The Commentariat -- Sept. 25, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
AP: "His Hollywood career and good-guy image in ruins, an 81-year-old Bill Cosby was sentenced Tuesday to three to 10 years behind bars for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, becoming the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be sent to prison." ...
... The New York Times story, by Graham Bowley & Jon Hurdle, is here.
Trump Attacks Kavanaugh's (Alleged) Victim. Mark Landler & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump accused Democrats on Tuesday of orchestrating 'a con game' against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh in hopes of stopping his confirmation to the Supreme Court and said that one of two women who have accused him of sexual misconduct as a student was 'messed up' and 'drunk' at the time. Dispensing again with the restraint that advisers have urged him to exercise, Mr. Trump went beyond defending Judge Kavanaugh into attack mode, saying that Democrats were 'making him into something he's not' as part of a strategy to 'delay and obstruct' his confirmation.... He went on to call it a con game a couple more times, and then spelled it out, 'C-O-N.' Mr. Trump singled out the latest accuser, Deborah Ramirez, who said in an interview with The New Yorker that Judge Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a drinking party while they were students at Yale University." ...
... Gang of Powerful Old Men Don't Have the Guts of One Woman. Elana Schor, et al., of Politico: "Senate Republicans have hired an attorney to use as a questioner of Christine Blasey Ford at Thursday's high-stakes hearing on a sexual assault allegation against ... Brett Kavanaugh but are declining to name her. Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told Politico on Tuesday as he entered the Capitol for a weekly GOP meeting that 'we aren't announcing the name for her safety.' Asked if Republicans have received any indication of threats to the attorney they're preparing to use, Grassley said: 'I don';t know, but I guess we're just being cautious.'" ...
... Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Republican Party leaders may be insisting that they will install Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, but Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is offering a blunt warning of her own: Do not prejudge sexual assault allegations against the nominee that will be aired at an extraordinary public hearing on Thursday. 'We are now in a place where it's not about whether or not Judge Kavanaugh is qualified,' Ms. Murkowski, a key swing Republican vote, said in an extended interview in the Capitol Monday night. 'It is about whether or not a woman who has been a victim at some point in her life is to be believed.' One of two Republican women in the Senate who supports abortion rights -- Susan Collins of Maine is the other -- Ms. Murkowski was always expected to be a critical vote in Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation process. But she is making clear that, beyond matters of abortion, she is deeply troubled by Christine Blasey Ford's story of a sexual assault by Judge Kavanaugh when she was 15 and he was 17."
Trump Gets Laughed off World Stage. John Bennett of Roll Call: "Other world leaders laughed Tuesday when ... Donald Trump began his UN General Assembly address by saying his administration has accomplished more than perhaps any in U.S. history. Trump smiled wide and looked around the hall as the laughter continued. 'Didn't expect that reaction, but that's OK,' he said. The laughter returned later when Trump turned to global energy prices. 'The United States stands ready to export our abundant, affordable supply of oil, clean coal and natural gas. OPEC -- and OPEC nations -- are, as usual, ripping off the rest of the world,' Trump said. 'And I don't like it. Nobody should like it.'" Mrs. McC: That's what happens when your audience isn't larded with handpicked nincompoops. Thanks to forrest m. for the lead. ...
... David Nakamura & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Trump declared Tuesday that his administration will reject attempts from other nations to impose constraints on the United States, vowing to take action in world affairs based on his judgment over how it would benefit Americans. In a speech before world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, Trump issued sharp warning to the leaders Iran, Syria, Venezuela and China over what he described as their rogue behavior. But the president also made clear that the United States under his leadership would not be bound in its affairs by the consensus among traditional allies and partners."
Maya Salam & Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "Survivors of sexual assault and their supporters stood shoulder to shoulder on the steps of New York’s City Hall on Monday, holding signs that read 'I believe Christine,' 'Misogyny bores me' and 'Block InJustice Kavanaugh.' In Washington, over 100 protesters were arrested after gathering in front of the Supreme Court and inside Senate office buildings. They were part of a series of protests across the country to show solidarity with Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez, women who have publicly accused Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, of sexual assault and misconduct."
Lara Bazelon in a New York Times op-ed: "Republican senators have no problem trying Dr. Blasey in the court of public opinion. Senator [Orrin] Hatch has already made up his mind: Judge Kavanaugh is telling the truth and Dr. Blasey is simply 'mixed up.' Lindsey Graham, another Republican committee member, told The Washington Post, 'I'll listen to the lady,' then immediately implied the opposite. 'We're going to bring this to a close,' he said and called the accusation 'a drive-by shooting.' And yet, they are apparently too afraid to speak to her face to face.... Come on, gentlemen. Man up." ...
