(09-28-2018, 12:53 AM)TJBender Wrote: The American Bar Association, which Kavanaugh brought up repeatedly as proof of his character, has called for an FBI inquiry before confirmation.

That says more about the American Bas association than it does about the fact pattern in the current case.  I think that Lindsey Graham said it best, you wouldn't be able to get a warrant based on what we now know.  The idea that you are going to have a Federal investigative body take up a 36 year old case with no time, location, and all witnesses express no recollection is laughable.  It's amazing that with the alleged 'PREDATOR' on the witness stand for three hours the minority chose to use their time for cross examination to advance the talking point that we need a further 'investigation'.  

1.) The minority had the opportunity to participate with the committee chairman as they actually conducted a senate investigation, under their constitutional role to provide advise and consent, into these matters, interviewed the relevant parties, established a timeline and also investigated subsequent claims.  
2.) As Judge Kavanaugh pointed out, all the FBI would do is take witness statements and then report back to the committee so that the senators could then make their own conclusions and recommendations.  The senators already have sworn statements from all the relevant parties.  Under threat of perjury is under the threat of perjury.  If its sworn to a Senate Committee or sworn to the FBI the legal consequences are the same.  Would the minority have us believe that the FBI on the back of a windbreaker is going to job someone's memory?
3.) The Minority spent a lot of time today and in the recent weeks talking about Anita Hill.  Somehow they all failed to mention that in her case the FBI found no corroboration to support her claims?  That was a contemporaneous investigation under federal jurisdiction because the alleged incidents happened while Clearance Thomas was an employee of the EEOC, they FBI found nothing that the left is still trying to push this crap from 1991.  
4.) There's a process by which the minority could have brought this to the attention of the committee and kept the confidentiality of Dr. Ford while having a more in depth and thorough investigation and expanding the FBI's Due diligence through the course of regular order.  Instead the Minority and the ranking member chose to hold this back as a last ditch political effort to destroy this guys life.  
5.) The Minority had Kavanaugh himself on the stand for some three hours and they couldn't lay a glove on him.  this talking point is advanced not because they think that there will be any meaningful evidence or facts that emerge from further scrutiny its to a.) excuse the gaps in the narrative being advanced and b.) an admission that even though they've destroyed the life of the nominee, they haven't achieved their political goal yet so they might score some points by dragging a friend from high school with a alcohol addiction before the committee so they can destroy and humiliate him on national television about what a 'sloppy drunk' he was.  

This is disgraceful, this is childish, this is beneath the United States senate.  I will say this, if I were Grassley I would have had some retired FBI person or liaised with the current department during my investigation of the relevant facts.  Not because we missed anything, the nominee gave the most definitive alibi you can give sans 4 decades, but just to take away this last talking point from a discredited political party that demonstrated that there's nothing they won't do to regain the majority.   

---