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SEPTEMBER 16,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:55 P.M. ET: 

I won't do "Short Takes" tonight because I've been devoting the day to gathering everything possible on the Kavanaugh story. 

One thing becomes immediately clear:  At a time like this a president whose Supreme Court nominee is under siege needs allies, and President Trump has few friends in Washington.   He has made so many enemies with wild attacks on anyone who disagrees with him, and it's payback time.  Jeff Flake of Arizona, a pseudo-Republican who sits on the Judiciary Committee, has already declared that he's not yet ready to vote on Kavanaugh, given the allegations of attempted rape made by a California psychology professor.  Bob Corker, chairman of Foreign Relations, has added his voice to those calling for further investigation.  Both men are known to despise Trump.

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has also called for more inquiry.  Susan Collins of Maine, perhaps the most prestigious Republican woman in Congress, has not yet declared her intentions. 

We now know that the accuser was a Bernie Sanders supporter, and has signed anti-Trump petitions.  Her lawyer, Debra Katz, is a well-known "women's rights" attorney who had no problem trashing the women who made serious allegations against Bill Clinton.  It's the same old story:  We'll defend women as long as they're our women. We'll destroy those who aren't.

The charge that the accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor, makes are serious – attempted rape at a high-school party in Maryland in the early 1980s.  Kavanaugh was 17, eligible for trial as an adult for the alleged crime.  But Ford presents no evidence except her own word, and can't seem to answer basic questions about the event, such as the date or even month.

We know that Kavanaugh has withstood six separate FBI background checks for the various federal positions he's held.  He has never had a serious accusation lodged against him.  Some 65 women have already signed a statement in his favor.  The accuser's lawyer alleges that her client has taken and passed a lie-detector test, but that should have no bearing.  First, lie-detector results are not admissible as evidence.  Second, if she believes her story, even if it is false, she will pass the test.

Democrats see an opportunity to delay and possibly destroy the Kavanaugh nomination.  They dream of another Anita Hill show, complete with network TV coverage.  They might get what they want – we should know that within hours or days – and they are being pressured into that approach by their militant left wing.  But wiser Democrats may see danger.  A good part of the public will certainly be repelled by last-minute charges against a distinguished judge filed by a woman with a partisan political past.

The whole episode has a degrading feel to it.  I can't help but thinking that this is a new McCarthyism, a McCarthyism of the left:  destroy a reputation based on a charge, with no evidence needed.

Shame.

September 16, 2018       Permalink

MORE ON KAVANAUGH – AT 2:31 P.M. ET:  We've now been able to determine that Judge Kavanaugh's accuser is a research psychologist at Palo Alto University.  The university describes itself this way: 

"Founded in 1975 as the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, Palo Alto University is dedicated to improving lives through education and research anchored in psychology, clinical training and practice in a diversity of cultures, and service to communities around the world."

Oh, I see.

Kavanaugh has issued no further statements since the accuser went public through the Washington Post, several hours ago.

UPDATE, AT 2:58 P.M. ET:  She appears, based on newly published data, to be a legitimate academic, with a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.  She is widely published.  That says nothing about the quality of her accusation, but we try to be accurate and fair here.

One source says she took and passed a lie-detector test in August, given by a former FBI agent.  That tells us very little. 

Direct evidence is lacking.  Maybe something did happen, but it could have been consensual, or the account distorted.  These things have to be carefully adjudicated.  The story being told is that she was at a party, and that Kavanaugh's buddy also assaulted her. 

A party?  No witnesses?  Will someone at that party please come forward?  The story being told is that Kavanaugh, a high-school student, was dead drunk.  Anyone else notice?  Please come forward.

Short on facts, but what's been alleged may be enough to delay the Judiciary Committee vote on Kavanaugh's nomination, which is the objective.

September 16, 2018       Permalink

DEVELOPING – KAVANAUGH ACCUSER SPEAKS – AT 1:53 P.M. ET:  This has the potential to be a huge story...but the "facts" are very strange.  From The Hill:

The woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct has identified herself and is speaking publicly about her allegations against Kavanaugh for the first time, according to a Washington Post investigation published Sunday.

