Without the emergence of new evidence, we will never know if Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation against Brett Kavanaugh is true or not. There’s nothing Kavanaugh can do or say that will clear his name. But if you’re a man, a single uncorroborated account that dates back to 1982 is all your critics need to accuse you of attempted rape.
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. It doesn’t 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 has said he’s willing to speak to the judiciary committee, but he 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.
The Kavanaugh hearings were already an embarrassing spectacle in which Democrats ignored the rules, processes and procedures when it suited them. If Republicans refuse to offer more hearings now, they will be accused of ignoring sexual assault. If they do hold hearings, they will be accused of attacking sexual assault survivors. Republicans will never be able to ask Ford anything useful, because they’re mostly white men, and white men are, I’m told, perfunctorily racist and misogynist. If Republicans bring up the fact that Ford’s allegation wasn’t reported or relayed to anyone for more than 30 years — until Kavanaugh’s name emerged as a possible Supreme Court justice — they will be accused of attacking a woman. If they point out that her therapist’s notes, the ones that Ford claims prove her charge, in some ways contradict what she is now saying, they will be portrayed as a bunch of men attacking a sexual assault survivor. When they point out that polygraph tests are unreliable and inadmissible in courts, they will be accused of berating a victim.
All they can do is nod their heads in agreement. And that’s by design. The entire time, the media will cover the hearings and the accuser according to its well-established norms — Ford will be treated like Anita Hill, not Juanita Broaddrick.
Then there is another question: Even if we believed Ford’s accusation as she states them, should the ugly drunken actions of a 17-year-old disqualify an exceptionally qualified 53-year-old who hasn’t been accused of any other wrongdoing? Is that a standard everyone in Washington is willing to live with moving forward, or is it going to be one of those oscillating norms that will be exclusively deployed for Republicans? (Democrats’ newest budding star, Beto O’Rourke, was arrested for burglary and DWI — and tried to flee an accident — in his 20s. Though he could have killed someone, he likely got off lightly because his father was a judge. Does that mean he doesn’t have the proper character to serve in the Senate?)
And if the GOP surrenders to this cynical ploy (unless new credible evidence emerges about Kavanaugh), they will be creating a precedent that says every and any unsubstantiated accusation, no matter how old it is, against a Republican should be disqualifying.