Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has some very good questions for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley about the sham of a hearing he is intent on having Monday into the allegations by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were both teenagers. Grassley says committee investigators are working the case. Whitehouse wants to know: "Really? When? Who will locate & interview witnesses? Has @senjudiciary hired independent investigators we don’t know about? When will the witness statements be taken? When will they be shared? Will the minority get to call witnesses, or will the #Republicans hold all the cards?"

An unknown staff presence on the Senate Judiciary Committee (maybe Mike Davis, chief counsel for nominations on for the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, who has already said way too much on Twitter today) provides a whole mess of non-responses to those questions that prove yet again how much of a set-up this hearing is going to be, if it happens.

Whoever this is tweets that Republican staff on Monday "interviewed Judge Kavanaugh under penalty of felony." Right, because we know how seriously he takes that oath. Furthermore, "Staff contacted Mark Judge and obtained a statement under penalty of felony." That would be the Mark Judge who Sen. Lindsey Graham said didn't need to testify in the hearing because "He's already said what he’s going to say." They continue that tweet, saying GOP staff "contacted third person allegedly at party described by Dr. Ford and obtained a statement under penalty of felony. Staff contacted fourth person allegedly at party."

How do they know the identity of the two additional party guests if they haven't spoken to Ford yet, which they say they haven't? Did Judge give them the names of people who were at this party he wasn't at and that supposedly never happened and that Kavanaugh definitely wasn't at and that occurred on a date and at a location that hasn't been specified? Ford didn't mention individuals by name in her interview with the Washington Post.