Brett Kavanaugh–the temper-tantrum judge.
On Thursday, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s convincing testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee—of being sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh, and Mark Judge in 1982—led the Supreme Court nominee to have an almost total mental meltdown before Congress.
Judge Kavanaugh’s true intemperate character emerged illustrating his manifest unfitness to be any kind of judge—much less a Supreme Court justice.
In the face of Dr. Ford’s incriminating testimony, and with the sole intention of saving this nomination, Republicans like South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham engaged in phony political theatrics to shield Judge Kavanaugh during his mental unraveling.
Republicans want Americans to ignore the troubling sexual assault allegations Dr. Ford, Debra Ramirez and Julie Swetnick have made—just so they can confirm Kavanaugh and declare it a victory for conservatism.
If Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed as a Supreme Court judge the legitimacy, credibility and integrity of the Supreme Court will be destroyed.
Dr. Ford testified before the Judiciary Committee that Supreme Court nominee Judge Kavanaugh and his friend, conservative writer Mark Judge, sexually assaulted her in Maryland in the summer of 1982. Dr. Ford said she was “100 percent” certain Judge Kavanaugh was one of her attackers, and that she believed “he was going to rape me.” Dr. Ford accused Kavanaugh and Judge of “drunkenly laughing during the attack. They seemed to be having a good time.”
Dr. Ford’s credible charges are damning to Judge Kavanaugh’s character. Her testimony points us to a shocking example of White-male entitlement, and excess, at it’s worse. It surely led to the breathtaking spectacle which transpired later in the hearing: a politically partisan Judge Kavanaugh, and Republicans, led by the grandstanding histrionics of Senator Graham, cried conspiracy accusing the Democrats of trying to unfairly delay the nomination.
Has Senator Graham forgotten the name Judge Merrick Garland, whose nomination was shelved for over 400 days in the Congress by Republicans after he had been named by President Barack Obama?
This specious strategy last Thursday was orchestrated by Republicans to muddy the waters and blur this essential fact: Dr. Ford’s testimony was believable—unlike Judge Kavanaugh’s. Dr. Ford answered all questions. Judge Kavanaugh was combatively evasive, and at times obnoxiously arrogant with his aggrieved sense of privileged entitlement.
The teary-eyed temper-tantrums Judge Kavanaugh displayed manifested his judicial unfitness. Can you imagine this man being involved in any major deliberations on the Supreme Court?
Does any honest person really think Judge Kavanaugh didn’t repeatedly lie, while he was under oath, in the Senate? If he is innocent why was he so evasive? Why did he constantly equivocate?
Why was he so defensive when he was asked if he’d ever drunk alcohol to excess? When he was asked by Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell whether he ever “blacked out,” from heavy drinking, Kavanaugh said “I’ve gone to sleep, but I’ve never blacked out.”
Does that denial square with what his friend Mark Judge wrote?
In his writings, Mark Judge talked about how his so-called “fictional” character Bart O’ Kavanaugh “puked in someone’s car the other night,” and “passed out on his way back from a party.” Is anyone really going to argue “Bart O’ Kavanaugh” isn’t really a pseudonym for Brett Kavanaugh, who just told the Senate he likes beer?
One particularly bizarre moment, displaying Judge Kavanaugh’s arrogant attitude, occurred when he was being questioned by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar. When Klobuchar asked if he had ever “drank so much that you didn’t remember what happened the night before or part of what happened,” Kavanaugh responded saying “You’re asking about blackout … I don’t know,” Kavanaugh said. “Have you?”
Here, his “I don’t know” answer, is noticeably different from the affirmative “I’ve gone to sleep, but I’ve never blacked out,” response he gave to Rachel Mitchell.
Accuser Debbie Ramirez, a former Yale classmate of Judge Kavanaugh, alleges a drunken Kavanaugh shoved his genitals into her face at a dorm-room party during the 1983-84 school year. James Roche, Kavanaugh’s freshman roommate, who also knows Ramirez, said he believes Ramirez’s account. Roche also said Kavanaugh “was a notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time,” and that he “became aggressive and belligerent when he was drunk…I do remember Brett frequently drinking excessively and becoming incoherently drunk.”
