Social Circles

As I mentioned late yesterday to a contributor who is as sick of all this as I am, I started watching a British mystery series to escape the day's realities. It didn't work. When the fictional detective Vera goes to interview a posh lady who might shed some light on the victim's activities, the posh lady tells Vera, “Yes, I knew her, but I didn't know her well. We didn't travel in the same circles.”

So right away, I thought of Brett Kavanaugh. As Josh Marshall wrote yesterday, “Kavanaugh rested his aggressive defense on the claim that he and [Christine] Blasey Ford weren’t even in the same social circles and that he didn’t even attend parties like the one she describes in the summer in question.” Kavanaugh's exact testimony in regard to Blasey Ford was, “She and I did not travel in the same social circles.” Philip Bump of the Washington Post demonstrates, based on young Brett's 1982 calendar that Kavanaugh's assertion isn't true. His “gang” included a boy whom Blasey dated at the time. (Not coincidentally, the boy Blasey dated was the person Ed Whelan tried to finger as the "real rapist." Marshall suspects Kavanaugh himself had a hand in inventing this red herring.)

But it is also true that Christine Blasey was two years behind Kavanaugh in school,* and that does make a difference to teenagers. I can remember as a sophomore thinking that seniors were rarified gods and as a senior thinking sophomores were “kids.” The girls & boys in my “circle” were in my class. This seems ridiculous now, but it seemed like “proper order” to a teenager.

Kavanaugh was and is far more tribal than I ever have been. As Avi Selk of the Washington Post points out, Kavanaugh's tribalism was such a serious character flaw that in 2006 the American Bar Association downgraded his qualification rating because of it. At the hearing Thursday, he let fly the lunacy:

Since my nomination in July, there’s been a frenzy on the left to come up with something, anything to block my confirmation…. When it was needed, this allegation was unleashed and publicly deployed over Dr. Ford’s wishes…. This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit…. pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election…. revenge on behalf of the Clintons…. millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups.

In other words, grown-up Brett thinks it is fine to viciously and falsely attack, to their faces, people who are not in his “group” – even as those despised “outsiders” are interviewing him for a job.

I think it's fair to take Kavanaugh at his word on this one point: that as a teenanger he did not think of Christine Blasey as part of his “social circle” even if she was dating someone who was. She was two years younger, a “kid” who was a “hanger-on,” like “Judy's little sister” Carol (played by Mackenzie Phillips) in “American Graffiti.” And, given Kavanaugh's lifelong disdain for outsiders, it's also reasonable to suspect that young Brett thought it was all right – in fact, hilarious – to attack a girl whom he perceived as an outsider, someone who was not part of his “social circle.”

Rather than providing evidence that he did not physically attack Blasey, Kavanaugh's effort to distance himself from her supports the likelihood that he did attack her. As an outsider, she was fair game, just like the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee whom he repeatedly insulted.

Whether Kavanaugh planned to rape Blasey or to just give her a scare for the fun of it, as Kevin Drum hypothesizes, his attack on Blasey affected her for life. He did not care then, and he does not care now. In the tribal worldview of Brett Kavanaugh, the feelings, the dignity, the rights of those of us he has “otherized” do not matter. Kavanaugh's world is a narrow one, far too narrow for him to grant justice to any "outsider" who would come before him.

* Oops, I was wrong about this. It looks as if Blasey was only a year behind Kavanaugh in school. She is about 18 months younger than he.

The Commentariat -- Sept. 29, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times refute some of the tall tales Kavanaugh told during his confirmation hearings. ...

... Charles Pierce: "In plain terms, for all his spleen and outrage, Judge Kavanaugh lies about everything. In his earlier hearings, he lied about his judicial philosophy, and he lied about his days as a Republican operative, both in and out of the White House. On Monday, he lied to Martha McCallum of Fox News. On Thursday, he lied about his entire adolescence and his college days. He lied even when he didn't have to lie. He lied in preposterous ways easily disproven by common sense. (The 'Devil's Triangle'? 'Renate Alumnius'?) He lied like a toddler, like a guilty adolescent, and like a privileged scion of the white ruling class, which is a continuum with which we all are far too familiar.... And now, he is a couple of easy steps away from having lied his way into a lifetime seat on the United States Supreme Court. This guy is going to be deciding constitutional issues for the next four decades, and the truth is not in him." ...

... Michael Kranish, et al., of the Washington Post: Those calendar pages Kavanaugh provided to exonerate himself may be of interest to the FBI this week. Several entries tend to corroborate Blasey Ford's account. ...

... Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "Catholic University's president suspended a dean whose comments on social media this week questioned allegations of sexual assault against ... Brett M. Kavanaugh. John Garvey, the president of the university, said Friday evening in an email to the campus that the remarks 'demonstrated a lack of sensitivity to the victim.' Will Rainford, the dean, had issued a written apology Thursday evening for a remark he made on his university Twitter account that he said 'unfortunately degraded' one of the women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.... 'Swetnick is 55 y/o,' Rainford posted Wednesday.... 'Kavanaugh is 52 y/o. Since when do senior girls hang with freshmen boys? If it happened when Kavanaugh was a senior, Swetnick was an adult drinking with&by her admission, having sex with underage boys. In another universe, he would be victim & she the perp!'... Scores of graduates of the National Catholic School of Social Service signed a letter to the university's president, provost and board of trustees objecting to Rainford's comment and calling for his resignation." Rainford is dean of the School of Social Service. Huh.

*****

If you're unsure of how yesterday's drama went down, Chris Hayes has a good tick-tock:

Ellie Hall of BuzzFeed News: "... Donald Trump on Friday called Christine Blasey Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee 'compelling' and 'credible,' adding that he was not sure if Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court would 'continue onward.' Trump also said Ford, who alleges that she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh at a house when they were teenagers, was 'certainly a very credible witness.' 'I thought her testimony was very compelling and she looks like a very fine woman to me. A very fine woman,' he said. 'And I thought that Brett's testimony likewise was, really something that I hadn't seen before. Incredible. It was an incredible moment in the history of our country.' However, the president seemed less sure about the fate of his nominee, telling reporters, 'I don't know if this is going to continue onward or if we're going to get a vote.'... Speaking to reporters at the White House before a meeting with Chile's President Sebastián Piñera, Trump said that undecided senators must do what makes them 'comfortable' regarding his nomination, adding that he had 'no message whatsoever' for the senators who now face a vote to confirm Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court Justice." ...

... Nicholas Fandos & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Senator Jeff Flake, the lone swing Republican vote on the Judiciary Committee, said Friday morning that he would vote to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, ensuring committee passage and bringing President Trump's nominee to the brink of confirmation...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... The story has been updated. New Lede Plus: "President Trump, ceding to a request from Senate Republican leaders facing an insurrection in their ranks, ordered the F.B.I. on Friday to open an investigation into accusations of sexual assault leveled against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, his nominee to the Supreme Court. The decision capped a confusing day on Capitol Hill, where the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to advance Judge Kavanaugh's nomination, but only by agreeing to a last-minute demand by Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, to conduct a time-limited inquiry. 'I've ordered the F.B.I. to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh's file,' Mr. Trump said in a statement. 'As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week.' The decision in the Senate, made in a hurried closed-door meeting between Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, came after a dramatic reversal by Mr. Flake, who announced he would not support final confirmation until the F.B.I. investigates the allegations.... [Republicans] were still able to muscle the nomination through committee with an 11-to-10 [party-line] vote and send it to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation." ...

... Niraj Chokshi & Astead Herndon of the New York Times: "Two women blocking an elevator door, angrily demanding to be heard as a senator stood by, listening quietly, nodding and looking away. 'On Monday, I stood in front of your office,' one of the women, Ana Maria Archila, forcefully told Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona. 'I told the story of my sexual assault.' Mr. Flake had just announced his intention on Friday morning to vote to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, despite emotional testimony a day earlier from Christine Blasey Ford, who had accused Judge Kavanaugh of sexual assault.... Hours later, in a surprise development, Senator Flake said that he would not support confirmation without a one-week F.B.I. investigation into the allegations, as he joined his fellow Republicans in advancing the nomination. There was widespread speculation that the elevator encounter had played a role."Story includes transcript of the exchange. ...

... Flake Earns His Name. Elana Schor, et al., of Politico: "Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Friday brought Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination to the brink of victory, then into significant uncertainty, in a matter of hours.... [He] announced his support for ... Donald Trump's high court pick Friday morning. But after a dramatic series of closed-door meetings with senators from both parties, he said that he would 'only be comfortable' voting yes in the end after the FBI investigates a sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh. 'I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation, limited in time and scope,' Flake told fellow senators on the Judiciary Committee. The committee voted to advance Kavanaugh's nomination. The latest head-spinning twist may not stop Kavanaugh's nomination from coming to the Senate floor by this weekend. But Flake's maneuver drops a political land mine in the lap of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the White House, which now must decide whether and how to initiate the FBI inquiry Flake sought.... Key undecided senators joined Flake's calls minutes after he made his move. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he supported Flake's call for an FBI investigation "so that our country can have confidence in the outcome of this vote," as did Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)." ...

