Thread by @Stonekettle

Our parents had Tricky Dick.

WE ended up with Toadstool Dick.

This morning, Trump begins with, "Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a fine man, with an impeccable reputation..."

Yeah, you know, Bill Cosby was a fine man too, right up until he wasn't.

1/

Businessmen, military leaders, TV personalities, Clergymen, how many were examples of fine men with impeccable reputations ... until they weren't?

Kavanaugh's reputation be dammed.

The point of confirmation hearings isn't to rubber stamp a REPUTATION.

2/

"...who is under assault by radical left wing politicians..."

Radical?

Tammy Duckworth is a radical?

Richard Blumenthal, Bob Casey, Patty Murray, Tammy Baldwin, Mark Warner, Clair McCaskill, these are left-wing radicals?

Really?

Radicals you say.

Hmmm.

3/

"... who don’t want to know the answers..."

But, isn't that the whole point of confirmation hearings, to get answers? Isn't that why our Founders created this system in the first place? To get answers?

Isn't that EXACTLY what these so-called radicals are demanding?

4/

"...they just want to destroy and delay."

Destroy ... how?

A Justice will likely sit on the Supreme Court for DECADES. Most of us will be dead by the time Kavanaugh leaves the bench. This appointment will shape the face of America.

5/

We should rush?

We should appoint him on his REPUTATION?

We shouldn't ask questions?

A small delay NOW to gather more information, after Republicans delayed for more than a YEAR when Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the bench, this is suddenly destruction?

6/

Why? What happens, does Kavanaugh explode if he's not confirmed right now?

What happens if he's told no? Because that seems to be a problem with Kavanaugh, doesn't it? Taking no, wait, for an answer, doesn't it?

Isn't THAT the very question here?

Well, isn't it?

7/

"Facts don’t matter."

Facts don't matter?

Facts.

Don't matter. He says this sarcastically, as if facts actually mattered to him, or to Republicans in Congress, or to his base.

8/

Fact don't matter. No, they sure don't. What does then? Reputation? Partisanship? Owning the libs? The word of another privileged white man in power?

9/

Trump's insinuation? This one: "I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents."

Does THAT matter?

Matters to me, it does.

10/

"I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!"

Is that what matters? Is that the nation we are?"

Is it?

It is? Interesting. Interesting. And I have to wonder about ganders and gooses now. But I digress.

11/

"I go through this with them every single day in D.C."

He's the one who covered up his own past, his own collusion, his own financial records. If he's got nothing to hide, he could end the opposition anytime he wanted.

And there's that gander again, silly goose.

12/

He could bring his own records forward, exactly as he demands from Dr. Ford, exactly has he demanded from Obama.

But he won't.

Of course he won't, because facts, proof, reputation, integrity, truth, leadership, all of those thing are for others, not Trump.

13/

Instead he wonders why a 17-year-old girl didn't call the FBI 30 years ago. Blame the victim, the time-honored goto move of sexual predators everywhere -- and really who would know better than Trump?

14/

Snark aside, honestly? I don't know who or what Brett Kavanaugh really is.

Reputation be damned.

Heresy be dammed.

Conspiracy be dammed.

Insinuation be dammed.

This is America -- this is still America, despite all efforts to the contrary.

15/

Brett Kavanaugh has the right to face his accuser.

He has a right to his own defense, to prove his innocence before America. If he wants that job, the one where he shapes the future of America, he not only has a right, he has a DUTY to America. To us.

16/

Kavanaugh has a duty to us, to the future, to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt who and what he is.

Reputation be damned.

Facts DO matter. We, you and I, WE have a duty to demand those facts, that truth, all of the records, all of the witnesses, however long it takes.

17/

The accuser has a right to confront her attacker.

Christine Blasey Ford has a right to justice no matter how late, to demand her voice be heard, a right to stand before Congress and object, to tell her story, to make America aware.

She has that right.

Maybe a duty.

18/

BUT unlike Kavanaugh who seeks a lifetime office over us all, for Ford, duty is a personal thing. It's not for us to tell her what her duty is. That's for her to decide. That's her right.

OUR duty is to give her that choice and stand behind her whatever she may decide.

19/

Ultimately, it is Congress, the Senate, whose duty this is.

These men, these women, they are charged by the Constitution, by America itself, by their own oath to this nation, to find the truth whatever that may be, wherever it leads.

20/

This is their sacred obligation, though many of them seem to have forgotten.

I strongly, STRONGLY, suggest that you remind them.

If you want a better a nation, be a better citizen. Loudly.

NOW is the time to stand up.

This, right now, THIS is the moment.

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Addendum:

Correction: 15, not 17. Along with the several other typos. Apologies. Twitter still doesn't have an edit function, thus I'll just have to play it as it lies. //

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