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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKavanaugh Was Supposed to Be a Midterm Boon for G.O.P. Not Anymore.
By Jonathan Martin
Sept. 23, 2018
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. No Republican Senate candidate has been as aggressive in using the Supreme Court nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh as a political weapon as Josh Hawley, the Missouri attorney general who is in an intensely tight race against Senator Claire McCaskill.
A former Supreme Court clerk, Mr. Hawley made his first campaign commercial about control of the court, and he assailed Ms. McCaskill for refusing to say if she would support Judge Kavanaugh. And after the accusation of sexual assault against Judge Kavanaugh last week, Mr. Hawley denounced Democrats for staging an ambush.
Yet in Missouri and other politically competitive battleground states, leaders in both parties are increasingly doubtful that Mr. Hawley and other Republicans can wield the Kavanaugh nomination as a cudgel without risking unpredictable repercussions in the midterm elections.
With Judge Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, tentatively scheduled to testify this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and many women furious over President Trumps attacks on Dr. Blasey, a Supreme Court nomination that was once seen as a political winner in many conservative-leaning states could, instead, rouse female voters and independents who otherwise may have cared little about the confirmation fight.
Suburban women are pivotal in this years campaign and many of them were already tilting toward Democrats because of their contempt for President Trump. If Republicans are too harsh in their questioning of Dr. Blasey, they risk inviting an even greater backlash at the ballot box in an election where their House majority is in peril and their one-vote Senate majority is teetering.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/23/us/politics/kavanaugh-senate-republicans-elections.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
ProudMNDemocrat
(16,789 posts)When Todd Akin brought up "Legitimate Rape", Claire McCaskill went on the attack. She is holding out until Dr. Ford testifies, then she will go on the attack that an attempted rapis has no place on the Supreme Court, not to mention being a perjurer.
Any woman in her right mind should NOT vote for Josh Hawley,who believes a woman's place is in the home, have dinner ready by 6pm, and run a business from the home.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I can't imagine many women reacting to this with any emotion other than outrage.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)The Republican hypocrisy veil on historical sexual assault...see Al Franken...is being lifted rather dramatically. And there is nothing they can do about it.