Christine Blasey Ford, now a 51-year-old professor at Palo Alto University in California, described an incident between the two in high school, alleging that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed one summer in the 1980s and forced himself on her.

Ford told the Post that Kavanaugh "groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it."

She also said Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth when she attempted to scream for help.

“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” Ford said. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”

Kavanaugh last week denied the allegations, which were first reported last week.

COMMENT:  We wait for facts.  I've never seen a story about an academic reported this way.  She's a professor?  A professor of what?  Maybe it's legit, but journalists always identify a scholar's specialty when reporting.

Other stories now coming in assert that she took and passed a lie-detector test.  Who administered the test, and what were the questions?

Why did she suddenly come forward?  Who pressured her?

It's being reported that she did tell others about the alleged episode, but not until decades after it occurred. 

It is possible the story is true, or partially true, or a little bit true.  But the initial facts are vague, and the story is breaking in the very liberal Washington Post.  Stand by.

September 16,  2018     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 15,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

THERE'S A TIME TO GET OFF THE STAGE – FROM BREITBART:  This week during a student town hall at Emory University, former President Jimmy Carter said he would change “all” of the policies of President Donald Trump.  When asked what he would do if he became president of the United States again, Carter said, “If I were foolish enough to feel I could be president again and I got to be president, I think the first thing I would do would be to change all of the policies that President Trump has initiated since he has been in office.”  He continued, “I pray for him fairly regularly.”  Carter explained, “If he answered my prayers, he’d have to change a lot of things.”  He added, “I hope he will do well if he finishes out his first term.”  Carter’s comments were given a standing ovation.  I guess then that Carter would repeal the policies that led to our booming economy.  This man should have retired before running for president.

SHOW SOME HEART – FROM FOX:  One China Eastern Airlines flight attendant is reportedly out of a job, months after accepting a viral marriage proposal from her longtime boyfriend during the middle of a flight.  On September 10, Channel 8 reported that the unnamed female flight attendant received a dismissal letter in the mail from the carrier over the May incident.  According to Asia One, roughly thirty minutes after take-off, the woman’s boyfriend got down on one knee at the front of the aircraft and popped the question. Accepting the offer, the two share a sweet embrace and the passengers applauded, in video footage that has since gone viral on YouTube...Now, her employment with China Eastern Airlines has been terminated over concerns that she “neglected passenger safety.”  Oh please.  The airline should have a heart, take her back, and send her on a honeymoon, with apologies for embarrassing her. 

THE FRAUD CONTINUES – FROM DAILYWIRE:  Socialists want everybody to get everything — as long as they get theirs first.  And socialists looooove money. Take Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who touts himself as a socialist. He's got three houses, including a shorefront house on Lake Champlain.  Same goes for the hot new socialist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She's everywhere now as she runs for a New York seat in the U.S. House. And with that comes money — and bling.  In a photo shoot for Interview magazine, Ocasio-Cortez was pictured wearing a $3,500 outfit as she posed with construction workers. She was decked out in a Gabriela Hearst blazer ($1,990), Gabriela Hearst pants ($890), and some Monolo Blahnik shoes ($625).  It didn't take her long, did it?  This story was always about her look, her glamour.  It has little to do with politics.  The turnout in her "historic" primary was 13 percent.  Her 15 minutes of fame will soon be up.

September 15,  2018     Permalink

NIKKI SURVIVES THE SMEAR – AT 1:21 P.M. ET:  The New York Times attempted yesterday to smear Nikki Haley.  They picked the wrong customer, and had to admit it.  From the New York Post:

Hours after posting an online smear of Ambassador Nikki Haley, The New York Times on Friday afternoon corrected the article to make it clear she had nothing to do with the decision to spend $52,000 on mechanized curtains in her official New York residence. Hours of criticism had left the Gray Lady no other choice.

The original piece, headlined “Nikki Haley’s View of New York is Priceless. Her Curtains? $52,701,” snarked about the expense in a blatant effort to make Haley seem like several other Trump administration officials (mostly ex-officials) who demanded outrageous taxpayer-paid perks upon taking office.

