Sasse and McConnell both thought there would be problems with one of the least hardline conservatives on the list for some reason, and that another nom/woman would be easier to push through...
You know, if the WH explicitly picked someone with allegations of sexual violence against them, maybe it would be to prove the point that people would go for it anyway, so that if anything else came down in the future he could point to that as another example.
It would be kind of funny for a Dem to leak something to the Intercept, now, wouldn't it?
I'm detecting a bit of a pattern here.