a United States senator of great seniority (in every sense of the word) using anonymous gossip as character assassination for political purposes.
Or trying to use it; we’ll see if it has any effect. So far it doesn’t seem to have derailed anything. But as I wrote yesterday, that’s probably not her intent. Her intent was to delay the hearings if possible (that doesn’t seem to be happening), or at the very least to taint Kavanaugh’s reputation forever and to rally Democrats to even greater fury for the 2018 elections.
But there’s even more behind it. It’s a warning to any future appointee of Trump’s, just as the Manafort and Cohen and Flynn prosecutions are warnings to anyone who might associate with him in business or government: beware!! It’s scorched earth, and we will use every method we can think of to destroy you.
While I agree with that, it’s wise to be careful and to avoid blind trust. People must be granted a due process, even when kids are involved (and I’s say specially when kids are involved. As it happens with women, it’s easy to become emotional and to dismiss the burden of proof).
There’s an extremely good danish movie about this subject called ‘Jagten’, ‘The Hunt’, though it could have been translated as ‘The Lynching’. Highly recommended:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2106476/
I’m calling this DiFi’s Drive By. Senator Spartacus is at the wheel. Harris is in the back seat screaming and DiFi pops off a shot at the Judge. But misses.
As neo notes, the Confrontation Clause is a key aspect of our constitution. The constitution that the libs hate and ignore.
DiFi is pulling this stunt to win re-election.
The girls from her high school know who this is. I predict she is a lesbian lefty academic at Stanford and strongly pro-choice. Her and Brett were making out at a party and she started screaming when his hand went up her sweater. Maybe not a lesbian but certainly not married now.
DiFi needs to be denounced to the skies on Thursday. Nebraska’s Ben Sasse could do this if he wanted. She needs to be ripped by a peer.
I predict that Senators Spartacus and Harris go nuts on Thursday and scream about delay. Gillibrand will march into the room and make a scene.
The Dems are so morally and politically bankrupt that they are repeating the FAILED Anita Hill lies but with even less garbage than Hill had.
Last note, if Kavanaugh had really wanted to rape this girl it should be noted that he was the starting cornerback on the football team. No way could she have escaped from his tackle.
I actually hope this plays out like above. More changers to our side and Trump wins 40 states.
AMEN, Neo!!! Despicable, loathsome & long planned. And, another $50 00 bet to myself won when the letter sent to Chairman Grassley signed by 65-women who knew Justice Kavanagh in high school and attesting to his integrity and honorable behavior is getting nearly No Mention on the MSM Sleaze Papers. WSJ lead editorial today–Bless Them–talks about it.
ANOTHER Entry in my Daily Memoir, entitled: You CANNOT Posssibly Make This S*** Up!!
This is truly the lowest of the low. Seems to me a lot like the another version of the “anonymous” source. Just make something up to fit your narrative, claim it’s anonymous, and publish the made up story. Other media outlets will share it and with the multiple broadcasts, will “verify” itself with preponderance of the fake.
Wait until the next couple of Supreme Court Nominations come up. The Dems/Progs cannot afford this. There agenda will not be passed by Legislative action, so the activist Jurists must make up “law” and rule society by legal fiat. What is coming will not be pretty, probably illegal and desperate. The country should be afraid, very afraid.
“Scorched earth” – excellent image…captures the scene perfectly.
When the shooting starts again, no one should be surprised. The Left has said “No tactic is off the table” & this is exhibit…?…I ran out of letters & lost count. So…no tactic is off the table…just wait & see.
The base demands blood and will denounce anyone on their team as weak and wanting replacement by some one younger and further from the left. DiFi is just signifying her willingness to do anything to show she’s in the fight.
Its desperation time.
The politics of personal destruction. It’s what the progs do. They want to put fear in anyone who opposes them. We can ruin you is their cry. A vicious rumor with MSM parroting of same can destroy reputations all too easily. Only those with very thick skin (like DJT) can stand up to them. It matters not what your real past is. They will make something up. It has become SOP and should be expected at all times and in all instances. This is just the most recent example.
I intended to add one more rationale to Feinstein’s motivation for this despicable move but Harry beat me too it!
By this move, Feinstein reveals her utter unfitness for the office she holds and the unfitness of those who voted for her in exercising the franchise they abuse. To what depraved level must the leadership of the democrat party go before their base #walkaway?
There was no proof with Anita Hill. She thought she could remain anonymous and sink his nomination but was outed by the Biden staff. She had followed Thomas around from job to job but then he married a white woman.
Vengeance.
I predict that she will come forward in the next few days. I’m sure she’s being offered lots of $$$ from the left.
The left is spinning even the letter to Grassley. I saw a meme yesterday that the fact that Grassley had that letter ready to hand shows that he had known of this accusation in advance and sat on it to cover it up.
