SOME NEWS EVENT HAS JUST OCCURRED – AT 2:25 P.M. ET:  And nobody's actually sure what happened.

Okay, technically, Judge Kavanaugh's name has been reported favorably to the U.S. Senate for confirmation as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.

HOWEVER, through the good or bad auspices of Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, a retiring Republican senator who is part of the never-Trump movement, an understanding was reached that a request would be made by somebody in some room with a working light bulb, that the full Senate consideration of Judge Kavanaugh be delayed for a week while the FBI conducts an additional background check on the judge.  The check would be restricted to the charges made by Professor Ford.

So that's where we are.  The full Senate is not legally bound to honor that request, but some Republican senators who are on the fence are supporting it.  We now learn that the Senate leadership, at least on the GOP side, has come to an agreement on how to proceed, but we don't know what the agreement contains.  It is clear, though, that there will be a brief FBI check. 

Some say this new approach, which gives the Dems the FBI check they've asked for, may have a silver lining for Judge Kavanaugh.  If the FBI comes up with nothing, this reasoning goes, it will give cover for some of the fence sitters to vote for the judge.  Maybe so, but I fear this also has the potential to doom him.  The Democrats are not honest players.  If there is one sentence in the FBI report that intrigues them – "Mr. Kavanaugh dated a girl named Jenny" – they'll seize on it and demand a full probe of his relationship with Jenny, whether she exists or not.

Lindsey Graham expressed barely disguised disgust with this new gimmick, and barely disguised frustration with Jeff Flake, but he did not prevail.  We're back in the Twilight Zone.

Stand by for more.

September 28,  2018