Iowans Unite to Stop Hog Farms From Polluting Their Community

Civil Eats

Iowans Unite to Stop Hog Farms From Polluting Their Community

Families in the Hawkeye State are joining together to stop the spread of large-scale farms that they say are polluting the environment and destroying their way of life.

By Wyatt Massey, Animal Welfare, Food Justice, Health   September 27, 2018

Sue George never intended to be an activist. The soft-spoken, retired elementary school teacher was content on her century farm near Lime Springs, a town in the rolling hills of northeast Iowa with a tad under 500 people.

Then, the hog operations moved in.

George lost the need to be “Midwest nice,” she said. “I’m not willing to let our way of life go by the wayside for these people who are coming in and putting all of this manure and all of this pollution into our area. I’m not.”

So George organized her neighbors and created a legal document to protect her farm, and town, from the large-scale hog operations she said are destroying a way of life and polluting the environment.

The state, already leading the nation in pork production, is experiencing a rapid rise in large-scale hog operations. Between 1982 and 2012, the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture census, total hog production in Iowa rose from 14.3 million a year to 20.5 million. During the same time period, the number of farmers producing hogs dropped from 45,768 to 6,266.

In Howard County, where George lives, 427 hog farms existed in 1982 and just 54 in 2012, according to census data. Those 54 farmers are producing 197,113 hogs a year, or about 3,650 hogs a farmer.

To continue increasing hog production, the remaining farm owners build specially designed facilities to keep the animals indoors where their food and waste can be controlled. People are divided about whether these concentrated animal feeding operations, also known as CAFOs, either are the future of American farming or symbolize profits trumping concerns for rural livelihoods, the environment, and animal welfare. In Iowa, this is more than a mere disagreement about farming techniques. It is a fight over what the Iowa landscape will look like, a fight between rural residents and industrial agriculture.

Large-scale hog operations are prevalent throughout western and central Iowa and have begun moving into the northeast. One CAFO operation expanding into northeast Iowa is Reicks View Farms. George’s group campaigned against the operations moving into her region of Iowa, including Reicks View Farms. (Representatives at Reicks View Farms have not replied to requests for an interview.)

George’s group, founded in early 2017 and called Northeast Iowans for Clean Air and Water, includes farmers, local business owners, and Amish families. Through weekly meetings at homes and farms, conversations over potlucks and on front porches, they organized, advocated, and supported legislation to stop the construction. They placed signs along the highway opposing the new operations. They asked the Department of Natural Resources not to approve the facilities. George testified before the state legislature. She even met with one of the new owners, a man she taught when he was in elementary school.

“We did everything right,” George said. “And it still didn’t work.” The confinements went up and the hogs moved in.

When campaigning state and local government failed, George and dozens of other Iowa families turned to the law instead.

More than 40 families joined George in forming a covenant—a binding legal document in which all the members agree to a set of terms. A local lawyer donated his time to draw up the terms, which stipulated that none of the properties in the covenant—more than 5,500 acres total—would ever house a CAFO or allow a CAFO to spread liquid manure on their land.

CAFO is a catchall term for production facilities housing more than 1,000 animal units, defined by the USDA as the equivalent to 1,000 pounds of animal weight, which is 1,000 beef cattle or 2,500 swine. CAFOs keep animals inside for more than 45 days a year and fall under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act. However, each state regulates the operations differently.

Concentrating animals in one location requires more strict manure management than animals raised on pasture. Large farms produce millions of gallons of manure a year, which is more fecal waste than is produced in some American cities, according to the National Association of Local Boards of Health. The manure in most hog facilities falls through slatted floors into holding tanks. Then it’s hauled off and spread as fertilizer for crops.

Manure from CAFOs can contain E. coli, MRSA, antibiotics, and animal growth hormones. When the manure is not spread properly, these contaminants pollute waterways and private wells, as well as contribute to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. According to Local Boards of Health group, “states with high concentrations of CAFOs experience on average 20 to 30 serious water quality problems per year as a result of manure management problems.” All CAFO manure lagoons leak, according to the EPA, though certain designs can lower leakage to acceptable levels.