... Matthew Haag & Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "Mark Judge, who has been named by two women as being a key witness to sexual misconduct by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, said Friday that he would cooperate with any law enforcement agency 'assigned to confidentially investigate' the accusations. The statement came in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee after the full Senate decided to delay a vote on Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court so the F.B.I. could conduct an investigation of up to one week into the allegations.... Mr. Judge is now an author, filmmaker and journalist who has written for conservative publications including The Daily Caller and The Weekly Standard. He had active profiles on Facebook and YouTube until his name surfaced in recent weeks, but those pages have since been removed." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't know what the law on this is, but I'm guessing that if the FBI wants a person to cooperate, he has to cooperate except to the extent he asserts a Fifth Amendment right. BTW, when the photo accompanying the story, which is of Judge at his Delaware beach hideout, surfaced several days ago, I was struck by how much he & Kavanaugh look alike now. I wonder whose beach house that is: a friend of Don McGahn's maybe? Trump should have put up Judge in his international hotel in Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, but maybe he was too cheap to do that. ...

     ... Update: I was wrong about that. According to the Washington Post: "A background investigation is, by its nature, more limited than a criminal probe, and FBI agents will not be able to obtain search warrants or issue subpoenas to compel testimony from potential witnesses."

... Seung Min Kim & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Shortly after the Judiciary Committee convened, the panel voted down a motion on party lines by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to subpoena Mark Judge, a high school classmate of Kavanaugh. Ford has alleged Judge witnessed the assault. The committee then voted, again along party lines, to decide on Kavanaugh's nomination at 1:30 p.m. The votes prompted outrage from Democrats.... Underscoring the acrimony surrounding Friday's proceedings, a a dozen House Democratic women who gathered to watch the Judiciary Committee stood up in the room in protest." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Clare Foran of CNN: "Two red state Democrats facing re-election in 2018 announced on Friday that they oppose Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Jon Tester of Montana both came out against ... Donald Trump's nominee the day after Christine Blasey Ford testified that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s -- allegations that Kavanaugh vehemently denied." ...

... Bully Boys. Josh Marshall: "Kavanaugh's performance told us little new that we didn't know but was filled with rage, grievance and aggression. Senate Republicans were close to ecstatic in response and appear to remain so this morning.... Kavanaugh decided to emulate Trump -- right down to the conspiracy theories, casual lying and aggressive counter-attacks against political enemies. It all seemed to come naturally. And Senate Republicans loved it. The reaction alone -- to a performance that cannot possibly ever command even the most limited respect on the Court from those Kavanaugh explicitly terms his political enemies -- is the most telling political takeaway from yesterday." ...

... ** He Was Always an Obstreperous, Lying, Partisan Prick. Avi Selk of the Washington Post: For three years, Democrats blocked George W. Bush's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to a federal judgeship because of his partisan bias. During all of this time, Kavanaugh retained an ABA rating of "well-qualified." "But in May 2006, as Republicans hoped to finally push Kavanaugh's nomination across the finish line, the ABA downgraded its endorsement [to 'qualified']. The group's judicial investigator had recently interviewed dozens of lawyers, judges and others who had worked with Kavanaugh, the ABA announced at the time, and some of them raised red flags about 'his professional experience and the question of his freedom from bias and open-mindedness.' 'One interviewee remained concerned about the nominee's ability to be balanced and fair should he assume a federal judgeship,' the ABA committee chairman wrote to senators in 2006. 'Another interviewee echoed essentially the same thoughts: "(He is) immovable and very stubborn and frustrating to deal with on some issues."' A particular judge had told the ABA that Kavanaugh had been 'sanctimonious' during an oral argument in court. Several lawyers considered him inexperienced, and one said he 'dissembled' in the courtroom.... [Senate] Republicans dismissed the warnings." So Kavanaugh got his judgeship, confirmed along party lines. ...

... Roger Cohen of the New York Times: "What America saw before the Senate Judiciary Committee was an injudicious man, an angry brat veering from fury to sniveling sobs, a judge so bereft of composure and proportion that it was difficult not to squirm. Brett Kavanaugh actually got teary over keeping a calendar because that's what his dad did.... This is what you get from the unexamined life, a product of white male privilege.... He failed the job interview.... Kavanaugh has revealed himself to be a man without measure, capable of frenzy, full of conspiratorial venom against Democrats. Justice would not be served by his presence on the Supreme Court." ...

... Judge Wood B. Rapist Lies about Everything. Alanna Richer of the AP: "... Brett Kavanaugh has repeatedly said that he was legally allowed to consume beer as a prep school senior in Maryland. In fact, he was never legal in high school because the state's drinking age increased to 21 at the end of his junior year, while he was still 17.... The legal age in that state was raised to 21 on July 1, 1982; Kavanaugh did not turn 18 until Feb. 12, 1983. In a Fox News interview on Monday, Kavanaugh said, 'Yes, there were parties. And the drinking age was 18. And yes, the seniors were legal.' In testimony Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he said all of his comments during the Fox interview were accurate and could be made part of the record." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND please don't tell me Preppy Boy had no idea what the legal drinking age was. If there's one thing a teenager knows about the law, it's his own & nearby states' drinking age laws. ...

