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SEPTEMBER 24,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:44 P.M. ET: 

THE TV INTERVIEW – I watched Judge Kavanaugh and his wife, Ashley, being interview on Fox tonight.  I'd had doubts about him doing a TV spot before testifying Thursday, and my doubts weren't erased by his "performance."  He was very refined, very subdued, and came off as the decent man he is.  But I would have liked to see the kind of fire we saw when Clarence Thomas denied similar allegations in the early 1990s.  Maybe we'll see that fire on Thursday.  I hope so.  Fortunately, the Kavanaughs are lucky in their enemies – the obnoxious yappers of the Democratic Party.

ATTENTION ACCUSERS OF JUDGE KAVANAUGH – FROM THE GUARDIAN:  Just 10 minutes of light physical activity is enough to boost brain connectivity and help the brain to distinguish between similar memories, a new study suggests.  Scientists at the University of California studying brain activity found connectivity between parts of the brain responsible for memory formation and storage increased after a brief interval of light exercise – such as 10 minutes of slow walking, yoga or tai chi.  The findings could provide a simple and effective means of slowing down or staving off memory loss and cognitive decline in people who are elderly or have low levels of physical ability.  And you can tell what party you went to.

WILL SHE DROP OUT? – FROM MEDIAITE:  In the letter addressed to Sen. Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ford’s legal team cited Sen. Majority Leader’s Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) speech on the Senate floor on Monday afternoon as “flatly inconsistent” with Grassley’s promise of a “fair and credible process.”  “In our view, the hiring of an unnamed ‘experienced sex crimes prosecutor’ as Mr. Davis described in his email, is contrary to the Majority’s repeated emphasis on the need for the Senate and this Committee’s members to fulfill their constitutional obligations,” attorney Michael Bromwich wrote. “It is also inconsistent with your stated wish to avoid a ‘circus,’ as well as Dr. Blasey Ford’s repeated requests through counsel that senators conduct the questioning. This is not a criminal trial for which the involvement of an experienced sex crimes prosecutor would be appropriate.  Nonsense.  The committee can have any questioners it wishes.  The Senate makes the rules.  But I wonder if Professor Ford is laying the groundwork for a refusal to testify on Thursday.  That would throw the hearings into turmoil and make it difficult to hold a confirmation vote because her claim would not be heard.  No vote, no Supreme Court.

September 24, 2018       Permalink

LATEST ON THE JUDGE – AT 6:14 P.M. ET:  Judge Kavanaugh appears with his wife Ashley tonight at 7 p.m. EST on FOX's "The Story," with Martha MacCallum.  He will vigorously deny the allegations against him.

Earlier today, the judge made another vigorous statement in his defense, and wrote about the implications of this case for the nation.  From The Hill:

Brett Kavanaugh on Monday said he will "not be intimidated into withdrawing" from his Supreme Court nomination after a second woman came forward with a sexual misconduct allegation against him. 
 
Kavanaugh sent a letter on Monday to Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) — the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, respectively — saying the accusations against him are "smears, pure and simple." 
 
"They debase our public discourse. But they are also a threat to any man or woman who wishes to serve our country. Such grotesque and obvious character assassination—if allowed to succeed—will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from service," Kavanaugh said in the letter to Grassley and Feinstein.
 
"I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process. The coordinated effort to destroy my good name will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out. The last-minute character assassination will not succeed," Kavanaugh continued. 
 
His letter to Grassley comes after The New Yorker reported that Senate Democrats are investigating a sexual misconduct allegation dating back to Kavanaugh’s freshman year at Yale University.
 
Deborah Ramirez says Kavanaugh exposed himself in front of her during a dorm party at Yale. She told The New Yorker that Kavanaugh thrust his penis in her face, causing her to touch it without her consent when she pushed him away.
 
Kavanaugh was already facing a sexual assault allegation from Christine Blasey Ford, who says that at a high school party in the early 1980s Kavanaugh pinned her down to a bed and tried to remove her clothing. 
 
Kavanaugh and Ford are both scheduled to testify before the Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Kavanaugh has denied wrongdoing. 
 
