The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Memories Light the Corners of My Mind

Posted on | September 16, 2018 | 2 Comments

 

In the 24 hours since I last wrote about the Brett Kavanaugh nomination (“Democrats Pull the Sleaziest Smear in Their Long History of Sleazy Smears”), further details have emerged including (a) the name of the accuser and (b) the name of Kavanaugh’s prep-school buddy on the night of the alleged incident in 1982. According to the tale, the future Supreme Court nominee was with Mark Judge, now a conservative journalist, on the night that 17-year-old Kavanaugh allegedly . . . uh, molested then-15-year-old Christine Blasey, who is now Professor Christine Ford:

Speaking publicly for the first time, Ford said that one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend — both “stumbling drunk,” Ford alleges — corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County.
While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth.
“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” said Ford, now a 51-year-old research psychologist in northern California. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”

Well, what do you expect a “stumbling drunk” 17-year-old to do?

The hazards of mixing alcohol and teenagers were as well-known in 1982 as they are today. All kinds of bad things happen as a result of such a combination, and this tale, if true, certainly wouldn’t be the worst thing a drunk teenager ever did. This alleged incident was originally reported as “attempted rape,” although the details do not seem to justify such a description. Getting groped by a drunk preppie “clumsily” attempting to undress you would be unpleasant, but it’s probably not a felony. Professor Ford’s claim that this alleged incident inflicted permanent psychological trauma on her strikes me as dubious. At times in my youth I was the victim of rather serious violence and I’ve seen guns drawn in anger, which is an adrenaline-pumping experience, but trauma? No, I sleep peacefully at night, and I find it difficult to believe that Professor Ford has spent the past 36 years in a state of emotional suffering due to this alleged incident at a house party in the summer of 1982.

It is not necessary to say Professor Ford is lying to say that her claim should have no bearing on Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation. There are probably sitting justices on the Supreme Court who did bad things as drunk teenagers, but there was no #MeToo movement in 1994, so senators did not grill Stephen Breyer about his adolescent behavior which, for all we know, was much more shocking and sordid than groping a girl at a party. This whole business of reaching into the distant past to dig up dirt on one’s political enemies has gotten completely out of hand when a 53-year-old federal judge, against whom no other similar accusation has ever been made, can be required to answer for what he may or may not have done as a “stumbling drunk” 17-year-old. Brett Kavanaugh never drowned a campaign aide in an Oldsmobile, did he?

Excuse me for being cynical about Serious Journalists devoting themselves to reporting what sounds like a scene from a screenplay for Prep School Boys Gone Wild, as if it were the most important news in the world. If the American people’s opinion of our political class sinks any lower, the Senate might become even less popular than the media.

That’s all this is, really — a political hit-job, promoted by partisan propagandists engaged in character assassination.

Mike Cernovich says that Professor Ford is a “far left wing activist” who recently scrubbed her social-media accounts to delete evidence of her political radicalism. Chuck Schumer is using Professor Ford’s accusation as an excuse to delay the vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation. My hunch, however, is that Mitch McConnell will ram this through come hell or high water, and won’t waste any time doing so.

UPDATE: In the time it took me to write this post, Sen. Jeff Flake has announced that he is “not comfortable” voting for Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Senator Flake, a Republican from Arizona, is comfortable with a lot of things most people wouldn’t find comfortable, if you catch my drift, but he can’t vote for Kavanaugh? How about we start asking around about what young Jeff Flake was doing when he was 17, huh?



 

Category: Senate, Supreme Court

Comments

2 Responses to “Memories Light the Corners of My Mind”

  1. Trauma Queen: What Do We Know About Christine Blasey Ford? : The Other McCain
    September 17th, 2018 @ 8:05 pm

    […] information is highly relevant, I believe, to the claims surrounding the 11th-hour hit job on Brett Kavanaugh. We are expected to believe that the accuser, Professor Christine Ford, suffered emotional damage […]

  2. FMJRA 2.0: More Than A Feeling : The Other McCain
    September 25th, 2018 @ 5:38 am

    […] Memories Light the Corners of My Mind EBL […]