NY Times: FBI investigation could be finished Monday, Democrats upset

The supplemental FBI background check that Democrats demanded and got last week could be over as soon as today. The NY Times reports Democrats who made the lack of an expanded investigation the main focus of the televised hearing last week are not happy about that:

The F.B.I. moved on Sunday to quickly complete an abbreviated investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, even as Democrats demanded more information about the inquiry’s scope, warning that its apparent constraints could make it a “farce.”…

Officials said the F.B.I.’s “limited” supplemental background check of Judge Kavanaugh could be finished by Monday morning. Set in motion late last week by three Senate Republicans, the inquiry was supposed to shed further light on accusations that Judge Kavanaugh engaged in sexual misconduct during his high school and college years and help resolve the fierce national debate over whether he should win confirmation to the Supreme Court.

But the investigation’s apparent narrow reach has infuriated the judge’s critics, who said he should be subjected to a wide-ranging examination of his drinking and possible sexual misconduct.

Kavanaugh’s critics are upset that their fishing expedition, all-expenses-paid by Sens. Flake, Collins, and Murkowski, isn’t as broad as they hoped it would be, but more than a dozen paragraphs in you do get this admission from the NY Times:

It is not unusual for the White House to specify the scope of a request for additional background information on a nominee. No evidence has emerged that the White House has forbidden any investigative steps, and President Trump has said he wants agents “to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion.”

This is not how Democrats wanted this to go. The week of delay was intended to drag on long enough to generate enough fodder for new allegations, thereby giving Democrats another excuse to delay a vote once again. But if the investigation wraps up today or tomorrow with no new corroboration of the underlying sexual assault claims, then Democrats will need to do something more desperate. What that will be I can’t imagine at this point, but it’s all but impossible to believe they’ll concede anything at this point.

One sign that the sexual assault allegations aren’t sufficiently corroborated thus far is the degree to which Democrats now want to talk about Kavanaugh’s testimony about drinking instead. But no one appears to be claiming his drinking has impacted his work over the past 35 years. We’re expected to focus on his high school yearbook and whether he drank too much during Beach Week his senior year seriously because…well, just because.

I think his testimony and his interview with Fox News included admissions that he did drink too much on occasion as a young adult. But having poor judgment as a teenager is not a crime and spinning that now as youthful indiscretion isn’t perjury. This is just the best Democrats could do against someone whose actual career on the court doesn’t provide much fodder for scandal.

The party of Ted Kennedy is suddenly worried about the dangers of excessive drinking. FFFFFFforget this noise.

It’s glaringly obvious what lies behind all of this furious opposition. Sen. Kamala Harris made that crystal clear last Thursday:

Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court is a direct threat to Roe v. Wade and protecting a woman’s right to choose. The American people deserve better than this. Sign our petition if you agree.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 27, 2018

This campaign is about smearing someone who threatens the one SCOTUS decision Democrats care about more than life itself, literally. Most Democrats in the Senate and all of them on the Judiciary Committee have already said they won’t vote for Kavanaugh. This supplemental investigation isn’t about convincing them, it’s about trying to convince a couple of pro-choice Republicans to join them. It’s time to wrap this up and vote.