THEY'LL FIND SOMEONE TO TRASH CHRISTINE BLASEY FORD'S REPUTATION (updated)

We know there are still some restraints on President Trump's behavior because, left to his own devices, he'd be all over Twitter this morning smearing Christine Blasey Ford as a liar and a Democratic operative (and probably worse). Someone has managed to persuade him that that's not prudent, and that can only be because he's been assured that there's a better plan in place to destroy her reputation and get Brett Kavanaugh confirmed.

I don't know what the plan is, and I don't know whether it will work, but I would never count the Republicans out. Axios's Mike Allen reported that they assumed she wouldn't want to testify publicly.

Some involved in the process are going to urge Senate leaders to call on the accuser ... to testify publicly this week, ahead of Thursday's scheduled Judiciary Committee vote. This gambit basically bets that she will decline, and Republicans can then say that they tried to investigate further.

But now her lawyer says she's willing to testify.

She can't prove that the allegation is true, but she's likely to be compelling and believable. The third person who was in the room, Mark Judge, was, by his own admission, a "drunk" in prep school.

I don't know how right-wingers will damage Ford's reputation, but if there's any way, they'll pursue it. So far they don't have much: She's a registered Democrat who's given a whopping $80.50 to Democratic campaigns since 2014, she signed a petition protesting family separation, and she attended a scientists' march against Trump in 2017, wearing a knitted "brain cap" modeled after the pussy hats from the Women's March.



But I can't believe Republicans won't find someone -- probably a woman, maybe one or more of the women who signed that pro-Kavanaugh letter -- who'll be willing to discredit Ford, probably as a fabulist, or as someone whose grasp on reality is tenuous. Or maybe she'll be portrayed as a shy, unworldly nerd who misread cues in that encounter, or as a younger girl (she was 15 and Kavanaugh was 17 when the incident took place) who just didn't understand older teens.

They'll mount a counteroffensive. Maybe it won't work. But it could be nasty -- possibly nastier than what I'm describing. They can't expect the public to dismiss the allegation in the #MeToo era. They have to make it seem phony. And they'll try very hard to do that.

****

UPDATE: Well, I'm already seeing a claim on Twitter that Brett Kavanaugh's mother was the judge in a 1996 foreclosure involving Ford's parents. Is this true? Was there even such a case? I don't know. (Update: Here's one of the case documents. Martha Kavanaugh is one of the ruling judges listed. Power Line is already working this story.)

Oh, and she got a bad review from a student on RateMyProfessors. (No, wait -- several students.) Hang her!

****

UPDATE: Whoops -- the reviews aren't even for her:

These are reviews for Christine A. Ford, a licensed social worker who holds an MSW from Cal State Long Beach & taught at Cal State Fullerton. https://t.co/RHEFgLdHvS

Kavanaugh's accuser is Christine B. Ford, who holds a PhD from USC and teaches at Palo Alto University. https://t.co/gCwf2KVi5T

— Josh Barro (@jbarro) September 17, 2018

It doesn't matter -- this will just be a fake fact about her that people on the right "know." Getting it out there was still worth it for the pro-Kavanaugh forces.

****

UPDATE: And the foreclosure story evaporates under scrutiny.

.@CBSNews went to Montgomery Co Court today to look into Blasey's parents' 1996 foreclosure.

The Blaseys settled w/their lender. The bank asked Judge Martha Kavanaugh to dismiss the case. She did. The Blaseys kept the house.

There's no record they appeared in her courtroom.

— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) September 17, 2018