(Cartoon image is by John Darkow in The Missourian.)Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to be a Supreme Court Justice seemed to be a foregone conclusion. The Democrats weren't happy with his nomination (rightfully so), but they didn't have the votes to stop it. But then his past caught up with him.
It started when a college professor (Dr. Christine Blasey Ford) went public with an accusation about Kavanaugh sexually attacking her when she was 15 years old (and Kavanaugh was in high school). The Senate Republicans tried to ignore her and question why it took her so long to come forward. But her credibility was tough to question.
She had nothing to gain from the accusation. In fact, she knew she would be pilloried by the right -- and that quickly became true. She was threatened and had to move from her home for safety. We also know that she took, and passed, a lie detector test, and told this same story to a marriage counselor back in 2012 (long before Kavanaugh was nominated).
In the end, she was so credible that even the Republicans couldn't ignore her. They finally had to give in and invite her to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee -- but still refused to call any verification witnesses or allow the FBI to investigate the accusation. Evidently, they were afraid she was telling the truth, but still hoped to ram Kavanaugh's nomination through the Senate (after demonizing Ford in the hearing).
That would have been bad enough for Kavanaugh and the Republicans, but over the weekend his nomination got into more trouble -- as the dam broke on accusations anymore women came forth. It started with Deborah Ramirez, who attended Yale University with Kavanaugh. In an article in The New Yorker, she claims:
And that wasn't all. Then came some tweets from attorney Michael Avenatti like the following:
Avenatti says his client is not Dr. Ford or Ms. Ramirez, and he claims to have evidence that Kavanaugh and his buddies got girls drunk and gang-raped them.
Then we have this from the Montgomery Sentinel (in Maryland), which seems to be about a fourth woman coming forward with accusations regarding Kavanaugh.
Where there's smoke there's fire, and there's enough smoke surrounding Kavanaugh to mask a raging forest fire. Do the Republicans care? They don't seem to. Majority Leader McConnell says it's just a smear orchestrated by Democrats. If that was true, then an FBI investigation would expose it. But the Republicans still refuse to allow an investigation -- on any of the allegations.
I understand why Trump stands by Kavanaugh. Trump is incapable of admitting he made a mistake -- and in Trump's world, sexual crimes are nothing to worry about as long as the person committing them is rich, white, male, and Republican.
But with an election coming up, you'd think the Republicans in Congress would be a little smarter. Ignoring these women (or running roughshod over them) is not going to go over well with the public. It will energize voters, and hurt them in the election coming up fast.
They should make Trump withdraw the Kavanaugh nomination, or vote him down. I understand they want a right-wing judge on the Supreme Court, but there are plenty of right-wing judges that don't have Kavanaugh's kind of baggage -- and there's still time to get one confirmed.
But that would require them to exhibit some intelligence and ethics, and when was the last time congressional Republicans showed they have either?