... ** Philip Bump of the Washington Post goes over a number of misrepresentations lies Kavanaugh told in Thursday's committee hearing, some of which were significant & others of which were just LOL dog-ate-my-homework ridiculous. "... either his yearbook entry is littered with repeated references to drinking, being sick from drinking and forgetting things because of drinking -- or each has an innocent explanation that doesn't jibe with the most natural understanding of the term."

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Toting up all the false assertions Bump cites, it's clear that, like Trump, Kavanaugh lies whenever it's in his interest to do so. So falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, yes. But there's another thing: Kavanaugh was, of course, under oath during his testimony. In fact, Sen. John Kennedy made a big thing about Kavanaugh's being under oath, beginning with the question, "Do you believe in god?" to which the Choir Boy answered in the affirmative. Then "in front of God and country," as Kennedy put it, Kavanaugh denied a series of allegations. Since Kavanaugh takes the oath to tell the truth so lightly, it seems fair to assume he takes his oath to defend the Constitution with all the seriousness Donald Trump does. ...

Dr. Ford's allegations are not merely uncorroborated, it's refuted by the very people she says were there. -- Brett Kavanaugh, during sworn testimony yesterday

... Calvin Woodward & Chloe Kim of the AP: "Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh misrepresented the record Thursday when he stated that three witnesses have refuted Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that he sexually assaulted her at a party more than 30 years ago. The three swore they had no recollection of the party -- providing no support for Ford's accusations laid out to the Senate Judiciary Committee. But their statements do not disprove the allegations, either." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: Isn't it a curious thing, the way all those Republicans take white boy Bart O'Kavanaugh at his word, but assume Christine Blasey Ford was "mixed up"? ...

... ** AND It Wasn't Only Lies: The Artless Dodger. Alvin Chang of Vox analyzes the answers: "There were several noticeable differences between the Senate testimony of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and ... Christine Blasey Ford. The most obvious was the tone each took. Ford was polite and quiet...; he was angry and loud in his denials of the allegations against him. Beyond the style of their testimonies, there was a striking difference in the content.... Only Ford made an effort to answer every single question. Kavanaugh actively dodged questions. He often repeated the same non-answer over and over. Other times, he insisted on answering a question with 'context' -- which inevitably was a long story about his childhood -- but never actually answered the question. We went through the transcript of the hearing and noted every single time a question was asked of Ford and Kavanaugh.... Then we noted every instance in which answered the question or said they didn't know the answer -- and we also noted every time they either refused to answer or gave an answer that didn't address the question. Here are the results." A chart! ...

... Melissa Healy of the Los Angeles Times consulted four experts in sexual trauma about Thursday's testimony. While the experts spoke mostly about the credibility of Blasey Ford's testimony (they all found it credible), here's what Kevin Swartout said about Kavanaugh: "He demonstrated a great deal of hostility during the hearing, especially toward some of the female senators on the committee. He had a contentious exchange with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) at the outset, where he cut her off mid-sentence numerous times. There was also the exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn), which he later apologized for, where he seemingly tried to flip the power differential by turning the question back on her. The results of hundreds of studies to this point suggest that levels of hostility toward women, which includes a drive to exert power over women, are positively related with levels of sexual violence." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: You don't have to be an expert or apply analytical measurements to the witnesses' responses to figure out who was lying. Why, even a U.S. senator (and most parents of small children) of average intelligence could do it! Blasey Ford tried to be "helpful" & she admitted to not knowing certain details. Kavanaugh shouted his denials, as if truth were measured in decibels; he whined about how "unfaaaair" the process was to him; he vilified the questioners & scoffed at their questions; he denied obvious facts; & he repeatedly evaded answering questions. ...

... Kevin Drum: "At the time [of his assault on Christine Blasey, Kavanaugh] may well have thought of it as nothing more than horseplay.... But when he was first asked about all this, he panicked and denied everything.... Once he denied the incident entirely, he had no choice but to stick to his story. Everything that's happened since has hinged on that one rash mistake. And this is what explains his almost comically angry testimony.... The Republican playbook has a page for this. Even before his appearance, there were news reports about the advice Kavanaugh was getting: he needed to be passionate, angry, and vengeful against the Democrats who plainly orchestrated this entire witch hunt. And that's what he did. Unlike Ford, his performance was highly rehearsed: his emotional tone was rehearsed; his lines were rehearsed (and then repeated ad nauseam); and more than anything, his angry insistence that he was the victim of a vicious liberal frame-up was rehearsed.... Republicans took his cue and gave speech after speech about the perfidy of Democrats who had planned this entire smear campaign." ...

