When Damns Burst

From news reports, Republicans apparently are starting to feel good about how the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings are going.  They are presuming that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford will not want to testify on Monday without and FBI investigation, which isn't likely to happen.  And even if she does, it will be without any supporting witnesses (including those former classmates who are now coming forward to say they heard about the attack at the time), and held under conditions favorable to the GOP and Kavanaugh.

Just a quick heads-up to these Republicans who think (and act) this way:

Be careful what you wish for.  Because even if Republicans get their way with the hearing and go dancing in the aisle -- indeed because of Republicans getting their way by bullying a woman who claims she was attacked -- I have a feeling that they may have overlooked an important factor: the 19th Amendment, that women do now actually have the right to vote.  (That's one reason why it's good to have women on a committee, to remind the menfolk of these things...) And I sense that women by a vast majority will be outraged in ways the GOP can't imagine.  This includes women who were undecided how they would be voting in the mid-term elections, and women who weren't planning on voting in the mid-term elections, as well as women who will go out of their way to ensure as many other women as possible get to the polls for the mid-term elections.  I suspect the old bromide, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," won't begin to reach the level of wrath we'll see.

Keep in mind that Brett Kavanaugh had one of the lowest approval ratings for a Supreme Court nominee in recent history -- and that was before this letter and its allegation became a story.

(Side note: despite Trump and all Republicans insisting that the FBI doesn't get involved and do this sort of thing, as Chuck Rosenberg, former Chief of Staff to the FBI Director, commented yesterday, the "I" in FBI stands for investigation.)

At this point, as much profound attention as has been placed on Mr. Kavanaugh getting a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court and on Trump who nominated him, I believe this story has changed focus somewhat. As I've been writing for many months, this is now no longer about Trump, and not even fully about Kavanaugh -- but it is about the elected officials of the Republican Party.

This story now is drawing attention to how the Republican Party trashed Anita Hill 27 years when she testified against the sexual abuse of then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas -- and that they are not only doing it once again to Dr. Christine Balsey Ford, but in many ways are being worse.  And amid a society that is now part of the MeToo generation.

And it's being done by the elected officials of the Republican Party.  They're the one's setting the ground rules to bully Dr. Ford.  They're the ones covering for Brett Kavanaugh.  They're the one's not pushing for an FBI investigation.  They're the one's setting timetables.  They're the ones question whether Dr. Ford is just "confused" -- before even hearing her testimony.

It's Republicans who offer up endorsements for accused rapist Brett Kavanaugh from Trump, who has 16 women who have charged him sexual abuse, and Roy Moore, who is an accused pedophile. 

I'm just going to guess most women notice all these things.  And probably don't like them much.  So, while Republicans are apparently feeling comforted that they might make it through the hearings, willful ignorance is no virtue.  A Blue Wave may be the least of the GOP's tidal worries -- there could be a Women's Tsunami coming.

In the words of Trump, it could be the worst mid-term hurricane from the standpoint of water.

Because it's about the Republican Party. 

​Again.