Please refer to her as “Senator Diane Blum”, her real married name. Feinstein is the name of her 2nd husband, now deceased. Blum is her 3rd husband’s name and she should use it rather than parade around under false pretenses including her fake hair color.
In another time, perhaps, Comrade DiFi would have fallen on her sword in disgrace and Shame over the spying chauffeur. Resignation would have not sufficed. Now she represents the wormy truth of the left: no shame, no disgrace, no dishonor. Just pure naked primitive drum-beating savagery.
I live in California. I’ve voted for Feinstein for Senator in the past. Compared to Barbara Boxer, her fellow California Senator, Feinstein usually appeared to be rational. In the upcoming election for Feinstein’s seat, she’s opposed by a radical leftist. Normally I’d vote for Feinstein–but after this stunt, I’ll sit this one out. I won’t vote for her opponent–but I also can’t vote for her.
This is like the situation in universities today, in which a woman can accuse a man of misconduct in the past, without evidence, and the man gets expelled. He doesn’t get to confront his accuser, or examine evidence, or sometime he doesn’t even get to know the accuser’s identity. Democrats want these lack of standards extended to the US Senate and the US Supreme Court.
Sen. Feinstein is well old enough to know what she’s doing is wrong. She should be ashamed. Democrats should be ashamed. The fact they’re not tells us what kind of people they are.
Who is ‘everyone’ and how do you know they’re not angry? I, as a probable member of the ‘everyone’ set, am angry. So what do I do about it? Does no good to whine about the lack of honor, integrity, and statesmanship in Washington.
Can Gloria Allred be far behind?
If I were doing Republican ads for the upcoming election, I would have Diane, Corey and Kamala right at the head of them and do a short clip of their antics and then a voice over saying, “This is what you get if Democrats take over Congress.
It’s a baby hunt with trials, and the press running a public lynching operation. They did the same thing to Moore, Palin, Romney, Thomas, Finicum, Trump, etc. etc.
Be prepared; there is a good chance that the anonymous accuser will “reluctantly”come forward early next week and be “grudgingly” willing to testify. This will derail the confirmation process, which is all the Dems want at this point. If the accuser ever does testify, it will be a purely one on one (or rather two on one) situation. Nothing to corroborate the accuser but enough to taint Kavanaugh forever and sufficient to protect Dem Senators like Manchin, Tester, et alia if they vote against him. It may well be enough as well to peel off Collins and Murkowski. Make no mistake, for the Dems this is war and they literally do not care who is destroyed so long as they get their way.
An anonymous source making up a story will not derail this confirmation. If that is the standard, no Republican will ever be confirmed again. However, the democrats are low enough to spend the next ten years talking about how the Republicans put a rapist on the Supreme Court. There is zero truth to this, or it would have been brought up sooner. Now it is just a pathetically transparent smear.
Commenters here keep talking about truth. Yet Dems keep telling us we need to delay the confirmation “because of the seriousness of the charge” — a startlingly dishonest formulation.
By the Dem’s own formulation, we really need to open an investigation into the Chinese spy on DiFi’s staff. Not because he had an important job, but because of the seriousness of the allegations.
On top of which, there’s the report (I can’t tell you where I got it — they asked to remain anonymous) that DiFi and her Chinese spy driver were romantically linked. Now that is an extremely serious matter. One that should not be swept under the rug. You see how it works?
This is yet another example for any neo-cons, Republicans, libertarians, or right-leaning moderates who wondered, you know, “can’t we just all get along?!”
The left will not play by your rules of honor. They have no honor.
They do not play fair. They seek only power. Like barbarians.
They have no rules themselves, and the only rules they use are your own which they will use *against* you.
This is yet another battle, and Exhibit X-11, in our current culture war.
Fight, or be swept under their rapacious will to power.
Diane Feinstein is the ranking minority member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. That makes her a member of the “Gang of Eight” (below) by which she is privy to the highest classified information in the country, including the unredacted FISA warrant on Carter Page. It is deeply dismaying that a person entrusted with such awesome responsibility for the security of the nation could stoop to such reprehensible behavior, all in the cause of party politics. I am suspicious that Ms Feinstein has something she must hide at all costs.
“The Go8 are responsible for overseeing all executive office policy as it relates to intelligence gathering and corresponding activity. In short these eight elected representatives are in charge of all oversight of all U.S. intelligence operations, open and covert. ” ~ Wiki
I worked for one of DiFi’s nephews 35 years ago. He said she was a jerk back then. She’s a bigger jerk than ever now. She’s going to die a jerk. The sooner the better.
Something really really really bad happened to me, but I won’t say anything for 40 years and then only anonymously.
Oh, and just coincidentally, it will further Democrat political ambitions..
Only idiots who WANT to believe lies give this story any credence.