... Caitlin Flanagan of the Atlantic on Georgetown Prep, circa 1982. "There was ... -- as there always is in top Catholic schools that wish to be considered on the same intellectual and social plane as the great Protestant schools -- a constant, grinding, and not misplaced sense of inferiority among many of the students.... In a boys' school in the '80s, sexual frustration was combined with a casual misogyny -- if not of deed then of word -- that the authorities were in no way concerned about.... In the midst of it all (the Georgetown Prep way, the frat-boy tradition, the Irish problem -- who knows) seems to lie an ocean of alcohol."
*****
Statement by the Management: When my close friend the Constant Weader (ret.) started this job exactly ten years ago, she thought she would be posting one or two political news items a day & a bit of commentary on each to put that news into perspective. Okay, maybe a little more during high election season, but just enough so that readers could leisurely contemplate the implications of the major news stories of the day. That is not how it has worked out.
Happy Days! The Starr Chamber Gathers. That's Brett Kavanaugh standing next to Ken Starr to the left & Rod Rosenstein on the right wing of the couch.
Axios: "President Trump will meet with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at the White House on Thursday, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a Monday statement.... 'At the request of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he and President Trump had an extended conversation to discuss the recent news stories. Because the President is at the United Nations General Assembly and has a full schedule with leaders from around the world, they will meet on Thursday when the President returns to Washington, D.C.[,' Sanders said in the statement.&" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Michael Shear & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, was considering resigning on Monday, days after private discussions were revealed in which he talked about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office and secretly taping him to expose chaos in the administration. Over the weekend, Mr. Rosenstein called a White House official and said he was considering quitting, and a person close to the White House said he was resigning. On Monday morning, Mr. Rosenstein was on his way to the White House to meet with Mr. Trump's chief of staff, John F. Kelly." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The story has been updated, with others added to the byline. New Lede Plus: "When Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, headed to the White House on Monday morning, he was ready to resign and convinced -- wrongly, it turned out -- that President Trump was about to fire him. Top Justice Department aides scrambled to draft a statement about who would succeed him. By the afternoon, Mr. Rosenstein was back at his Pennsylvania Avenue office seven blocks away, still employed as the second-in-command at the Justice Department and, for the time being at least, still in charge of the Russia investigation. What happened in between was a confusing drama in which buzzy news reports of Mr. Rosenstein's imminent departure set in motion a dash to the White House, an offer to resign, Capitol Hill speculation about Mr. Rosenstein's successor and, finally, a reprieve from an out-of-town president." ...
... Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein has told White House officials he is willing to resign in the wake of revelations that he once suggested secretly recording the president, but it is unclear whether the resignation has been accepted, according to White House officials. One Justice Department official said Rosenstein was on his way to the White House Monday and is preparing to be fired. But the official said Rosenstein is not resigning.... Amid the conflicting accounts of whether Rosenstein would resign, be fired, or still be in his job at the end of the day, it was clear that his position at the Justice Department had never been more tenuous. One Trump adviser said the president has not been pressuring Rosenstein to leave the job, but his resignation was a topic of private discussions all weekend. The person said Rosenstein had expressed to others that he should resign because he 'felt very compromised' and the controversy hurt his ability to oversee the Russia probe, according to a person close to Trump." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If Rosenstein goes & the dominos fall, we can thank the New York Times for its largely-misleading report about Rosenstein's supposed 25th-Amendment chatter. (The Times stuck by its story, but Washington Post & NBC News reporters largely discredited the story.) We can also thank the Times for exaggerating the Clinton e-mail! story, turning it from what it really was -- another case of Hillary's customary imperious disregard for rules that apply to others -- into a story of possible criminal malfeasance. ...
... Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "For all the morning's madness, there may have been an underlying logic. Over the weekend, as Brett Kavanaugh's prospects appeared increasingly imperiled, Trump faced two tactical options, both of them fraught. One was to cut Kavanaugh loose. But he was also looking for ways to dramatically shift the news cycle away from his embattled Supreme Court nominee. According to a source briefed on Trump's thinking, Trump decided that firing Rosenstein would knock Kavanaugh out of the news, potentially saving his nomination and Republicans' chances for keeping the Senate.... The leak about Rosenstein's resignation could have been the result, and it certainly had the desired effect of driving Kavanaugh out of the news for a few hours.... Trump is keeping his distance from the nominee. A White House official said he hasn't spoken with Kavanaugh in recent days. 'This is Brett Kavanaugh's fight,' the White House official said." Mrs. McC: The WashPo reports (linked below) that Trump phoned Kavanaugh Monday. Sherman has more on Trump's "thinking." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Sherman is right about Trump's "thinking" (or even if he's wrong), it makes a lot of sense for Trump to meet with Rosenstein on Thursday (as Sarah Sanders says he will do) & fire him then. Because, um, something else is happening on Thursday that will otherwise dominate the news cycle. ...
... Surprise, Surprise. Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump's legal team is calling for a pause of the investigation into Russian election meddling should deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation, resign or be fired. 'If in fact Rod Rosenstein does end up resigning today,' Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said on his radio program on Monday, 'I think it clearly becomes necessary and appropriate ... that there be a step back taken here, and a review, a review that has to be thorough and complete ... and basically a time out on this inquiry.' Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's lawyer and former New York City mayor, told The Daily Beast on Monday afternoon that he agrees with Sekulow's call for a cessation of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, in the event of Rosenstein's ouster --; which was reported to be near as of Monday morning." ...
... Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "If Trump does fire Rosenstein, there is a good deal of uncertainty who has legal authority over the investigation. And the most likely suspect, [Noel] Francisco, may be ethically precluded from supervising this investigation.... As Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman points out, Francisco 'is probably recused from the Russia investigation (at a minimum), because Jones Day, his former firm, represents the Trump Campaign (unless there's been a change).' According to Lederman, Francisco has thus far taken his ethical obligation to recuse himself from cases involving his former firm fairly seriously, as Francisco has stepped away from 'all SCOTUS cases where Jones Day represents a party.'" --safari ...
... David Frum of The Atlantic: "If the president can browbeat Rosenstein into resigning -- or even plausibly misrepresent the firing as a resignation -- Trump gains the power to bypass the Senate confirmation process under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. He can replace Rosenstein with any serving official previously confirmed by the Senate to any other job. The issue of 'Did he resign or not?' is likely to end up being adjudicated by the Senate Judiciary Committee -- the same body that has proven itself so uninterested in getting to the true bottom of the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.... The Trump White House has spread confusion in the past about whether appointees quit or were fired.... If Trump can sell the claim that Rosenstein resigned, he can buy himself substantial impunity for many months -- months in which the GOP may lose control of the Senate altogether. By the time a new Senate can reassert authority over the Department of Justice, the Mueller investigation may be long dead." --safari ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Since Rosenstein, according to the WashPo, has offered to resign, I think the point may be moot.
Kate Riga of TPM: "... Donald Trump on Monday affirmed his continuing support for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh despite the second allegation of sexual misconduct against him that surfaced Sunday, saying that it's 'unfair,' 'unjust' and 'totally political.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "Despite their public projections of unity, Trump and his aides behind the scenes see Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) as having been too accommodating to Christine Blasey Ford.... The president has said that Republicans are too easily manipulated by Democrats, that he is sick of Ford's attorneys getting their way and that he does not believe her accusations are credible, according to a Republican briefed on Trump's private comments. Trump told Kavanaugh in a call Monday that he remained behind him and wished him luck in an interview scheduled later in the day with Fox News, a senior White House official said. The White House found itself grappling Monday with a second crisis as well -- the uncertain job status of Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia probe and is a frequent target of the president's ire. Rosenstein is expected to meet Thursday with Trump, and it remains unclear whether he intends to resign, will be fired or will remain in his post.... The one-two punch over Kavanaugh and Rosenstein marked the start of a potentially consequential week and again plunged the White House into tumult...." ...
... I Was a Virgin! Lisa Moraes of Deadline: "Brett Kavanaugh tonight took to Fox News Channel to deliver a whopper pre-buttal to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who will appear Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss her sexual assault allegations against the Supreme Court nominee.... 'I did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter, and the girls from the schools I went to and I were friends,' Kavanaugh told The Story host Martha MacCallum in the pre-taped interview." ...
... Here's a transcript, via USA Today, of the full interview. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, is that Tammy Wynette standing by her man? -- a man who cannot contain his tears saying, a la Little Jack Horner, what a good boy was I. ...
