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The condescension of Gentleman Jim Acosta, who airily presumes that, if you're a woman, any woman, you believe the accuser and assume this Kavanaugh guy is a serial gang-rapist. That's how it goes: Identity politics makes moron cultures of formerly sophisticated societies. So it was inevitable that when a picture from yesterday's hearing popped up, of the judge with three females sitting behind him, the wankerati of Twitter immediately assumed that they were just three regular all-American women staring in disgust at the rape beast of Bethesda.
In fact, they were Kavanaugh's wife, mother, and one of their dearest friends. And the reason they look like that is because they're crushed and broken by what Dianne Feinstein, Blumenthal, Whitehouse and the other whatever-it-takes Democrats chose to do to them. It is a testament to the thoroughness with which these malign carbuncles on the body politic set about their task that, in a certain sense, one could forgive the Twitter mob its carelessness: Mrs Kavanaugh was all but unrecognizable from the woman who'd sat behind her husband just a fortnight ago. She was, indeed, a different person, and she will be for the rest of her life.
Dianne Feinstein did that to her, consciously. The Ranking Member is in a tricky position back home. She's on the California ballot this November, but, having been outflanked on her left, she is not the official Democrat nominee. So she cannot afford to be insufficiently "progressive", and thus concluded it was necessary to, in Kavanaugh's words, "destroy" his family.
Nothing personal, just business. Roger L Simon writes with cold fury:
A real rape had taken place but it wasn't the one everyone was talking about. It was simultaneously a rape of Judge Kavanaugh, his family, and the American people themselves. The collateral damage was Dr. Ford, her friends, and her family. And the perpetrator was the Democratic Party, principally their Judiciary Committee members, their ranking member, and the minority leader.
The GOP base, and Trump supporters in particular, weren't in the mood for the usual milquetoast pantywaist routine from Republicans. That Deputy County Attorney from Arizona seems an affable lady, but the effect of her performance, punctuated by the usual bollocks from showboating Dems about the "courage" it takes to "speak your truth" (a horrible relativist phrase), was to ensure that for the first half of yesterday's charade the ritual sacrifice of Brett Kavanaugh was a done deal.
And then the human sacrifice himself entered the room. His raw, real opening statement changed the course of the day. As longtime readers may recall, in my own appearance before the Senate I pushed back against the stupid and boorish behavior of Senator Markey, a pompous twerp who, having insulted the witnesses, then sneered that he hadn't given us leave to respond. So we responded anyway:
I've been told that there's never been an occasion where two witnesses turned the tables on a senator and bombarded him with questions. If that's the case, Americans shouldn't wait another 200 years to do it again. No citizen should consent to be insulted to her face by a mere elected representative.
Certainly, Senator Markey, like so many cowardly bullies, didn't take it well. He was supposed to come back for his scheduled second round of questions. But, after that exchange, he declined to return.
Everything about these stupid hearings is insulting, including the height of the Senators' dais relative to the witness below. Earth to Senate: It might help if you return to ground level. So I was thrilled to see Kavanaugh push back, and I urge more American citizens to do so if summoned before this cabal of over-entouraged poseurs.
After the judge's opening statement, it was back to the anodyne pseudo-deposition technique of that County Attorney. Not enough, not any more it wasn't. So one senator reclaimed his time:
Graham -- a media dandy -- stepped up for decency, honor, and the rule of law.
That was a genuine parliamentary moment in a chamber full of posturing tosspots most of whom, like Markey, are helpless without their staffers. Charles Lane Tweeted:
It was almost as if in the middle of @LindseyGrahamSC's speech every phone line in every Republican committee member's office lit up with people screaming "why the hell aren't you doing that too?"
To which Don Surber adds:
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes!
That's the difference you can make if you "step up for decency, honor, and the rule of law". Out there in old-school GOP Pantywaiststan, three Republican governors in blue states (included the wretched squishes in my neighboring jurisdictions of Vermont and Massachusetts) are calling for the Kavanaugh nomination to be mothballed indefinitely pending interminable ersatz investigation of whatever unprovable charges are leveled by whoever Creepy Porn Lawyer's next client is.
But GOP voters saw yesterday the difference one or two stout-hearted men can make. Kavanaugh de-Borked himself, and Graham sealed the deal. That is a rare victory over the sewer divers. Minutes ago, the nomination passed the Judiciary Committee, but with the tepid and conditional support of the rather less stout-hearted Jeff Flake, who was behind the arras doing a side-deal with the Dems. We will see in the days ahead whether the Kavanaugh-Graham moment was merely that.
UPDATE: I think most of the base would prefer the Thursday Graham GOP to the Friday Flake GOP. There's little I loathe more than twits who stage public bouts of conscience-wrestling.
Mark Steyn is an international bestselling author, a Top 41 recording artist, and a leading Canadian human rights activist. His latest book is "The Undocumented Mark Steyn: Don't Say You Weren't Warned". (Buy it at a 43% discount by clicking here or order in KINDLE edition at a 50% discount by clicking here. Sales help fund JWR)