Absent an unpredictable event at the Senate Judiciary Committee
hearing Thursday, Republicans intend to move
quickly to advance Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme
Court.
The committee is scheduled to hear from two witnesses, Kavanaugh
and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual
misconduct when they were high school students in 1982. Republicans
believe it's unlikely the hearing will yield a definitive
outcome, leaving senators to weigh Ford's allegations with
Kavanaugh's denials.
GOP leaders also believe Senate Democrats' handling of the
accusations have been transparently political, designed to derail
Kavanaugh's nomination with an impossible-to-prove allegation.
They also say a second accusation, first reported Sunday in the New Yorker, is thinly sourced and refuted in
key respects by other media accounts.