The woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh when both were in high school has come forward, setting up a Showdown in #Metoo Corral if Democrats can get a vote delayed. It appears they will: Republican member Jeff Flake says the committee should hold off on voting until it hears from the woman.
Naturally this has become an instant face-off over the whole #metoo movement, and Kavanaugh’s defenders come off sounding callous and ugly. Megyn Kelly, for example, demonstrated why she ruled on Fox (male viewership) and has tanked on NBC’s “Today” (female viewership) by claiming, “Maybe he blew her off” and “maybe she had an axe to grind.”
A lawyer close to the White House said the nomination will not be withdrawn. “No way, not even a hint of it,” the lawyer said. “If anything, it’s the opposite. If somebody can be brought down by accusations like this, then you, me, every man certainly should be worried. We can all be accused of something. It’s not even going to slow him down if that’s all she’s got.”
Besides, the lawyer noted, Kavanaugh denies it all, which means very little since Kavanaugh has lied throughout his hearing. In a functioning political system, that would be enough not only to keep him off SCOTUS, it would be enough to cost him the appellate court post he already has.
If you think this all happened by accident, you don’t know Democrats. They appear to have planned this to work up women’s outrage before the midterms, thereby making lemonade out of this piece of rotten fruit the Heritage Foundation barfed up.
At this point, adding more women’s righteous anger to the political mix is a whitecap on the blue wave. Even skeptics like Andrew O’Hehir have come around to accepting that even the mush-headed Democratic establishment candidates will do well in November. He also argues that ideological diversity has always been a Democratic Party feature, not a bug.
Why do Republicans always think their enemies are part of some secret society that wants to overthrow the government? Because that’s what they’re guilty of, naturally. Their adherents keep flashing a hand signal on TV, and they keep getting caught doing it.