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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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With Mrs. Ford’s lawyers now saying she will not testify until a full FBI investigation is completed (an undoable, perhaps illegal request given the FBI has no jurisdiction here), it’s all but certain that she will not appear Monday as requested by Sen. Grassley.

Where does that leave us? The answer is simple. It’s time to vote. Not Monday, not next Tuesday, but tomorrow when the original vote was scheduled.

Andrew McCarthy has it right in an article at National Review this morning.

The long-term goal here is to make the judicial-confirmation process so notoriously savage and demeaning that no sensible, well-meaning conservative or moderate person would agree to put himself and his family through it. The idea is to stock the courts with nothing but progressives and mediocrities willing to roll over for progressives. It is a disgrace that this should happen in this republic, and in connection with the courts, which are not supposed to be political forces, but which have been converted into an uber-political institution that progressives are desperate to control.

The short-term goal is to delay Kavanaugh’s nomination. Democrats should not be allowed to get away with it.

Give Professor Ford until noon today to accept the committee’s unnecessarily indulgent invitation to testify on Monday. If she has not accepted by the deadline, Senator Grassley should proceed with the committee vote tomorrow (Thursday) as previously scheduled. If Democrats scream bloody murder, who cares? They’re a one-trick pony. They are going to scream bloody murder no matter when the votes are taken.

No more delay. It only rewards the mugging and encourages more of it.

There are multiple problems with waiting until Monday despite the fact that Ford is saying she won’t show up.

One, it sets a precedent that you can delay a confirmation vote by making a baseless claim and then refusing to even repeat it under oath. Democrats can not be given such a victory. They must be shown that if you pull a stunt like this, the reward will be expedition of the vote, not a delay.

Two, by waiting, it gives Democrat partisans and their allies time to further muddy the waters with more unsubstantiated claims.

Take for example this non-sense that was posted this morning.

I graduated from Holton Arms, and knew both Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge. Christine Blasey Ford was a year or so behind me, I remember her. I signed this letter. The incident was spoken about for days afterwords in school. Kavanaugh should stop lying, own up to it and apologize

Update: After thousands of retweets, the tweet has now been deleted.

I can’t give you the original tweet because, as it says, it was deleted. She’s followed up with this gem of a response for why she deleted it.

https://twitter.com/reinabori/status/1042410098700611584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1042410098700611584&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fgregp-3534%2F2018%2F09%2F19%2Fafter-throwing-hand-grenade-into-the-kavanaugh-debate-classmate-of-christine-blasey-ford-now-not-sure-shes-interested-in-pursuing%2F

Who is this woman? She’s someone in Mexico who’s a far-left activist, complete with selfies of Michael Moore on her timeline, who offered no evidence that she even knows any of the people at question. After being called out, she now conveniently doesn’t want to proceed and feels that throwing such a grenade into the fray has “served it’s purpose.” Of course it has. It got thousands of retweets and that was the goal. By this afternoon, her statement (despite being deleted) will be conventional wisdom among frothing at the mouth Kavanaugh opponents.

The point is this. If you wait until Monday to vote, clinging to hope that Mrs. Ford will show, you are setting the table for more baseless garbage to be slung against the wall in hopes that it sticks. The Senate has to show that it’s not a body to be toyed with.

Senators such as Jeff Flake, who seem intent to twiddle their thumbs the rest of the week while practically begging Ford to appear so this charade can continue, need to have their bluff called. There’s no reason to sit around another five days hoping she changes her mind.

As McCarthy says, give her a deadline to commit to appear on Monday. That deadline should be no later than noon today. If she refuses, you reschedule the vote for the original date, which is tomorrow, Thursday the 21st.

No more games. No more delays. Grassley must do the right thing here.