... Tim Egan: "Story follows character, as the Greeks knew, and what we're seeing now with the Bonfire of Republican Vanities is the predictable outcome of those who enabled the amoral presidency of Donald Trump. The bargain was simple: Republicans would get tax cuts for the well-connected and a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court, and in turn would overlook every assault on decency, truth, our oldest allies and most venerable principles.... Oh, but the price has gone up. Republicans are left with a roomful of men standing athwart the #MeToo movement and yelling, 'Stop!' They are left with Trump, who outlined the game plan for sexual predation, saying women who remember atrocities from the past are part of a 'con game.'"

... Ronan Farrow & Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: "Throughout Thursday's Senate hearing ..., Republicans on the Judiciary Committee claimed that they had tried in vain to secure more information about other accusations made about the judge.... On Wednesday, several conservative-media outlets published leaks of some of the e-mail correspondence between [accuser Deborah] Ramirez's team and Republican committee staffers, which appeared to back up Grassley's characterization. But a fuller copy of the e-mail correspondence ... shows that a Republican aide declined to proceed with telephone calls and instead repeatedly demanded that Ramirez produce additional evidence in written form. Only then could any conversation about her testimony proceed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jonathan O'Connell, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Friday gave the go-ahead to a lawsuit filed by 200 congressional Democrats against President Trump alleging he has violated the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments while in office. The lawsuit is based on the Constitution's emoluments clause, which bars presidents from taking payments from foreign states. Trump's business, which he still owns, has hosted foreign embassy events and visiting foreign officials at its downtown D.C. hotel.... Trump is already facing a separate emoluments suit filed by the attorneys general of Washington, D.C. and Maryland that is moving forward. In addition, he is contending with the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian interference, a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General that alleged 'persistently illegal conduct' at his charitable foundation and a defamation lawsuit brought by former 'Apprentice' contestant Summer Zervos."

Mike Isaac & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "Facebook, already facing scrutiny over how it handles the private information of its users, said on Friday that an attack on its computer network had exposed the personal information of nearly 50 million users. The breach, which was discovered this week, was the largest in the company's 14-year history. The attackers exploited a feature in Facebook';s code to gain access to user accounts and potentially take control of them.... Guy Rosen, a vice president of product management at Facebook, declined to say whether the attack could have been coordinated by hackers supported by a nation-state. Three software flaws in Facebook's systems allowed hackers to break into user accounts, including those of the top executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, according to two people familiar with the investigation but not allowed to discuss it publicly. Once in, the attackers could have gained access to apps like Spotify, Instagram and hundreds of others that give users a way to log into their systems through Facebook."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 28, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Flake Earns His Name. Elana Schor, et al., of Politico: "Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Friday brought Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination to the brink of victory, then into significant uncertainty, in a matter of hours.... [He] his support for ... Donald Trump's high court pick Friday morning. But after a dramatic series of closed-door meetings with senators from both parties, he said that he would 'only be comfortable' voting yes in the end after the FBI investigates a sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh. 'I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation, limited in time and scope,; Flake told fellow senators on the Judiciary Committee. The committee voted to advance Kavanaugh's nomination. The latest head-spinning twist may not stop Kavanaugh's nomination from coming to the Senate floor by this weekend. But Flake's maneuver drops a political land mine in the lap of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the White House, which now must decide whether and how to initiate the FBI inquiry Flake sought.... Key undecided senators joined Flake's calls minutes after he made his move. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he supported Flake's call for an FBI investigation "so that our country can have confidence in the outcome of this vote," as did Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).... Soon after Flake announced his yes vote in the committee, Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) said he opposes the nomination."

Judge Wood B. Rapist Lies about Everything. Alanna Richer of the AP: "... Brett Kavanaugh has repeatedly said that he was legally allowed to consume beer as a prep school senior in Maryland. In fact, he was never legal in high school because the state's drinking age increased to 21 at the end of his junior year, while he was still 17.... The legal age in that state was raised to 21 on July 1, 1982; Kavanaugh did not turn 18 until Feb. 12, 1983. In a Fox News interview on Monday, Kavanaugh said, 'Yes, there were parties. And the drinking age was 18. And yes, the seniors were legal.' In testimony Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he said all of his comments during the Fox interview were accurate and could be made part of the record." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND please don't tell me Preppy Boy had no idea what the legal drinking age was. If there's one thing a teenager knows about the law, it's his own & nearby states' drinking age laws.

Seung Min Kim & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Shortly after the Judiciary Committee convened, the panel voted down a motion on party lines by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to subpoena Mark Judge, a high school classmate of Kavanaugh. Ford has alleged Judge witnessed the assault. The committee then voted, again along party lines, to decide on Kavanaugh's nomination at 1: 30 p.m. The votes prompted outrage from Democrats.... Underscoring the acrimony surrounding Friday's proceedings, a a dozen House Democratic women who gathered to watch the Judiciary Committee stood up in the room in protest." ...

... Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times: "Senator Jeff Flake, the lone swing Republican vote on the Judiciary Committee, said Friday morning that he would vote to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, ensuring committee passage and bringing President Trump's nominee to the brink of confirmation...." ...

... Ronan Farrow & Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: "Throughout Thursday's Senate hearing..., Republicans on the Judiciary Committee claimed that they had tried in vain to secure more information about other accusations made about the judge.... On Wednesday, several conservative-media outlets published leaks of some of the e-mail correspondence between [accuser Deborah] Ramirez's team and Republican committee staffers, which appeared to back up Grassley's characterization. But a fuller copy of the e-mail correspondence ... shows that a Republican aide declined to proceed with telephone calls and instead repeatedly demanded that Ramirez produce additional evidence in written form. Only then could any conversation about her testimony proceed."

*****

Thursday's Winner: Testosterone, Spiked with Male Privilege. There could not be a more belligerent, rude, nasty, arrogant, entitled nominee. No American should have to appear before that man. He is unbalanced & by no stretch of the imagination has the temperament to impartially judge others. Disturbed & disturbing. Someone should have asked him if he had been drinking Thursday morning. I'm serious.

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Republican moderates remain undecided on how to vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after nearly eight hours of testimony Thursday before the Judiciary Committee, according to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). Manchin, a swing Democrat vote, huddled with three of the undecided Republican votes, Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.), in a Capitol hideaway office before the entire GOP conference met to discuss how to proceed on the controversial nominee." ...

... Burgess Everett & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Senate Republicans are racing to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, betting that the Supreme Court nominee was persuasive enough in his denial that he sexually assaulted a high school acquaintance to counter the powerful testimony of his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to vote on Friday morning to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) then plans a Saturday procedural vote to formally move to the nomination, with a potential confirmation vote as early as Tuesday. Publicly, Republicans do not have the votes yet to confirm Kavanaugh, but GOP leaders seem confident they can push him through with brute force. Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) wouldn't say whether undecided Republicans would back Kavanaugh." ...

... Chuck Grassley has scheduled a Judiciary Committee meeting for 9:30 am ET. ...

... Austin Ramzy of the New York Times: "The American Bar Association called Thursday evening for postponing a vote on Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court until sexual assault allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford and others are investigated by the F.B.I. The request was made in a letter from the A.B.A.'s president, Robert M. Carlson, to the Senate Judiciary Committee's chairman, Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the senior Democrat on the panel.... [']The bar association urged that senators vote on Judge Kavanaugh's nomination 'only after an appropriate background check into the allegations made by Professor Blasey and others is completed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,' the letter said." ...

... Jesus Rodriguez of Politico: "Four Republican governors have called for the Senate to take its time with or even forgo a vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court ahead of a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill to examine sexual assault allegations against him. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, John Kasich of Ohio, Larry Hogan of Maryland and Phil Scott of Vermont are part of a small faction of Republicans who urged caution over three public allegations that have come to light since Kavanaugh's July 9 nomination, even as the majority of their colleagues in the Senate have argued for pushing through the process." ...

... Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post have a story on how pleased Trump was with Kavanaugh's & Graham's performances. ...

... Rachel Maddow did a great job of summing up the Kavanaugh half of the hearing:

According to Manu Raju of CNN, GOP Sens. Jeff Flake, Susan Collins & Lisa Murkowski met with Joe Manchin (D) directly after the Kavanaugh hearing & before the Senate Republican caucus meets. No link.

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "For almost seven hours Republicans sat silent, allowing an outside counsel to ask questions out of fear that they would look angry and insensitive toward a woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual assault decades ago. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) changed all that late Thursday afternoon. Waving his arms and pointing fingers at Democrats, Graham accused them of a character assassination of Kavanaugh. 'I hope the American people will see through this charade,' Graham said, shouting over and over again. From that point on, Republicans let it rip, roaring about Democrats and expressing sympathy for Kavanaugh after his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, fielded inquiries from the outside counsel about her allegations that Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were in high school." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Twenty-seven years after Clarence Thomas followed Anita Hill and declared the hearing at which they testified to be a 'high-tech lynching,' Brett Kavanaugh delivered his own angry, defiant response under similar circumstances. While Thomas's statement was brief, Kavanaugh's was lengthy, detailed, and passionately delivered. It also took pains to decry not just the process, but Democrats' role in it, specifically. Below is the full text, with our annotations...." ...

... Hayley Miller of the Huffington Post has more of Kavanaugh's "eyebrow-raising" remarks. ...