Water quality is a chief concern for members of Northeast Iowans for Clean Air and Water and something the covenant cannot necessarily protect. Some local facilities are near rivers, where manure runs off when a tank leaks or heavy rains fall. The area’s natural hills and karst topography—made up of limestone and especially susceptible to sinkholes—increase the likelihood that improperly applied liquid manure will run into waterways. The area is known for its natural trout streams, too. Trout fishing generates $1.6 billion annual revenue for Iowa and surrounding states. The fish need clean water to reproduce.

Several Lime Springs residents will drink only bottled water. A hog confinement sits a half-mile from Russell Stevenson’s farm, where he has lived and worked for decades. As a member of the covenant, Stevenson is concerned not if his private well will be contaminated, but when, he said. “It is not pig farming,” Stevenson said of CAFOs. “It’s a pig factory, and they ought to be regulated like one.”

Members of the covenant and activists throughout the state say CAFOs should be treated like the factories and corporations they resemble, instead of being given pollution tax exemptions and land zoned for agriculture. The operations can claim they are traditional family farms. John Ikerd, agricultural economics professor at the University of Missouri, said CAFOs are free from many of the environmental and public health regulations other operations generating similar amounts of waste must follow. The EPA’s Clean Water Act only regulates confinements of more than 2,500 hogs. Otherwise, the EPA does not regulate the confinements unless they dump waste directly into a waterway.

If the burden of proof was on the CAFO operator to prove the operation was not a threat to public health, no CAFOs could be built, Ikerd said. “Under the existing regulations, the burden of proof is on the public in general to prove that somebody is going to get sick from a particular CAFO, and that’s very difficult to prove.”

Bill Goetsch has farmed the area since he graduated from high school in the early 1980s. His wells were already contaminated when neighbors approached him about the covenant. A CAFO is a short walk up the valley from his home.

Goetsch said he was already concerned about his water, but now smells are coming down the valley. A study from Iowa State University and the University of Iowa determined air emissions from CAFOs “constitute a public health hazard.” About one in four CAFO workers in the U.S. suffers from a respiratory disease, such as bronchitis and asthma-like symptoms. A study of North Carolina residents found people living near CAFOs faced an increase in the same respiratory diseases suffered by CAFO workers. Lime Springs resident Joann Wangen said her adult children make comments about the smells when they visit her and her husband, Rick. Her guests had to stay inside during a recent Thanksgiving because the smells were so bad, she said.

Many advocates point out failures in the design of the state’s master matrix, which guides the siting of proposed operations. The process awards points depending on the building’s distance from homes, schools, and water sources; the overall point score determines whether a project is approved and where it’s sited. Critics of the current matrix point out how equal points are awarded to CAFO owners for doing things with vastly different implications. For example, proposals that include tree planting or that provide enough space for a truck to turn around in are weighted the same as having an emergency containment area for manure spills. A 2018 study found the DNR approved 97 percent of requested building permits.

Confinements of up to 1,249 hogs—considered a small operation—do not need to create a manure management plan or file a construction permit. Confinements of up to 2,499 hogs do not need a construction permit, either. According to DNR data, 3,745 sites in Iowa have fewer than 2,499 hogs. But the total number is likely much higher than that. A 2017 report using satellite imagery identified more than 5,000 hog and cattle lots in Iowa the DNR did not know about. More than 1,000 of those facilities are believed to require state oversight.

Weak state regulations mean CAFOs can move in wherever they please, members of Northeast Iowans for Clean Air and Water said. They point to an operation being approved on an environmentally sensitive site in Allamakee County. Former Iowa DNR director Chuck Gipp said if a CAFO could be built there, then a CAFO could be built anywhere. The hog facility was approved.

Tyler Bettin, public policy director for the Iowa Pork Producers Association, said the matrix system removes the burden from county supervisors to approve the building of each new operation and allows the DNR to better enforce regulations. “The master matrix continues to be very effective,” he said. “It’s a stair-step approach to regulation, so it requires our larger farms to go above and beyond the minimum requirements.”

George is among the advocates in Iowa wanting to revise the matrix to be more rigorous in assigning points. She’d also like it to give more control to counties and local supervisors, who can account for community desires and unique geographic features, like karst terrain or wetlands.

