A notable reaction, in large part because this appears to be just about the only reaction to Sheldon Whitehouse’s nonsense letter to Merrick Garland. Ben Sasse (R-NE), who isn’t exactly a Trumpian voice on the Senate floor, blasted the Rhode Island Democrat’s “paranoid obsession” with Brett Kavanaugh. The demand for a new review of the FBI’s background checks is “sinister,” Sasse wrote to the National Review, and suggested Whitehouse join a “conspiracy theory book club” and get fitted for a tinfoil hat instead:

Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) on Tuesday criticized Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D., R.I.) claim that the FBI’s 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh during the Supreme Court justice’s confirmation hearing may have been “fake.”

“If senators want to join conspiracy theory book clubs, wear tinfoil hats, and talk about Roswell, that’s their prerogative, but this is something more sinister,” Sasse, who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a comment to National Review.

“A United States Senator who once peddled lies about a Supreme Court nominee is now trying to weaponize the DOJ against a sitting Supreme Court Justice,” the Nebraska Republican added. “This kind of paranoid obsession is Nixonian poison to public trust.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself, although I certainly tried yesterday. Whitehouse has done nothing but embarrass himself with his conspiracy theories and paranoid obsession with Kavanaugh, from the beginning until now, 18 months later. Even after his disastrous confrontation with Kavanaugh in which Whitehouse spent his time obsessing over teenage slang from the early 1980s, it seems that his only purpose in the Senate is to discover the truth about “boofing.”

Guy Benson offers a recap of the FBI’s work on the Kavanaugh case, and why Whitehouse is all wet … again:

The FBI’s involvement constituted a follow-up on previous background checks, which Kavanaugh had always passed with flying colors. Agents spoke to a handful of alleged “witnesses” and uncovered no evidence implicating the SCOTUS nominee. It was all done by the book, in exact accordance with established protocols. It turned out that the only piece of new or meaningful information that arose from these interviews was the revelation that Ford’s allies had bullied a witness. Leland Keyser, Ford’s high school friend who was touted as a key witness by Ford’s supporters, had been pressured to dishonestly change her story. Because this accusation harmed the anti-Kavanaugh brigade’s case, Keyser’s bombshell went largely ignored in much of the evidence-hostile press, which had taken sides …

To recap, Democrats insisted on a follow-up investigation, and the only information it unearthed regarded witness tampering alleged by Ford’s own ally and star witness. And that same star witness ultimately concluded that in addition to lacking any evidence or memories to reinforce Ford’s story, she no longer believed Ford at all. This was her quote buried in a book written by New York Times reporters:

We spoke multiple times to Keyser, who also said that she didn’t recall that get-together or any others like it. In fact, she challenged Ford’s accuracy. “I don’t have any confidence in the story.”

Like Ford’s own father, Ford’s own top witness doesn’t believe her allegations, which are unsupported by any evidence whatsoever, contemporaneous or otherwise. I’ll also note that Ford’s lawyer also later admitted an ideological motive to discredit Justice Kavanaugh’s potential rulings on abortion jurisprudence. Sen. Whitehouse looks at all of this and wants to go back and investigate the investigators. Embarrassing hackery.

That may be why Whitehouse’s stunt letter was greeted by silence from his colleagues. A scan of the news over the last 24 hours shows no support at all from fellow Democrats, or even from friendly media outlets, for Senator Boof Truther’s latest foray into Kavanaughbsession. Most media coverage just regurgitates the Guardian’s initial report, but none take it much further except for Vanity Fair. And then, they only note the futility of the effort, as well as Whitehouse’s obvious aim for impeachment:

Unfortunately, it’s not at all clear that Garland will take Whitehouse up on any of this, and it’s even less likely that, if he did, anything would come of it. In 2019, numerous Democrats, including Kamala Harris, Julián Castro, and Elizabeth Warren, called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment and Rep. Ayanna Pressley filed a resolution against him, the first step required to open an impeachment proceeding. It didn’t end up going anywhere, but it is important to note that Supreme Court Justices can be removed from the bench via impeachment. In case anyone was wondering!

Everyone knows that impeachment can be used against federal judges, so literally no one was wondering about that. Democrats used Kavanaugh for fundraising and found out that no one’s obsessed with him other than Sheldon Whitehouse. And it didn’t go anywhere for the reasons Guy lays out today — because there’s nowhere for it to go, except within Whitehouse’s tinfoil headwear.