... Really, Brett. What About This? Kavanaugh's High School Yearbook Page Boasts He Had Sex with a Specific Woman. Kate Kelly & David Enrich of the New York Times: "Among the reminiscences ... about sports and booze ... [on] Brett Kavanaugh's page in his high school yearbook... is a mysterious entry: 'Renate Alumnius.' The word 'Renate' appears at least 14 times in Georgetown Preparatory School's 1983 yearbook, on individuals' pages and in a group photo of nine football players, including Judge Kavanaugh, who were described as the 'Renate Alumni.' It is a reference to Renate Schroeder, then a student at a nearby Catholic girls' school. Two of Judge Kavanaugh's classmates say the mentions of Renate were part of the football players' unsubstantiated boasting about their conquests. 'They were very disrespectful, at least verbally, with Renate,' said Sean Hagan, a Georgetown Prep student at the time, referring to Judge Kavanaugh and his teammates. 'I can't express how disgusted I am with them, then and now.'... I learned about these yearbook pages only a few days ago,' [Renate Schroeder] Dolphin said in a statement to The New York Times. 'I don't know what "Renate Alumnus" actually means..., but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way....'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Brett, Schroeder says Brett & his friends were lying and did not have any sexual contact with her. Were you lying then or are you lying now, Brett? ...
... Brett Plays the Nixon Checkers* Card. Jeff Greenfield in Politico Magazine: "By appearing with his wife on Fox News on Monday night to defend himself against accusations of sexual misconduct, Kavanaugh threw himself into what Justice Felix Frankfurter called 'the political thicket.' He is seeking to rally support for his confirmation in the face of polls showing him to be an increasingly unpopular choice. There was nothing subtle about the choice of venue. Fox News is not only ... Donald Trump's loyal echo chamber during early morning and prime time, but it is also the network whose founder and most popular on-air personality were both fired for repeated acts of sexual misconduct. And it is the network whose former co-president, Bill Shine, now directs communication for the White House. The striking aspect of this strategy is that is makes no pretense about keeping Kavanaugh outside the boundaries of blatantly partisan political tactics.... By taking his defense to the news media, Kavanaugh has given an unmistakable acknowledgement that there is no difference between running for office and seeking a lifetime appointment to the federal bench."
* Checkers. Just what Akhilleus wrote in yesterday's thread.
.... Little Brett Horner Vows to Pull out that Plum. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh ... vowed on Monday to fight the 'smears,' saying he will not withdraw his nomination. 'These are smears, pure and simple. And they debase our public discourse,' he wrote in a letter to the senior Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. '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.'... Senior Republicans, led by Senator Mitch McConnell..., are closing ranks around the nominee, and they echoed Judge Kavanaugh's claims, accusing Democrats of running 'a smear campaign' to derail his confirmation." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "Gone is the calm jurist who did a lot of stonewalling in his earlier testimony, but didn’t lose his cool. Now, emulating many of his defenders, he&'s going on the attack and presenting himself as the victim of 'smears' and 'character assassination' by people in a 'frenzy' to defeat his confirmation.... And eliminating any mystery about the approach he will take on Thursday, he rejects both sets of accusations as not worthy of consideration[.]... Kavanaugh's resort to ... raw fear of the loss of white male privilege is a sign that he's staking his survival on a backlash from the Republican Party's conservative base that stiffens the spines of GOP senators and keeps pressure on the two Republicans -- Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski -- could actually kill his confirmation. But ... Kavanaugh [also] may well be making it clear to the president that he won't take a bullet for the team and go away quietly -- and that if Trump tries to withdraw the nomination, he'll be exposed to his own electoral base as a loser and a coward, unwilling to fight the character assassins." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As a few pundits have pointed out, Supreme Court nominees don't go on the teevee. The Fox "News" interview was an unprecedented attempt to get a big promotion. ...
... Elaina Plott of the Atlantic: "On Monday morning, the White House hastily arranged a conference call with surrogates across the country to address the latest sexual-misconduct allegations levied against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. According to a source on the call, it was an unwelcome start to the day: Republicans had begun to breathe easier over the weekend, with Kavanaugh's second hearing finally confirmed. But a New Yorker story published Sunday night prompted yet another round of doubt about Kavanaugh's fate.... The White House was scrambling to assure its supporters that nothing had changed. The Republican line? 'Plow ahead.' That's how a staffer for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put it, according to the source on the call. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who was also on the line, called the New Yorker story a 'smear,' part of a 'vast left-wing conspiracy' to take down Kavanaugh for his judicial ideology.... According to emails shared with me, the White House also sent surrogates a series of tweets from Senator Lindsey Graham encouraging Republicans to hold the line." ...
