Kavanaugh—Part 4

The Democrats tried it with Anita Hill and failed, but not before sullying the reputation of Clarence Thomas and dragging the nation through a vicious episode of the politics of personal destruction. Now, the Dems are trying it again, this time dredging up an unsubstantiated allegation of a teenage "assault" 35 years ago involving Brett Kavanaugh. An assault that he unequivocally denies.

Of course in the #MeToo era, we are supposed to believe the victim without critical evaluation, no matter that the victim is allegedly a left-wing, anti-Trump activist who never reported the now 35-year old incident until 2012 and then, never named Kavanaugh in discussions with her therapist at that time.

Cleverly, her current letter just happened to use the phrase "I thought he might inadvertently kill me," the perfect pull quote for the trained hamsters in the CNN/MSNBC crowd. But if in fact, the drunken teenage "attack" was as serious as alleged, it's rather odd that it was never reported to any adult, to the police, to the victim's friends ... to no one. It's also odd that there was no physical evidence of the attack that might have been noticed by parents or friends, after all, the attack was allegedly so severe that the victim feared for her life.

Of course, the #MeToo era demands that every allegation be fully investigated immediately. But if that were the case, how come Senator Diane Feinstein (a staunch defender of women's rights) silently held the allegation for over two months, doing nothing, and waited until the 11th hour to make it public? It's also rather interesting that the accuser demanded anonymity, something that I thought defenders of woman's rights would respect. Nah, she was outed within 48 hours of the allegation going public in order to give the unsubstantiated allegation the weight of a human identity.

The #MeToo movement suggests that a man's denial is not to be trusted, but how are we to interpret the fact that 65 female high school classmates of Brett Kavanaugh have responded to the allegation by telling us that he was an upstanding student and person who treated women with respect. Are we to believe the single victim who alleges assault without any evidence to prove it happened or the 65 women who tell us Kavanaugh's character and demeanor belie that allegation.

No matter that six different FBI investigations never uncovered the alleged incident. No matter that 65 female classmates of Brett Kavanaugh vouch for him. No matter that the victim's background and politics clearly indicate potential bias against Kavanaugh's conservative judicial temperment or that the timing of the allegation is so, so convenient. Nah, the Senate will now come to a full stop as the episode is fully investigated in what Clarance Thomas rightly described as a high tech lynching. Or maybe, just maybe, the GOP majority on the committee will have the guts to see this for what it is—a ploy to game the system and a cynical attempt to use sympathy for #MeToo to derail Kavanaugh's nomination.

This entire episode stinks to high heaven. It's an obvious delaying tactic designed to destroy Kavanaugh's reputation, provide a political cover for Dems who might vote for him for political expediency before the mid-terms, and possibly derail his nomination after the mid-terms. It's vicious and despicable. It's also what the Dems have done before and are now doing again.

UPDATE:
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David Harsanyi dissects the Democrats' vicious strategy well when he writes:

There is no possible outcome in which Democrats will concede Kavanaugh’s innocence, or even concede that we can’t really know what transpired on that night 36 years ago. Republicans can accede to as many hearings as Democrats demand, and it won’t alter any of the liberal rhetoric or perceptions of partisans. Republicans could put Kavanaugh’s classmates under oath and have them deny that anything inappropriate or criminal occurred that night, and it wouldn’t matter. Nor does it matter if 65 women come forward and attest to Kavanaugh’s sterling character — in fact, for Democrats, it’s merely confirmation that the judge is covering something up. It doesn’t matter that, as far as we now know, there’s no pattern of bad behavior from Kavanaugh into adulthood (unlike say, Roy Moore or Bill Clinton).

What we do know is that there will be no genuine due process in the Senate circus. Kavanaugh, who’s said he’s willing to speak to the judiciary committee, will never get a fair hearing. This is by design. Whether Ford’s accusation is true or not, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein surely orchestrated the leak and subsequent release of Ford’s letter, not merely to sink Kavanaugh and create the impression that he was hiding something, but also to ensure that Republicans will be delayed moving forward with any nomination until after the midterms. Even now, leading Democrats on the judiciary committee are arguing that any hearings featuring Ford should be delayed.

There’s no other explanation for the timing of the letter. The senator claims the allegations are “extremely serious and bear heavily on Judge Kavanaugh’s character.” Yet, according to reports, Democrats were in possession of Ford’s letter for months and sat on it. Feinstein personally met with Kavanaugh and didn’t bring up this “extremely serious” charge of sexual assault. Why not? She could have asked him about the allegations while keeping the accuser’s name confidential. Democrats submitted over a thousand questions to Kavanaugh on the record, and not one of them were about whether he had ever engaged in any “extremely serious” behavior. Feinstein also had Kavanaugh sitting in front of her, under oath, during public Senate hearings, and never asked him about the letter.

It’s worth remembering that these Democrat tactics aren’t only meant to sink this nomination — should they end up forcing Kavanaugh to withdraw — but also to damage the credibility of any Supreme Court featuring Trump-nominated (or, let’s be honest, Republican-nominated) justices. Democrats have been dishonestly challenging the “legitimacy” of the court throughout these hearings. The simple fact is that they don’t want to abide by any authority that treats the Constitution seriously, because it’s often the only thing standing in the way of their coercive policies.

For just a moment, consider what would have happened if during the Senate hearings on SCOTUS nominee Sonya Sotomayor a letter appeared within days of her confirmation vote with unsubstantiated evidence that she uttered a racist slur against a African American man. Or during the confirmation hearings for SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan, she was accused of having an unsubstantiated sexual encounter with an underage male intern years ago. The trained hamsters in the media would fly into a rage. The "victim" would be vilified and the matter would be dismissed post haste. But here's the thing. The GOP has never done this to a SCOTUS nominee, regardless of their ideology. It has never stooped to this level of vicious and despicable character assassination. That simple reality tells us more about Democrats and Republicans than any policy paper possibly could.