State Sen. David Johnson is among the political voices calling for stricter CAFO regulation. He helped design the state’s matrix in 2002. Johnson introduced 15 state bills related to CAFOs, such as stopping all CAFO construction until the number of impaired waterways in Iowa drops from 750 to 100 and the matrix is redesigned.

None of the bills Johnson introduced made it out of the agriculture committee.

George’s covenant is intended to fill the gap left by these failed state and federal legislative attempts at increasing regulation of CAFOs. By ensuring that confinements will not be introduced onto designated lands, the covenant is protecting a small area of Howard County.

This fall, the group may look to expand the number of people and properties involved in the covenant. The agreement gives George some freedom from worrying about whether another hog operation will move into her backyard. Creating the covenant took a lot of time and hard work, she said, but it strengthened local connections in ways she did not expect. “We have a common bond between us,” she said. “I feel that we’re a tighter-knit community, and we’re all on the same page.”

Individuals and groups across the state have contacted George about the covenant. She has information ready for them—an example of their covenant, a timeline of their process, and important questions to ask the group.

Iowa isn’t the only state with a growing CAFO presence. Trouble with CAFOs and environmental damages got national attention in 2016 in North Carolina when Hurricane Matthew flooded manure lagoons into waterways and the Atlantic Ocean; Hurricane Florence has flooded manure lagoons again. Similar battles between local communities and CAFO operators are playing out in Kansas,WisconsinMichiganArkansasIllinois, and Minnesota. According to the USDA, the United States has more than 45,000 CAFOs.

For many consumers, the farms are out of sight and out of mind. People need to know the price that small communities are being forced to pay to produce these goods, Stevenson said. “It boggles my mind that there are so many people who live in towns and cities and they have no idea what’s going on [on] these farms.”

Who is Julie Swetnick, the third Kavanaugh accuser?

Washington Post

Who is Julie Swetnick, the third Kavanaugh accuser?

By Michael E. Miller, Steve Hendrix, Jessica Contrera and Ian Shapira          September 26, 2018  


An undated photo of Julie Swetnick released by her attorney Michael Avenatti via Twitter. (AP).
Julie Swetnick, who Wednesday became the third woman to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, is an experienced Web developer in the Washington area who has held multiple security clearances for her work on government-related networks.
The child of two government bureaucrats — her father worked on the lunar orbiter for NASA and her mother was a geologist at the Atomic Energy Commission — has spent most of her life around Washington. Now 55, she grew up in Maryland and graduated in 1980 from Gaithersburg High School, located in a far less affluent section of the same county where Kavanaugh lived and attended an exclusive prep school.

Swetnick’s father, 95, said Wednesday he was shocked to learn from a Washington Post reporter that his daughter had made the explosive allegations. She said in an affidavit that Kavanaugh was present at a house party in 1982 where she alleges she was the victim of a gang rape.

Kavanaugh immediately issued a statement in response: “This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone. I don’t know who this is and this never happened.”

Interviewed at his home in Silver Spring, Md., Martin Swetnick said he had no idea that his daughter was suddenly in the news as he hadn’t spoken to her in 10 years. He had long fallen out of regular contact with his children, the retired space scientist said, an estrangement he blames on his focus on career over family.

“The only time we communicate is on my birthday when she sends me an email,” Swetnick said.

Swetnick said he worked for the Department of Defense and NASA, as the “program scientist for unmanned lunar exploration,” and was often away from home.

“I was busy traveling around the country,” he said. “We didn’t have a good relationship.”

He said his daughter was born in Brooklyn but grew up in Silver Spring and then Montgomery Village, where she lived while attending high school. He described her as a “typical girl.”

“She was not shy,” he said. “She was a good-looking girl.”

According to her online résumé, Swetnick attended Montgomery County Community College, where she took pre-med courses. But by the mid-1990s, she had jumped into the exploding world of Web development, accumulating a string of IT and software certifications. A contract job at the State Department started her on government work.

Her experience has included work for U.S. embassies, Customs and Border Protection and the Internal Revenue Service. She has held security clearances at the Departments of State, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security, according to her résumé.

