Patrick Leahy: Brett Kavanaugh misled the Senate under oath. I cannot support his nomination.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Brett Kavanaugh misled the Senate under oath. I cannot support his nomination.

By Patrick Leahy
September 13 at 5:35 PM

Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, represents Vermont in the U.S. Senate.

Last week, I uncovered new evidence that Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh misled the Senate during his earlier hearings for the D.C. Circuit Court by minimizing and even denying his involvement in Bush-era controversies. I gave him the opportunity to correct his testimony at his hearing last week; he chose instead to double down.

I make no claim that Kavanaugh is a bad person. But when his prior confirmation to our nation’s “second highest court” was in jeopardy, he repeatedly misled the Senate when the truth might have placed that job out of reach.

Take his relationship with the ringleader of the “Memogate” scandal. Between 2001 and 2003, two Republican staffers regularly gained unauthorized access to the private computer files of six Democratic senators, including mine, taking 4,670 files on controversial judicial nominees.

Kavanaugh was asked more than 100 times about this scandal in 2004 and 2006. He testified repeatedly that he knew nothing about the source of the information; that he received nothing that even appeared to be prepared by Democratic staff; and that he never suspected anything unusual, or “untoward.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/brett-kavanaugh-misled-the-senate-under-oath-i-cannot-support-his-nomination/2018/09/13/ea75c740-b77d-11e8-b79f-f6e31e555258_story.html

[watoos]

1. This upsets me a bit,

Why not use the word "lied" instead of "misled?" How about, Kavanaugh is a bald faced liar?

[Nitram]

3. He's trying to persuade a few Republicans to vote "no".

He's treading carefully. It's called politics. If you yell at them and call Kavanaugh a liar you will persuade no one. Probably what your Mom was trying to teach you way back when. I know my Mom did.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. but we can yell

Our Senators need to know we're behind and beside them. We need to yell so they can tread carefully.

Republican Senators need to know we're opposed and it will cost them votes.

Be the big stick so Dem Senators can walk softly.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11102387
Senate DC phone directory [phone].

[Nitram]

7. Yes, we can shout and yell and march. But Leahy has a different and very sensitive role to play.

this is when we need representatives in the government who really understand politics as a persuasive art.

[watoos]

8. I'm glad you said "probably" because you know nothing of my life.

I was treading carefully, if I was speaking more forcefully I would have called Kavanaugh a fucking monster.

My opinion is that it is a waste of time coddling up to a monster. Kavanaugh is the most reich winged, partisan, pro corporate candidate to ever be nominated in my lifetime, and I'm 71.

Whistling past the graveyard isn't something I do. There is a reason that his nomination is being fast tracked, that his papers are being withheld, that the FBI is failing to investigate the DiFi letter.

Republicans are well aware of what kind of person Kavanaugh is, that's why they are voting for him.

[LakeSuperiorView]

11. Leahy isn't coddling up to a monster -he's talking to the rest of the Senate.

Kavanaugh is fully the cretin you describe him to be, but Leahy isn't looking to explain his vote to him, he's trying to persuade other senators to vote no. If one decides it is not worth it to participate when in the minority, that pretty much guarantees a BOHICA viewpoint on life.

[lagomorph777]

13. That annoys me so much! Please Dems, it's such a simple word - use it! "LIE!"

Pat, he LIED. Just say it.

[Stuart G]

2. Thanks for posting...K and R.. This should be the end of Kavanaugh if..

if there are two honest Republicans in the Senate..."

I make no claim that Kavanaugh is a bad person. But when his prior confirmation to our nation’s “second highest court” was in jeopardy, he repeatedly misled the Senate when the truth might have placed that job out of reach.

But emails I released last week show that then-Republican Senate Judiciary Committee counsel Manuel Miranda regularly shared obviously ill-gotten, inside information with Kavanaugh, which Miranda often asked be kept secret.

[lagomorph777]

14. Lying is fine for Russiapublicans. But will 100% of them vote for a RAPIST and GAMBLING ADDICT?

[New Hampshire Man]

4. Brett Kavanaugh misled the Senate under oath. I cannot support his nomination.

Duh.

[onetexan]

6. Need some GOP senators to come out and say this

not just Dems

[zentrum]

10. Will Never Happen.

[watoos]

9. I see nothing to convince me

that he will not be confirmed.

[mountain grammy]

12. Kavanaugh will lie, cheat and steal

just like every other Republican.. put him on the Supreme Court and he'll do much worse. He's licking his chops.. He HATES, let me repeat that, HATES Democrats. Not an objective bone in his body.

[Uncle Joe]

15. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Eugene.