EDITORIAL: Only a full FBI probe of allegations against Brett Kavanaugh will do

Republicans, at the last minute, tried to bring themselves back from the brink of disgrace.

They failed.

After voting to send Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee and President Donald Trump succumbed to mounting pressure and instructed the FBI to investigate allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her 36 years ago. The committee said the investigation would focus on “current credible allegations” against Kavanaugh.

The problem? That investigation is to take no longer than a week.

That’s simply not enough time for the FBI to go beyond Blasey Ford and get to the bottom of other sexual misconduct charges made by two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, against Kavanaugh.

Our prediction: We’re in for a rushed probe that will further cement the GOP’s reputation as the party that turns a blind eye to sexual assault against women.

So far, the Republican rush to put a tainted nominee on the court has amounted to partisan politics at its worst. The GOP boys’ club has ignored the good of a divided country — and risked the future reputation of the court itself — by choosing to do the bidding of its masters: a right-wing base hell-bent on overturning Roe v. Wade and a president with his own tarnished history of abusive treatment of women.

None of this is a surprise. Republican senators showed their cards long before the Kavanaugh mess. Remember what happened with Merrick Garland’s failed nomination?

A full FBI probe, we hope, would get to the bottom of Dr. Blasey Ford’s story that a drunken Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party when the two of them were teenagers. In her testimony to the Judiciary Committee, Blasey Ford insisted that she is “100 percent” certain that Kavanaugh attacked her.

No look-alike doppelganger, no mixup, no mistake, as some Republicans claim.

Blasey Ford described the assault in detail, including the “uproarious laughter” of Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, as she struggled to get free from Kavanaugh.

We believe she told the truth.

We believe Kavanaugh doesn’t belong on the court.

Her story; the allegations against Kavanaugh by Ramirez and Swetnick; and Kavanaugh’s own testimony convince us of that.

Most of the public is leaning that way too: 59 percent of Americans surveyed in an NBC/PBS/Marist poll just days ago said that Kavanaugh shouldn’t be confirmed if Blasey Ford’s allegations are true.

At 53, Kavanaugh would likely spend the next few decades on the court, weighing in on cases that affect millions of Americans — cases involving critical issues including women’s rights, workers’ rights, protecting the environment, safeguarding every citizen’s right to vote, and on and on.

Watching him in front of the committee, we didn’t see a calm, measured jurist willing to weigh both sides and come to a fair conclusion that benefits all Americans.

We saw an entitled partisan who is angry at having his path to the court stymied.

There was his testy exchange with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who repeatedly asked Kavanaugh if he would call for an FBI investigation into Blasey Ford’s charges. Kavanaugh had a golden opportunity to demand, in front of the nation, that his name be cleared.

He didn’t.

Instead, he got into a heated back-and-forth with Durbin.

There was his exchange, too, with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who asked Kavanaugh if he had ever blacked out after drinking too much.

He snapped back, “Have you?”

Kavanaugh hit the nail on the head with one observation, though not for the reason he claims.

He said his nomination has been a disgrace, accusing Democrats of corrupting the process through “character assassination.”

The disgrace here has been the rush to confirm a tainted nominee.

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