“She never went to college, but she bootstrapped herself and became a computer expert,” her father said. “She’s a sharp woman.”

On her résumé, Swetnick described herself this way: “She is a hands-on team player; having no problem stepping into new or difficult roles, situations and projects,” it says. “She is highly professional, ethical, responsible and hard working.”

As she moved among government contracting jobs, Swetnick has repeatedly encountered trouble paying her taxes.

In 2015, the state of Maryland filed an interstate lien against her property in the District. The bill included over $32,000 in unpaid taxes from 2008, and another $27,000 in interest on the seven-year-old debt. Court records reflect the full amount due of nearly $63,000 was satisfied 15 months later, in December 2016. It is not clear from court records whether the bill was paid or if the lien was released because of a decision that the bill was unwarranted.

Similarly, the IRS in 2016 assessed Swetnick a bill of over $40,000 in unpaid taxes from 2014. The federal government filed a lien on her property for the amount in 2017. The debt was listed as satisfied and the lien was released in March of this year.

Swetnick now lives in a newly built apartment complex in City Center, an expensive enclave in downtown Washington. There is almost no trace of her on social media. One of the few online tidbits that appears to be posted by her: a five-star Yellow Pages review of Bistro Provence in Bethesda.

“Yannick Cam’s done it again!” wrote a “jswetnick” in 2010. “. . . Great French cuisine, a wonderful wine selection, indoor and outdoor dining, and authentic atmosphere.”

Swetnick’s accusations against Kavanaugh came a day before the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear from Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who said Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party when they were both teenagers. A second woman, Deborah Ramirez, told the New Yorker magazine that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when they were both at Yale. Kavanaugh has unequivocally denied both charges, as he did in response to Swetnick on Wednesday.

According to her affidavit, Swetnick met Kavanaugh and his friend and Georgetown Prep classmate Mark Judge in the early 1980s at house parties. She alleges that the teens who attended tried getting girls drunk “so they could then be ‘gang raped’ in a side room or bedroom by a ‘train’ of numerous boys,” she wrote. “I have a firm recollection of seeing boys lined up outside rooms at many of these parties waiting for their ‘turn’ with a girl inside the room. These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh.”

Swetnick said she herself had been gang raped in one of these trains “where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present” and soon after, told two others about her experience.

“During the incident, I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off the boys raping me,” she said, adding that she was “drugged with Quaaludes or something similar . . . ”

One of Swetnick’s high school teachers remembers her as a student who got A’s and B’s.

“She was a good student,” said David Kahn, 76, who taught Swetnick’s modern world history class at Gaithersburg High. “She was relatively quiet, but was sharp and pleasant.”

Swetnick’s father said he could shed little light on his daughter’s high school years. “I was busy traveling around the country,” he said. “We didn’t have a good relationship.”

He said Swetnick wasn’t closely supervised by her parents but never mentioned any type of sexual assault as a teen or showed any signs of trauma or depression.

“Maybe we were poor parents,” he said. “She lived her life. We didn’t discuss it.”

If her father wasn’t paying close attention, some of the family’s neighbors were.

Donald Fontaine said he will never forget how the Swetnicks welcomed his own family to their Montgomery Village cul-de-sac in 1969 or 1970.

“We were the first black family to move here, and the guy got fired for selling us this house,” recalled Fontaine, 89, during an interview in that same house. The Swetnicks, including a young Julie, brought over cake and fruit.

“That’s why I remember how appreciative we were when the Swetnicks welcomed us,” said Fontaine, who was a scientist at IBM.

Told of the accusations, Fontaine said he would “certainly believe her.”

“She was not a flirtatious girl,” Fontaine said. “She was a pretty intelligent young lady.”

The neighborhood was stocked with scientists and federal government employees, recalled another neighbor, Bob Shewmaker, 78.

“It was all PhD’s and master degrees around here,” said Shewmaker, who said he had a security clearance from his time at the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, where Swetnick’s mother worked for a time.

“The party thing was going on,” recalled Shewmaker, who said he instantly recognized Swetnick when her face appeared on television Wednesday. “There’s no question about that.”

At least one of Kavanaugh’s classmates scoffed at the notion that Swetnick would have been a regular at parties with Georgetown Prep students.