Republicans and the White House are lining up behind Kavanaugh, signaling that they are publicly preparing for a fight over his nomination. 

COMMENT:  Great statements, but I don't know if they will be enough.  Smear campaigns work.  McCarthyism works.  No man should have to prove his innocence in this country, but in this kind of case the standard rules of justice are thrown out the window. 

We await tonight's interview, the testimony of Judge Kavanaugh and his first accuser, Professor Ford, on Thursday.

September 24, 2018       Permalink
 

MORE KGB-STYLE ACCUSATIONS – AT 12:30 P.M. ET:  The Kavanaugh confirmation case is getting more and more bizarre, and is starting to resemble something out of Stalin-era Moscow.  I suspect that some on the leftist fringe of the Democratic Party kind of like that.  From Powerline: 

Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer, writing in New Yorker, report that Senate Democrats are investigating a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh. Few who have been around the block will be surprised that another such claim has emerged just as the clock is about to strike midnight. If anything, the surprise is how weak this one seems to be.

The claim comes from Deborah Ramirez who attended Yale with Kavanaugh. It dates from the 1983-84 academic school year, when Kavanaugh was a freshman. In other words, 34 or 35 years ago.
I won’t attempt to summarize the New Yorker’s report on Ramirez’s allegations. Instead, let me point to several obvious problems with them.

First, Ramirez says she was completely inebriated when the misconduct supposedly occurred.
Second, she told the New Yorker she wasn’t certain what happened until “after six days of talking with her attorney” a former elected Democrat. According to Farrow and Mayer, “in her initial conversations with The New Yorker, [Ramirez] was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty.” But one can do plenty of brain washing in six days.

We’ve all heard of the “MeToo” movement. Now we have the “MeToo, My Democrat Attorney Thinks” movement.

Third, Ramirez doesn’t even claim she saw Kavanaugh do anything; only that someone yelled out that Brett had done something.

COMMENT:   The New York Times says that it tried to verify the Ramirez report over several weeks, but could find no corroboration.  And yet, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are demanding that the hearings be stopped until the report can be investigated.

Nonsense.  It's a tactic to delay and then destroy the nomination.  Thus far Chairman Grassley has not yet responded to the demand.

September 24, 2018       Permalink

PRESIDENT HOLDS – AT 10:45 A.M. ET:  With all the attacks on him and his Supreme Court nominee, the president is doing pretty well in the polls.  He's holding where he was last week in Rasmussen: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 49% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty percent (50%) disapprove. 

The latest figures include 36% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 42% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -6.

COMMENT: We stress that other polls have the president lower, but Rasmussen tracks only likely voters and does so every day.  I've found them reliable.

September 24,  2018     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 23,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:45 P.M. ET: 

ANOTHER ONE? – As many old hands predicted, a second woman has come forward to make sexual claims against Brett Kavanaugh.  One of his Yale classmates now claims, after 35 years, that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her and engaged in vulgar behavior at a dorm party.  No actual evidence is provided.  The accusation is revealed in a new edition of the New Yorker, in a story written by Ronan Farrow and feminist writer Jane Mayer.  Previously, Mayer co-wrote the book, "Strange Justice," a hit piece on Clarence Thomas.  Several former Yale students have already come forward to refute the new accusation, but already Senate Democrats are calling for Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings to be suspended.  That would mean Professor Ford's, yesterday's woman of the week, would not even be testifying.  I hope Senate Republicans hold their grand and continue with this week's schedule, especially as the new charge seems full of holes, and the woman making it appears somewhat unsure of the facts.  The timing, of course, is suspicious, but not shocking.  This is a show, after all, and this is the second act.

AND MORE DRAMA AHEAD – A third act is coming.  Michael Avenatti, known primarily as lawyer for the famous exotic dancer, Stormy Daniels, and a self-proclaimed possible presidential candidate in 2020, announces that he, too, will come forward with a new client, who will make "credible" sex charges against Judge Kavanaugh.  I have no idea where they get these women, in the last days of a confirmation hearing.  But please recall that Anita Hill, accuser of Clarence Thomas, also "came forward" in the final days of his confirmation hearing.  I guess that's what the playbook calls for.

