THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

In a mere 2 years in office The Orange Humperdoo has managed to really, truly offend a great many women who are now willing and ready to vote Democratic in the upcoming elections. With the imminent hearings with Kavanaugh and his victim Christine Blasey Ford, the Republicans may well kiis goodbye to most of their female support.

Yet in Missouri and other politically competitive battleground states, leaders in both parties are increasingly doubtful that Mr. Hawley and other Republicans can wield the Kavanaugh nomination as a cudgel without risking unpredictable repercussions in the midterm elections.

With Judge Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, tentatively scheduled to testify this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and many women furious over President Trump’s attacks on Dr. Blasey, a Supreme Court nomination that was once seen as a political winner in many conservative-leaning states could, instead, rouse female voters and independents who otherwise may have cared little about the confirmation fight.

Suburban women are pivotal in this year’s campaign and many of them were already tilting toward Democrats because of their contempt for President Trump. If Republicans are too harsh in their questioning of Dr. Blasey, they risk inviting an even greater backlash at the ballot box in an election where their House majority is in peril and their one-vote Senate majority is teetering.

And with record numbers of women running for office, their voices and those of female voters could crescendo in highly competitive election-year states from Arizona to Florida to New Jersey in support of Dr. Blasey if she testifies as scheduled. Her story makes it far harder, Republicans say, for their candidates to treat Judge Kavanaugh as an unalloyed asset and excoriate Democrats who oppose him.

What alarms Republicans is that staunch defenses of Judge Kavanaugh, like the one made by Mr. Hawley, could haunt them if Dr. Blasey makes a compelling case before the committee. One Republican senator, Dean Heller of Nevada, has already come under political attack for describing Dr. Blasey’s allegation as “a hiccup” for Judge Kavanaugh.

And in a radio interview, Representative Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, a Republican challenging Senator Heidi Heitkamp, minimized Dr. Blasey’s claims because, he said, “it was supposedly an attempt or something that never went anywhere.”

Republicans with their antedeluvian attitudes and responses toward women can expect a strong pushbsck from women who are now saying enough is too damn much from you bozos!