The Senate Judiciary Committee will have three new faces on the Republican side as the 116^th Congress gets underway today: Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa, Senator Marsh Blackburn from Tennessee, and Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri. Senators Ernst and Blackburn will be the first two women to ever serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee for the Republicans. These new committee members will be in the spotlight as the Senate Judiciary Committee looks to continue confirmation hearings on judges and cabinet members, especially the already announced hearing on President Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, William Barr, which will take place on January 15 and 16, per a statement released by outgoing Chairman Chuck Grassley and incoming Chairman Lindsey Graham.

At the end of last month, The Daily Caller reviewed the top 32 "worst cases of media misquotes, misleading narratives, major corrections and straight-up fake news" in 2018.  It's no surprise that nearly all of them portrayed President Trump, Trump Administration officials, Trump nominees, or Republicans in an inaccurately poor light.  What may be surprising is a full quarter, or eight, related to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court:

The Trump Administration and Senate leaders were ultimately able to confirm Justice Kavanaugh, but it wasn’t without great obstruction and bias from the Democrats. The below posts show how Democrats and liberals obstructed individuals' and officials' rights. In 2019, Republican officials will continue to fight the confirmation obstruction as many conservative judges await hearings on their nominations.

During the 115th Congress, President Donald Trump, former White House Counsel Don McGahn, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley have had great accomplishments regarding the appointment of conservative judges. There have been 85 new federal judges confirmed, including Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanaugh, 30 circuit court judges, and 53 district court judges. Despite these accomplishments, Senate Democrats continue their obstruction by holding up the confirmation of six more circuit court judges and 48 district court nominees.

While the ABA, nonpartisan and Republican legal circles all agree that Thomas Farr is well qualified to be a District Court Judge, Senator Schumer and DC-based liberal judicial smear groups are attacking Mr. Farr.  The irony is that the items they are attacking him for are supported by Democrats!

First, Mr. Farr is being attacked for defending North Carolina’s voter ID law for his client, the state of North Carolina.  Putting aside the lawyer's ethical duty to his clients, voter ID is supported by a large majority of Democrats in every survey released.  The most recent survey put the numbers at 63% support for a photo ID requirement from Democrats and more interesting, 69% support from lower-educated Democrats.

This is the first midterm election cycle since 2002 where any incumbents of the non-presidential party lost re-election.  The Democrats lost four such races.  In part this was because of their terrible treatment of Brett Kavanaugh.  Marc Theissen wrote last week in "Kavanaugh treatment gave Senate to GOP":

It cost Democrats their chance to regain control of the Senate. And it gave Republicans an expanded Senate majority that will allow them to confirm an even more conservative justice next time around.

. . .

None of that might have been possible had it not been for the Democrats’ horrific treatment of Kavanaugh. As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put it, the failed effort to stop Kavanaugh was “like an adrenaline shot” for the GOP base. Republican voters were outraged to see a good man accused, without a shred of corroboration, of sexually assaulting a teenage girl, exposing himself to a college classmate and participating in gang rapes in high school. They were disgusted by Senate Democrats’ insistence the burden was on Kavanaugh to prove he didn’t do it and by Democrats’ blatant disregard for the presumption of innocence. They were energized by Kavanaugh’s willingness to fight back and declare his treatment by Democrats a “national disgrace.” And they punished the perpetrators of that disgrace at the polls on Nov. 6. . . .

The lesson for Democrats should be clear: Character assassination does not pay. Quite the opposite, it backfired – big-time.

Today, President Trump gave Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor.  Senator Hatch was given the award along with six others, including the late Justice Antonin Scalia.  Senator Hatch, who is retiring, is currently the longest-serving senator and Senate President pro tempore, and voted on the confirmation of every current Supreme Court justice.

The Senate Judiciary Committee released a report into the attempted smear of then-Judge Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings.  The first paragraph is below. 

In the weeks leading up to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation vote on October 6, 2018, investigators from the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (“Committee”) diligently pursued all relevant allegations made against the nominee. This memorandum summarizes the Committee’s work and provides a status update on the Committee’s ongoing efforts to review and address additional matters that arose during the course of the investigation, including potential violations of Senate rules, potential witness tampering, and potential false statements made to the Committee in violation of federal law.

Almost four weeks after Justice Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in, the mainstream media and Democrats have gone strangely silent on the accusations with which they were so eager to smear then-Judge Kavanaugh while his confirmation was pending:

The fallout from the Kavanaugh smear continues with some on the left doubling down on the smears regarding Justice Kavanaugh drugging and organizing rape trains of teenagers and with others backing off.  This is all a result of Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley’s 29 page letter referring Trump-hater lawyer Michael Avenatti and his “witness” Julie Swetnick to the FBI for criminal investigation for providing false statements, obstructing investigations, and conspiracy during Kavanaugh’s confirmation. 

Yesterday, NBC did a mea culpa claiming that they had been deceived by Avenatti:

Was this an intentional attempt to mislead our reporters? Evidence points that way... https://t.co/MOxE8WiGK4

— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) October 26, 2018