BRETT KAVANAUGH/DEMS/SEX ABUSE/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WOMEN: “Democratic efforts to highlight sexual assault charges that are more than 30 years old have been dismissed by supporters of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh as the dredgings of ancient history. But the judge’s response to those accusations has raised new issues that go to the core of who President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee is right now: his truthfulness, his partisanship and his temperament. For Democrats determined to derail Judge Kavanaugh, his performance last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee — his dissembling about his teenage years; his playing down drinking in high school and college; his raw, angry emotions; and his broadsides against Democratic questioners — is proving to be a new avenue of attack, if the accusations of sexual assault are not enough to swing the votes of three key Republicans and two undecided Democrats…As the investigation of past actions continues, lawmakers in both parties are parsing Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony from last week. At least one undecided Republican, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, took issue on Monday [10-1-18] with the nominee’s angry treatment of Democrats who questioned him about his drinking in high school. Judge Kavanaugh parried a question from Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, about whether he had ever blacked out from drinking — not by answering the question, but by asking the senator if she had ever blacked out. He later apologized.”
–Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “A New Front in the Kavanaugh Wars: Temperament and Honesty,” The New York Times online, October 2, 2018