The hearings for the unindicted co-conspirator-in-chief's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh start Tuesday, with hundreds of thousands of documents relevant to his career and his qualifications being withheld from the Senate and from the public. That means that for the past few weeks, Republicans have brought in a vast array of far-right legal brains to pre him in how to not answer any difficult questions from Democrats.
His hearing rehearsal has even featured "faux protesters to make sure Kavanaugh stays cool in the event of a midhearing outburst" and Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham (SC), Rob Portman (OH) and Dan Sullivan (AK) standing in as pretend committee members as well as Orrin Hatch (UT) as faux-committee chair. "The mock hearing room has been outfitted with a dais, nametags, microphones and a clock with red and green lights meant to keep his answers within the allotted time limit."
Just in case, though, all this prep hasn't covered all the bases there are going to be war rooms set up by the White House near the committee room where the hearings will be held, staffed by administration aides and officials as well as senior Senate leadership staff. And "in case there's a surprise" there's also going to be a war room in Vice President Mike Pence’s Senate office.
All this prep is normal, but you have to wonder what "surprise" they're so paranoid about. Maybe something to do with Kavanaugh's aiding and abetting the Bush-Cheney torture regime? Maybe some newly unearthed record of his true views about abortion, about LGBTQ equality, about executive power. It's all there—there's plenty to bury this nominee with a public that already is giving him anemic support. Plenty to give senators like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski pause before signing off on him.
That's why they're racing to get this nomination done and to do it before the National Archive has time to finish going through documents—they want to have the vote before we have the full picture.