Posted on 09/29/2018 3:32:05 PM PDT by StAnDeliver
Brit Hume said on Friday that he knew both Kavanaugh's father and Blasey-Ford's father. Easy to understand how Hume would have known Kavanaugh's father (attorney and trade executive Everett Edward Kavanaugh, Jr.) and mother (Judge Martha Kavanaugh).
But Blasey-Ford's father? Ralph Blasey? At first one would think, well maybe through academia, or maybe another mid- to high-level functionary in the federal government.
Nope.
Ralph Blasey is a Republican's Republican. A GOP old boy described by the Washington Post as an éminence grise at Burning Tree Country Club, where Blasey was elevated over decades from legacy member to finally President of the all-male Burning Tree from 2004 to 2006.
Men-only Burning Tree Country Club has been a bastion of reclusiveness as one of the most-favored DC golf retreats for Presidents up until Ford.
Burning Tree has been in the news time to time for the Club's discriminatory practices against women.
Just earlier this year, Vox sub-sub-site The Ringer managed to work in Burning Tree in a remembrance of Augusta's Hootie Johnson squaring off against Martha Burk:
"In the case of a purely private institution, there was nothing to be done. If an all-male club like Burning Tree, near Washington, D.C., wanted to discriminate, and it stayed private year-round, it could do whatever it wanted with constitutional protection..."
But there was a far more revealing expose about Burning Tree in '03, just one year before Blasey-Ford's father Ralph was President of Burning Tree Country Club (excerpts by fair use):
"The Club opened in 1923 after, the story goes, a male foursome from the Chevy Chase Country Club was stuck behind a slow-playing group of female golfers.During its salad days in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, Burning Tree reeked of political power. Presidents were extended honorary membership: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, later Nixon, Ford and George Herbert Walker Bush (along with his impressive 11-handicap).
Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger played at Burning Tree, as did House Speaker Tip O'Neill.
Today ('03), easing into its 81st season, Burning Tree Club is a timeless place. That is to say, the past is omnipresent. There is a faded, sepia-tinged tone to the grounds; the antique clubs of famous men are displayed on the walls. The attitudes and prevailing world view are of a different time as well.
Burning Tree, you see, is an all-male organism, the classic old-boy, blue-blood men's club. The initiation fee is $75,000 and membership -- capped around 600, including honorariums and golfers past their playing days -- is by invitation only. The membership list never has been made public. But if you are a woman with the financial goods and the game, forget about it.
When Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981, she ended a streak at Burning Tree; previously, Supreme Court justices had always been extended honorary memberships to the club. Despite her polished 12-handicap, cultivated on the challenging layouts in Scottsdale, Ariz., O'Connor never crossed the threshold.
Among those that pass for the club's high-profile members...CBS newsman Robert Schieffer...and [the late] Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Most of the members are more anonymous lawyers, lobbyists and businessmen. The club, not surprisingly, tends to attract more Republicans than Democrats.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) was still amped. Winding into her seventh (or eighth) paragraph about the insidious nature of all-men's clubs, a reporter tried to wedge in a word edgewise.
"I haven't finished my thought," Maloney continued last week from her Washington office. "I think it is wrong. Some of our colleagues are members of these clubs and they should be pushing to change their policies. If the major national leaders of this country don't understand that belonging to these clubs is wrong … it sends the wrong message about values of discrimination and fairness."
While the press conference, attended by the now notorious Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organizations, was aimed at Augusta National and this week's Masters golf tournament, the House resolution introduced by Maloney and 14 co-sponsors also applies closer to home: Burning Tree Club in Bethesda, Md.
The non-binding resolution calls on top federal employees -- those in Congress as well as the executive and judicial branches -- not to join private clubs that discriminate on the basis of race or gender. Neither Augusta National nor Burning Tree were named in the wording of the resolution but it is well known that Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.) [was] a member at Augusta National and Senators John Warner (R-Va.) and Don Nickles (R-Oklahoma) [were] members at Burning Tree.
There are no women's facilities at the club. Female taxi drivers are not allowed inside the gate. When a woman flying a small plane crashed near the 18th hole in the 1950s, Burning Tree employees quickly secured an area around the pilot and wreckage until the police arrived, when she was removed from the barbwire-protected grounds. When a female Secret Service agent announced herself at the gate in the mid-1980s -- she was working a security detail for the visiting Australian prime minister -- she, too, was turned away.
Each December, however, wives of members are permitted to visit the pro shop -- so that they might select gifts for their husbands. The hours are 9 to 11 a.m. on weekdays, by appointment only. There are cashmere sweaters, with the imperial Burning Tree crest, golf equipment and Christmas figurines.
Jane Vieth, wife of member G. Duane Vieth, a Washington lawyer, told the newspaper's Style section, "I don't know what wives would do without it. It's such a great day-care center. It's simply wonderful for them to have a place to go, even if they can't play golf any more. There are a lot of them who've gotten sort of decrepit. They go to have lunch, visit with their friends and play gin rummy."
It is said the action at the cribbage table is sometimes more lively than on the course itself, which is neither long nor a particularly challenging par-71. The active local golfers, according to reports, constitute about half of the total members. There is no employee charged with making tee times; even on a Saturday morning in the spring, there are no lines. Members simply warm up and walk to the first tee.
The estrogen-free atmosphere comes at a dear price -- something approaching $1 million a year.
