Starting today's Kavanaugh thread with the now-deleted tweets from last night from the Senate Judiciary Committee's Republican chief counsel for nominations — and his explanation this morning for those tweets (and for his having deleted them). 
Note: Mike Davis worked on nominations in the George W. Bush White House political affairs office while Brett Kavanaugh's DC Circuit nomination was pending, per his LinkedIn bio. (More recently, he rejoined his old 10th Circuit boss, Neil Gorsuch, briefly as a SCOTUS clerk.)
Family of Dr. Ford puts out a letter of support, per @bridgitmendler, who calls Ford her aunt:
.@EdWhelanEPPC is a smart guy and can be exceptionally kind in person, but the idea of presenting him as a "straight shooter" in a story about the Kavanaugh nomination is laughable. He has been basically *the* key Kavanaugh booster on Twitter. politico.com/story/2018/09/…
In addition to Judge and Smyth (and Kavanaugh), the Senate Judiciary Committee claims to know and have reached out to a fourth person alleged to have been at the party.
Note that they only got statements from Judge and (presumably) Smyth; there were not interviews. Also, of course, note that this was a Republican-only effort, given that the Democrats have not participated because they do not agree with Grassley’s process.
The Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans (11 men), who insist they can handle the investigation on their own this week, are, at the same time, trying to find "someone" — read: a woman — to handle the questioning of Ford next week.
The Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans believe they are capable of questioning and, effectively, judging would-be justices for the Supreme Court. There is absolutely no reason, other than optics, why they could not handle next week's hearing.
I'm not sure if this, from a lawyer at Cato, is raising a dispute or reinforcing my point.
Here, from @ZoeTillman and @pdmcleod, is where things stand as of now with Brett Kavanaugh's #SCOTUS nomination, Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that he sexually assaulted her, and the possibility of a Senate hearing next week. —> buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
FYI: Ed Whelan is sharing maps and floor plans over at his Twitter account, so, that’s happening:
Reminder: Whelan is the person identified as a “sober-minded straight shooter” by Politico earlier today. The thread has gone very far awry from that posted tweet. I will not post them here.
This is how irresponsible Whelan's actions tonight are being seen: The Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans' communications adviser is distancing the committee from them.
As an FYI for folks, Whelan is a prominent legal conservative who’s been a key cheerleader for Kavanaugh on Twitter. They also worked closely together when Whelan was the principal deputy in DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel & Kavanaugh was in the Bush WH counsel’s office.
Earlier, a statement from Kavanaugh about wanting to testify:
In response to Whelan’s thread, Ford issues a statement saying there is “zero chance” of her having mistaken who it is that she alleges sexually assaulted her.
