September 17, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Judge Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who has accused him of sexual assault both will testify under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday of next week. There was no getting around this. A number of Republican Senators demanded a public hearing, and the demand was reasonable. As things stand now, this is a classic he-says-she-says situation. I expect both witnesses to be credible. Conceivably, someone will discover new
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September 17, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
1968 was the year of the pitcher. The collective ERA of the National League was 2.99. The American League’s ERA was 2.98. Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers won 31 games. This was the first time a major league pitcher had won 30 or more since Dizzy Dean won 30 in 1934. Carl Yazstrzemski won the AL batting title with a .301 batting average. Bob Gibson pitched to an ERA
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September 17, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
It’s clear now that, if Brett Kavanaugh is to be confirmed, the Senate Judiciary Committee is going to have to hold hearings on Christine Basey Ford’s claim of sexual misconduct. Without such hearings, the votes won’t be there to confirm Kavanaugh. I don’t think it’s even close. For me, then, the case comes down to the question of how long it would take to nominate and confirm a new nominee.
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September 17, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
It looks like Brett Kavanaugh’s mother, Judge Martha Kavanaugh, ruled against the parents of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accuses Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Court documents show the losing party in a foreclosure case Martha Kavanaugh heard to be Ralph and Paula Blasey of Potomac, Maryland. They appear to be Christine Blasey Ford’s parents. The fact that Kavanaugh’s mother ruled against Ford’s parents doesn’t prove Ford is lying
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September 16, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The confirmation battle over the Kavanaugh nomination might well come down to what Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski make of the allegation of sexual assault lodged against the nominee 36 years after the “fact.” However, the reaction of two leading GOP members of the Judiciary Committee — Charles Grassly and Lindsey Graham — are certainly worth noting. I found the Graham’s statement particularly interesting. Chairman Charles Grassley caused this
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September 16, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
We now know the name of the woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of a sexual attack 36 years ago. She is Christine Blasey Ford. The Washington Post has her story. There are reasons to believe Ford and reasons not to believe her. In her favor, though certainly not conclusive, is the fact that she passed a polygraph test. The Washington Post has seen the results. In addition, Ford apparently told a
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September 15, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is the Democratic candidate for the Senate in Arizona. Sinema presents herself as a bipartisan moderate. She did not vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House and reportedly voted with the Democrats “only” 73 percent of the time in recent years. I suspect that Sinema is a faux moderate. As I documented here, she was a radical leftist when she first entered politics. Later on,
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September 15, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
For the most part, Ben Carson has maintained a low profile as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Early on in the Trump administration, he announced that HUD will “reinterpret” the ultra-instrusive Obama housing rule known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH). AFFH is an abomination. It enables HUD to order more than 1,200 cities and counties that accepted any part of annual community development block grants to rezone neighborhoods
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September 14, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
According to the Washington Post, the vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination will occur next Thursday, September 20, as scheduled. This could change, I suppose, but that’s how things stand now. Notwithstanding the ambush of Judge Kavanaugh with a claim of sexual harassment from 35 years ago by a woman who won’t disclose her identity, the votes exist for the committee to approve Kavanaugh’s nomination. The
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September 14, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) threatened to pull e-cigarettes from shelves if manufacturers do not control “widespread” teen use. Tobacco stocks surged on the news. Shares of Altria rose more nearly 7 percent to their best day since November, 2008. Philip Morris International increased about 3 percent. British American Tobacco shares increased nearly 6 percent to their best day since December, 2008. This is no coincidence.
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September 14, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Sixty-five women who knew Brett Kavanaugh in high school have signed a letter to Sens. Grassley and Feinstein. They state that throughout the time they have known Kavanaugh, he has “behaved honorably and treated women with respect.” This is consistent with testimonials from Judge Kavanaugh’s female law clerks (all of them whose employment didn’t preclude them from signing) and with what I have heard from people who know Kavanaugh personally.
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September 13, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Not long after President Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Chuck Schumer tweeted: I will oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination with everything I have. . . . The stakes are simply too high for anything less. Today’s stunt — the post-hearing ambush of Kavanaugh with an unspecified, unsourced claim of misconduct dating back to Kavanaugh’s high school days — seemed like the fulfillment of Schumer’s promise. But Dianne Feinstein reportedly has known about this
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September 13, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
It looks like I spoke too soon when I said that the Kavanaugh confirmation process never reached the nauseating lows of the Bork and Thomas hearings. The Washington Times reports that Sen. Dianne Feinstein has asked federal investigators to probe a secret complaint about Kavanaugh. The complaint, reportedly lodged by woman, pertains to an incident that supposedly occurred when Kavanaugh and the women were in high school. The woman passed
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September 13, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, Brett Kavanaugh responded to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s ridiculous questions about his purchase of baseball tickets. As anticipated, Kavanaugh said he is a “huge sports fan” and that he bought four season tickets annually from the Nationals’ arrival in Washington in 2005 until 2017. He also bought playoff packages in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2017. Kavanaugh split the tickets with a “group of old friends” through a “ticket draft” at
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September 12, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
In a previous post, I reproduced a letter that Rep. Mark Meadows sent to Rod Rosenstein about the FBI’s anti-Trump media leak strategy. Meadows cited, among things, an April 10, 2017 text in which Peter Strozk told Lisa Page, “I had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you I want to talk to you about media leak strategy with DOJ before you go.” Recognizing the explosive nature
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September 12, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Ed Whelan has posted an excellent series refuting various smears of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. He deals with a long-forgotten controversy involving Manny Miranda, smears regarding wiretapping and interrogation, and claims that Kavanaugh lied about his role in the selection by the Bush administration of judges Charles Pickering and William Pryor. Ed does not deal with another of the left’s ginned up Kavanugh-related controversies — the one involving the purchase of
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September 12, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post’s board of editors attacks John Bolton for a speech in which he harshly criticized the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Post doesn’t defend the ICC. In an understatement, the Post agrees that “the court has its defects.” However, the editorial board castigates Bolton for using his “first significant public address” to talk about what the editors deem an irrelevancy. The editors think Bolton should have discussed Syria,
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