THE GOALPOSTS HAVE LEFT THE STADIUM BY THIS POINT: Byron York: In Kavanaugh fight, Democrats move goalposts far, far away.
Ask any casual observer what the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation fight is about, and the answer will be the allegation that at a high-school party 36 years ago, when Kavanaugh was 17, he drunkenly forced then-15-year-old Christine Ford onto a bed, tried to undress her, and, when she tried to scream, covered her mouth with his hand.
That is now old news. In the last 48 hours, immediately after Senate Republicans and President Trump agreed to Democratic demands that the FBI investigate the 1982 incident, the Kavanaugh goalposts have moved dramatically. Now, a key issue is Kavanaugh’s teenage drinking, and whether he testified truthfully to Congress about the amount of beer he consumed in high school and college more than three decades ago, and the effect it had on him.
Just look at the headlines:
“Yale Classmate Accuses Kavanaugh of ‘Blatant Mischaracterization’ of His Drinking.” (New York Times)
“Another Yale classmate breaks silence: Kavanaugh lied.” (CNN)
“Brett Kavanaugh’s College Friends Say He Lied Under Oath About Drinking.” (NBC)
And many others. The allegation is that at last Thursday’s hearing, Kavanaugh lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he was asked about his drinking practices both in high school and at Yale University. Kavanaugh was under oath at the time.
“Lying to Congress is a federal crime,” Sen. Bernie Sanders noted in a letter to Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley. “Kavanaugh’s truthfulness with the Senate goes to the very heart of whether he should be confirmed to the court.”
The new developments raised two questions. One, did Kavanaugh actually lie to the Senate about his drinking? And two, why are Democrats, now that they have finally won the FBI investigation they wanted into the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh, suddenly making a bigger deal of his drinking?
They’re making a big deal about the drinking because they know they’ve got nothing.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: The Kavanaugh Watch Continues and Much, Much More. “Majority Leader McConnell said yesterday that the Senate will be voting on Kavanaugh this week so our long national nightmare might soon be over. Just kidding. It’s not going to be over because the resistance media will just pivot back the Mueller investigation.”
The “resistance media” will also bring up these unsubstantiated allegations every time Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sides with the other conservative justices on a controversial decision.
ROGER KIMBALL: With the Kavanaugh Fight, Political Warfare Escalates. “In short, the crime was Donald Trump’s election. More precisely, the crime was the fact that Donald Trump was elected without the permission, indeed, over the strenuous objections of that entitled cohort whose members believe it to be part of the natural order of things that they govern. The implications of this conviction—that the primal crime of Trump’s administration was his election, compounded by his infuriating habit of meeting any attack with a potent counterattack—are huge. Among other things, it follows that Donald Trump’s tenure is, for these people, existentially illegitimate. And from that conviction it follows that a policy of resistance, obstruction, and illegality is (in the minds of these people) sanctioned.”
HOW LONG WILL YOU TOLERATE THIS? Soros-Backed Progressive Activist Group Takes Credit for Flake Confrontation.
h/t GR