Reporters and the Senate Judiciary Committee, mostly Dems do believe that Kavanaugh is lying. We know that bottom line that if K is lying, then that is disqualifying for a seat on the Supreme Court.
Some powerful statements from the Boston Globe on why we can not really trust the man who should hold being truthful to a higher standard.
Was Kavanaugh telling the truth?
Over the weekend, this Boston Globe editorial - Link to Boston Globe Editorial channeled what progressives across the country are saying: âKavanaughâs a liar. He lies about little things. He lies about big things. He lies under oath.â
Many Kavanaugh opponents have already concluded that he lied about his yearbook entries, his drinking, etc. So this exchange from â60â is going to get a lot of play on Monday:
PELLEY: If Judge Kavanaugh is shown to have lied to the Committee, nominationâs over?
FLAKE: Oh yes.
COONS: I would think so.
But on Sundayâs âReliable Sources,â Trumpworld insider Matt Schlapp blunted my Qâs about Kavanaughâs apparent dishonesty at the hearings. Schlapp dismissed fact-checkers and practically blamed the press for bringing this issue up. On the subject of Kavanaughâs drinking, he said "I could care less whether or not Supreme Court justices guzzled too much beer. I think weâre in a ridiculous place. We should be talking about his legal jurisprudence."
On Friday, another high-drama day on Capitol Hill, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake said he would not support Kavanaughâs nomination on the Senate floor unless the FBI did a quick investigation into the sexual assault allegation recently lodged against Kavanaugh. The accusation dates to the early 1980s, when the future federal judge was in high school. Kavanaugh denies the allegations, but a credible accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, described them in riveting testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
If Flake sticks by his demand, it may mean the GOP wouldnât have the votes to confirm Kavanaugh. With such a razor-thin margin, Republican leadership agreed to allow a week for a new background check Friday afternoon.
Any delay, and any real probe, is welcome. After all, a Supreme Court seat is a lifetime appointment. Investigators should try to track down witnesses who can help determine whether Kavanaughâs denials hold up to scrutiny. The issue here is as much his honesty in the present as what he may have done in 1982.
At the same time, though, itâs important to keep in mind that whatever any inquiry finds about that one incident wonât change the basic reality: Disqualifying information about the Supreme Court nominee is already hiding in plain sight. In such plain sight, in fact, that it takes a willful blindness not to notice it, a calculated effort to look the other way from blatantly deceptive statements dating back more than a decade and continuing through Thursday.
Whatever investigators finds, hereâs some of what senators would need to ignore if they want to convince themselves theyâre elevating an honest man to the Supreme Court:
ÂȘ In 2004, Kavanaugh said he was not involved in the handling of the controversial nomination of federal Judge William Pryor. That was a lie. E-mails later showed that he was involved.
ÂȘ Kavanaugh was asked if he was involved with a scheme to steal Democratic staff e-mails related to judicial confirmations. He lied about it. E-mails showed that he was involved.
ÂȘ In 2006, Kavanaugh was asked if he was involved in the controversial nomination of federal Judge Charles Pickering. He lied about that too and said he was not.
ÂȘ In 2006, Kavanaugh was asked about his role in the nomination of William Haynes, the Pentagon general counsel involved in creating the Bush administrationâs interrogation policies. He lied about that.
Then, on Thursday, under oath and with the nation watching, he made statements so preposterous that senators should view them as an insult to their intelligence.
ÂȘ He said the term âdevilâs triangleâ in his yearbook entry referred to a drinking game. Google it. It doesnât.
ÂȘ He said the word âboofâ referred to flatulence. Again, no.
ÂȘ Then there was his assertion that his yearbook description of himself as a âRenate Alumniusâ was meant only to signify his friendship with Renate Dolphin, a woman who attended another school and socialized with Kavanaugh. Other football players were described as âRenate Alumni.â We know what they intended to insinuate. You know what they meant to insinuate. Everyone knows. Senators may never be able to establish with forensic certainty that Kavanaughâs entry was intended as a sexual boast, but theyâre allowed to use common sense.
Now, some of those might seem like ticky-tack kind of misstatements. But the pattern starts to look overwhelming. As former FBI director James Comey put it on Twitter: âSmall lies matter, even about yearbooks.â The standard jury instruction, he noted, says: âIf a witness is shown knowingly to have testified falsely about any material matter, you have a right to distrust such witnessâ other testimony and you may reject all the testimony of that witness.â
Kavanaughâs pattern of dishonesty certainly affects how to view Fordâs accusation that he attacked her when both were in high school. She was highly credible as a witness, passed a polygraph, and, unlike Kavanaugh, has no demonstrated pattern of bending the truth.
But put aside that allegation for a moment, serious as it is. Forget about the FBI inquiry. You can believe that a Supreme Court nomineeâs conduct in high school doesnât matter anyway. You can believe that crass material in a yearbook shouldnât be held against him as an adult. You can even believe that maybe he genuinely doesnât remember the assault, which Ford says happened when he was very drunk.
Those are all separate questions from whether heâs been honest.
âObviously, if Judge Kavanaugh lied about what happened, that would be disqualifying,â said Susan Collins after Fordâs allegations of sexual assault came to light.
Unfortunately, the only way for senators to convince themselves that Kavanaugh hasnât already been shown to be a habitual liar is to lie to themselves.