Rarely does a story implode as spectacularly as the New York Times’ latest effort to resurrect the claim that Justice Brett Kavanaugh was a teenage sexual predator.

By now, you know the facts: The Times published an excerpt from a forthcoming book alleging that another woman suffered the same form of abuse and objectification from Kavanaugh that was alleged by another accuser, Deborah Ramirez. No sooner had the universe of liberal political observers and politicians worked themselves up into a frenzy than the story fell apart. The woman whose uncorroborated experience supposedly substantiated Ramirez’s uncorroborated assertions wasn’t even the one making these accusations. Rather, they came from a Washington D.C. attorney with conflicts of interest who did not contact the Senate Judiciary Committee during Kavanaugh’s confirmation proceedings. What’s more, she doesn’t even remember the experience that was supposedly so traumatizing—a revelation that was inexplicably omitted from the Times’ original draft.