Over the weekend, the report of an accuser of Judge Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct came forth, and while I didn’t comment on it due to other commitments, my reaction was similar to my reaction to those accusations against Rep Keith Ellison (D-MN) of domestic abuse by a former girlfriend, who claimed to have a tape of the abuse occurring but will not release it. If Judge Kavanaugh’s accuser prefers to remain anonymous, then, in the absence of any other evidence, I see precious little reason to take the accusation seriously.
It’s not so much a matter of fairness as it is intellectual integriy. In each case someone has been accused, with no evidence presented, and so the only fair step to take, even if I suspect Kavanaugh is a radical anti-abortion proponent who’ll overturn Roe v Wade at the first opportunity, is to express skepticism the incident occurred.
But now Professor Christine Blasey Ford of Palo Alto University has stepped forward as the accuser, and this certainly complicates matters, stating she’s ready to testify concerning the incident. Professor Ford will be facing a committee of 11 GOP Senators and 10 Democratic Senators. The latter have already made their feelings known on the matter, but the Republican ranks include retiring Senator Flake (R-AZ), who I’ve discussed before, who has little love for President Trump. Will he become the speed bump over which the President’s scooter jumps and dumps?
Politico reports:
Flake flashed a yellow light Sunday night on Brett Kavanaugh’s high court bid, telling POLITICO that he won’t support advancing the nomination this week if fellow senators don’t do more to hear out a woman accusing the nominee of sexual assault more than three decades ago. Opposition from the Arizona Republican wouldn’t doom Kavanaugh outright, but it already has ratcheted up political pressure on a GOP struggling to keep Trump’s Supreme Court nominee from a full implosion. …
“I think it’s too soon to tell, but Flake is the one man with the leverage to do this,” GOP strategist and vocal Trump antagonist Rick Wilson said. “With the one-vote margin on the committee, Jeff Flake has the power to stop Kavanaugh, and to humiliate Trump. Revenge is a dish best served cold, as the philosopher once said.”
But I think I’d prefer Senator Flake only put the kibosh on Kavanaugh if relevant testimony and, better yet, evidence is produced of the incident in question. Regarding the nature of this incident, it’s likely to degenerate into a he-said / she-said incident, which is going to be messy and infuriating, but if the accusation is made and the accuser is going to stand forth, then we will have to wade through the sordid matter. And if, in some surprise turn, incontrovertible evidence is brought forth, or a confession is ripped from Kavanaugh’s lips, then so much the better: the pretender can be rejected, and President Trump can try again.
But I do not expect this to be a pleasant matter, and one side or the other will be sorely disappointed and outraged: an outcome that will do nothing to reunite the nation. Unfortunately, in the unlikely case that Kavanaugh is rejected, no doubt the conservatives will be bitter that an incident occurring back when the man was a teenager was used to block his path to the highest judicial court in the nation. However, I agree with Steve Benen that this is not the nature of the hypothetical rejection:
And what of the current defense? The White House re-issued Kavanaugh’s “categorical and unequivocal” denial to the Washington Post, which is no small detail. There were some suggestions over the weekend that it’s a mistake to condemn the judge for actions he allegedly took when he was a drunk teenager. The incident, if it happened at all, was decades ago, the argument goes, and it’s not fair to define a 53-year-old Supreme Court nominee by what he’s accused of having done in high school.
The problem with this argument is that Kavanaugh isn’t the one making it. On the contrary, the judge’s official line is that the incident in question simply never happened and that his accuser is lying.
And that pushes us away from a debate about holding someone responsible for alleged actions from his past and into a debate about holding someone responsible for their current actions. If Kavanaugh is lying now about an alleged attack on a teen-aged girl, there’s simply no credible way this dishonesty can be dismissed by senators as irrelevant.
Lying to Congress used to be a serious matter, and some Senators still take it seriously. Will this Congress? Will we ever know the truth of the matter? Probably not.
