Did everyone hear that noise in the background on Friday during the Kavanaugh hearings? It was our foremothers collectively spinning in their graves. All of them — from our first female senator, Hattie Caraway, to Harriet Beecher Stowe to Margaret Sanger to our first female Congresswoman, Jeannette Pickering Rankin — were screaming from beyond the grave. Even Maya Angelou was singing her despair. Me? I was screaming in my living room.
After watching Christine Blasey Ford give her heart-wrenching and heartfelt testimony, we had to endure Lindsey Graham tell his fellow Republican senators that “If you vote no, you’re legitimizing the most despicable thing I’ve seen in my time in politics.”
Really? More despicable than when the Republicans barred Merrick Garland from even being heard for the same job? Because, let us not forget, this is a job interview. It is not a court proceeding when the Senate holds hearings to fill a seat on the Supreme Court. If it had been a court proceeding, Mark Judge, the man alleged to have been in the room when Kavanaugh attacked Ford, would have been forced to testify. The fact that this entire sham of a hearing went forward without due diligence is enough to taint the outcome.
Most obvious, however, is that Kavanaugh is not suited to make judicial proclamations for our country. He is emotional, argumentative and clearly not bipartisan. He claims that the Democrats are attacking him and ruining his reputation as a part of a Clinton revenge plan. That statement alone should have been enough to end the sad political theater playing out in real time on our television sets. Kavanaugh continued to spout White House dogma as he cried and carried on, claiming his family was “ruined.” Not true, as this was about him and him only. Did his family have to go into hiding as Blasey Ford and her family did? Did he or his family have to relive a devastating and life-altering attack on national television?
Let us not forget that Kavanaugh knew about the claims of sexual assault against him by several women. He could have pulled the plug, but insisted on going forward. He came across as entitled and petulant and talked endlessly about his virginity, his wonderful grades, work ethics and how much he likes beer. He evaded and ignored questions regarding an FBI investigation. He deflected and went on the attack. What he did not do was appear rational and calm. What he was not was believable.
It is unconscionable that the Senate did not end this charade once Kavanaugh started lying. I was in college in the ’80s. I know what a “devil’s triangle” is. I know what “boofing” is. I know what it means to “ralph” from drinking too much. So does Kavanaugh, as he wrote those terms in his yearbook and then made up ridiculous, innocent-sounding explanations for them.
It was at that moment it became clear he was not someone to be trusted. It does not matter if you believe Blasey Ford, because we could not believe him. Do we really want someone on the top court in the country who has an anger problem, lies under oath and is, in all likelihood, a serial sex offender? Of course not. Then there is his bias, as he is clearly not bipartisan. The president cherry-picked this guy so that he could do away with Roe v. Wade. The president chose him because Kavanaugh has stated that presidential privilege means a sitting president does not have to answer to lawyers while he is in office. He evaded answering any questions regarding this issue during the hearings, but spoke about it previously when discussing Nixon.
Even if you are a fan of Kavanaugh, the controversy swirling around him has tainted him and any future rulings he makes, on or off the Supreme Court. The American Bar Association had problems with him 12 years ago and does so now. He is not the best and brightest our country has to offer. If the man had a shred of decency, he would pull himself out of this process. Remember Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg? He withdrew his nomination in 1987 because he had smoked marijuana years earlier. Such honorable behavior is, sadly, starting to seem quaint.
We may not know what happened 40 years ago, but we know what we saw. One witness was cool and collected and polite. One was fractious and angry and rude. We also know that now, thanks to Sen. Jeff Flake, we have a week to correct this insanity. Call your senators. Call Lindsey Graham’s office. Ditto to Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, the only Republicans, at this moment, who may vote against Kavanaugh. Thank Jeff Flake. The next 30 years of Supreme Court hearings depends on the outspokenness of the American voters.