“Never heard of her,” said the person, who declined to be named because members of the class have agreed not to speak on the record to reporters. “I don’t remember anyone from Prep hanging out with public school girls, especially from Gaithersburg.”

But Swetnick’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, said her credibility should be assessed in the light of the background checks she had previously passed to secure multiple security clearances.

“She has been fully vetted, time and time again,” Avenatti said on MSNBC. “She is an honest and courageous woman.”

Marc Fisher, Aaron C. Davis, Julie Tate, Alice Crites, Andrew Ba Tran and Donna St. George contributed to this report.

Time for Brett Kavanaugh to withdraw!

NowThis Politics
September 26, 2018

‘The safety and dignity of women is no longer secondary to the needs of powerful men.’ — Time’s Up is calling for Brett Kavanaugh to withdraw his nomination to the Supreme Court

Times Up Is Calling for Brett Kavanaugh to Withdraw From His Nomination to the Supreme Court

'The safety and dignity of women is no longer secondary to the needs of powerful men.' — Time's Up is calling for Brett Kavanaugh to withdraw his nomination to the Supreme Court

Posted by NowThis Politics on Wednesday, September 26, 2018

‘Waste Land’ — 67 Superfund sites across 45 states

Yahoo News

‘Waste Land’ — 67 Superfund sites across 45 states

Silver Bow/Deer Lodge Counties, Mont. Silver Bow Creek/Butte area, Silver Bow/Deer Lodge counties, Mont., 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

Liquid Disposal, Inc., Utica, Mich., 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

Tooele Army Depot (North Area), Tooele, Utah, 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

Sharon Steel Corp. (Midvale Smelter), Midvale, Utah, 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

California Gulch, Leadville, Colo., 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

Northwest 58th Street Landfill, Hialeah, Fla., 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

Smuggler Mountain, Aspen, Colo., 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

Baxter/Union Pacific Tie Treating, Laramie, Wyo., 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

Atlas Asbestos Mine, Fresno County, Calif., 1985. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

East Helena Smelter, East Helena, Mont., 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

Petro-Processors of Louisiana, Inc., Scotlandville, La., 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

Perdido Ground Water Contamination, Perdido, Ala., 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

Triptych of Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Adams County, Colo., 1986. (Photograph by David T. Hanson)

<p>Cover of “Waste Land” by David T. Hanson. (Photo courtesy of Taverner Press) </p>Cover of “Waste Land” by David T. Hanson. (Photo courtesy of Taverner Press)

It’s clear who the GOP-led Congress works for

MoveOn
September 24, 2018

It’s been 10 years since the financial crisis, and banks are making more money than ever. Who is being held accountable for their crimes? Where is the reform?

It’s clear who the GOP-led Congress works for and it’s time this government starts working for all, not just the privileged few. #VoteThemOut. (via U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders)

Gary Cohn Says "What Laws Were Broken?"

It's been 10 years since the financial crisis, and banks are making more money than ever. Who is being held accountable for their crimes? Where is the reform?It's clear who the GOP-led Congress works for and it's time this government starts working for all, not just the privileged few. #VoteThemOut. (via U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders)

Posted by MoveOn on Sunday, September 23, 2018

America’s Teacher of the Year is running for Congress

NowThis Politics
September 24, 2018

America’s Teacher of the Year is running for Congress — here’s her first campaign ad

America's Teacher Of The Year Jehana Hayes's FIrst Campaign Ad

America's Teacher of the Year is running for Congress — here's her first campaign ad

Posted by NowThis Politics on Sunday, September 23, 2018

GOP Goes Low and Randy Rainbow Goes Lerner and Loewe!

Randy Rainbow

September 24, 2018

***NEW VIDEO***

Some musical #MondayMotivation for little Brett.

Because when they go low, we go Lerner and Loewe… (I’ve been sitting on that one for a while.)

