Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court vote this week, before any more horrible information about the nominee surfaces. He's likely been the driving force behind the White House's refusal to allow the FBI to conduct anything beyond a cursory review. Or, at least, the story that it’s the White House behind the restrictions. If you ask them, and someone did, it was entirely up to Senate leadership. "We're going to allow the Senate to make the determination of the scope," said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Wednesday. Meaning that it probably was McConnell along with Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley driving this train. At any rate, the sham report, Republican senators say, is likely to drop any time now.
"I think it's likely to happen this afternoon," Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker said Wednesday after a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans. “It could be tomorrow, but the sense is that they may be completed this afternoon and will have access to those later this evening or tomorrow." Judiciary Committee member Sen. John Kennedy said "There is a reasonable possibility ... that it will be ready today," and Majority Whip John Cornyn echoed that. After that, McConnell is going to rush the vote, possibly filing cloture by the end of Wednesday and setting up a final vote as early as Friday. That is assuming he either knows he has all the votes he need—Hey, Sens. Jeff Flake and Susan Collins!—or is playing chicken with them.
He's also shoving this vote in the face of Democrats, denying their request that at the very least the vote not be scheduled until all of the Senate is briefed by the FBI. McConnell responded to Sen. Chuck Schumer's request by hiding behind process, saying that "the handling of results of [background investigations] is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding between the Senate Judiciary Committee and the White House." As if McConnell gave two damns about proper procedure. Because McConnell cannot not be an asshole when given any opportunity to do so, he adds "in all candor, I believe it would be used to further delay this nomination—a goal about which you and your Democratic colleagues have been abundantly clear and single-minded in pursuing."
How does Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake feel about that little bit of tribalism, of nastiness from his leader? Or more importantly, what does he think of how much of a sham this investigation he's insisted upon is turning out to be? He’s probably not disturbed enough to do anything about it, like vote against this clearly unqualified nominee.
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