JIM GERAGHTY: Democrats, It’s Time to Recognize That Your Kavanaugh Playbook Didn’t Work.

With Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Manchin of West Virginia saying they will vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, it appears the confirmation battle is almost over. (Then again, all it would take to suddenly change the calculus would be two Republican senators going wobbly.)

I doubt Democrats want to take any advice at this moment, particularly from someone like me, but hopefully sometime soon, they’ll have a reckoning that their tactics in this fight did not work.

The protesters constantly interrupting the hearing did not work.

Going over Kavanaugh’s high-school yearbooks as if they were something from The Da Vinci Code and trying to ascribe some sinister meanings to teenage slang such as “boof” and “Devil’s Triangle” did not work.

Trying to make Kavanaugh sound like the Bluto Blutarsky of Yale University did not work.

Suggesting that Kavanaugh is some sort of threat to girls on basketball teams did not work.

Portraying his daughter praying for forgiveness for her father in an editorial cartoon did not work.

This stuff didn’t work with Clarence Thomas either, but what else have they got?

NEW SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agrees we need to get rid of the Electoral College to prevent more Kavanaughs.

WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? Christian Toto: Hillary Flops in Anti-Trump ‘Murphy Brown’ Reboot, Draws Weak Ratings.

JUST NBC THE CUTTING EDGE JOURNALISM: Alyssa Milano To Be on Meet The Press. When NBC News Wants Top Legal Analysis Look Who They Pick.

Related: Chuck Todd blames Fox News for Americans’ cratering trust in news media.

CYNTHIA WARD: Susan Collins just saved the women’s movement and its progress on rape prosecutions.

ICYMI: MATTHEW CONTINETTI: Trump’s Remarkable Week.

Can we pause for a moment to consider what has transpired in the last seven days?

TRADE: Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced it had reached an agreement with both Mexico and Canada to revise and rebrand the North America Free Trade Agreement as the United States Mexico Canada Agreement. This announcement fulfills one of President Trump’s key pledges on the campaign trail while benefiting constituencies in important states such as Michigan (autos) and Wisconsin and Minnesota (dairy). Trump also renegotiated the Korea Free Trade Agreement and has made progress with the Europeans as well as the Japanese.

ECONOMY: The Trump Bump continues, with Friday bringing news that unemployment has reached its lowest level since 1969. Consumer confidence is high, and data from the manufacturing and service sectors indicate continued growth. No president is responsible for the state of the American economy. But fiscal and regulatory policy help. And presidents take credit or receive blame in any event.

JUDGES: Susan Collins’s announcement that she will vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh practically guarantees he will be seated on the Supreme Court in the coming days. Kavanaugh’s elevation will secure a five-vote majority of originalist and textualist judges on the high court for the first time in modern memory. Such a transformation of the federal judiciary has been a goal of Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan. The fact that it will be Donald J. Trump who will cement this victory is no small feat. On the contrary, it may turn out to be his greatest and longest-lasting achievement.

FOREIGN POLICY: President Trump is slowly and steadily re-orienting U.S. foreign policy to face the central challenge of the twenty-first century: the rise of China to great power status. Beginning with the national security strategy released at the end of 2017, and continuing through today’s announcement of a landmark review of the defense industrial base, Trump has accomplished the “pivot to Asia” that the Obama administration so often talked about.

More at the link. Are you tired of winning yet?

FASCINATING:  Book Review: American Dunkirk.

WITH BELLS ON:  Women to Crazed Feminists: We Will Fight You to Defend Our Men.

WE ALL KNEW EVENTUALLY IT WOULD HAPPEN:  ‘Venom’ Brings Superhero Hot Streak to a Halt.

THIS REALLY AND TRULY IS MY SHOCKED FACE, NO JOKE THIS TIME:  The surprising heroes of the Kavanaugh fight.   I don’t know where the reboots came from, but I hope we keep them. If anyone finds the pods, burn them.  We ain’t giving them back.

SURE. TITLE IX IS A GOOD START, BUT WHAT SHE ACTUALLY NEEDS IS A STRAIGHT JACKET.  YEAH, I KNOW THE INSANITY IS SELF INFLICTED. IT’S STILL INSANITY, AND WE SHOULD CALL IT WHAT IT IS:  Title IX Complaint Filed Against Prof Who Called for ‘Miserable Deaths’ of White Senators.

AND SPEAKING OF PEOPLE WHOSE GREATEST QUALIFICATION FOR OFFICE IS THEIR 23 AND ME REPORT:  Would You Like Some Dressing With That Word Salad?

SO SCOTUS SHOULD BE AN INSTRUMENT OF PROGRESSIVISM?  THE FACT THAT WE DIDN’T TRY TO STOP A WOMAN WHO THINKS HER GREATEST QUALIFICATION TO THE HIGHEST COURT OF THE LAND IS HER 23 AND ME REPORT, WHILE THE LEFT WENT ALL OUT TO DEFEAT AN ACTUAL KNOWLEDGEABLE JUDGE IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO SIDES:  Sotomayor: Seeing SCOTUS as Politically Divided Hurts Its Legitimacy.

Someone tell this woman that that Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto are not the founding texts of this great republic – signed, Sarah a VERY unwise Latina who prefers to tell the truth than to have liberal privilege.

THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT SCIENCE, LITERATURE, OR ANY OF THE HOBBIES THEY INVADE.  THEY CARE ONLY ABOUT POWER AND THEY WANT TO GET IT OR KEEP IT. THIS IS WHY THEY DESTROY EVERYTHING THEY TOUCH:  Social Justice Wankery Invades Physics.

YEAH, BUT THE CRYING IS A GAME.  IT’S THE TANTRUM OF PEOPLE WHO CAN’T OVERPOWER OTHERS.  BAH:  Kavanaugh Confirmed, The Crying Begins.

GEORGE SOROS, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL:   Kavanaugh Foes Fill Senate Gallery With Sounds of the Insane.

THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO D.C.:

NARRATOR VOICE: YES. YES THEY ARE. Stephen Colbert Writer Brags That “We Ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s Life.” Is CBS Proud of Ariel Dumas?

As Glenn has tweeted, “Trump’s greatest gift is getting various institutions to make clear in obvious ways that they’re as corrupt as he says they are.”

A NEW AD FROM BOB FLANDERS, WHO’S RUNNING AGAINST SHELDON WHITEHOUSE IN RHODE ISLAND:

Flanders’ website is here.

RIGHT ON CUE: The Supreme Court’s Legitimacy Crisis: It’s not about Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged behavior. It’s about justices who do not represent the will of the majority.

They’re so predictable.

OKAY, THIS IS THE BEST YET:

The Bee Gees pic.twitter.com/Iu6SGQgjFl

— Peter Cozy ?? (@PeterCozy) October 6, 2018

OUCH:

IS IT JUST ME, OR HAS THE ENTIRE REPUBLICAN PARTY SUDDENLY DEVELOPED A CERTAIN SWAGGER?

It’s an astonishing transformation. Where do you think it comes from?