WASHINGTON—Sometimes, you have to laugh to keep from hurling yourself off the Robert Dole Balcony. It became abundantly clear as Wednesday rolled toward a monstrous Thursday that Michael Avenatti and Julie Swetnick caught the Senate Republicans on the wrong foot. One way you know this is because Lindsey Graham scoffed at the "porn star lawyer." Huckleberry neglected to mention that Avenatti was the lawyer for the porn star that the president* paid off. That Graham was willing to look so damned ridiculous was a fine measure of how completely by surprise the endless chain of explosions that the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court has set off under the congressional majority.

Another way you know is that some of the rhetoric from Republican senators that was aimed at Swetnick sank to the level we are accustomed to seeing occupied by that of the president*, who contented himself for the moment by sniping at Avenatti. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, however, had no such qualms. He as much as said that Swetnick partied down with the wilding boys of Georgetown Prep because she—nudge, nudge—wanted to do so.

"We're being told that a woman went to 10 different parties where women were being gang raped, and never reported it until, again, two days before this hearing. That just does't seem right to me. Why would she continue to go to parties where this would occur?"

KnowwhadImean? KnowwhadImean? Say no more.

As of the end of the day Wednesday, with empty ridicule and clumsy innuendo as the only Republican answer to these latest charges, I don't believe they have the votes to confirm Kavanaugh in the full Senate. They probably have the votes to report the nomination favorably out of the Judiciary Committee but, if Dr. Christine Blasey Ford makes a credible show of it in front of the committee on Thursday, it's hard to imagine that they won't bleed votes even more heavily in the interim. And, even though a lot of attention has been paid to Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, I remain fascinated by the Nothing To Lose Caucus of Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, and John Kyl, the latter of whom was appointed to fill out the last three months of John McCain's term, at least partly to vote on this particular nomination. None of these three senators will be there in January. None of them are running in the midterms. And Corker and Flake, at least, have no great love for the president* or his administration*. For his part, Corker was ambushed in the Capitol as he left a meeting he'd chaired of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"I was just in a markup and my staff told me [about the new allegations] when I walked out," Corker said. "Look, this is an evolving thing and I don't know what they may do. I know that there is a desire to complete the work. I think you know that I pushed last Sunday to make sure that we heard from the first witness, but I really can't speak to this because y'all, like you usually do, are telling me things I'm hearing for the first time and I'm sure that later today. Let me learn a little more about it."

As for Flake, he got up in the Senate and gave another one of his now-patented mournful valedictories to lost civility, almost every line of which was irrelevant to the issues at hand. As someone pointed out, at this point, if the building was burning down, Flake would express great sympathy for both the structure and the flames.



These past two years, we have tested the limits of how low we can go. And my colleagues, I say to you that winning at all costs is too high a cost. If we cannot have a human—rather than a political—response to these witnesses, if we are heedless to the capacity that we have to do real and lasting damage, then maybe we shouldn't be here. When Dr. Ford came forward, I felt strongly that her voice needed to be heard, and that is why I informed Chairman Grassley that the Judiciary Committee could not and should not proceed to vote until she had the opportunity to make her voice heard, until such time that her claims were fully aired and carefully considered, her credibility gauged. This is a lifetime appointment. This is said to be a deliberative body. In the interest of due diligence and fairness, it seemed to me to be the only thing to do. Not everybody felt that way. One man, somewhere in the country, called my office in Arizona and left a message saying that he was tired of me "interrupting our president" and that for the offense of allowing Dr. Ford to be heard, for this offense, me and my family would be "taken out."

If that's true, it's a damn shame. But the situation has changed mightily since Dr. Ford came forward. There are now two more women accusing Kavanaugh of being part of what can only be called a gang in high-school dedicated to non-consensual sex. In addition, the process as developed by Grassley and the Judiciary committee is a lot of things, but it's not a serious search for the truth. It is, as Senator Angus King called it on Tuesday, the "checking of a box" on the way to confirmation.

I do not know how I will assess the credibility of these witnesses—these human beings—on the grave matters that will be testified to, because I have not yet heard a word of their testimony, and because I am not psychic. I am not gifted with clairvoyance. Given these limitations, I will have to listen to the testimony before I make up my mind about the testimony. What I do know is that I don't believe that Dr. Ford is part of some kind of vast conspiracy from start to finish to smear Judge Kavanaugh, as has been alleged by some on the right. And what I do know is that I don't believe that Judge Kavanaugh is some kind of serial sexual predator, as has been alleged by some on the left.

I must also say that separate and apart from this nomination and the facts that pertain to it, I do not believe that a claim of sexual assault is invalid because a 15-year-old girl didn't promptly report the assault to the authorities, as the President of the United States said just two days ago. How uninformed and uncaring do you have to be to say things like that, much less believe them? Do we have any idea what kind of message that sends, especially to young women? How many times do we have to marginalize and ignore women before we learn that important lesson?

What was that about, exactly? Unless Flake is prepared to vote against the nomination, there at least will be one more time that women will be marginalized and/or ignored. How Flake is prepared to vote, I have no idea. And Kyl? He's been quoted as being a little ambivalent, too. Of course, he has one job, and that's to vote for Brett Kavanaugh, who issued yet another statement on Wednesday, explaining his essential virtues again.

Dr. Ford's allegation dates back more than 36 years, to a party that she says occurred during our time in high school. I spent most of my time in high school focused on academics, sports, church, and service. But I was not perfect in those days, just as I am not perfect today. I drank beer with my friends, usually on weekends. Sometimes I had too many. In retrospect, I said and did things in high school that make me cringe now. But that's not why we are here today. What I've been accused of is far more serious than juvenile misbehavior. I never did anything remotely resembling what Dr. Ford describes. The allegation of misconduct is completely inconsistent with the rest of my life. The record of my life, from my days in grade school through the present day, shows that I have always promoted the equality and dignity of women.

In grade school?

He can't help himself.

And the day's last moment came from the president*, who spent 20 minutes suggesting that the New York Times made up accusations of sexual abuse against him. "A lot of the news is fake, and a lot of the people sitting in this room is fake," he said. "I've been a famous person for a long time and I've had a lot of false charges made against me. I had a woman and I attacked her on the plane when I had a No. 1 best-seller out?"

Annnnnnnnd, scene!

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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