“All I can say is that we’re bringing this to a close. They’ve had tons of time to do this. This has been a drive-by shooting when it comes to Kavanaugh. I’ll listen to the lady, but we’re going to bring this to a close.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by the Washington Post, on the sexual assault allegations made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) “is pressing forward with a hearing scheduled for Monday after a woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault called for the FBI to investigate her claims before she testifies,” The Hill reports.
Grassley said there was “no reason” to delay the hearing.
Said Grassley: “Dr. Ford’s testimony would reflect her personal knowledge and memory of events. Nothing the FBI or any other investigator does would have any bearing on what Dr. Ford tells the committee, so there is no reason for any further delay.”
In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA), lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford said that she was expected her to testify “at the same table as Judge Kavanaugh in front of two dozen U.S. Senators on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident.”
However, a committee spokesman insisted that “was never the plan and that was certainly never conveyed.”
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao “flew on Federal Aviation Administration planes rather than commercial flights on seven occasions between January and August 2017, newly released records show — including one flight to and around Europe that cost taxpayers an estimated $68,892 for her and five staffers,” Politico reports.
“She appears to have halted the practice just as one of her fellow Cabinet members, then-Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, was facing increasing scrutiny over his use of private and military flights.”
Gabriel Sherman: “According to sources, several factors are at play. White House advisers are worried that more damaging information about Kavanaugh could come out. Two sources told me the White House has heard rumors that Ford’s account will be verified by women who say she told it to them contemporaneously. People worry, without apparent evidence, of another Ronan Farrow bomb dropping. One source says Ivanka Trump has told her father to ‘cut bait’ and drop Kavanaugh.”
”Another reason Trump hasn’t gone to the mat for Kavanaugh is that he’s said to be suspicious of Kavanaugh’s establishment pedigree. ‘He’s a Bush guy, why would I put myself out there defending him?’ Trump told people, according to a former White House official briefed on the conversations. Trump also has expressed frustration with White House counsel Don McGahn, who aggressively lobbied for him to choose Kavanaugh.”
“But the threat of losing the House and Senate seems to have helped convince Trump not to go scorched-earth on Ford. If Trump antagonizes women voters, it could increase the odds Republicans would lose both houses in Congress.”
Said one outside adviser: “Trump knows the Senate is not looking good. It’s all about the impeachment, he knows it’s coming.”
“The woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault says the FBI should investigate the incident before senators hold a hearing on the allegations,” CNN reports.
Christine Blasey Ford’s attorneys argue that “a full investigation by law enforcement officials will ensure that the crucial facts and witnesses in this matter are assessed in a non-partisan manner, and that the Committee is fully informed before conducting any hearing or making any decisions.”
The letter from Ford’s lawyers Ford has “been the target of vicious harassment and even death threats” and has been forced to leave her home.
Dick Polman: “To understand why women overwhelmingly support a Democratic takeover of Congress — a landslide majority of 65%, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post survey — it’s worth parsing some of the initial Republican responses to the sexual-assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh. The remarks explain why, on the cusp of the first national elections of the #MeToo era, Republicans on the ballot are confronted with a gender gap that threatens to become an unbridgeable canyon.”
“After their initial defensive flurry, Republicans quickly recognized that ramming Kavanaugh’s nomination through without affording Ford an opportunity to testify under oath would be politically suicidal. But even though they’ve hit the pause button and slated a public hearing for Monday, it’s likely that many women in the electorate have already gotten the message, one that mirrors the message they’ve received from Trump Republicans all along: that the ruling patriarchy does not respect, and indeed feels threatened by, the power of women.”
“Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are considering having their aides question psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford should she testify about her sexual assault accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh,” the HuffPost reports.
“There’s a reason for this unusual move: Every Republican senator on the committee is male, and aggressive questioning of Blasey could backfire for them. If they use their aides, they would be able to rely on female staffers.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who has made a number of recent trips to early presidential primary and caucus states, is hiring staff in Iowa and New Hampshire to help candidates running in this year’s midterm election, NBC News reports.
“Advocacy groups pouring money into independent campaigns to influence this fall’s midterm races must disclose many of their political donors beginning this week after the Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to intervene in a long-running case,” the Washington Post reports.
“The high court did not grant an emergency request to stay a ruling by a federal judge in Washington who had thrown out a decades-old Federal Election Commission regulation allowing nonprofit groups to keep their donors secret unless they had earmarked their money for certain purposes.”
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Outgoing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) “already is making plans for after he leaves City Hall, including a deal to write a book about his theories on the increasing importance of cities in a country and world where federal government paralysis has forced municipalities to rely more on themselves,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
Alfred A. Knopf will publish The Nation City: Why Mayors Run the World in spring 2020.
Mark Judge, the third person identified by Christine Blasey Ford as having been present in the room during what she alleged was a sexual assault by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, wants no part in next week’s Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled proceedings, Roll Call reports.
Said Judge: “I did not ask to be involved in this matter nor did anyone ask me to be involved… In fact, I have no memory of this alleged incident.”
President Trump “is privately lashing out at one of his top allies, Ron DeSantis (R), angrily accusing the Florida Republican gubernatorial nominee of publicly betraying him,” Politico reports.
“The president has told close associates in recent days that he views DeSantis — who won his Aug. 28 GOP primary thanks to Trump’s strong support — as profoundly disloyal for distancing himself from the president’s assertion that the Hurricane Maria death toll was inflated by Democrats for political purposes.”
“Trump views the former congressman as politically indebted to him… because he believes DeSantis owes his electoral success to him.”
President Trump said that Brett Kavanaugh “is not a man that deserves” to be facing a sexual assault allegation at this point in his confirmation process, saying that he feels “so badly” for his Supreme Court nominee, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “I feel so badly for him that he’s going through this, to be honest with you. I feel so badly for him. This is not a man that deserves this.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) “sharply questioned the credibility of the woman” who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault, “as GOP leaders indicated they will limit witnesses at next week’s hearing to just the Supreme Court nominee and his accuser.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Wonk Wire, Political Job Hunt and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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