I wrote about the latest Kavanaugh smear today as a case of “working the ref,” with an eye to any future Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade. I emphasized Kavanaugh as the ref, but as a colleague points out, it’s probably best to think of John Roberts in that role. The point is to make the chief justice think about how 2/5th of a 5–4 anti-Roe majority would be accused of being harassers inherently hostile to women, and make Roberts want to pull up short to avoid the heat and the perceived damage to the Court’s reputation.