Respect for Kavanaugh, Ford requires FBI's help

Republicans are learning that “we’re going to plow right through it” is a dangerous way to approach a minefield.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, used that agricultural metaphor Friday to promise conservatives the Senate would confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh no matter what. Now, with a second woman accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct and more potentially on the way, Republicans can neither advance nor retreat without risking disaster.

Make no mistake, this is a crisis of the GOP’s own making. Republicans are in such a hurry to cement a conservative, anti-abortion majority on the high court — and to do so before the midterm election — that they refused to meaningfully alter their fast-track timetable for Kavanaugh’s confirmation even after a respected psychologist, Christine Blasey Ford, accused the nominee of sexually assaulting her when they were both in high school.

Now Deborah Ramirez, a college classmate of Kavanaugh’s, has accused him of exposing himself to her at an alcohol-fueled party when both were students at Yale, a claim first reported Sunday in The New Yorker. And crusading lawyer Michael Avenatti said on Twitter that he has a client with information about misconduct by Kavanaugh in high school.

Kavanaugh vehemently denies any and all allegations. At this point, however, it is obvious that an actual FBI investigation is required — as opposed to the “he said, she said” hearing the Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold with Kavanaugh and Ford on Thursday. Ford has asked for the FBI’s thorough scrutiny. Kavanaugh, for some reason, has not.

Republican senators are embarrassing themselves by calling the accusations “last-minute” or “eleventh-hour.” We are near the end of the process only because McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, set arbitrary deadlines to speed things up. The seat vacated by Anthony Kennedy’s retirement has only been open for eight weeks. There is no reason to be in such a rush to fill it — except political calculation.

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