Back in 1983, Maryland's Attorney General, Stephen H. Sachs, filed a lawsuit against Burning Tree Club, claiming that its policy of excluding women was "arbitrary, invidious and irrational." The suit called for the Montgomery Country Circuit Court to revoke the real estate tax abatement granted in exchange for preserving open space. The state's complaint essentially argued that the tax break made the government a partner in sex discrimination, a violation of Maryland's constitution.
Before a woman judge ruled six years later against the club, Burning Tree paid only $13,000 of $186,000. After the judgment, members -- who declined to change the membership policy -- picked up the considerable tab which has reportedly risen to nearly $1 million per year for the property that is assessed in excess of $20 million."
Now in the present. There have been unsourced reports that Blasey is concerned that he would lose his Board position with another country club -- Columbia Country Club in Maryland.
In a statement to the Washington Post, Blasey-Ford's mother-in-law said she had "no idea" why the Blaseys have not shown public support for Christine.
But her blockhead husband couldn't keep his mouth shut:
"She didn’t always get along with her parents because of differing political views," Russell Ford said. "It was a very male-dominated environment. Everyone was interested in what’s going on with the men, and the women are sidelined, and she didn’t get the attention or respect she felt she deserved."
Wow.
Do you think maybe your wife, Christine might crave the spotlight to give Ralph the middle finger?
Do you think Christine would be the first daughter to intentionally fabricate a family embarrassment to a father who devoted his life to an all-male Country Club? Patty Hearst, anyone? Bueller?
Where he could rub shoulders with Presidents?
Where he could get the hell away from his wife and daughter?
Where he was treated with respect, a GOP old boy described by nothing less than The Washington Post as Burning Tree's éminence grise?
An all-male Country Club that Christine's mother would march her into the clubhouse once a year before Christmas to pick out a Club tie?
Did you grow to hate the Club, Christine? Did you grow to hate Daddy too?
Is that why you ran to California, Christine? Is that why you gravitated to Corcept Therapeutics, where you could help sell an abortfacient? Is that why you wore a pussy hat just this past year?
Did you gladly accept becoming the Blasley Black Sheep, Christine? Is that why Daddy hung up on the Washington Post - twice?
Is that why Brett simply reminds you of all the prep kids that made fun of your eyes being so close together?
Or was it the permanent resentment that Kavanaugh's mother, the Judge, saved your family from the humiliation of foreclosure, after having been brought to the brink of losing your house by. your. father?
BINGO!
Thank you.
“Jane Vieth, wife of member G. Duane Vieth, a Washington lawyer, told the newspaper’s Style section, “I don’t know what wives would do without it. It’s such a great day-care center. It’s simply wonderful for them to have a place to go, even if they can’t play golf any more. There are a lot of them who’ve gotten sort of decrepit. They go to have lunch, visit with their friends and play gin rummy.””
Yep, and Ralph ran the day care, while Christine wondered why she rarely actually saw her father, and never at work.
Her older brother Ralph went to Duke and excelled, she couldn’t get in and went to UNC - just barely making it out.
She’s Got a chip on her shoulder the size of California.
And she's been chipped away at too. Gravitating to Corcept was no random accident.
Ping.
Not sure that Paula Blasey is at fault here.
It sounds like she was a fairly traditional homemaker. It has been reported that she was also very involved in her Episcopalian church.
CBF was the youngest of three children, and also the only girl. My guess is that she was.a very spoiled rich girl who thrived on being the center of attention.
Some here on FR have speculated that she suffered some sort of sexual abuse at an early age. I currently don’t buy that theory. I think she was a rebellious teenager who made a lot of bad decisions.
I think were getting closer to what the real problem is, and it's not Brett Kavanaugh.
When this whole circus is over, I really hope that Friends of Brett deliver all the true (not slander) goods on Ford to the conservative media. She deserves every bit of her dirty laundry to be exposed to the public.
Agreed. It is inexcusable what she has done with the Democrats’ enabling. Regardless of whatever trauma she had in her past.
Bingo.
Outstanding post!
Send it to the BURNING RINO CLUB of four.
FORE!
!!!!!!!
Not blaming Mrs. Blasey but imagine as a kid being marched into Burning Tree's clubby-clubhouse-for-men-only the one. single. time. each year they would let women onto the grounds.
"CBF was the youngest of three children, and also the only girl. My guess is that she was.a very spoiled rich girl who thrived on being the center of attention. Some here on FR have speculated that she suffered some sort of sexual abuse at an early age. I currently don’t buy that theory. I think she was a rebellious teenager who made a lot of bad decisions."
"rebellious teenager" ... "bad decisions" ... "black sheep" ... "California" ... "work for abortifacient company"
Connect. The. Dots. You dance around it; and I edited it out of the original. Neither of us want to say it out loud (because that's just how good FReepers are) but it's the 800-lb speculum in the room...
She came from money. She has 2 houses in an expensive section of CA. She has not wanted for anything that money can buy. She grew up with the silver spoon.
She partied and had no qualms about rape parties. She was and is a rich girl. Spoiled and room to become whatever drew her. She is a flaming liberal, into the marches, abortion rights, hates the rest of us... and she sat down in that chair for the hearings and pretended she didn’t know much and was afraid. Poor little woman!
And she ended her testimony with an answer to the question from durbin.. “how sure are you that ____ is the one who ____ you?” She lowered her head into the mike and said “100%”.
that answer made all the rest a sham. She was positive about only one thing.. and that was to get Brett Kavanaugh! Everything else was a blur to her intoxicated brain!
Ping-a-ling
Post from Michael Savage on Christine’s CIA father.....
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