... Don't Blame Republicans. Jesus Made Them Do It. Dylan Scott of Vox: "While Democrats are appalled, Republicans are listening to a different drummer: the conservative grassroots. Those voters want their Supreme Court justice confirmed, or else they are threatening to stay home on Election Day -- and that really could put the Republican majority at risk. Evangelicals are maybe the single cohort most loyal to Trump and therefore crucial in midterm elections, which will be a referendum on the president. They were already warning Republicans not to withdraw Kavanaugh or else risk electoral disaster before [Deborah] Ramirez came forward. They don't sound likely to change course now." ...
... Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "The Senate Judiciary Committee contacted Michael Avenatti after the lawyer claimed to represent a client who has damaging information about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Chris Woodyard & Jorge Ortiz of USA Today: "A third woman accusing ... Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct will come forward in the next 48 hours, according to Michael Avenatti.... Following a Monday hearing over [Stormy] Daniels' lawsuit against Trump and ... Michael Cohen over a hush-money deal, Avenatti told reporters he has been hired by a former employee of both the State Department and the U.S. Mint who has information of a sexual nature about Kavanaugh and his high school friend Mark Judge. 'It will relate to how they behaved at countless house parties," Avenatti said." ...
... Teevee pundit John Heilemann remembers Kavanaugh buddy Mark Judge: "Mark Judge in 1987-88 frequented a bar where John was then a bartender: 'He was an obnoxious, slovenly, disrespectful, thuggish drunk.'" -- Sahil Kapur, in a tweet ...
... Brian Karem of the (Montgomery County, Maryland) Sentinel: "Investigators in Montgomery County confirmed Monday they're aware of a potential second sexual assault complaint in the county against former Georgetown Prep student and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. While investigators weren't specific and spoke on background, they said they are looking at allegations against Kavanaugh during his senior year in high school after an anonymous witness came forward this weekend. This would potentially bring the number to four women accusing Kavanaugh of wrongdoing and comes after Deborah Ramirez, a former Yale college student, stepped forward this weekend to accuse Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her in college, and after attorney Michael Avenatti tweeted out a message saying he represents a woman with 'credible information regarding Judge Kavanaugh and Mark Judge.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Steven Nelson of the Washington Examiner: "The chief of police in Montgomery County, Md., says his officers are not looking into sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, appearing to contradict a local news report that 'investigators' were looking at a potential second high school misconduct allegation.... The local publication did not identify the 'investigators' as police, but ordinarily police would investigate an alleged crime before a decision on whether to prosecute." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Amnesty International: "Amnesty International USA [Monday] called on a halt to a vote on President Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States unless and until any information relevant to Kavanaugh's possible involvement in human rights violations -- including in relation to the U.S. government's use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, such as during the CIA detention program -- is declassified and made public." ...
... Sometimes Smear Campaigns Don't Go All That Well
... Adam Raymond of New York: The Republican National Committee published a list of "7 very serious problems with the New Yorker story" about Deborah Ramirez's allegations against Brett Kavanaugh. No 5: "The accuser is supposedly 'not politically motivated,' but is a registered Democrat who also 'works toward human rights, social justice, and social change.'" Raymond: "In this context, working toward 'human rights, social justice, and social change' is a negative quality. The RNC is suggesting that a dedication to such things inherently puts one at odds with the GOP. We already knew that, of course, but it's nice to see the RNC admit it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... AND George Soros! ...