Besides noting the expense — $29,900 for the curtains and $22,801 for automatic open-and-close hardware — the Times report flagged the fact that the installation came at a time when the State Department faced deep budget cuts and a hiring freeze.

Only at the end did the article mention that the plans to buy the tapestries were made in 2016, by the Obama State Department.

It took hours for criticism from the likes of CNN’s Jake Tapper (on Twitter) to move the Times to acknowledge key facts. It turns out the whole apartment is new: Career State employees determined the UN ambassador’s official digs had to change after a Chinese company bought the Waldorf-Astoria, the old site of the diplomatic residence.

All the furnishings, including the curtains, were chosen by State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations — as is standard for US diplomatic cribs all around the world. Haley had nothing to do with any of it.

So, as the Times’ correction notes, “The article should not have focused on Ms. Haley, nor should a picture of her have been used.” 

COMMENT:  Good news organizations should adopt the caution used in the medical profession:  First, do no harm.

They do a great deal of harm and wreck many reputations.

In this case the Times at least ran a correction.  But the real question is how a story like that got published in the first place.

September 15, 2018        Permalink

THE REALITY – AT 11:30 A.M. ET:  We may not want to face it, but more and more I'm hearing people on our side saying that they're tired of President Trump.  They say that they applaud his ideas, his spectacular record of accomplishment, his speaking real truth to power, but that they can't take his personality.  They want a president they can be proud of.

I understand.  There are many times I feel the same way.  Why doesn't he talk about policy and just shut up about everything else, especially his petty feuds? 

It's a serious dilemma.  We're facing an opposition party where truth is never a requirement and where the presidential bench is on a junior-high level.  And yet we often yearn for someone who can carry the Trump message with the Reagan touch.

Rich Lowry, who has struggled, as we have, to support the president on his important journey, feels the same way.  We have the right message and a badly flawed messenger, and it is causing anguish.  From the New York Post: 

President Trump is showing it’s possible to preside over a period of peace and prosperity, and still be notably unpopular…

…In much of the recent polling, he’s dipped back under 40 percent after a steady, monthslong run of being at about 43 percent in the RealClearPolitics polling average.

He hasn’t done this with any spectacular misstep. What Trump has done, predictably, week after week, is mess up the easy stuff.

It’s not hard — through gritted teeth and insincerely, if necessary — to say the appropriate things about an American hero upon his passing.

It’s not hard to limit your tweets on the morning of September 11, for just a few hours, to the topic of the anniversary of the attacks and leave commentary on a recorded cable TV show for some other time.

It’s not hard to avoid attacking your own attorney general in public, repeatedly and in an escalating fashion meant to inflict the greatest possible humiliation.

It’s not hard to avoid throwing around the word “TREASON” loosely or to muse about changing the libel laws to exact legislative retribution on your critics.

Granted, it’s harder to build a cohesive White House team, but it ought to be easy to exclude volatile C-list stars from your old reality show and generate enough coherence to stem nonstop self-serving, backbiting leaks (let alone attacks on you in anonymous op-eds)…

It’s not as though any one thing — the Stormy Daniels affair, the Cohen plea deal and the Manafort conviction, the security-clearance controversy, the Omarosa book, the anonymous op-ed, the Woodward book — is as consequential as it’s portrayed in any given news cycle, but one damn thing after another adds up.

Trump has an amazing ability, through the force of his personality and his instinct for the mediagenic provocations, to blot out the sun. He wouldn’t be president without this quality. It’s just that, given the positive state of the country, less blotting and more sun are called for….

…An economic boom is a terrible thing to waste.

COMMENT:  Very well said.  Look, we're not goin' anywhere.  The president is pursuing good policies, and he's spoken truths that needed to be spoken.  But, like Nixon, many people, including his own supporters, simply dislike him and, like Nixon,  he faces an irrationally hostile press. 

There is no obvious solution, as Trump refuses to quiet down and grow into the office.  But 2020 is just around the corner, and I'd hate to see all the progress being made destroyed by the president's own personality.  His ideas deserve better.

September 15,  2018     Permalink