September 23, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer, writing in New Yorker, report that Senate Democrats are investigating a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh. Few who have been around the block will be surprised that another such claim has emerged just as the clock is about to strike midnight. If anything, the surprise is how weak this one seems to be. The claim comes from Deborah Ramirez who attended Yale
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September 23, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
One of the Democrats’ main talking points regarding Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations against Brett Kavanaugh is that the FBI should investigate before the Senate Judiciary Committee hears from Ford and Kavanaugh. In support of this talking point, Democrats and their friends in the media note that the FBI investigated Anita Hill’s sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas prior to Hill and Thomas testifying before the Committee. Hill herself says the
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September 22, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
CNN reports that Senate Judiciary Committee staff has spoken with a high school friend of Christine Blasey who, supposedly, was at the party where Brett Kavanaugh supposedly assaulted Blasey. The woman is Leland Ingham Keyser. Reportedly, she is a lifelong friend of Blasey (now, Blasey Ford). According to CNN, Ms. Keyser’s lawyer stated: Simply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being
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September 22, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Recently, an acquaintance of my wife returned from a trip to Iran, her country of origin. In addition to noting the runaway inflation and stark increase in poverty, she was surprised by the heightened level of separatist sentiment in various regions. That sentiment took a violent turn in southwestern city of Ahvaz today. Separatists attacked an Iranian military parade, killing at 29 people and wounding 70 more. The attackers disguised
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September 21, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
As noted here, Senate Judiciary Committee Grassley gave Christine Blasey Ford a deadline of 10:00 p.m. tonight to respond to his counter-proposal on the terms for Ford giving testimony about her claim against Brett Kavanaugh. Grassley stated that if Team Ford didn’t respond by then, or if Ford decided not to testify, the Committee would vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination on Monday. Grassley’s ultimatum had an escape hatch. Team Ford could
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September 21, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley has issued this statement about how his Committee now intends to proceed: Despite the fact that the July 30th letter [containing Dr. Ford’s allegations] remains hidden, my committee has been investigating the allegations and has heard from multiple witnesses since Sunday. Ms. Katz has discussed Dr. Ford’s allegations in numerous media interviews and said on TV Monday morning that Dr. Ford wants to share her account
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September 21, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
As Steve reported last night, our friend Ed Whelan set off a storm yesterday with a series of tweets suggesting Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her was a case of mistaken identity. There had been plenty of buzz about this possibility, triggered mainly by Ed’s earlier tweets stating that compelling evidence would exonerate Kavanaugh. In his tweets yesterday, Ed went so far as to identify the
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September 21, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
CNN reports that negotiations between Christine Blasey Ford’s legal team and the Senate Judiciary Committee are moving forward such that it’s likely she will testify. I don’t know whether CNN’s report is accurate, but Committee staff does not appear to be pushing back against it. Here is the essence of CNN’s report with my commentary: The hearing cannot be on Monday. That’s not negotiable and is a red line. Katz
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September 20, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Citing “sources,” Fox News’ Shannon Bream reports on the demands Christine Blasey Ford and her legal team are making as a condition for her testifying about her allegations against Brett Kavanaugh: Ford team wants NO questions from lawyers, only Qs from Committee members, #Kavanaugh cannot be in the room, Kavanaugh must testify FIRST – more to come … These demands are absurd. No questions from lawyers? I guess Ford wants
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September 20, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
It’s amusing, in a sickening sort of way, to hear Senate Democrats say it’s unacceptable to have on the Supreme Court someone “credibly” accused of assaulting a woman 36 years ago, when he was in high school. Who among these “outraged” Senators has complained about serving with Democratic colleagues credibly accused of, and in at least two cases admitting to, assaulting women? Sen. Sherrod Brown’s ex-wife claimed that Brown threw
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September 20, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, has little choice but to give evidence to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and do so promptly. If she persists in refusing, Judge Kavanaugh almost certainly will be confirmed more or less on schedule. Ford’s objective all along has been to prevent this result. Thus, it has seemed to me that Ford will agree to appear promptly, albeit only after trying to extract as many
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September 20, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
That letter Christine Blasey Ford gave to California Democratic lawmakers containing her allegation against Brett Kavanaugh must be a highly flawed document. First, Sen. Feinstein sat on it for months. She didn’t give it to the FBI. She didn’t publicize its contents. She didn’t even use the allegations when she had opportunities to question Kavanaugh. Feinstein could easily have done so without violating Ford’s request for confidentiality. For example, she
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September 20, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I confess that, in real time, I was unhappy with Sen. Charles Grassley’s handling of the first hour of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing. My live-blogging of the hearing made clear my view that Chairman Grassley should have been much more firm with the Democratic committee members who were trying to throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings. I was wrong. Grassley played it almost perfectly. He let the Democrats
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September 19, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
No, Grassley didn’t put it that way. He can’t politically, and is too much of a gentleman to do so in any event. But that’s the essence of the Chairman’s statement to Ford and her counsel that they have until 10:00 Friday morning to decide whether Ford will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to present her allegation that Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her. If Ford doesn’t agree to appear by
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September 19, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, word circulated in certain quarters of the D.C. legal/public policy community that the assault allegation against Brett Kavanaugh may be a case of mistaken identity. In other words, the incident happened, but the perpetrator wasn’t Kavanaugh. In the version I heard, the assault was committed by a guy who attended the Landon School, not Georgetown Prep where Kavanaugh was a student. Landon and Georgetown Prep are both elite prep
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September 18, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley said today that Christine Blasey Ford has not yet accepted an invitation to testify next Monday regarding her allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school. Grassley stated: We have reached out to her in the last 36 hours three or four times by email and we have not heard from them, and it kind of
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September 18, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
1968 was the year of the pitcher. However, when Gaylord Perry hurled a no-hitter for San Francisco against the St. Louis Cardinals on September 17, 1968, it was just the fourth no-hitter of the season, not an usually high number. On September 18, when the Giants again played the Cardinals, the pitching matchup wasn’t nearly as mouth watering as the day before when Perry beat Bob Gibson 1-0. However, the
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