There are so many issues around this
Kavanaugh situation that it’s hard for me to pinpoint just one. Anita Hill of
course comes to mind, along with Joe Biden’s recent pathetic excuse that he wished he "had been able to do more.” Just a reminder, he was the Chair of the
Judiciary Committee during that hearing and knew other accusers of Clarence
Thomas were willing to come forward under oath, yet he didn’t call them, which
means he could have done more, but chose not to. That’s a very different statement.
Of course, with all the stories about
Kavanaugh’s friend, Mark Judge, who was also, according to Christine Blasey
Ford, in the room at the time of the encounter, it’s hard not to think about
another drunk and privileged white male – Brock Turner. Orrin Hatch has
actually stated that even if Kavanaugh committed this act against Ford that he
thinks his colleagues should focus on the man’s more recent accomplishments, as
if this one mistake happened so long ago that he doesn’t matter. How many
Catholic Church scandals and lawsuits do we have to experience before men (and
typically white men) realize that it does matter. Victims are terrified of
coming forward due to the shame and fearing reprisals and additional victimization, with good reason. These men also need to understand that assault, and even
near assault, at such a pivotal age can have a lasting effect on the victim,
meaning that punishment should be available to the perpetrator without any time
restrictions.
I agree with Ford’s attorney, that the FBI
should fully investigate this allegation, especially as it doesn’t appear that
they did a great job in their vetting of Kavanaugh beforehand. The GOP have
acted all along as though they knew a bomb was going to go off and they needed
to give the Democrats and the American people as little information about this
guy as possible, all the while hustling him through this confirmation as if the
fate of the world depended on it. Well, we can wait a while for a vote on this
guy.
I’ve also been thinking about Zoë Baird,
Bill Clinton’s Attorney General nominee who had to withdraw when it became
known that she had used non-legal citizens, whom she didn’t pay taxes on, for
child care. The irony that Trump would applaud Baird for getting out of paying
taxes does not escape me. It does bring up the argument that if she should have
known better, why should Kavanaugh be allowed to get off the hook, especially
as his appointment to the Supreme Court would be for life, not just the
duration of the Trump administration?
As Ford’s husband stated: “I
think you look to judges to be the arbiters of right and wrong. If they don’t
have a moral code of their own to determine right from wrong, then that’s a
problem. So I think it’s relevant. Supreme Court nominees should be held to a
higher standard.”
Yes, they should, whether Orrin Hatch or
Mitch McConnell like it or not.