"These are smears, pure and simple. And they debase our public discourse ... But they are also a threat to any man or woman who wishes to serve our country."

"Such grotesque and obvious character assassination — if allowed to succeed — will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from service. I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process. The coordinated effort to destroy my good name will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out. The last-minute character assassination will not succeed."

Writes Brett Kavanaugh, quoted in the NYT. Also in the Times article is this undermining of the New Yorker's publication of a new allegation from a former Yale classmate named Deborah Ramirez:

The New York Times had interviewed several dozen people over the past week in an attempt to corroborate Ms. Ramirez’s story, and could find no one with firsthand knowledge. Ms. Ramirez herself contacted former Yale classmates asking if they recalled the episode and told some of them that she could not be certain Mr. Kavanaugh was the one who exposed himself. The New Yorker strongly stood by its article.

The NYT also refers to Michael Avenatti's "additional salacious allegations on Twitter," and characterizes Republicans as "caught between the growing anger of many female voters over the Kavanaugh allegations and the demands of core conservative voters infuriated by what they see as a Democratic plot."

The new allegations — from Avenatti and The New Yorker — are, I think, helping Kavanaugh's case. The NYT seems to realize this.

I read between the lines that NYT would not itself have published the Ramirez allegations. It had the story and tried unsuccessfully to corroborate it. And it won't even repeat the "salacious" allegations Avenatti dumped on Twitter. After all the careful work creating credence and empathy for Christine Blasey Ford, we now have an onslaught, a piling on, and it's making Kavanaugh into a sort of hero, who must stand his ground. It's no longer just about the fulfillment of his own aspirations to power and prestige and his own good name. He's now the champion of everyone in the future who — if he fails — will reject the call to public service.

ADDED: A preview of Kavanaugh on FOX News at 7 Eastern:

"I'm not going to let false accusations drive us out of this process." —Brett Kavanaugh

Watch @MarthaMacCallum's full interview with Judge Kavanaugh and his wife Ashley tonight on Fox News Channel at 7p ET. https://t.co/QFmLfIwW4R pic.twitter.com/r8J2TUYQDj

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 24, 2018

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"Deborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate of Brett Kavanaugh’s, has described a dormitory party gone awry and a drunken incident that she wants the F.B.I. to investigate."

A new article by Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer in The New Yorker.

The woman at the center of the story, Deborah Ramirez, who is fifty-three, attended Yale with Kavanaugh.... The New Yorker contacted Ramirez after learning of her possible involvement in an incident involving Kavanaugh.... She was at first hesitant to speak publicly, partly because her memories contained gaps because she had been drinking at the time of the alleged incident. In her initial conversations with The New Yorker, she was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty. After six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections....

“We were sitting in a circle,” she said. “People would pick who drank.” Ramirez was chosen repeatedly, she said, and quickly became inebriated. At one point, she said, a male student pointed a gag plastic penis in her direction. Later, she said, she was on the floor, foggy and slurring her words, as that male student and another stood nearby...

A third male student then exposed himself to her. “I remember a penis being in front of my face,” she said. “I knew that’s not what I wanted, even in that state of mind.” She recalled remarking, “That’s not a real penis,” and the other students laughing at her confusion and taunting her, one encouraging her to “kiss it.”... She remembers Kavanaugh standing to her right and laughing, pulling up his pants. “Brett was laughing,” she said. “I can still see his face, and his hips coming forward, like when you pull up your pants.” She recalled another male student shouting about the incident. “Somebody yelled down the hall, ‘Brett Kavanaugh just put his penis in Debbie’s face,’ ” she said. “It was his full name. I don’t think it was just ‘Brett.’ And I remember hearing and being mortified that this was out there.”...

[A]fter several days of considering the matter carefully, she said, “I’m confident about the pants coming up, and I’m confident about Brett being there.” Ramirez said that what has stayed with her most forcefully is the memory of laughter at her expense from Kavanaugh and the other students. “It was kind of a joke,” she recalled. “And now it’s clear to me it wasn’t a joke.”

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