National Review columnist John Fund is offering "sincere apologies" for spreading false information about Kavanaugh accuser Deborah Ramirez. Last week, a number of false claims spread through RW media about Christine Blasey Ford, misidentifying her w/a women of the same name. pic.twitter.com/UycpC85Muf
— andrew kaczynski🧐 (@KFILE) September 24, 2018
... AND. Matt Shuham of TPM: "Two people [Louisa Garry and Dino Ewing, the former of whom starred in a recent Judicial Crisis Network ad supporting Kavanaugh] who signed onto a statement sowing doubt about the New Yorker's recent report of a second allegation of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh withdrew their names from that statement on Monday, emphasizing that they were 'not present' when the alleged incident occurred and therefore 'cannot dispute' allegations from Deborah Ramirez.... The New Yorker said in an update Monday that the statement had been 'provided by [Kavanaugh's] attorneys.' The New Yorker subsequently removed Garry and Ewing's names from the statement." --safari ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic: "Its becoming harder to view the hurry [to confirm Kavanaugh] as anything other than an attempt to move the process along without hearing the allegations.... Although Kavanaugh’s defenders have complained that these allegations are unfair because they emerged at the last minute, that’s in part because the process has been so fast. The White House has consistently failed to find weaknesses in candidates' resumes, and a more deliberate vetting process might have allowed them to be prepared for allegations against Kavanaugh.... The Judiciary Committee was also relying on press help from an aide named Garrett Ventry. But Ventry was a temporary employee, detailed from a conservative public-relations firm that helped push a bogus debunking of the Kavanaugh allegations. Moreover, he was made to resign after NBC News revealed that he had been forced out of an earlier job after a sexual-harassment allegation.... Kavanaugh may still be confirmed, but the rush has created conditions that both endanger his nomination and undermine any political gain Republicans sought to make." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Andrew Cohen in the New Republic: "This notion that Kavanaugh can convince America that he is innocent by producing his calendar from 1982 is patently absurd in a process in which live witnesses are barred from providing their insight about what Kavanaugh's life was like in those days. It wasn't going to fly when Ford was the only accuser. It's certainly not going to fly now that Ramirez has stepped forward.... The man who preached 'judicial independence' during his listless testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month ... spent parts of at least four days last week at the White House being 'prepped' for his looming confrontation with Ford. Prepped, that is, by the very executive branch officials whose presidential privilege claims he may be asked to adjudicate ... if he ascends to the High Court. That's not judicial independence. That's a conflict of interest.... Kavanaugh is being coached in great detail to clap together precisely the right phrases during his next round of public testimony that will allow Vichy Republicans like Susan Collins or Jeff Flake to declare themselves satisfied that he's not an attempted rapist." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "There is one thing that I -- who, like most Americans, did not follow his career pre-selection -- really know about Brett Kavanaugh: He is willing to fib to get a Supreme Court seat. When ... Donald Trump announced Kavanaugh's selection..., these were the first three sentences Kavanaugh uttered to introduce himself to the American public: 'Mr. President, thank you. Throughout this process, I've witnessed firsthand your appreciation for the vital role of the American judiciary. No president has ever consulted more widely, or talked with more people from more backgrounds, to seek input about a Supreme Court nomination.' Neither ... is true.... It sounds a little old-fashioned in the Trump era, but you are genuinely not supposed to pull up to a microphone in the White House and say stuff that isn't true. And you're not supposed to mislead Congress -- even if you manage to do so in ways that don't meet the legal standard for perjury." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Rebecca Traister of New York: "There is so much I don't know about what's going to happen next, whether on the Supreme Court or in the midterm elections or when it comes to the fate of the Trump administration or the future of the Democratic Party. But what I do know with absolute assurance is that we are living through a period in which women are enacting crucial, swift, large-scale social and political change. That change is happening whether or not Republicans push Kavanaugh through, whether or not Democrats take the House or the Senate. The change is not simply (or perhaps, not yet) about outcomes, but rather about expectations and what it's okay to talk about and when." ...
... Michelle Goldberg: "Regardless of what happens to Kavanaugh..., this scandal has given us an X-ray view of the rotten foundations of elite male power. Despite Donald Trump's populist posturing, there are few people more obsessed with Ivy League credentials. Kavanaugh's nomination shows how sick the cultures that produce those credentials -- and thus our ruling class -- can be.... In the rarefied social world that produces so many of our putative leaders, a young man who frequently gets blackout drunk, as Kavanaugh reportedly did, is a fun guy.... His story shows, in lurid microcosm, how a certain class of men guard and perpetuate their privileges. Women who struggle ceaselessly to be smart enough, attractive enough, ambitious enough and likable enough have been playing a rigged game."
POTUS* Insults Own Citizens. Ken Thomas of the AP: "President Donald Trump on Monday declared himself an 'absolute no' on statehood for Puerto Rico as long as critics such as San Juan's mayor remain in office, the latest broadside in his feud with members of the U.S. territory's leadership. Trump lobbed fresh broadsides at San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, a critic of his administration's response to hurricanes on the island last year, during a radio interview with Fox News' Geraldo Rivera that aired Monday. 'With the mayor of San Juan as bad as she is and as incompetent as she is, Puerto Rico shouldn't be talking about statehood until they get some people that really know what they're doing,' Trump said in an interview with Rivera's show on Cleveland's WTAM radio." --safari ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is classic Trump projection. He knows his administration was criminally incompetent in its response to Maria, especially in comparison to its responses to earlier mainland hurricanes, so he calls a San Juan official so "incompetent" the entire territory must be punished. Instead of "Crooked Hillary," Trump's campaign "answer" to his own shady character, now it's "Incompetent Carmen." And, yeah, extra points for dissing another female leader. ...
... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Trump’s assessment brought a rebuke from Ricardo Rosselló, the governor of the commonwealth, who has been making a stepped-up effort to persuade Trump and Congress to support statehood in the wake of the anniversary of the storm. 'This is an insensitive, disrespectful comment to over 3& million Americans who live in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico,' Rosselló said in a statement in which he also lamented 'the unequal and colonial relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico.'"
Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "One of the biggest myths about global warming pushed by ... President Trump is that climate action benefits other countries much more than us. But a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change makes clear that, in fact, the reverse is true: There is only one country in the world, India, that benefits more than the United States when carbon pollution is reduced.... The study found that India suffered the most from additional carbon pollution followed by the United States -- and thus have the most to gain economically from climate action, whether at home or internationally." --safari
Rosa Smith of The Atlantic: "There's an eerie symmetry between Donald Trump and The Great Gatsby's Tom Buchanan, as if the villain of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel had been brought to life in a louder, gaudier guise for the 21st century.... [T]heir shared personality traits are the product of their shared relationship to power -- the casual unreflective certainty that comes from inheritance, and enables its holders to wield its blunt force as both a weapon and a shield. Such power has its own logic; it responds not to social or moral rules, but to what it perceives as danger. It's for these reasons that in 2018, The Great Gatsby reads like a warning. For as much as it is a story about the American Dream, it is also a story about power under threat, and of how that power, lashing out, can render truth irrelevant." --safari
Paul Krugman: "... Republicans have decisively lost the battle of ideas. All of their major policy moves, on health care, taxes and tariffs, are playing badly with voters. In fact, Republican policies are so unpopular that the party's candidates are barely trying to sell them. Instead, they're pretending to stand for things they actually don't -- like protecting health coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions — or trying to distract voters with culture war and appeals to white racial identity. The G.O.P. has become the party of no ideas." ...
... Andy Borowitz: "The Republican Party officially filed for moral bankruptcy on Tuesday morning, a move that many in the nation considered long overdue.... Harland Dorrinson, a Washington attorney who specializes in moral bankruptcies, said that, by making its moral vacuum official, the G.O.P. could theoretically break itself up and sell off the parts, but, he warned, 'There are no buyers.'"
Election 2018
Missouri Senate Race. Addy Baird of ThinkProgress: "Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, who is currently running for Senate against Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), put out an ad Monday afternoon touting his commitment to protecting people with pre-existing conditions, despite currently working as part of a lawsuit that aims to end protections for pre-existing conditions." --safari
Texas Senate Race. Daniel Drezner of the Washington Post: "Last Friday, [Ted] Cruz tweeted out that, 'Over and over again Congressman O'Rourke -- when faced with police and law enforcement -- he sides against the police.'" In his next tweet, embedded in yesterday's Commentariat, Cruz tweeted a video clip of O'Rourke speaking at a black church against the murder-by-cop of a black man inside his own home. Cruz comments in this tweet only "In Beto O'Rourke's own words." "The only possible reason I can see for showing O'Rourke's perfectly sane words without comment is because it has nothing to do with his words and everything to do with the visual. O'Rourke delivers this speech at an African American church, and the churchgoers react in an extremely energetic manner. That is the image that Ted Cruz wants his supporters to see, because he thinks it is the image that will mobilize his supporters into disliking O'Rourke and voting against him.... He thinks bigotry will get out the GOP vote in the state of Texas. As Marginal Revolution's Alex Tabarrok notes, 'It's shocking that Ted Cruz thinks tweeting this helps him. It's even more shocking if he is right.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Zack Ford of ThinkProgress: "Two different federal courts granted rulings [in Minnesota & Wisconsin] last week in favor of allowing transgender people to access the medically necessary care prescribed to them by their doctors. The rulings confirm the Affordable Care Act's protections on the basis of sex extend to transgender people." --safari
