Despite the continual claims by a certain anonymous internet critic of mine who’s been publicly attacking me for years and years and years, I don’t have much of a temper. I’m rarely angry. I’m pretty much what was once, at least, called a “Type B” personality. (In that regard, I take after my father considerably more than I resemble my mother, who wasn’t always exactly what one would call “sedate.”) In this respect as in many others, this critic has me just about as completely wrong as it’s possible to be regarding another human being. (I’m not sure, though, that he cares.)
But I have to confess that my indignation is growing over what I’m inclined to regard as the vicious public destruction, for purely partisan political reasons, of the life and reputation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. I have repeatedly and freely granted that I do not know for certain that Judge Kavanaugh is innocent of all the charges, although I lean rather strongly toward the view that he is. However, the accusations against him are so deeply problematic and so remarkably devoid of corroboration — as of the time I’m writing this, anyway — that I cannot understand why so many people seem so cavalierly willing to acquiesce — when they’re not in fact eagerly participating — in the destruction of the man’s good name, injuring his wife and children, wrecking his career, and subjecting him to public torment and humiliation on the basis of so very, very, very little.
Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation was weak enough, but Deborah Ramirez’s charge is far more dubious still, and the allegation made by the grandstanding Michael Avenatti’s client is, as things currently stand and unless some very substantial supporting evidence is presented, simply ridiculous.
People’s reputations should not be destroyed on such flimsy grounds.
But his has been. And, if I had to guess at this very moment, I would say that Brett Kavanaugh will never sit on the Supreme Court of the United States.
He would not have been my first choice. But he’s a solid judge, even a brilliant one, and, by just about all accounts until a few days ago, when Senator Diane Feinstein finally unleashed her long-hidden and carefully-withheld doomsday weapon against him, Brett Kavanaugh was esteemed a decent man, indeed an unusually good one.
I do not believe that he deserves the treatment that he’s received over the past few days. I know that he deserves fairness and justice.
I understand those who now demand a full FBI investigation. It would be very helpful to know the solid, firm truth. But I doubt that that truth is knowable at this remove in time, without corroborating witnesses, with such vagueness about time and place, and, obviously, without actual physical evidence. Still, we could already have had such an FBI investigation, had Senator Feinstein disclosed the existence of Dr. Ford’s letter in an appropriate and timely fashion.
It seems painfully obvious that, with the midterm elections approaching, the plan has been to delay a vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination as long as possible, in hopes that the Democrats might gain control of the Senate. And, evidently, there are some party tacticians who are willing to frankly admit what they’re up to:
Fine. I get it. But to casually destroy a man’s reputation in order to achieve that partisan end is, in my view, contemptible. I have mixed feelings about the Senate Republicans’ refusal to vote on Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court during President Obama’s last year. But Judge Garland didn’t emerge from that process as damaged goods, with his reputation in tatters. He wasn’t subjected to a barrage of accusations of unethical, immoral, and even criminal behavior. His name wasn’t dragged through the mud.
This is perhaps the ugliest, most distasteful, most discouraging thing that I’ve ever seen in American politics.
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Here’s a real shocker:
“Chuck Schumer Calls For Brett Kavanaugh To Withdraw US Supreme Court Nomination”
Now, though, for some really good commentary pieces on Judge Kavanaugh and his accusers:
“Dr. Ford’s Statement Previews the Coming Impasse”
New York Post: “Eight big problems for Christine Blasey Ford’s story”
“Ford’s Polygraph Statement Inconsistent with Letter to Feinstein”
“Old Character Assassinations Don’t Support New Character Assassinations”
“Avenatti’s Sleazy New Charge”
New York Post: “This ‘accuser’ looks like just another Avenatti stunt”
“Seven Questions About the Avenatti/Swetnick Story”
“Judiciary Committee Staff Have Asked Avenatti for Evidence Six Times”
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And, on a related matter:
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Don’t worry. You won’t have to face many more such blog posts from me because this will probably all be over soon. I’m quite pessimistic about Judge Kavanaugh’s chances right now. His nomination is very likely doomed.
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