This week in the saga

The war for the bench erupts. He throws himself in front of his nominee, calling him a fine man under assault by the radical left, then turns on the accuser directly — demanding to know why, if the decades-old attack was so bad, charges were never filed at the time, and taunting that no one called the authorities thirty-six years ago. He accuses the opposition of hiding her letter for months only to drop it like a bomb to delay the vote. And he lifts the whole fight into the campaign, turning to the rally crowds with a single command: remember the midterms. The nominee and the accuser will both face the nation under oath.