EITHER DO IT OR SHUT UP – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg said he’ll decide whether to mount a 2020 challenge of President Trump after the midterm elections.
“Right now, I’m only focused on the midterms,” Bloomberg told CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on Sunday. “I believe that the Republicans have not done what they should have done in terms of providing some counterbalance to the executive branch.”  He added: “And then afterwards, you take a look at it.”  Bloomberg is spending an estimated $80 million to help Democrats take back control of Congress and counter Trump’s policies on gun control, climate change and immigration.  After the November elections, Bloomberg said he’ll evaluate how best to spend his time and fortune.  “And we’d see whether or not it’s possible and how I feel, but that’s down the road,” Bloomberg said of launching a presidential bid.  “There’s lots of possibilities . . . and lots of ways to make a difference.”  Reminds me of our late Governor, Mario Cuomo, sometimes called "Hamlet on the Hudson," because he could never make up his mind whether to run for president.  Decide, Mike, and send us an email. 

September 23, 2018       Permalink

A USEFUL PERSON – AT 1:52 P.M. ET: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has been one of the most effective commentators on the Kavanaugh case.  He states what appears to be true, that Professor Ford is simply a useful woman for the left to exploit before throwing her under the bus with all the other women that movements have used and abused.  From Fox: 

Christine Ford, the California professor accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault more than three decades ago, is "being used" by Democrats who have "betrayed her," Sen. Lindsey Graham told "Fox News Sunday."

Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also made clear that Republicans "are not going to turn the hearing over to her lawyers" by allowing them to dictate which witnesses to call, or in what order to call the witnesses. If Ford's lawyer's persist, Graham said, "there won't be a hearing."

The South Carolina Republican specifically took an apparent shot at Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who received Ford's allegations in a confidential letter in July through a Northern California congresswoman. Ford only went public last week after news of the letter's existence leaked to the Intercept -- a leak Republicans have linked to Senate Democrats.

"I want to listen to Dr. Ford," Graham said. "I feel sorry for her. I think she's being used here. If she truly wanted to be anonymous, the person who brought this allegation to the public owes her an apology."

He added: "I don’t know what Dr. Ford expected us to do with an anonymous letter. If she wanted to stay anonymous those who betrayed her need to apologize."

That criticism was echoed last week by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who wrote a letter telling Feinstein, "I cannot overstate how disappointed I am" in her handling of Ford's claims.

COMMENT:  That's on the money.  Dr. Ford is the flavor of the month.  Next month they'll be another flavor, but Ford will be invited to a chicken dinner or two.

September 23, 2018       Permalink

IT IS WRONG – AT 12:31 P.M. ET:  What is happening to Judge Kavanaugh is wrong.  Here is a man with a superb reputation, a fine family, and two daughters who must hear their respected father destroyed on television by fanatical Democrats eager for a scalp. 

I have no idea whether Judge Kavanaugh committed an offense.  I wasn't there.  But absolutely no credible evidence has been presented against him. 

No man has to prove his innocence in this republic.  The government has to prove you guilty.  But we seem to live in a time when the charge alone is enough to destroy a man's life. 

The term is McCarthyism.  You're seeing it played out before you on your television screens. 

And yet, consider this remarkable summation of the facts from Charles Cooke of National Review, as presented by Scott Johnson at Powerline: 

Well, we seem to have hit a brick wall. All four of the people named by Kavanaugh’s accuser have now given their accounts to the Senate. And all four of them have said either that Kavanaugh is innocent of all charges, or that they have no recollection of his doing anything — anything — wrong. Put as simply as can be, there is nothing in the testimony of any of the named witnesses that corroborates, supports, or even implies Dr. Ford’s allegations. Of the five people who were supposedly at the party, only the accuser has suggested misconduct.

COMMENT:   So why will there be a hearing this week?  Why are we about to see a circus?  Because the weak Republican Party has once again been sucker punched.  The Republicans on the Judiciary Committee could have conducted an investigation on their own, declared there was no real evidence against the judge, and proceeded with a vote on his confirmation.  But they fell for the "nice" game.  It's happened before.

September 23,  2018     Permalink