WSJ: White House 'Shellshocked' by Developments; 'There's No Plan B'
It's the story of the Groping Donald's entire term so far.
"As of last night, everyone was in a good mood," the person said, saying the view was that Dr. Ford's testimony was "good" but Judge Kavanaugh's was "great." As of 10 p.m. Thursday, the person said, "everything was locked and loaded."
Then, shortly before midnight on Thursday, the American Bar Association issued a letter urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on Judge Kavanaugh's nomination only after a "thorough" FBI investigation. After that, the person said, "It kind of fell apart."
The person said there was "enormous anger" at the ABA from the White House counsel's office and other lawyers working on the confirmation process, describing the letter as a pivotal development that prompted strong discomfort in particular from Ms. Murkowski.
Ms. Murkowski said Friday morning before the Senate committee vote that she remained undecided on the nomination.
The White House isn't expected to talk to any other candidates for the Supreme Court nomination next week while the FBI investigation is under way, the person said.
"There's no Plan B here," the person said. Any backup plan, the person said, would not be "viable" given the timing of the midterm elections in early November.
-Rebecca Ballhaus
#WellOiledMachine
edit: original link
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/kavanaugh/card/1538166098
= new reply since forum marked as read
Rosenstein is next.
30 hours of debate, but did it get dropped under the wrong post perchance? 
I'm cautious about this because the Repubs could have changed a rule, but debate in the "gentlemen's" senate has always been loosely controlled compared to tight rules in the house. It's always taken more than a simple majority, likely 60 votes, to shut down senate debate, so we've been using that as the minority party to continue discussion.
Btw, you may remember that Grassley yesterday, after they'd taken the vote on Kavanaugh and were still discussing how an investigation might proceed, all of a sudden banged his gavel in the middle of people talking all over the place and declared adjourned based on a 2-hour rule. Lawrence O'Donnell explained it's an arcane rule that's never used, but Grassley must have been watching the second hand tick off to the point where he could use it to halt this unprecedented situation. That's why Sen. Feinstein was asking in confusion what had been decided, my guess the first time in decades she didn't know.
Wow. More than just high drama, real history. Michael Beschloss and others said they gravely feared that morning that the senate was on the point of failing and becoming a weak arm of the Trump White House, but Flake's and Coons's bipartisan group functioned as the senate was designed to and pulled it back from "the abyss." Graham had been bitter and angry and while recognized to speak actually threatened his Democratic colleagues with how he was going to treat them when he became chairman of the committee, something O'Donnell said has never happened before. Graham has been demonstrating, like Kavanaugh, the astonishing breadth and depth of unfitness for his position. Sen. Coons had to control tears of relief afterward as he spoke of his concerns for the health of this institution.
