We all have a Michael Avenatti Problem these days. The guy is a publicity hound with a monumental ego—President? Really?—and as gifted a high-rent ambulance chaser as it's ever been my pleasure to observe in the wild. He also is not wrong, at least not so far, anyway.

On behalf of Stormy Daniels, he helped run Michael Cohen into the loving arms of Robert Mueller's prosecutors, to whom the former bully-boy lawyer is spilling his guts. Recently, he has barged into the nomination process of Brett Kavanaugh, demanding a place at the table and an FBI investigation, even though he has absolutely no standing whatsoever to demand anything from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On Monday night, he raised the bet.

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Speaking with kindly Doc Maddow, Avenatti claimed to represent someone he described as both a "witness and a victim," and who "will be coming forward in the next 48 hours" to lob some new charges at the embattled nominee—who, judging by his performance with Martha McCallum on Fox Monday night, is currently operating on fewer circuits than he once was. Judging from letters that Avenatti has sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, it is likely that this "witness and victim" will accuse Kavanaugh of being part of a high-school clique that would try to incapacitate women with drink and then rape them en masse. Avenatti is continuing to demand that Mark Judge be made to testify under oath despite the fact that, as we said, Avenatti has no standing to demand anything.



I'm still wary of how hot a presence Avenatti is, and how painfully self-promoting he appears. If the Republicans really were on their game, they'd find a way to turn him into a caricature with which they could discredit the entire opposition to Kavanaugh. But the Republicans are not on their game right now. Catch them in an unguarded moment, and some of them are extremely disturbed that Kavanaugh has so many land mines buried in his past. Losing this nomination fight could be catastrophic in the midterm elections. Winning it could be worse. And they know, in case we forgot to mention it, that Michael Avenatti has yet to be wrong.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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