Christine Blasey Ford has said that she's willing to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s attempt to rape her in high school. “She’s willing to do whatever it takes to get her story forth,” her lawyer, Debra Katz, said on NBC Monday morning. Since Republicans had planned, as part of their efforts to smear and discredit Ford, to press for her to testify, she’s essentially calling their bluff, taking the legs out from under a plan to blame her for not helping them “investigate.”
Axios also reports that “Republicans got more worried as the evening went along, but privately were optimistic about winning the P.R. fight: It's her word, backed by her therapist's notes, versus Kavanaugh and another man alleged to be in the room.” Again, the plan is a smear job—and don’t bet that Senate Republicans will back down from sneering and smearing in televised hearings, especially with the Trump White House urging them on.
Republican Sens. Jeff Flake (AZ) and Bob Corker (TN) have called for a delay in the committee vote on Kavanaugh, while Lisa Murkowski (AK) has issued a more hesitant echo of that, saying the vote “might” need to be delayed. Flake is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, so in theory he should hold significant power on the 11 Republicans to 10 Democrats committee, but it’s Jeff Flake. Expressing concern and then doing nothing is his whole routine.
Republicans would have been entirely willing to assail Ford if she hadn’t been willing to expose herself to their attacks in person. Will they go for it now that she’s called that bluff?