As I discussed in yesterday’s earlier in a column, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., RI) going through the yearbook entries of Brett Kavanaugh was one of the most bizarre moments of confirmations in our history. Whitehouse was attempting to undermine Kavanaugh’s account of not being a black out drunk or participating in sexual exploits at parties with his friends. The hearing devolved into a discussed of the terms “boofing” and the “Devil’s Triangle.” The terms are widely defined on the internet to mean anal sex and a threesome (with one male and two females). Kavanaugh insisted that they meant farting and a drinking game. That led many to question his veracity (I am thankfully ignorant of either term but I have come to realize that my high school and college years were monastic in comparison to most everyone else). One person using a congressional computer however decided to try to add at least some support for Kavanaugh on the Internet by changing the definition on Wikipedia. He or she only succeeded in causing a row that highlighted the controversy over Kavanaugh’s answers.
Continue reading “Definition of “Devil’s Triangle” Changed On Wikipedia To Make Kavanaugh’s Answer”
Japan’s space agency (Jaxa) has released incredible images from its robot rovers of the asteroid Ryugu. I know that I go all squealy over NASA and space pictures, but this is amazing. It is difficult to get one’s mind around the fact that we are looking at the surface of an asteroid that has been moving through space since before the advent of mankind.
In a new twist, Committee staff has reportedly interviewed two men who say that they were actually the two teens who may as assaulted Christine Blasey Ford in 1982 and not Judge Brett Kavanaugh. It is not clear what further information will be released on this latest disclosure but it raises an obviously serious matter for both sides. I remain leery of this lat minute leak and the lack of details — unfortunately a common element in this ongoing controversy.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) 
The passage of a polygraph by Christine Blasey Ford has been a key factor for many in believing her story — a fact cited by various members of Congress. 
The Senate Judiciary Committee has announced the identity of the lawyer who will conduct the primary questions of both Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Rachel Mitchell, the sex crimes bureau chief for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, is someone with considerable experience in not such sex crimes but delayed sex crime prosecutions. It is an unusual step for the Committee but not unprecedented. Congress will hire outside counsel or allow counsel to question witnesses on some occasions, particularly at fact-finding stages. I was hired a lead counsel to represent the United States House of Representatives in the successful challenge of the unilateral funding decisions of the Affordable Care Act by President Barack Obama. 
Today I have the honor of serving as the keynote address at the celebration of the 
With the addition of a second woman alleging sexual misconduct of Brett Kavanaugh, it is still not clear what factual disputes will have to be addressed before a final confirmation vote occurs in the Senate. Putting aside questions over late timing of the allegations, there is agreement that the Senate will have to consider both the allegations of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and the new allegations of Deborah Ramirez. What is far more troubling is the continued disagreement on the standard that Senators should use in considering the allegations. While objecting that their Republican colleagues are not prepared to give the women an “impartial hearing,” various Democratic senators have declared (before any testimony is heard) that they believe Dr. Ford – and thus do not believe Judge Kavanaugh. That is troubling enough, but Sen. Mazie Hirono (D., HI) has introduced a far more troubling element in suggesting that she may decide the factual question on the basis of Kavanaugh’s jurisprudential views. 
Below is my column in the Hill newspaper of the New York Times story alleging that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein spoke to this staff near the start of his tenure about secretly taping President Donald Trump and organizing a cabinet effort to oust Trump through the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. Rosenstein denies the accuracy of the story and some have said that he discussed the possibility in jest. The New York Times has responded by saying that it was clear that the comments were made seriously and not in jest.
News reports indicate that Democrats have been speaking with a second woman who is now prepared to accuse Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. The accuser is reportedly Deborah Ramirez, 53, and went to Yale at the same time as Kavanaugh. She describes a bizarre scene of Kavanaugh exposing himself at a party in a dorm. 
Below is my column in USA Today on the upcoming hearing on the allegations of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford against Judge Bret Kavanaugh. There has been a strange disconnect as Democrats denounce Republicans for prejudging Ford or denying her an impartial hearing while they announced in advance that they believe her — and by extension they do not believe Kavanaugh. While the Senate is not a court of law, both sides recognize that they are supposed to afford witnesses a fair and unbiased hearing, particularly when the subject is such a serious allegation as attempted rape.
There has remained considerable debate over the number of illegal immigrants in the country — a figure that obviously has great import in our ongoing debate over immigration policy. Now, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have completed a study that that doubles the prior estimate of 11 million. That figure was used to argue for the passage of amnesty legislation. However, the study finds that the actual number is roughly 22 million.