And then, there were three

A third woman has come forward in the Kavanaugh probe, this one charging that the justice-designate was "present" at her gang-rape.

I firmly believe that actual evidence is necessary before any of these charges are believed. It has not yet been forthcoming. On the other hand, I am also reluctant to disbelieve any charge of sexual assault in the absence of evidence.

But as the number of accusers increases and the charges become more lurid, the lack of collaborating evidence also becomes more important. At a certain point, it begins to become hard to understand, if Brett Kavanaugh is as depraved a monster as he is being made to appear, why someone didn't come forward before now. The more accusations are made without collaborating evidence, and the more serious the charges become, the more the very lack of evidence argues not for a suspension of judgment, but for disbelief.

There needs to be an FBI investigation of the charges as soon as possible. If they are true- if any of them are true- we need to know it. And if they are unsubstantiated, the significant possibility that this might be a politically motivated smear campaign to strengthen the left's rapidly-slipping grasp on the Court and stranglehold on the Constitution needs to be in the forefront of everybody's awareness.

It is easy to make charges, difficult to disprove them, and essential that they are backed up with facts before any of them become a reason to refuse to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. On the other hand, the lesson the Trump administration has failed to learn from the Mueller probe also applies here: to oppose an investigation and stonewall is to create the appearance of wrongdoing even if there is none. The more the Republicans in the Senate and in the administration resist a timely but thorough FBI examination of the facts, the more guilty Judge Kavanaugh looks even in the absence of any actual evidence.