KAVANAUGH! – Randy Rainbow Song Parody

***NEW VIDEO***Some musical #MondayMotivation for little Brett. Because when they go low, we go Lerner and Loewe… (I've been sitting on that one for a while.) 🌈🎶👨🏼‍⚖️ 👑

Posted by Randy Rainbow on Monday, September 24, 2018

Deborah Ramirez and the Suffocating Banality of Assault

Esquire

Deborah Ramirez and the Suffocating Banality of Assault

Deborah Ramirez and Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations, to my mind, challenge the deepest fibers of conservative masculinity.

By Joanna Rothkopf       September 24, 2018

President Trump's Supreme Court Justice Pick Brett Kavanaugh's Nomination In Jeopardy Over Past Accusations

Getty ImagesWin McNamee

Deborah Ramirez is the second woman to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. In a report published Sunday evening in The New Yorker, Ramirez recounted that while she was a student at Yale University, Kavanaugh—a freshman at the time—“thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.” Ramirez had been reluctant to come forward earlier, she said, because she had been drinking and wasn’t sure if she remembered the events clearly. After several days of “carefully assessing her memories,” however, Ramirez was certain she knows what happened.

“Brett was laughing,” she said. “I can still see his face, and his hips coming forward, like when you pull up your pants.”

Kavanaugh has unconditionally denied that he played any part in this memory, saying in a statement: “This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen. The people who knew me then know that this did not happen, and have said so. This is a smear, plain and simple. I look forward to testifying on Thursday about truth, and defending my good name—and the reputation for character and integrity I have spent a lifetime building—against these last-minute allegations.”

After learning about Ramirez’s allegations last week, The New Yorker reported that Senate Republicans called yet again for the confirmation process to be sped up.

The new allegation comes, as we know, after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford said that during a high school party, Kavanaugh, then a student at Georgetown Preparatory School, pushed her onto a bed, groped her, attempted to take off her bathing suit, and put his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. Kavanaugh and his supporters have alternately suggested Dr. Ford confused Kavanaugh with another similar-looking classmate, denied that it happened altogether (either with the proof of a teenage boy’s calendar or with the absurd idea that Ford would have gone to the police, among others), and that even if it did happen, it doesn’t matter.

Donald J. Trump: I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!

The idea that Republicanism has any apparatus to deal with sexual assault is, largely, laughable to begin with, given it’s hard-wiring to promote a certain kind of man at the expense of all others. But Ramirez and Ford’s allegations, to my mind, challenge the deepest fibers of conservative masculinity—that now, okay, it’s suddenly not cool to shove your dick at a drunk girl at a party? Isn’t that exactly what college is for?

I grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended a private school in the same community of private schools as Georgetown Prep. Despite the liberal bent of my specific school, I still was raised to believe in these same conservative principles—that men (boys) held the vast majority of social power, and it was my responsibility to look respectably fuckable, or I guess eager or not unkind, so that someone might decide to date me. That was much easier to pull off, especially if you’re a highly socially anxious person like me, if you were a fun level of drunk. That’s why, literally until I read Ramirez’s quotes in The New Yorker, I had forgotten that I, one in a boundless sorority of women, also had fractured, vague memories of being nearly blackout drunk, pushed into a bathroom, and had a friend’s bare dick shoved in my face, and that it had never occurred to me, even once, to tell anyone about it. And that this happened again in college, me still drinking to feel comfortable, the very definition of immaturity, thinking that these experiences were the exception and not the rule. Ramirez and Dr. Ford are putting into relief, yet again, the crushing banality of assault, how pervasive, how cliché, how utterly boring it has been for so long.

Understandably, the outcry over these accusations has caused men and women who were taught this was acceptable behavior to push back. During a dinner for the Faith and Freedom Coalition on Saturday evening, Rep. Steve King said, “I’m thinking, is there any man in this room that wouldn’t be subjected to such an allegation? A false allegation?” (Let’s assume that his definition of “false” may, perhaps, mean “unwanted.”) “How can you disprove something like that?” he continued. “Which means, if that’s the new standard, no man will ever qualify for the Supreme Court again.”

And last week, on MSNBC, New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, after noting that Kavanaugh had the reputation for being a “prince of a man,” said the following baffling collection of words: “What about the deeper, moral, cultural, like, the ethical question here? Let’s say he did this exactly as she said. Should the fact that a 17-year-old, presumably very drunk kid, did this, should this be disqualifying? That’s the question at the end of the day, isn’t it?”

