None of These Developments Are Good News for Brett Kavanaugh
WASHINGTON-Senator Lindsey Graham, last seen doing a passable Yosemite Sam imitation all through the halls of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, was positively bubbly as he lined up in front of a cluster of TV cameras near a bank of elevators. The Senate Judiciary Committee had just reported Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination favorably to the full Senate, but not until Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, had wrung from the committee a promise to re-open the FBI background investigation into Kavanaugh for no more than a week.
By all accounts, Flake, who was stopped on his way to the committee room that morning by two survivors of sexual assault, made it quite clear that the votes on Kavanaugh would not be there in the Senate unless his demand was met. That he was not bluffing was made plain after the committee vote when Republican Lisa Murkowski and Democrat Joe Manchin both immediately signed onto the deal. That is what brought Graham to the microphones and the cameras.
Related Video: Sexual-Assault Survivors Confront Senator Jeff Flake
"Somebody's got to explain this to Trump," Graham said. "I guess that's up to me."
"It's democracy," he burbled further. "Democrats will say, if we do what Jeff said, that would end the process dispute. I don't expect any of them to vote for the guy, but if we ask the FBI to look at what's in front of us, no later than a week, no longer than a week, they would say that would be a better process. That would be progress...You can have the FBI, the CIA and the Foreign Legion, but you know what you know, and you've heard what you're gonna hear. But having said that, this is called democracy."
Everything came together as the afternoon wore on. The Republican leadership agreed to the arrangement and, late in the day, the president* agreed to ask the FBI to reopen the investigation. El Caudillo Del Mar-A-Lago was uncharacteristically muted-which, I will grant you, has proven ominous in the past-and compliant with the committee's actions. There also was a lot of self-congratulation floating around about how all the children had remembered to play nice with each other.
Flake's plan came together in a long private session in an anteroom off the Judiciary Committee's hearing room, in which Flake met with senators of both parties-Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, was the primary moving force for the minority side-and it was clear that, at that moment, anyway, the group carried enough weight to get the committee to agree to the reopened FBI investigation that the Democrats had been howling for ever since Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's allegations first surfaced. According to a statement from the Judiciary Committee released late Friday afternoon, the renewed FBI probe cannot last longer than a week and will concern only what the statement calls "current credible allegations against the nominee."
There's a lot of ozone in that sentence, to be sure. There are currently at least three allegations against the nominee, and their credibility is purely a subjective matter. What the committee plainly means is that the FBI should only look into Dr. Ford's allegations. Even so, it was significant that, after the deal was announced on Friday, the lawyer for his elusive high-school sidekick, Mark Judge, said that Judge would cooperate with the FBI. In addition, earlier this week, the lawyer for Judge's former girlfriend, who has said that Judge confessed to her that he'd been involved with the gang rape of a girl when he had been in high school, also said she'd be willing to talk to the FBI. None of these developments would seem to be good news for Mark Kavanaugh. The FBI is on the case, and the national media has another week to ferret out whatever else still may be out there.
It has been a deadening week to be in Washington. Brett Kavanaugh has proven to be one of the great buzzkills in American politics. Nobody wants to talk about him anymore. Nobody wants to consider the possibility that there are more accusers out there, or more details from the women from whom we've already heard. The choice now for too many important people is between putting him on the Court and then forgetting it all happened, or voting him down and forgetting it all happened.
But it did happen, in all its drama and revelatory ugliness. The odds in favor of his ultimate confirmation have dropped, but, for the moment, that's still the way to bet. But there's enough hedging in it now to landscape a golf course. By next Friday, who knows how sick everyone is going to be of this fiasco? The simplest solution of all remains one that does not include Brett Kavanaugh.
Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: "Red Beans" (Smilin' Myron): Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans.
Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Friday was the 90th anniversary of the discovery of penicillin by Dr. Sir Alexander Fleming. It's been a blessing to millions of people, but it nearly killed me when I was a child because I have a severe allergy to it that they discovered by giving me a dose of it. Nonetheless, here's Fleming's funeral at St. Paul's. I'm not sure what the headshots of the bobbies are all about. History is so cool.
Is it a good day for dinosaur news, USA Today? It's always a good day for dinosaur news!
The creature, which lived some 200 million years ago, was about twice the size of a modern-day African elephant. It was also the largest land animal alive on the planet at that time, according to the study. Known by the Latin name Ledumahadi mafube, it weighed over 26,000 pounds and stood about 13 feet high at the hips. Although it isn't the biggest dinosaur ever found, "It's the first true giant that evolves in a long line of dinosaurs called sauropod dinosaurs," said study co-author Jonah Choiniere, a paleontologist at the University of the Witwatersrand, in a statement. Sauropods, weighing up to 66 tons, include well-known species like the brontosaurus. Thus, this part of South Africa was the origin of all the giant dinosaurs that evolved later, Choiniere said. The new dino is a close relative of other massive dinosaurs from Argentina that lived at about the same time, which reinforces the idea that the supercontinent Pangaea was still assembled at that time. "It shows how easily dinosaurs could have walked from Johannesburg to Buenos Aires at that time," said Choiniere.
This is more like it. Nothing about feathers. Nothing about birdlike tendencies. Just a big honking lizard that walked from Argentina to South Africa back when big honking lizards could do that. Sure, it died tragically as a teenager, but that was long enough for it to live then in order to make us happy now.
It was a tough week for all Top Commenters because there wasn't much to comment top-ly about. But Top Commenter Peter Mikkelsen found the way to The Committee's heart by reminding The Committee of its days as an altar boy while commenting top-ly on the story about Fat Leonard's Christmas parties and the admiral.
How many confiteors cover hookers in elf suits? Asking for a friend.
Go in peace, my son, and take 81.11 Beckhams with you.
I'll be back on Monday from somewhere, writing about something. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line, and, for god's sake, don't hang out drinking brewskis at Tobin's. You might boof.
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