Charles P. Pierce: None of These Developments Are Good News for Brett Kavanaugh

[babylonsister]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a23516986/brett-kavanaugh-fbi-investigation-mark-judge-jeff-flake/

None of These Developments Are Good News for Brett Kavanaugh
The FBI will speak to Mark Judge—and Judge's ex-girlfriend. The national media has another week to look into him.
By Charles P. Pierce
Sep 28, 2018


snip//

Everything came together as the afternoon wore on. The Republican leadership agreed to the arrangement and, late in the day, the president* agreed to ask the FBI to reopen the investigation. El Caudillo Del Mar-A-Lago was uncharacteristically muted—which, I will grant you, has proven ominous in the past—and compliant with the committee's actions. There also was a lot of self-congratulation floating around about how all the children had remembered to play nice with each other.

Flake's plan came together in a long private session in an anteroom off the Judiciary Committee's hearing room, in which Flake met with senators of both parties—Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, was the primary moving force for the minority side—and it was clear that, at that moment, anyway, the group carried enough weight to get the committee to agree to the reopened FBI investigation that the Democrats had been howling for ever since Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's allegations first surfaced. According to a statement from the Judiciary Committee released late Friday afternoon, the renewed FBI probe cannot last longer than a week and will concern only what the statement calls "current credible allegations against the nominee."

There's a lot of ozone in that sentence, to be sure. There are currently at least three allegations against the nominee, and their credibility is purely a subjective matter. What the committee plainly means is that the FBI should only look into Dr. Ford's allegations. Even so, it was significant that, after the deal was announced on Friday, the lawyer for his elusive high-school sidekick, Mark Judge, said that Judge would cooperate with the FBI. In addition, earlier this week, the lawyer for Judge's former girlfriend, who has said that Judge confessed to her that he'd been involved with the gang rape of a girl when he had been in high school, also said she'd be willing to talk to the FBI. None of these developments would seem to be good news for Mark Kavanaugh. The FBI is on the case, and the national media has another week to ferret out whatever else still may be out there.

It has been a deadening week to be in Washington. Brett Kavanaugh has proven to be one of the great buzzkills in American politics. Nobody wants to talk about him anymore. Nobody wants to consider the possibility that there are more accusers out there, or more details from the women from whom we've already heard. The choice now for too many important people is between putting him on the Court and then forgetting it all happened, or voting him down and forgetting it all happened.

But it did happen, in all its drama and revelatory ugliness. The odds in favor of his ultimate confirmation have dropped, but, for the moment, that's still the way to bet. But there's enough hedging in it now to landscape a golf course. By next Friday, who knows how sick everyone is going to be of this fiasco? The simplest solution of all remains one that does not include Brett Kavanaugh.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

1. Suddenly, Kavanaugh's "sure thing" doesn't look like it's so sure.

He's like a bird on a wire when the electricity is turned on and everybody can see the truth -- he really shouldn't be there.