... Sheryl Stolberg & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "With her voice cracking but her composure intact, an emotional Christine Blasey Ford made her first appearance in public on Thursday, telling a rapt Senate panel about the terror she felt on a summer day more than 30 years ago, when, she said, a drunken Brett M. Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, tried to rip her clothes off and clapped his hand over her mouth to muffle her cries for help." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The New York Times' live updates of the Kavanaugh hearing are here. According to NBC News, Trump cancelled his scheduled meeting with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein so he could watch the teevee. ...

... Annie Karni of Politico: "White House officials were glued to their television screens throughout the building on Wednesday, watching the emotional testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee -- and cringing over the decision by Senate Republicans to hire a female prosecutor to question her. 'That's a disaster,' said one administration official. The official argued that Republican lawmakers had made a mistake by caving to the pressures of identity politics and hiring a woman to quiz Ford so as to avoid having an all-white male lineup of GOP Senators do the questioning. Trump allies also recognized the bad optics of a prosecutor seeming to interrogate a victim widely seen as sympathetic in a nationally-televised Senate hearing." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... New Lede: "... Donald Trump and his aides were ebullient Thursday as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh defiantly rejected charges of sexual misconduct -- a mood that reflected some relief after Trump officials conceded that his accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, offered a compelling performance in the first half of the day. Trump and senior officials were impressed by Kavanaugh's combative defense before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which the Trump nominee, alternating between fury and tears, called several misconduct charges against him a 'calculated and orchestrated political hit' and 'national disgrace' that had devastated his life and family." ...

... New York Times Editors: "What a study in contrasts: Where Christine Blasey Ford was calm and dignified, Brett Kavanaugh was volatile and belligerent; where she was eager to respond fully to every questioner, and kept worrying whether she was being 'helpful' enough, he was openly contemptuous of several senators; most important, where she was credible and unshakable at every point in her testimony, he was at some points evasive, and some of his answers strained credulity.... He gave misleading answers to questions about seemingly small matters -- sharpening doubts about his honesty about far more significant ones.... Perhaps the most maddening part of Thursday's hearing was the cowardice of the committee's 11 Republicans, all of them men.... If the committee will not make a more serious effort [to investigate the allegations], the only choice for senators seeking to protect the credibility of the Supreme Court will be to vote no. ...

... Washington Post Editors: "Mr. Kavanaugh contended that 'this whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election' and an act of 'revenge on behalf of the Clintons.' But he provided no evidence for his angry charge, and certainly Ms. Ford's testimony did not support conspiracy theories. On the contrary, she explained she tried to relay her allegations to political leaders before Mr. Trump tapped Mr. Kavanaugh, so that the president could consider another judge of equal qualifications, refuting suggestions that she is part of a Democratic plot.... His partisan conspiracy-theorizing was hardly becoming of a potential Supreme Court justice.... It would be irresponsible for Republicans to insist on an immediate vote. If they do, the responsible vote must be no." ...

... Doreen St. Félix of the New Yorker: "... what we witnessed was the patriarchy testing how far its politics of resentment can go. And there is no limit.... Alternating between weeping and yelling, [Kavanaugh] exemplified the conservative's embrace of bluster and petulance as rhetorical tools. Going on about his harmless love of beer, spinning unbelievably chaste interpretations of what was, by all other accounts, his youthful habit of blatant debauchery, he was as Trumpian as Trump himself, louder than the loudest on Fox News.... There was, in this performance, not even a hint of the sagacity one expects from a potential Supreme Court Justice.... What took place on Thursday confirms that male indignation will be coddled, and the gospel of male success elevated. It confirms that there is no fair arena for women's speech. Mechanisms of accountability will be made irrelevant." ...

... Alexandra Schwartz of the New Yorker: "'I love Kavanaugh's tone,' Donald Trump, Jr., tweeted fifteen minutes into Brett Kavanaugh's opening statement in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was referring to the judge's wildly emotional performance, in which he alternated between shouting, as he blamed the Clintons and the Democrats for conspiring to torpedo his nomination to the Supreme Court, and weeping, as he spoke about the pain that he and his family have experienced in the weeks since accusations of sexual assault against him became public.... Embedded in the histrionics were the unmistakable notes of fury and bullying.... What we are seeing is a model of American conservative masculinity that has become popular in the past few years, one that is directly tied to the loutish, aggressive frat-boy persona that Kavanaugh is purportedly seeking to dissociate himself from.... If Kavanaugh is trying to convince the public that he could never have been capable, as a teen-ager, of aggression or peer pressure, this is an odd way to go about it." ...

... Matt Ford of the New Republic: "Brett Kavanaugh's opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday was unlike anything in the Supreme Court's history.... [Kavanaugh] cast the [sexual] allegations, without evidence, as part of a grand conspiracy against him. Kavanaugh undermined his credibility as a fair-minded jurist by indulging in some imaginative leaps to attack Democratic senators.... His behavior on Thursday casts serious doubt on whether he has the temperament to sit on the Supreme Court." ...