New Kavanaugh Allegations Give Republicans Only One Choice

New Kavanaugh Allegations Give Republicans Only One Choice

Jonathan Bernstein’s morning links.
Walk away. Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Senate Republicans, and the Republican Party in general, now face exactly the same choice with the Supreme Court vacancy they faced a week ago when Christine Blasey Ford’s story went public. It’s just more obvious now that the New Yorker has detailed a second accusation.

Let’s put aside the damage to the Supreme Court if a second justice is confirmed despite serious allegations of sexual misconduct. Let’s also put aside the injustice to Brett Kavanaugh if he’s actually innocent of these charges, as he says he is. Those are serious questions, but this is a political nomination for a political position, so let’s just focus for a moment on the immediate politics of the situation.

Republicans can theoretically bull ahead, with at least 50 of the 51 Senate Republicans agreeing to support an unpopular nominee with now two serious accusations of sexual assault against him.

It they do, they risk additional evidence emerging that would make one or both of these allegations appear to be true. They risk additional stories showing up. They risk the likelihood that one or more Republican politicians will say something incredibly offensive and potentially electorally damaging, the way North Dakota Senate candidate Kevin Cramer did over the weekend. They risk the possibility that their party winds up on the wrong end of a national split between those who take sexual assault seriously and those who don’t. They risk a backlash from supporting a nominee who has been unpopular throughout the process and has become more unpopular.

They’re already guilty, if reporting from Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer is correct, of rushing to confirm the nominee before a story they knew was coming went public. How many more ugly-looking steps will they take if they push ahead?

If they drop the nomination, they get the chance to confirm an entirely different Supreme Court nominee with virtually the same positions on everything. There’s no shortage of such folks.

There is another option: They could wait for a full, proper investigation to be conducted. But the downside risk is even worse than confirming him despite everything, because the clock is ticking on confirming a replacement during the current Congress: If Democrats win a Senate majority, they would (at the very least) insist on a compromise nominee. Republicans certainly have very strong incentives to avoid that possibility.

This isn’t a criminal trial. It’s politics. The Framers gave nomination power to the politician in the White House and confirmation power to politicians in the Senate. Legal presumption of innocence doesn’t apply. Kavanaugh certainly wouldn’t be the first high-ranking political figure to lose an opportunity due to accusations of misconduct. That’s not to say there would be no injustice to him involved (if he is telling the truth); political parties make decisions all the time to select one candidate and not another, with very little concern for fairness. Indeed, it wouldn’t be surprising if there’s some Republican appellate court judge right now who lost out on this nomination thanks to unconfirmed rumors about something that might look bad during confirmation.

And don’t tell me that Democrats will just smear the next candidate because they supposedly always do. As several people have pointed out, no such charges surfaced against Neil Gorsuch, John Roberts or Samuel Alito — either when they were nominated or, for that matter, since then. Nor have there been any against Donald Trump’s nominees for circuit court positions, or, if I recall correctly, for any of George W. Bush’s, either. Nor have there been such allegations against any of Trump’s cabinet officials. That of course isn’t evidence that what two women have said about Kavanaugh is true. But it does mean that there’s no reason to believe that if Republicans sink this nomination that Democrats will respond with smears of other Republicans.

I continue to believe that the injustice of putting Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court if what Ford and Deborah Ramirez say is true outweigh the injustice of withdrawing the nomination if he is innocent. Withdrawing the nomination is the right thing to do.

But never mind that: It’s clearly in the political interests of the Republican Party to cut their losses here and move on. How? All it would take is for three or four Republican senators to tell Mitch McConnell — privately if possible, publicly if necessary — that they plan to vote against the nomination. He’d have no choice but to pull the plug. And if that doesn’t happen, it will be just the latest evidence of serious dysfunction within the party.

Avenatti Claims to Have Evidence That Brett Kavanaugh Was Involved in ‘Gang Rapes’ in High School

People

Avenatti Claims to Have Evidence That Brett Kavanaugh Was Involved in ‘Gang Rapes’ in High School

Tierney McAfee, People        September 24, 2018