David Dayen of The Intercept: "The Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a university-based think tank funded by outside interests including the Koch family foundations, uses a private email server for its communications, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation. The setup allows Mercatus employees to have '@mercatus.gmu.edu' addresses, without the content of the emails passing through the university email system. Under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, emails from a publicly funded university could be considered public records, and having a private email server would help get around that requirement. The Mercatus Center at George Mason University did not respond to questions about why they have a private server for their emails." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Unsolved Mysteries. German Lopez of Vox: "If you murder someone in America, there's a nearly 40 percent chance you'll get away with it. If you severely assault someone, there's a 50 percent chance. And if you commit any other crime, there's a good chance you'll get away with that, too. That's the takeaway from the FBI's latest data on crime in the US." With charts. --safari
Elisha Fieldstadt & Adam Reiss of NBC News, & the AP: "A psychologist testified during Bill Cosby's sentencing hearing Monday that he is a 'sexually violent predator,' saying evidence shows that he can't stop himself from violating women and would probably do so again if he could. The hearing at a courtroom outside Philadelphia comes five months after Cosby was convicted for sexual assault against Andrea Constand, 45." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Update. Eric Levenson & Aaron Cooper of CNN: "Bill Cosby had potentially faced up to 30 years in prison, but he now faces a maximum of 10 years after prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to merge the three counts of his conviction into one for sentencing purposes. Prosecutors asked a judge on Monday to sentence Cosby to five to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, saying he had shown 'no remorse' for his actions."
Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "The world's most used weedkiller damages the beneficial bacteria in the guts of honeybees and makes them more prone to deadly infections, new research has found.... Glyphosate, manufactured by Monsanto, targets an enzyme only found in plants and bacteria. However, the new study shows that glyphosate damages the microbiota that honeybees need to grow and to fight off pathogens. The findings show glyphosate, the most used agricultural chemical ever, may be contributing to the global decline in bees, along with the loss of habitat." --safari ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Absent bees, we'll all die, people. Thanks, Monsanto.
Beyond the Beltway
Blake Paterson of ProPublica: "In June, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation mandating that all early voting sites in the state remain open for uniform hours on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., a move supporters argued would reduce confusion and ultimately make early voting easier and more accessible.... A ProPublica analysis of polling locations shows that North Carolina's 2018 midterm election will have nearly 20 percent fewer early voting locations than there were in 2014. Nearly half of North Carolina's 100 counties are shutting down polling places, in part because of the new law. Poorer rural counties, often strapped for resources to begin with, are having a particularly difficult time adjusting to the new requirement." --safari
E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "Delaware has become the latest state to take a hard line against offshore fossil fuel efforts, with a bipartisan push to protect the coastal state's waters from oil and gas development. Two bills allowing Delaware to both withhold permits from oil and gas drillers offshore and pursue legal action against them were signed into law on Thursday by Gov. John Carney (D)." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Kalinda Kindle of KTUU, Anchorage, Alaska: "On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Michael Corey dismissed Justin Schneider's case of kidnapping and first-degree harassment. Many Alaskans like Elizabeth Williams, say they are outraged by the decision. Williams said she started a Facebook page called NO retention for Judge Michael Corey that quickly gained traction urging Alaskans to vote no for the retention of Judge Michael Corey during the November election. 'We are also putting pressure on the assistant district attorney and we are saying why didn't you advocate for this woman,' Williams said.... Schneider was sentenced to two years imprisonment with one year suspended and will receive no jail time." ...
... Amy Wang of the Washington Post: Schneider was "arrested last August after police said he offered a woman a ride from a gas station, stopping on the side of a road and asking her to step out under the pretense of loading items into the car, choking her until she lost consciousness, then masturbating on her.... Schneider was given credit for a year under house arrest, meaning he would not serve additional time in prison.... Anchorage Assistant District Attorney Andrew Grannik, the prosecutor in the case who said he had made the plea deal because Schneider had no prior criminal record and seemed amenable to rehabilitation, according to the Alaska Star. Grannik had said in court that he had 'reasonable expectations' that Schneider would not offend again. 'But I would like the gentleman to be on notice that that is his one pass. It's not really a pass, but given the conduct, one might consider that it is,' Grannik said then. On social media, people seized on the 'one pass' comment and demanded that Grannik be given the boot along with the judge. Meanwhile, Alaska state officials have acknowledged the outrage but said that, while Schneider's conduct was 'very disturbing,' Corey and Grannik were constrained by sentencing laws." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Schneider is white; his victim is Native American.
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