You would truly have to be a moron to believe Feinstain.
Senator Feinstein the ranking Democrat member on the Senate Intelligence Committee harbored a Chinese spy on her San Francisco staff for more than a decade. The Senator’s husband has made tens, of not hundreds of millions, on real estate dealings with the Chinese. Why is anyone surprised that being a true blue modern Democrat is far more important Madame DiFi than being a true blue old-fashioned American?
The answer, of course, is that all politics is local and senators should vote to best represent their constituents interests. This California Senator knows exactly her constituents interests.
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/09/14/report-feinstein-forwarded-letter-kavanaugh-fbi-accusers-name-redacted/
Which is NOT the headline of the underlying link.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/14/politics/kavanaugh-letter-assault-supreme-court/index.html
AFTER a long and rather more lurid account of the allegation than I have seen heretofore, there is this little oh-by-the-way moment:
“There is no indication the woman reported the incident to law enforcement at the time, but she said she has received medical treatment regarding the alleged assault. The woman also declined to come forward publicly after sending the letter to Feinstein. The accuser’s name was redacted before Feinstein forwarded it to the FBI.”
No wonder the FBI declined to investigate.
Good grief.
Alas, this is the sort of behavior that we have come to expect from the Democrats. People are no longer surprised by this sort of thing. What is even worse, is the it seems to be accepted by the Democrats as acceptable behavior.
Comanche – same here. Last time I voted very reluctantly for Loretta Sanchez in a futile attempt to keep Kameltoe out of the Senate. I was prepared to do the same with Feinstein but now no way. Of course that was the main reason she pulled this stunt, to protect her left flank. It shows how completely the hard left has taken over the Dems, they have a four-term Senator working as their errand girl.
CA has gone so far off the deep end, I predict that Kavanaugh will be confirmed, and then (de)Leon will “blame” Feinstein for not doing enough to prevent it. Yecchh.
“said she has received medical treatment regarding the alleged assault”
… she saw a shrink sometime between then and now and mentioned it (or claims she did).
“I predict that she will come forward in the next few days. I’m sure she’s being offered lots of $$$ from the left.”
Maybe not. They may try to save a few bucks for the campaign by threatening or blackmailing her. That’s how they roll.
If Americans get too angry, they might stop thinking about bombing ragheads overseas to whittle down the anti American population and start thinking about bombing the traitors inside the United States.
That, we can’t have. So we need to tranquilize the masses and make sure the livestock don’t stampede. That’s what corp jobs, the cult(ure) is for in Hollywood and everything else.
I worked for one of DiFi’s nephews 35 years ago. He said she was a jerk back then. She’s a bigger jerk than ever now. She’s going to die a jerk. The sooner the better.
Whose kid was that? Her sister Yvonne was 1st married in 1963 and wouldn’t have had any children over the age of 20 in 1983. Her 1st husband, Jack Berman, was an only child. Her 2d husband, Bertram Feinstein, was born in Canada, migrated to England, and did not enter the United States until he was 32 years old. Her current husband, Richard Blum, has a brother, one Milton Robert Blum. Milton Robert Blum wasn’t married until 1967 and wouldn’t have had any children over the age of 16 in 1983.
The Biggest reason this is a bogus claim is that Gloria Allred is NOWHERE in sight. Since she did not have a tearful victim to march out in front of the world she took a pass. That is exactly whe she did to judge Moore. BTW what is happening in those cases NOTHING
An accuser has been identified, a left-wing and apparently somewhat unstable clinical psychology professor. She claims this has caused long-term post traumatic stress symptoms. I seriously doubt that the incident as described would do so. She cannot recall details of how she got to the house, whose house it was, or anything else specific except she’s sure it was these two guys.
I think at the very best she is attaching names after the fact to something she really didn’t begin remembering until she needed marital therapy in 2012.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/california-professor-writer-of-confidential-brett-kavanaugh-letter-speaks-out-about-her-allegation-of-sexual-assault/2018/09/16/46982194-b846-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html
At Vox:
Feinstein had this since July. She did not raise it in the public hearings. She did not raise it in the private hearing session. She did not raise it when various Senators were meeting with Kavanaugh.
Who is safe from uncorroborated last-moment accusations from three and a half decades before? This is wrong.
Funny abut the timing of all this. Several FBI background investigations over the years and not a peep from this self-described “victim” but, now, all of a sudden, like magic, she appears.
It’s Anita Hill type BS all over again.
I predict that, now that the oh, so reluctant (apparently far Left college professor) accuser has “come forward,” the next step will be for her to appear on all of the MSN’s propaganda stations–i.e. all of them–to peddle her sad tale of woe, and to point her finger at Kavanaugh, and scream J’accuse” during the four remaining days before the vote on confirming Kavanaugh.
I’ve just put up a new post dealing with the accusations.