Welcome to the Kavanaughcalypse intermission, everyone! Be sure to check out the snack bar and hit the restrooms before the second half of the spectacle begins. Stretch your legs … and stretch your rhetoric. Limber up!

The president is way ahead of us on this, by the way:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1048196883464818688

This went over as well as one might imagine with the media. Bloomberg, the Boston Globe, and other media outlets rebuked Trump for making accusations “without evidence,” apparently unaware of the irony. They’re not incorrect, to be sure, as Trump never did follow up this tweet with any substantiation. Given what has taken place in the Senate over Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation — and especially in the media — it seems a little late in the day to complain about a lack of substantiation for allegations now.

Besides, it’s not all that tough to see someone‘s organization in the protests. Signs have been professionally printed and widely distributed, as they have been for weeks. Hilary Clinton’s ex-aide Brian Fallon has organized opposition through Demand Justice. Where did their money come from? LifeNews and the Daily Wire asserted back in July that some came from Soros’ groups:

According to LifeNews, the abortion-loving billionaire George Soros will be spending millions in the fight to keep President Trump’s nominee from being confirmed to the highest court in the land.

“A new political advocacy group that vowed to put $5 million behind an effort to stop Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court has significant ties to the liberal financier George Soros,” reports LifeNews. “The group, Demand Justice (DJ), is organized and financed by a 501(c)(4) called the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which collected some $2.2 million in contributions from the Open Society Policy Center (OSPC), one of Soros’ primary donation vehicles, between 2012 and 2016.”

The Sixteen Thirty Fund comes from only a handful of donors, with financial statements from 2014 showing that as few as three contributors accounted for 70% of its fundraising: $11.5 million. The 2016 disclosure forms show that fewer than five donors gave $13.3 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund — 63% of the total donations.

Since one of those mega-donors is the George Soros-owned Open Society Policy Center (OSPC), the billionaire’s hand in the quest to block Judge Kavanaugh cannot be understated. In fact, the OSPC and the Open Society Foundation (OSF) are nearly identical.

Even if true, it doesn’t mean Soros is personally funding the particular protesters using aggressive tactics for intimidation. Although if the leader of a group he’s funding is taking credit for it, well …

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1048242470029549568

Still not quite the same thing. Nor is any of the above at all illegitimate, even if true. That’s the way that the Koch brothers fund political activism too, as well as Sheldon Adelson, Tom Steyer, and so on. It’s a silly complaint in which both sides indulge — making bêtes noires out of opponents’ billionaire activists while clucking tongues about the conspiracy theories surrounding their own.

It’s not really intermission, of course, especially not for the senators caught up in the pressure. At this moment, Lisa Murkowski seems to be playing Hamlet, and even Jeff Flake is only committing to aye “unless something big happens.” Allahpundit will have a lot more on both coming up soon, but intermission will officially end when Susan Collins gets up to speak. Get your snacks now!