Kavanaugh or Bust

State of Play:  Though they initially denied it, the White House, together with Senate Majority Leader McConnell, really did plan to limit the scope of the reopened Judge Brett Kavanaugh “background check.”  Initially they directed the FBI to interview only Mark Judge, PJ Smyth and Leland Keyser, the three individuals, whose names have now been immortalized by actor Matt Damon and who Dr. Blasey Ford said were in attendance at the party where she was attacked and Deborah Ramirez, the Yale classmate who has accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her during an alcohol infused college party.  Unfortunately for the White House, despite their someone contradictory denials, those plans were uncovered by the press and then shared with Senators Flake, Collins and Murkowski, who may well be the only three Republican Senators who care about Kavanaugh’s past.  Senators Flake and Collins then made it clear to the White House that their votes hinge on the completion of a more thorough investigation, or at least as thorough an investigation as can be completed by the end of the week.  As a result the FBI is now expected to broaden their investigation to include third accuser, Julie Swetnick, the woman represented by Michael Avenatti, a number of the people identified.by Deborah Ramirez as witnesses to her assault and some of those who are now calling into FBI hotlines with stories about Kavanaugh’s behavior under the influence.  As to Swetnick, portions of an her interview with NBC’s Kate Snow were aired last night and though her allegations about being group raped are horrific and believable, beyond saying that Kavanaugh was a very sloppy, mean and aggressive drunk who manhandled other women, she didn’t implicate either Kavanaugh or Judge in her attack beyond saying that they were in attendance at a number of the parties where she thinks she saw some really bad things happening.  As to those bad things, she says that though she thinks women were being gang raped behind closed doors, she isn’t totally sure about that either.  Additionally, her story deviated somewhat from what Avenatti said was included in the affidavit she previously prepared.  NBC also indicated that they were unable to verify her allegations which isn’t to say that they are untrue, they just need to be further evaluated by experts like those at the FBI.  As to Ramirez, Kavanaugh’s Yale classmate, it appears that Kavanaugh was concerned enough about her allegation to try to nip her credibility in the bud.  Even before the New Yorker Magazine article detailing her story was published people working on Kavanaugh’s behalf texted a number of their mutual Yale acquaintances to get them to throw shade on her story.  Some of the recipients of those texts have now come forward and are anxious to share what they know about the party as well as what they know about Kavanaugh’s efforts to influence them with the FBI.  This is particularly problematic for Kavanaugh because last week in a response to a question posed by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch he asserted that he didn’t know about the Ramirez allegations until the New Yorker article was published.  Just another one of his inexplicable “white” lies. Complicating matters for Kavanaugh, Chad Ludington, a Yale classmate who was also a drinking buddy and a fellow basketball player issued a statement on Sunday questioning some of what Kavanaugh said during last week’s hearing.  Ludington, who is now a faculty member at  North Carolina State University, says that he has ‘become deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterization by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale.”  He goes on to say that when “Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive. On one of the last occasions I purposely socialized with Brett, I witnessed him respond to a semi-hostile remark, not by defusing the situation, but by throwing his beer in the man’s face and starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail.”  Ludington makes it clear that though he doesn’t think drinking excessively in college is something that should disqualify someone from having a successful career, he does thing that lying under oath is a bigly problem, especially for someone who is being considered for a seat on the Supreme Court. While he is now trying to appear like he’s fully accommodating the investigation, that’s just a ruse, Senate Majority Leader McConnell announced that he plans to move forward with a vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation this week regardless of the investigation’s outcome because if all it proves is that Kavanaugh is a habitual liar who might have done some really bad but unprovable things, who really cares?  As to Trump, he too is trying to appear cooperative.  Yesterday, he said that it was good that Kavanaugh had acknowledged his high school and college era drinking problems during his testimony, a statement that revealed more about Trump’s opinion of alcohol consumption than anything else since Kavanaugh did not admit to ever having a drinking problem, he only admitted to a love of beer.  That said, though Trump disdains drinking, he is still fully on team Kavanaugh because getting the court seat filled with a compliant conservative is his priority, and if that guy also believes in absolute presidential power who really cares about his character flaws anyway?

Other News:  Yesterday, during a Rose Garden press event where Trump planned to talk mostly about new NAFTA, the agreement that he prefers to call the oh so catchy USCMA, he insulted Cecelia Vega, a reporter for ABC.  After she thanked him for picking on her to ask a question he told her she "never" thinks before asking a question, just another one of his slights to a female journalist. Later, the White House doctored the transcript of their interaction by changing the work thinks to thanks, not the first time that someone in the White House “accidentally” covered up one of Trump’s insulting gaffes. As to the new USCMA name, Trump who has consistently trashed NAFTA, insisted on the rebranding as a condition to signing on to the NAFTA update because revising NAFTA doesn’t fit his narrative and doesn’t play well on the campaign trail but creating a whole new agreement, one that he can assert is superior and that was never touched by any of his predecessors, especially Obama, does.  In case you missed it, over the weekend Trump also expressed a lot of love for his new bestie, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.  Who cares if he is a murderer who starves his people, poisons his enemies and is responsible for the death of American student Otto Warmbier, none of that matters because he’s written really beautiful love letters to Trump and that’s what really counts.