Senator Chuck Grassley looked very effective, perhaps not in his ability to read words aloud, in his opening statements at the Kavanaugh-Ford hearings Thursday morning.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee offered an apology to Christine Blasey Ford for threats on her family and lamented what it said about our democracy. He laid out the timeline of Ford’s allegations becoming public allegations, noting how Dianne Feinstein sat on the information for a month and a half. He noted the “chaos” and “grandstanding” in the previous hearings on Brett Kavanaugh by Democrats, implicitly juxtaposing that scene with the solemn one on Thursday. He pointed out the committee made “eight requests” to interview Deborah Ramirez and “six requests” to interview Julie Swetnick, two Kavanaugh accusers. They preferred making the allegations to the press rather than under the penalty of perjury.

Most effectively, Grassley noted that all four of the people that Ford says attended the party where Brett Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her denied attending such a party. He noted that Leland Ingham Keyser, Ford’s lifelong friend, not only denied attendance but denied ever meeting Kavanaugh.