True Nobility

Kavanaugh or Bust: Yesterday Senators filed into a super secure room to read the FBI’s updated Kavanaugh background report.  For the most part each one saw whatever he or she wanted to see.  Most Republicans, or at least those who bothered to read the report, walked out convinced that Kavanaugh had been exonerated because the FBI update didn’t corroborate either Christine Blasey Ford’s or Deborah Ramirez’s assault claims. Most Democrats left the room convinced that the FBI investigation was a sham, that it had been woefully inadequate due to constraints imposed by the White House and Republican Senate leadership on who could be interviewed, limitations that intentionally excluded anyone likely to reveal anything incriminating about Kavanaugh. Notably, though neither has tipped their hand yet as to how they plan to vote, Senators Susan Collins and Jeff Flake appeared to be taken in by the FBI’s conclusions.  Senator Lisa Murkowski’s vote also remains up in the air. Yesterday afternoon, she spent more than an hour with a group of women who had flown into from Alaska.  All victims of sexual assault, the women shared their stories with Murkowski and lobbied emotionally against Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Republicans can afford to lose one vote going into the confirmation vote, and it’s quite possible that they will lose Murkowski’s vote.  Alaska’s governor has already come out against Kavanaugh and Alaska’s native population, generally supportive of Murkowski, has lobbied heavily against his confirmation.  Moreover, she’s not up for reelection until 2022, giving her plenty of time to get back into the good graces of her state’s pro-Kavanaugh contingent.  The twitterverse even fantasized that she might become an independent, throwing her cards in with the Democrats, a lovely but thoroughly unrealistic dream.  Yesterday, North Dakota’s embattled Heidi Heitkamp announced that she plans to vote no.  She’s way down in the polls and is likely to lose her seat but has decided to stand on principle, notable because she was one of the Democrats who voted yes for Neil Gorsuch.  Her brother, known for his down home remarks reported that she has to be able to look herself in the mirror when she brushes her teeth each morning, knowing that she did the right thing. Ironically her decision might actually help her.  Yesterday her website was bombarded with donations.  With Heitkamp now on the record, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin remains the only “undecided” Democrat.  It’s likely that he’s waiting to hear from Flake and Collins.  As to Flake, the self-described man of principle, he’s very conservative so there’s no question that he agrees with Kavanaugh on most issues but he was clearly turned off by Kavanaugh’s distasteful performance at last week’s hearing and it’s been reported that he spent some time last night talking to his good friend Democratic Senator Coons.  That said, Flake has been known to live up to his name, it’s highly likely that he will flake out again.  As to Collins, she appears to have convinced herself that Kavanaugh won’t overturn Roe and that he is a champion of women’s rights, delusional but so far that’s her stated view.  For his part Kavanaugh wrote an Op-Ed published in today’s Wall Street Journal.  He kind of admits that he may have crossed the line during last week’s testimony, but justifies his remarks and his non-judicial emotional outbursts by saying that he was just so upset about the unfair attacks on his honor that he couldn’t control himself, leaving the distinct impression that he’s only penned the highly unusual Op-Ed as a last ditch effort to convince Flake and Collins that they should vote yes for his confirmation because he’s really an “independent, impartial judge” and a very nice guy.  Sadly, the two Senators might well be willing to believe him.  A growing number of law school professors aren’t believers, more than 2400 0f them have now signed a letter opposing Kavanaugh’s nomination and the Washington Post Editorial Board has come out against his nomination as well, the first time the paper has done that since 1987 when they came out in opposition to Robert Bork. And just to round out the crowd of naysayers, Kavanaugh’s freshman year roommate came forward to accuse him of lying about his college drinking habits.  That roommate, Jamie Roche, fully admits that he was a fellow drinker, it’s not the drinking that bothers him, it’s the lies that he finds outrageous.  Despite all of this, or maybe because he wants to get Kavanaugh confirmed before more problems surface, Senate Majority Leader McConnell has scheduled a procedural vote for 1030 AM EDT. To the extent that he gets enough votes to move forward, and he can only afford to lose two, the final confirmation vote will take place tomorrow with one wrinkle, Montana Senator Steve Daines, a firm Kavanaugh supporter, will be out of pocket for most of tomorrow, walking his daughter down the aisle at her wedding, a commitment he plans to fulfil no matter what.  Assuming he needs Daines’ vote, McConnell will either keep the vote window open until late Saturday night, giving Daines enough time to be whisked back to Washington, probably on some rich donor’s private jet, or he will cut short the usual thirty hour debate window that generally takes place before the final vote.  That move would enrage Democrats but then again everything McConnell does enrages Democrats and he doesn’t seem to care.  At the very least he will please Utah’s Senator Orrin Hatch who got caught on camera telling some sexual assault protestors that they should just grow up and no doubt he will so also please Trump who last night spent part of a Minnesota political rally making fun of former Senator Al Franken for so quickly giving in for actions that pale in comparison to the things that he has been accused of doing     

Timely and Noble:  Despite his best lobbying efforts Donald Trump is not the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.  The award, which was announced this morning, went instead to Denis Mukwage and Nadia Murad for their work campaigning against rape in warfare.  Dr. Mukwage is a Congolese gynecologist who has treated tens of thousands of sexual violence victims and Ms. Murad is a Yazidi woman who was tortured and raped by Islamic State Militants and later became the face of a campaign to free the Yazidi people.