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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas yesterday.  It's here.

SEPTEMBER 25,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:30 P.M. ET:

THE KAVANAUGH FARCE – We're supposed to be on pins and needles waiting for Thursday, when the judge's main accuser, Christine Ford, and Judge Kavanaugh himself, are scheduled to testify.  Still, as yesterday, there is no guarantee that Ford will show up, as her lawyer has all kinds of grievances with the Senate Judiciary Committee and with every man who has ever been born.  The committee has scheduled a vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation for Friday morning, something that also has the Ford forces upset.  Majority Leader McConnell has asked senators to hang around this weekend, meaning there could be a vote in the full Senate on Judge Kavanaugh.  The key here is that there is no guarantee he'll be confirmed.  There are three or four votes in doubt.

IS RUSH RIGHT? – Rush Limbaugh is saying that if Republicans can't push Judge Kavanaugh through to a confirmation, they will lose Congress in November because angry members of the GOP base will stay home.  I'm not so sure.  It's possible, just possible, that furious Republicans will storm the polls to block a Democratic takeover and make sure that the Kavanaugh farce is not repeated.  Indeed, I can see President Trump leading the charge.  He's great at that.  "Justice for Brett, justice for America!"  We hope it won't be necessary.

WELL, LOOK AT THIS – FROM BREITBART:   A plurality of Latino voters are “less likely to vote” for a candidate in the 2018 midterm elections who supports abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Talmud poll.  The poll, released on Sunday, found that 36% of Hispanic voters said they are “less likely to vote” for a candidate who “favors abolishing ICE” while 33% said they are “more likely to vote.” Another 26% said there is “no difference” and 5% said they were “not sure.”  After Democratic-Socialist candidate Alexandria Occasion won a primary against a longtime incumbent Democrat on a platform that included abolishing ICE, Democrats like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) jumped on board and called for ICE to be abolished.  Hispanics have the same safety concerns as anyone else.  This survey should dispel the notion that all Hispanics think alike. 

September 25, 2018       Permalink

GOP RALLIES – AT 12:58 P.M. ET:  Are the voters finally waking up to the vast deceit of the Democratic Party?  The results of a new GallupPoll suggests it may be happening.  From Powerline:

For some time, as I have written here more than once, I have been waiting for Americans to notice that the Democrats are crazy. I have puzzled over why the Democrats’ outrageous conduct doesn’t seem to alienate more voters. Financial interest is obviously a partial explanation, but it can’t be a complete one.

In that context, this Gallup poll is good news: “GOP’s favorability hits highest mark in seven years.”

Forty-five percent give a favorable rating to the Republican Party in a new poll by Gallup, the highest number hit by the GOP in the poll since 2011.

It’s also a tick up from the 44 percent polled who view the Democratic Party favorably.

While it’s only a one-point difference, it comes weeks before the midterm elections and represents a swing from previous polls in which more American respondents gave a favorable opinion of Democrats compared to Republicans.

Funny, you wouldn’t expect this from reading the newspapers.

The GOP’s rise is driven in considerable part by the fact that Republican-leaning voters are better disposed toward the party.

COMMENT:  I'm hoping that voter revulsion over what is happening to Judge Kavanaugh will translate into Republicans retaining control of Congress.  It is not certain, though.  The Kavanaugh story may be forgotten by election day. 

September 25, 2018        Permalink

THE WAYWARD PRESS – AT 11:48 A.M. ET:  That's the phrase the press critic A.J. Liebling used to describe American journalism, in the forties and fifties.  I wonder what he'd think today, as we watch some news organizations, like CNN, actively agitating to bring down Judge Kavanaugh. 

The American people are making up their minds about the press coverage, as Rasmussen reports: 

Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation has been top news for weeks, but voters don’t think the media is trying to do him any favors.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 47% of Likely U.S. Voters think when most reporters write or talk about Kavanaugh, they are trying to defeat his confirmation.

Just eight percent (8%) think most reporters are trying to help Kavanaugh win the Senate confirmation, while 37% think most reporters are simply interested in reporting the news in an unbiased manner.

COMMENT:  That's a devastating indictment.  A backlash against the left-oriented press is building.  It is long overdue. 

Jimmy Kimmel, the late-night so-called comedian, joked about cutting off Kavanaugh's male member.  Why is he still on the air?  In a better time he'd have been off in half a second.

The media is a mess.  Only public pressure, and a couple of well-publicized lawsuits, will improve it.

September 25, 2018      Permalink

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