... Rebecca Traister of New York: "The lesson of the United States in this moment is that misogyny and racism aren't disqualifiers. They are the qualities the right wing considers key to their larger project -- perhaps in fact, a main selling point. (Especially for their president, who today was reported to have loved Kavanaugh's blustering, aggressive attitude toward his questioners). After all, the reason that Republicans want to jam through Kavanaugh's nomination is that as a member of the Supreme Court he'll be able to help create the mechanisms that determine which kinds of Americans have rights, protections, autonomy, and power." Traister writes a devastating critique of Chuck Grassley's performance. ...

... Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "The strongest evidence that Senate Republicans want to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the nation's highest court, regardless of what he may have done, was the conspicuous absence of Mark Judge from the hearing they held on Thursday." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "I think Brett Kavanaugh is probably lying about having sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford, and many other things, and has decided from the beginning to say what he has to in order to fulfill his career ambition.... He has ... all but abandoned the posture of impartiality demanded of a judge. A ranting Kavanaugh launched angry, evidence-free charges against Senate Democrats.... He is consumed with paranoid, partisan rage. The method Republicans have used to defend Kavanaugh has consisted of suppressing most of the evidence that could be brought to bear in the hearing, and then complaining about the lack of evidence."

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "... Donald Trump and Rod Rosenstein have postponed until next week Thursday's highly anticipated meeting to hash out the fate of the embattled deputy attorney general. In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the two didn't want to distract from the Senate's monumental hearing Thursday morning examining sexual assault allegations made against Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh."

Eric Levitz introduces us to DOJ chief-of-staff Matthew Whitaker, who is likely to be appointed deputy AG if & when Rod Rosenstein "retires": "Here are a few things that he has publicly claimed to believe: Robert Mueller has no legitimate authority to investigate the Trump Organization's finances, and if he does (which, he has), 'then this would raise serious concerns that the special counsel's investigation was a mere witch hunt.' Donald Trump was right to fire James Comey -- because James Comey should have prosecuted Hillary Clinton[.]... (Whitaker has never called for any investigations into -- let alone, prosecutions of -- the Trump administration's many, many, many violations of information security protocol.) All federal judges should be 'people of faith' who take 'a biblical view of justice.' The Supreme Court is 'supposed to be the inferior branch of our three branches of government,' and has claimed far too much power for itself. Specifically, Whittaker says that Marbury v. Madison... was wrongly decided.... But if there's one thing Whitaker hates more than the Supreme Court striking down laws it regards as unconstitutional, it's when 'unelected judges' refuse to strike down laws that conservatives don't like[.]... There shouldn't have been an independent counsel's investigation into Russian interference because there wasn't such an investigation into the Obama administration's many scandals[.]" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mihir Zaveri of the New York Times: "The doctors tapped by the federal government to medically screen immigrants seeking green cards include dozens with a history of 'egregious infractions,' according to a report from a federal watchdog agency. The report looked at more than 5,500 doctors across the country used by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services as of June 2017 to examine those seeking green cards. More than 130 had some background of wrongdoing, including one who sexually exploited female patients and another who tried to have a dissatisfied patient killed, the report said. The report, made public Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, said the failure to effectively screen the doctors put immigrants 'at risk of abuse.' 'USCIS is not properly vetting the physicians it designates to conduct required medical examinations of these foreign nationals, and it has designated physicians with a history of patient abuse or a criminal record,' the report states. 'This is occurring because USCIS does not have policies to ensure only suitable physicians are designated.'"

Jon Herskovitz of Reuters: "A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld a Louisiana provision that requires doctors who perform abortions in the state to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. In a 2-1 ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, the judges said the Louisiana provision was different than one in Texas that was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 because it would not put an undue burden on women. 'There is no evidence that any of the clinics will close as a result of the Act,' the appeals court said in its ruling. The Texas law, whose language is similar to the Louisiana law, led to the closure of the majority of the state's abortion clinics and the number of women forced to drive over 150 miles to seek abortions increased by 350 percent, the appeals court said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yep, we're looking forward to two more generations of women as second-class citizens. If that.

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit Thursday against Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, accusing him of making false public statements with the potential to hurt investors. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, seeks to bar Mr. Musk from serving as an executive or director of publicly traded companies. Tesla, the electric-car maker of which Mr. Musk was a co-founder, is publicly traded. The suit relates to an Aug. 7 Twitter post by Mr. Musk, in which he said he had 'funding secured' to convert Tesla into a private company. The S.E.C. said Mr. Musk 'knew or was reckless in not knowing' that his statements were false or misleading. 'In truth and in fact, Musk had not even discussed, much less confirmed, key deal terms, including price, with any potential funding source,' the S.E.C. said in its lawsuit."