The Kavanaugh-Ford hearing is done. As the shock of this tortured day wears off, here are six observations about what took place.

Ford Showed Pain and Fear

Dr. Ford looked, as counsel Rachel Mitchell noted, “terrified.” She also looked fragile. Her head darted from one side of the Senate Judiciary panel to the other, her eyes wide continuously. She often had a look of vague panic as she answered questions.

That’s part of what casts doubt on her memory. There can be little doubt that she was sexually assaulted as a teenager. But although she seems like a nice person, she also seems to be a deeply wounded one whose memory well could be distorted by time and pain.

Feinstein is an Embarrassment

Dianne Feinstein demonstrated a disturbing incompetence that should disqualify her from further service in the U.S. Senate.

At the end of the hearing, John Cornyn of Texas finally asked what should have been one of the primary questions: How was the confidential letter Dr. Ford had written leaked to the press?

Senator Feinstein said she didn’t know. When asked if her staff leaked the letter, she said, incredibly, “I just did.” She had just turned to one of her staffers and asked if any of her aides had sent the Ford letter to the press. Predictably, the staffer said no, and also reminded the Senator that she had, in fact, asked this of her staff earlier.

This bent the arc of credibility so far that you can still hear it snapping. Senator Feinstein has more than 50 people on her Washington, D.C. staff alone, not counting all those she has sprinkled at her various regional offices in California. An offhand question in a televised Senate committee hearing is hardly a thorough review of who might have gone over the boss’s head and gotten the Ford letter to the media.

Sen. Feinstein suggested that perhaps one of Dr. Ford’s friends had leaked the letter. This, too, is absurd beyond belief. Did Dr. Ford share her letter with various people in her circle of acquaintances? If so, would she not have been horrified that her very personal and highly confidential letter were leaked by someone she had trusted?

Sen. Feinstein displayed a lack of concerned curiosity, let alone anger about what her staff might have done. Who really runs her office? When I served as a Senate staffer, there were several “Senators in name only,” elderly men whose time had long past. Their chiefs-of-staff ran things, making decisions about legislation, news releases, co-sponsorship of bills, and so forth. They also ran the Senators themselves, setting their schedules, deciding with whom the Senators would meet, and so on. The only thing the Senator really did was cast votes, trot along to committee hearings (a great place for a nap) and appear at the occasional public event. I fear that Dianne Feinstein is now in this same category.

The Call for FBI Investigation is About Delay, and Nothing Else

The real reason the committee Democrats want yet another FBI investigation is that it would forestall the Judiciary Committee’s, and full Senate’s, vote on the Kavanaugh nomination until after the November election. If they regain control of the Senate, his chance of being on the Supreme Court collapses. So does that of any other conservative jurist.

Thus, they kept asking him to support another FBI background check.

It’s not really an “investigation,” by the way. Over the years, I have given several interviews to FBI agents checking up on current or potential federal employees. Among the questions always asked are those concerning alcohol and drug abuse, the things about which the Democrats seemed obsessed. After six such investigations, Brett Kavanaugh has come off clean as a whistle.

Kavanaugh’s Passionate Defense Befuddled the Dems

The Judiciary Democrats were surprised by Judge Kavanaugh’s rigorous, pained, even raw defense of his conduct and character, and unsure how to handle it. His quotes of some of their repulsive comments and those of such thoughtful statesmen as New York’s Chuck Schumer were devastating.

So, they grew desperate. Sheldon Whitehouse made a spectacle of himself asking questions about Judge Kavanaugh’s high school year book comments (including a reference to flatulence). This marked a low point in the sordid pattern of today’s inquiry. Thankfully, even liberal Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota declined to follow in her colleague’s mucky footsteps.

Cory Booker of New Jersey tried to muddy the waters further by trying to get Judge Kavanaugh to qualify his statement about the concerted efforts of the Democrats to siderail his nomination by asking the judge if he believed Dr. Ford was a conspirator. Kavanaugh never said or implied that. Here’s what he said:

The behavior of several of the Democratic members of this committee at my hearing a few weeks ago was an embarrassment. But at least it was just a good old-fashioned attempt at Borking. Those efforts didn’t work. When I did at least O.K. enough at the hearings that it looks like I might actually get confirmed, a new tactic was needed. Some of you were lying in wait and had it ready. This first allegation was held in secret for weeks by a Democratic member of this committee and by staff. It would be needed only if you couldn’t take me out on the merits. When it was needed, this allegation was unleashed and publicly deployed over Dr. Ford’s wishes. And then, and then, as no doubt was expected, if not planned, came a long series of false last-minute smears designed to scare me and drive me out of the process before any hearing occurred.

A better summary of what the Democrats have been doing could not be given.

Lindsey Graham’s Speech was Historic

South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham’s explosion at his Democratic colleagues was unique in recent Senate history. It was also well-aimed.

The decorum of the Senate is essential to its operations. The studied deference and “my good friend” stuff might sound fake to a lot of Americans, but without the gloss of cordiality, we’d be seeing fistfights and shouting matches non-stop. Sometimes, though, the veneer needs to be pulled-off. Sen. Graham yanked it away with ferocious honesty today.

“What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win [the presidency] in 2020. You said that, not me,” Graham said. “Boy, y’all want power … I hope you never get it. I hope the American people can see through this sham … you knew about (the letter) and you held it. You had no intention of protecting Dr. Ford. None.”

Much of the Hearing was About the 2020 Election

So much of this is about the 2020 race. Kamala Harris, Mrs. Feinstein’s California compatriot, and Cory Booker are eyeing the presidency closely. What better way to gain standing with their party’s ever more leftist base than to boast of their heroic efforts to stop the great beast, Brett Kavanaugh?

Judge Kavanaugh deserves the final words: The past two weeks, since the leak of the Ford letter, have been “a national disgrace,” an “orchestrated political hit,” full of “grotesque and obvious character assassination.”

May God help our broken country.