Many times, during Thursday’s hearing, Judge Kavanaugh was rude and disrespectful to Democratic senators—when he was being asked questions he didn’t like. When Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy asked Kavanaugh questions about Mark Judge he falsely accused Leahy of trying to make fun of his friend Judge. Kavanaugh’s fear of probing questions regarding Mark Judge was evident.
Considering all the evidence related to hard boozing and “blackouts,” Judge’s initial response to Dr. Ford’s allegations was “I do not recall the events described by Dr. Ford.”
Without realizing it, Judge is telling us it’s possible he did assault Dr. Ford. Isn’t this because Judge was often drunkenly “wasted,” as he admits in his writings? We know Judge’s former girlfriend, Elizabeth Rasor, said Judge once told her about him, and other boys, having group sex with a drunken woman—a story similar to Julie Swetnick’s allegations, against Judge and Kavanaugh.
Another shameful moment came when Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse questioned Judge Kavanaugh about his yearbook. Whitehouse asked Kavanaugh about the “Renate Alumnius,” referencing of schoolgirl Renate Schroeder. Kavanaugh claimed they were just praising “a great friend of ours,” and that no sexual connotation was implied. This is an obvious lie, since one of the White men who was supposedly a “great friend” stated this: “You need a date/and it’s getting late/so don’t hesitate/to call Renate.”
Judge Kavanaugh most likely again lied when he said the “Devil’s Triangle” was a drinking game with “three glasses in a triangle.” One of the meanings of the “Devil’s Triangle” is: a sexual threesome—with two men, and one woman. Kavanaugh’s yearbook apparently had other derogatory sexual terms. Kavanaugh claimed “boofed” was a term about flatulence—and not about combined drug use and anal sex. Kavanaugh claimed his “FFFFFFouth of July” reference was just a funny way of saying the F-word, and not a vulgar slang about seeking out women for sex.
Obviously, admitting any of this would give much weight not only to Dr. Ford’s allegations, about being assaulted by Kavanaugh and Judge—but it also dovetails with the accusations of Judge Kavanaugh’s third accuser: Julie Swetnick. Ms. Swetnick said Kavanaugh and Judge were among those boys who would “spike” the “punch” at parties, “with drugs,” to “target particular girls so they could be taken advantage of,” and “gang raped,” as Swetnick said she was.
Here’s the important question Judge Kavanaugh wouldn’t answer: why not sanction an FBI investigation to disprove these charges? Dr. Ford, Ms. Ramirez and Ms. Swetnick all called for FBI investigations. Why didn’t Judge Kavanaugh ask for one, before Senator Flake forced the issue?
Judge Kavanaugh was repeatedly asked why he wouldn’t ask for an FBI investigation. But Kavanaugh, and Republicans, engaged in a nonsensical argument about the FBI. Much noise was made about the fact that the FBI doesn’t “reach conclusions.”
Judge Kavanaugh, and the Republicans, know the FBI is primarily an investigative agency. That function of coming to “conclusions” is left to other entities, like prosecutors, courts, or Congress, based on the evidence investigators find. But the crucial point, Republicans were trying to avoid here is this: the FBI is more equipped to conduct independent investigations than partisan Republicans in Congress, who only want to “ram through” Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Judge Kavanaugh kept saying he would do anything the committee wants, knowing full well the Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee, and the White House, wanted no part of an FBI investigation.
Because of the brave actions of rape survivors, Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake—who voted to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Senate Floor—asked for a one-week FBI investigation into the charges. The arbitrary timeline of one week is problematic. Is that enough time to investigate these serious sex charges?
For it to be legitimate, this FBI should thoroughly investigate all the charges being made by Dr. Ford, Ms. Ramirez and Ms. Swetnick. However, Judge Kavanaugh’s contemptible behavior—making baseless charges, including involving “the Clintons” in some supposed vast left-wing conspiracy—alone make him unfit to sit on the Supreme Court.
Judge Kavanaugh said the hearings were a “national disgrace.” The disgrace is that someone like Kavanaugh could’ve ever become a judge in the first place.
