The kicker, of course, is the word “legitimate” in the title of this piece. At its highest levels the FBI has never been legitimate, if that word means uninvolved in political considerations. It was founded by J. Edgar Hoover…a serial blackmailer…and remains today an ally of whatever political situations strike its leadership as most profitable for its own interests.

However…deep-seated FBI hostility to Trump and his regime may yet save the day.

Let us pray it so.

Kavanaugh’s disgraceful performance at the hearings should by itself be reason for his confirmation to fail, but then…as Trump’s ascent to power bears strong witness, there are no laws against acting like an asshole in public.

There are laws against lying to Congress, however. There are none about Congress lying to us, but that’s a matter for another day.

The proofs of Kavanaugh’s lying to Congress are multiplying by the minute, and the general public…that part of the general public that witnessed more than a few minutes of his act at the hearing, anyway…knows full well who and what he is on that evidence alone. If Trump cannot finesse the investigation…or if it becomes clear that Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Supreme Court would cost the Republicans and Trumpists more votes in November than would the withdrawal of his nomination…he is toast. (Always remember…the Republicans and the Trumpists are two different groups. Trump ravaged the Republican Party in the primaries, and those scars are still fresh and well-remembered. Revenge is a dish best served cold.)

Read on:

Brett Kavanaugh was ‘belligerent and aggressive’ drinker, Yale classmate says

Another Yale classmate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has challenged the truthfulness of the Supreme Court nominee’s Senate testimony, saying Kavanaugh was often “belligerent and aggressive” when he drank.

Charles “Chad” Ludington, an associate professor of history at North Carolina State University, released a statement saying Kavanaugh “has not told the truth” when denying he never blacked out and otherwise downplayed his drinking as a young man.

“On many occasions I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption,” Ludington wrote. “When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive.”

—snip—

Last week, prominent Seattle physician and Yale classmate Liz Swisher said Kavanaugh was a “sloppy drunk” in college. And freshman-year roommate James Roche said Kavanaugh was a “notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time, and that he became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk.”

—snip—

Ludington said he was a varsity basketball player and that Kavanaugh enjoyed socializing with athletes. Ludington said he “cringed” when he watched Kavanaugh describe his drinking on a Fox News TV interview and in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“In recent days I have become deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterization by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale,” Ludington wrote. “Brett was a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker.”

Ludington wrote that heavy drinking as a youth should not “condemn a person for the rest of his life.” But he said the statements Kavanaugh is making now do matter.

“If he lied about his past actions on national television, and more especially while speaking under oath in front of the United States Senate, I believe those lies should have consequences,” Ludington wrote. “It is truth that is at stake, and I believe that the ability to speak the truth, even when it does not reflect well upon oneself, is a paramount quality we seek in our nation’s most powerful judges.”

—snip—

Stay tuned.

Later…

AG

P.S. Trump’s business model is built upon Roy Cohn’s “Never admit to anything” approach. Can he…will he…admit defeat in this situation?

I doubt it, myself.

This will result in another substantial sliver off of his…and the Republicans’…support in November. It will not be so much a “blue” wave as an anti-Trump wave.

Any port in a storm…


AG