With World Watching, GOP Counsel Must Tread Carefully In Ford Questioning

[DonViejo]

By Allegra Kirkland

September 27, 2018 6:00 am

The last thing Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee want is a televised Anita Hill redux.

They are taking pains to carefully stage-manage the Thursday hearing in which Christine Blasey Ford will testify about her sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Rather than asking questions themselves, the all-male GOP members of the committee will mostly outsource that responsibility to Arizona sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell. Security has been provided to Ford, who received death threats after going public with her allegations.

But the California professor’s allegations are centered around the hyper-sensitive topics of alcohol use and attempted sexual assault, meaning Mitchell will have to tread carefully to avoid appearing to victim-blame or cast Ford as a liar. Attorneys who have represented victims in sexual assault cases told TPM that she will likely make an effort to grill both Ford and Kavanaugh in equal measure.

“This entire show is not for the truth, right, it’s for the show?” D.C. attorney Les Alderman told TPM. “It’s to convince constituents that they’re either justified in voting for the guy or not voting for him. So it’s all about sound-bites and it’s all about the perception of the hearing.”

“If the perception is it’s not fair—he was given softball questions and she was crucified—that’s going to be a problem for Republicans going into the midterms,” Alderman continued. “But if Ms. Mitchell is consistent with her questions of both, then I don’t think there will be a way to attack the process from that standpoint.”

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/what-lines-questioning-ford-kavanaugh-senate-hearing

[Nitram]

1. I am hoping that as a respected prosecutor of sexual crimes, this attorney will end up helping Ford.

She will have to ask some hard questions, but she also knows the right questions to ask to prosecute a sexual predator.

[Old Vet]

3. With all due respect, This PROSECUTOR is bought and paid for by REPUBS..

[Nitram]

4. With all due respect, she is a PROFESSIONAL who has devoted her life to putting sexual predators

into prison. I also preceded my post with "I hope."

[Nitram]

6. The Post reports that the attorney wrote a manual that recommends questioning victims of sexual

assault with a "neutral fact-finding attitude" placing "the best interest of the victim" first.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/career-prosecutor-brings-wild-card-element-to-kavanaugh-hearing/2018/09/26/d63d3b38-c1a4-11e8-a1f0-a4051b6ad114_story.html?utm_term=.b065c3a12f61

[bdamomma]

2. this is not a criminal trial

but those cowards on the Judiciary Committee are thinking they are going to get away clean from this, they are highly mistaken.

So they appoint a woman to question another woman, WTF!! They are cowards. Period.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

5. "It's for the show."

All the Repugs are doing is giving Dr. Ford the appearance of being heard. For their supporters, that will be enough. There's no search for the truth here -- only blind, naked ambition to get a radical right conservative on the SCOTUS, creating an unbreakable wall for the next three to four decades, after which we won't even recognize the United States as "that shining beacon on the hill" anymore.